Best Wipes for Adults with Incontinence: What Should You Look For?

Choosing the best wipes for adults with incontinence isn’t simply a matter of finding the thickest or most absorbent wipe. Continence care can involve frequent cleansing of skin exposed to urine, faeces and moisture, so the wipe also needs to clean effectively while minimising unnecessary rubbing and irritation.

This is particularly important for older adults, people with limited mobility and anyone requiring frequent continence care. A suitable wipe should be soft against the skin, strong enough to remain intact during use and large enough to make adult personal care practical.

There is also no single type of wipe that is best for every situation. Pre-moistened adult wipes provide convenient ready-to-use cleansing, while dry patient wipes can be used with water or an appropriate cleanser selected for the person’s individual skin-care routine.

So, what should you look for when choosing wipes for adult incontinence?

Why Choosing the Right Incontinence Wipe Matters

Incontinence care involves more than simply removing urine or faeces from the skin.

Prolonged exposure to moisture can compromise the skin barrier and contribute to incontinence-associated dermatitis (IAD). Continence Health Australia recommends promptly cleaning skin soiled by urine or faeces and using non-irritating, pH-neutral products while avoiding mechanical damage to the skin. 

International best-practice guidance similarly emphasises gentle cleansing and protecting the skin from repeated exposure to moisture and irritants.

This means the wiping process matters as much as the wipe itself. Excessive rubbing with a rough, small or unsuitable wipe can add unnecessary friction to skin that may already be vulnerable.

A good adult incontinence wipe should therefore combine softness, strength, absorbency and an appropriate size while fitting into the person’s broader continence and skin-care routine.

What Are the Best Wipes for Adults with Incontinence?

There isn’t one wipe that is best for every person or every situation.

For quick personal hygiene and routine changes, a soft pre-moistened adult wipe can be extremely convenient. For larger cleaning tasks, body washing or where carers need control over the cleanser being used, a large dry patient wipe may be preferable.

When comparing products, consider five main factors: softness, absorbency, wet strength, wipe size and whether a wet or dry format is appropriate.

For aged-care facilities, there are practical considerations too. Pack size, ease of dispensing, storage, the number of wipes required for each care episode and compatibility with existing skin-care protocols can all affect which product provides the best overall solution.

Wet Wipes for Adult Incontinence

Pre-moistened wipes are popular because they are ready to use. No separate water or cleansing solution is required, making them convenient for routine pad changes, home care, travel and situations where washing facilities aren’t readily available.

For personal cleansing, however, it is important to choose a wipe specifically suitable for use on skin rather than a household cleaning or disinfectant wipe.

For frequent personal care, mild formulations are generally preferable. TIDDOX’s Bastion Adult Personal Hygiene Wipes, for example, are alcohol and fragrance free and measure 26 cm x 21 cm. They provide a convenient option for lighter personal cleansing and situations where a ready-to-use wet wipe is preferred.

Wet wipes do not replace continence pads or pants. Wipes clean the skin; absorbent continence products contain and manage leakage.

Dry Wipes for Adult Incontinence

Dry wipes are sometimes overlooked when discussing incontinence care, but they can be particularly useful in aged-care and healthcare environments.

Unlike a pre-moistened product with a predetermined formulation, a dry patient wipe can be used with water or an appropriate cleanser selected for the person’s care routine.

This gives carers greater flexibility, particularly where a facility follows an established skin-care protocol or individual residents have different cleansing requirements.

Dry wipes can also be useful for more than continence care. Depending on the product, they may be used for body washing, drying, absorbing fluids and other patient-care tasks.

The key is choosing a dry wipe that is sufficiently soft for skin contact while maintaining its strength when wet.

Why Wipe Size Matters

Size is an important but sometimes overlooked consideration when comparing wipes for adult incontinence.

Adult personal care can involve substantially larger areas than hand cleaning or routine baby wiping. A larger wipe provides more usable surface area and can be folded during cleaning to expose a fresh section of material.

For example, TIDDOX’s OMNIWIPES Medical Dry Wipes measure 30 cm x 60 cm, compared with 26 cm x 21 cm for the Bastion pre-moistened personal hygiene wipe.

That doesn’t automatically make the larger wipe better for every situation. It does, however, make a large-format wipe particularly practical for adult body washing, larger continence-care tasks and routine patient care.

Wipe dimensions should therefore be considered alongside price. A smaller wipe may have a lower cost per piece, but if several are required to complete a task, it may not necessarily provide the lowest cost per care episode.

Softness Matters for Older and Vulnerable Skin

Older skin is generally thinner, more fragile and more susceptible to damage, making gentle cleansing particularly important.

The aim during continence care should be to remove contamination effectively without unnecessary scrubbing or repeated friction. A soft wipe with sufficient surface area can help make this easier.

Softness should not come at the expense of strength, however. A wipe that tears, stretches excessively or balls up once wet can make cleansing more difficult and may require additional wiping.

For frequent care, the ideal product therefore combines softness against the skin with sufficient wet strength to perform the task effectively.

Absorbency and Wet Strength

Absorbency is another important consideration, particularly when dealing with urine, water or cleansing products.

A highly absorbent wipe can take up fluid rather than simply moving it across the skin. At the same time, the material needs to remain sufficiently strong once wet.

This is one reason viscose-rich patient wipes are commonly used for personal care. Viscose provides good softness and absorbency, while the overall construction of the wipe determines how well it maintains its integrity during use.

The balance between absorbency, softness and strength is generally more useful than judging an incontinence wipe on any one characteristic alone.

Large Dry Wipes for Aged Care

For residential aged care and other professional care environments, large dry wipes can be a particularly versatile option.

This is where OMNIWIPES Medical Dry Wipes fit into the TIDDOX range. They are 30 cm x 60 cm, predominantly viscose and supplied in packs of 50. Their large format, softness, absorbency and wet strength make them suitable for personal washing, bed bathing, continence care, body cleansing and absorbing fluids.

OMNIWIPES are also TIDDOX’s most widely used wipe among our aged-care customers, where they are commonly used as bed bath wipes as well as for incontinence and general resident care.

For bed bathing, the large 30 cm x 60 cm format provides plenty of surface area for washing residents who may have limited mobility or who are unable to shower or bathe conventionally. As a dry wipe, it can be used with water or an appropriate personal cleansing product according to the resident’s care plan and the facility’s procedures.

Rather than being limited specifically to incontinence, their advantage is versatility: the same dry wipe can support several everyday personal-care tasks within an aged-care facility.

For facilities using a preferred cleanser or following individual resident skin-care protocols, the dry format also allows the cleansing product to be selected separately from the wipe.

When Are Smaller Dry Patient Wipes a Better Choice?

A large 30 cm x 60 cm wipe isn’t necessary for every task.

TIDDOX also supplies Bastion Soft Patient Wipes and WIPSTER Soft Wipes, providing alternative dry formats for patient and personal care.

WIPSTER Soft Wipes, for example, measure 35 cm x 30 cm and are supplied in pull-out dispenser boxes. Their smaller format can be practical for routine patient-care tasks where the surface area of a full-size 30 cm x 60 cm wipe isn’t required.

This highlights an important point: the best wipe depends on the task. A facility may reasonably use more than one format rather than expecting a single product to perform every personal-care function.

Are Wet or Dry Wipes Better for Incontinence?

Both have advantages.

Wet adult wipes offer convenience. They are ready to use, portable and particularly useful for quick personal cleansing and situations where water or a separate cleanser isn’t readily available.

Dry patient wipes offer flexibility. They allow carers to select the water or cleansing product being used and are available in larger formats suited to body washing and more substantial personal-care tasks.

For this reason, many aged-care and healthcare facilities may benefit from having both wet and dry personal-care wipes available, with staff selecting the appropriate format for the task and the person’s care requirements.

Can Baby Wipes Be Used for Adult Incontinence?

Baby wipes can be suitable for some personal-care situations, but they aren’t automatically the best option for regular adult continence care.

The more useful question is whether the wipe’s size, strength, softness and formulation are suitable for the task.

Adult continence care can involve larger areas and heavier contamination than routine baby wiping. A larger adult or patient wipe can therefore be easier and more efficient to use.

Where someone requires frequent cleansing or has fragile or compromised skin, their individual skin-care requirements should take priority over simply choosing a general-purpose wet wipe.

Should Incontinence Wipes Contain Alcohol?

For routine personal cleansing, the objective is gentle removal of contamination, not disinfecting the person’s skin as though it were a hard surface.

For this reason, products intended for frequent personal cleansing commonly use mild, alcohol-free formulations.

Household disinfectant and surface-cleaning wipes should not be substituted for personal-care wipes simply because they are labelled antibacterial. Always check that a product is intended for direct skin contact and follow its directions for use.

What Should Aged-Care Facilities Look for When Buying Incontinence Wipes?

Product selection needs to work for both the resident receiving care and the staff using the product.

Softness supports comfortable cleansing. Absorbency helps manage fluids. Wet strength helps prevent the wipe from tearing or bunching during use. Size determines how much usable wiping area staff have available.

Facilities should also consider dispensing, pack quantities, storage requirements, compatibility with their preferred cleansing products and the average number of wipes required per care episode.

Price per wipe is therefore only part of the calculation. For high-volume aged-care facilities, cost per care episode can provide a better comparison between products of substantially different sizes and absorbencies.

Protecting Skin During Incontinence Care

The wipe is only one part of good continence management.

Skin exposed to urine or faeces should be cleaned promptly and gently, and wet pads, clothing and linen should be changed as appropriate. Continence Health Australia notes that prolonged exposure to wetness can interfere with normal skin barrier function and increase the risk of incontinence-associated dermatitis. 

More washing isn’t necessarily better. Repeated vigorous cleaning can itself contribute to irritation. Appropriate continence products, gentle cleansing and skin protection where required need to work together.

Persistent redness, broken skin, pain, bleeding or suspected incontinence-associated dermatitis should be assessed by an appropriate healthcare professional.

Choosing the Right Adult Incontinence Wipe

There is no universal best wipe for adult incontinence. The right choice depends on the person, the task and the care environment.

For quick ready-to-use personal cleansing, an alcohol-free pre-moistened adult wipe can be convenient. For routine patient washing or where the cleansing product needs to be selected separately, a dry patient wipe provides greater flexibility.

For larger personal-care and continence tasks, a large-format dry wipe can provide substantially more working area. This is why TIDDOX’s 30 cm x 60 cm OMNIWIPES Medical Dry Wipes have become particularly popular with our aged-care customers.

Ultimately, facilities should look beyond the product name and compare softness, absorbency, wet strength, dimensions, skin-care requirements and cost per care episode.

Need Help Selecting Adult Incontinence or Patient Care Wipes?

TIDDOX is an Australian supplier of adult incontinence wipes, patient care wipes and personal hygiene products for aged care, healthcare, disability support, palliative care and home-care applications.

Our range of adult incontinence wipes includes large dry patient wipes for bed bathing, personal washing and continence care, soft disposable patient wipes and pre-moistened personal hygiene wipes. Options are available in different sizes and formats to suit everyday personal care and professional care environments.

For aged-care facilities, OMNIWIPES Medical Dry Wipes are one of our most widely used options. Their large 30 cm x 60 cm format, softness, absorbency and wet strength make them particularly practical for bed bathing, resident washing, continence care and general patient-care applications.

Selecting the right wipe should consider more than price per pack. Wipe size, softness, absorbency, wet strength, skin-care requirements, frequency of use and cost per care episode can all influence which product is most appropriate.

If you are reviewing your current incontinence wipes, comparing wet and dry options or looking to consolidate personal-care consumables across an aged-care or healthcare facility, contact TIDDOX for assistance with product selection, samples and bulk supply options.

Frequently Asked Questions