The science behind wet wipes for infant skin
In the diapered area, the continuous exposure to excess moisture and irritants from urine and feces weakens the stratum corneum, making the skin more susceptible to irritation. The use of wet wipes for infants (baby wipes) is a common practice to clean skin after urine or a bowel movement, and this practice even extends to cleaning the hands and face, resulting in repeated daily use. Therefore, ensuring that baby wipes contain ingredients that are safe and mild on skin is important to help minimize skin irritation and discomfort. While disposable baby wipes have been shown to be effective and gentle at cleaning infant skin, even the skin of premature infants, there is growing public concern regarding their safety and tolerability. Not all products are made the same, as differences exist in manufacturing processes, ingredients, materials, safety, and quality testing. Therefore, it is important that healthcare professionals have accessible evidenced-based information on the safety and tolerability of common ingredients found in baby wipes to optimally educate their patients and families. Herein, we provide a review on best practices for ingredient selection, safety, and efficacy of baby wipes.
Herein, we provide a review on best practices for ingredients selection, safety, and efficacy of runhe baby soft wet wipes to help make more informed decisions when selecting products for infant diapered skin care.
2.2.2 Surfactants
Surfactants are the molecules within the formulation that provide cleaning action. Surfactants contain hydrophilic moieties attached to hydrophobic end chains. It is the hydrophobic end chains that bind to oily residue on the skin surface and help remove it. For baby wipes, it is important to use a surfactant that can adequately remove the oily molecules within feces without removing skin lipids, which can lead to skin barrier damage with repeated or prolonged use. For runhe new arrival baby wipes, the surfactant fraction would not be expected to exceed 1% by weight of the formula and, in most cases, would be below 0.3% by weight.6 This is in stark contrast to bottled baby products (body wash, shampoo, hand soap) where the surfactant concentration is typically between 5% and 20% by weight as dilution is expected upon use followed by rinsing.6