As a parent, we always do our level best to search the safest products for our babies from baby food to baby wash. We might have tried a lot of baby products, but the truth is, the major part has harmful chemicals in them. Have you ever turned the backside of the products that you are using and looked at the ingredients? I am sure that you would be shocked to see some harsh chemicals that no parent want anywhere around their baby. Baby’s skin is much more delicate and sensitive than the skin of an adult. That’s why it reacts easily with these chemicals causing rashes, redness and allergies. Such skin infections are causes only for using chemical laden products. In this rat race, baby wipes belong to the first place. Most of the baby wipes available in the market are crafted with a synthetic compound called Polyester.
Why is Polyester used in making of baby wipes?
Polyester is nothing but waste plastic which is used to make cables, wires and pipe. The major component of a baby wipe clothe is this polyester which contains countless harmful chemicals. Now the question is why this polyester is needed to use in baby wipes? The answer is simple. Using polyester can lower the cost of products. Not only that it lowers the quality and increase the availability. Polyester is also water repellent, so when it touches the baby’s delicate skin, it absorbs all moisture from the skin which leads to skin rashes and infections.
How can we find out that wipes we are using contain polyester?
Polyester is a component of plastic, so it will react same as plastic in presence of flame. So with the help of a flame test we can easily find out if the wipes have polyesters or not. For a flame test, we need these 3 things-
1. Baby wipes
2. Candle
3. Lighter/Matchbox
How to do the Flame test?
Here I am going to share step by step procedure for the flame test. The best part, you can do it yourself at home.
Step 1 Light the candle. Now take our baby wipe and let it dry a bit.
Step 2 Hold a corner of the wipe near the flame.
Step 3 Let the wipe burn. Now the factors are to be considered to know whether there is polyester or not-
1. Bad smell of plastic-
If you would be getting a bad smell of plastic after burning the wipe, that means your wipe has polyester in it. On the contrary, if you would not get any bad smell of plastic after burning or the smell is just like the fragrance of burned cloth or paper. That means the cloth is made from natural fabric like cotton and there is absolutely zero percentage of polyester.
2. Fabric after burning-
If you would notice a black sticky lamp is formed after burning the cloth, it means that there is a strong presence of polyester in the material. If you would find that after burning the wipe turns into ash that means it the cloth has 100% plant-based fabric. Wipes which are free from Polyester and made of natural and plant-based fabric, are safest for baby’s tender skin. These wipes do not cause any harm to your baby’s skin.
Mother Sparsh water wipes are made from 100% plant-based fabric like cotton and there is no blend of polyester in them. Hence Mother Sparsh wipes are absolutely safe to use for babies. I also did the flame test at home to see the actual truth. Mother Sparsh 98% water wipes passed the test successfully. It turned into ashes after burning and there was no bad smell of burnt plastic.
Here is my flame test video-
That’s all for today. Hope you find this post helpful. See you in my next post.
Love
Papri