The Skinny on Baby Skin

“Take Good Care of My Baby”

Tweenie’s Greenies: Tuesday Edition

A while back (okay maybe just a week ago), I was writing some posts about taking care of your baby “green-style”.  I loved making these changes in my home because I know how sensitive babies and children can be to different chemicals in their environment.  In my search for alternatives to the chemically friendly store brands, I found a few green items that will aid in skin care for babies and tots.  The best part, they are SOOO cheap and many of the ingredients are things that you would already have in your home.  Try them, love them, be them.

Cradle Cap Remedy:  When your baby as what looks like crusty old earwax stuck all over their head and in their eyebrows, try this idea.  Rub olive, almond or jojoba oil into the scalp/hair line.  Let it marinade. Use a soft brush or a wash cloth to remove the dead skin.  Warning: You may be tempted to pick or scratch at the dead skin because you are a “picker”, try to avoid further irritation to your babies skin and stop immediately.  Also, these oils may cause a severe negative reaction in household pets.  Upon coming into contact or in proximity to these oils, your pet may begin drooling on and licking your babies head and eyes.  Avoid this pet/child interaction by placing pets in a well ventilated area during use, such as the outside or cover the babies head with a protective barrier like a soft cotton hat.  

Eczema:  Apply natural aloe vera lotion on affected spot several times a day.  Again, avoid picking at it with your fingernail.  You know you want to pick it (or is that just me?).

Baby Acne:  Apply breastmilk to the acne.  I have found in the past that accidental face squirtings with breast milk seem to have prevented this acne.  If you are a “super milk producer”, this is a good way to use some of that excess breast milk while nursing.  The antibacterial properties of breastmilk allow for this great remedy.

Diaper Rash:  If your children are anything like mine, you know when they are teething by their butts.  Everytime one of my children was cutting teeth, they would develop a horrible diaper rash.  Desitin doesn’t have any effect on these babies and often if left unchecked, their poor bottoms would develop a few blisters.  Ouch!  Poor things! I always dread changing them when this happens.  Since the diaper rash that develops while teething is largely due to a high acid content in their poopies, this homemade remedy should help by neutralizing the irritating acid.  Mix Aquaphor moisturizer with 3 ounces of Maalox.  To do so, melt Aquaphor in the microwave or a double boiler.  When the Aquaphor is liquid, pour in Maalox.  Transfer the mixture into a heat safe jar.  Shake for 10 minutes.  Use when cool. 

One more thing, if you need to use baby powder to help reduce moisture on babies skin, do NOT use a talc based powder.  Talc is very similar to Asbestos and may cause cancer.  Use a powder made with cornstarch or slipper elm bark instead.

Let’s keep those babies skin soft and healthy!  Don’t worry, your baby won’t turn green by going green and you may have more green in your pocket. (oooh, I couldn’t resist all those green references this time.)

 

 

The Secret in Formula…Poison??

Tweenie’s Greenies

Week 4:  Take Good Care of My Baby

You need a quick bottle for your hungry and whiney baby.  You hurry into the kitchen or reach into your diaper bag, grab a quick can of ready to use formula.  Pop it open.  Fill the bottle.  Put the bottle into your little ones mouth and successfully expose them to harmful cancer causing chemicals. 

That’s right, another doom and gloom cancer causing chemical story from good old Look, Mom, Look!  I’m sorry, that’s all I got right now for this Baby edition.  In trying to green my baby without them actually turning green, I have just come across countless items/ingredients that are suspected carcinogens.  I do often question just how reactionary I should be to these frightening reports, but I will do whatever I can to limit my child’s exposure to potential toxins.  It’s the nurturer in me.  I don’t want my children to be unnecessarily ill and therefore, I am spurred on to a hypervigilant state.  Although, this does little good for my anxiety issues.  Next thing you know, my family will be living a “green lifestyle” here and I will be sitting pumped full of anti-anxiety meds at a “special home” just for me.

Anyway, back to this story….Did you know that there is a potential cancer causing chemical in cans of ready-made or concentrated formula.  Well, guess what??  There is.  Yippee Skippee.  From what I understand it is not in the powdered cans of formula, only the liquid varieties.  A plastic chemical called BPA is used in the formula can linings and it leaches into the formula.  This chemical has been known to cause nasty reproductive problems.  And how about some little behavioral or neurological issues to go along with that? 

Even if the scientific community is still questioning this, at least we can simply avoid giving our babies ready-serve formula from a can.  Just another argument of why boobs are best for babies.  Which is just perfect since I can’t get Gret to take a bottle for the life of me anyway 

Here’s the link to this story:  http://www.ewg.org/node/22416

 

Soakin’ It Up

Tweenie’s Greenies

Week 4:  Take Good Care of My Baby

My little ones are my biggest pride and joy.  They are also my biggest dirt balls around the home.  Although I don’t bathe them everyday (I probably should), I still am obsessed with maintaining their baby soft skin.  I love to lather them up in the tub with bubbles and sweet smelling shampoos.  Afterwards, I slab on the baby lotion and “Whala!” they are freshly fragrant and cuddly once again.  I love to smell the tops of their heads as I read to them after taking bathtime.  It’s one of my favorite things of all times.  Clean smelling kids!  It’s such a treat! (Usually the boys smell like sweaty kids with a touch of sticky jam or syrup and Gret will smell like rice cereal laced with spit up.)

What I tend to forget about when bathing my children, is what exactly is making them smell so fresh and delicious.  There are many products that contain ingredients that may be toxic over the long term, especially when you have new baby skin soaking in it several times out of the week.  The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics estimates that on average people use about 9 different personal care products a day, introducing 126 different chemicals onto their body.  That is for an adult but a child’s skin is thinner and much more sensitive than a grown-ups.  This makes their growing bodies more susceptable to toxins that may not be as harmful to adults.

Baby bath/wash products may contain a known carcinogen called 1,4-Dioxane.  It is actually a by-product of the foaming agents that is in the baby wash.  In large doses, dioxane is known to cause cancer, in particular skin tumors.  Thankfully, any washes we would use have low doses.  However, it is unknown as to what these low doses will do over time especially when it’s a babies sensitive skin that is soaking in warm water (which may increase exposure).  There also other known cancer causing agents lurking in bath and body products that have similar concerns.  These are formaldehyde and phthalates.  I will skip the science talk for these as it is the same as dioxane.

So what do you do??  First of all just read the labels before purchasing (57% of baby products contain dioxane) here’s the list of the naughty ingredients that you don’t want:

Anything that has these terms in whole or in part of the name:  “PEG,” “polyethylene,” “polyethylene glycol,” “polyoxyethylene,” “-eth-” (such as sodium laureth sulfate), “oxynol” “ceteareth,” or “oleth.”

OR go to this site to easily look up a baby product to see if it has any ingredient that causes concern.  It has an AWESOME breakdown of ingredients/what they do and then you can look up alternatives to go “greener” and less toxic.

All of my products pictured had moderate hazards (including 1,4 dioxane and formaldehyde).

If you want to go all out green, make your own!!  Here’s one recipe for homemade bubble bath:

1 quart water, 1 bar castille soap (4 oz), 1/2 cup glycerin, 5-10 drops an essential oil for fragrance.

Mix glycerine and water.  Dissolve soap (heating the water/glycerin mixture or shaving the soap will help dissolve it).  Then add the oil.  Shake well when mixing and again just before use.  Note: castille soap is very mild and made from olive oil.  Glycerine is a natural, non-oily moisturizer. 

For more info on baby product safety and info on 1, 4-Dioxane check out the following sites:

The Ecologist,  Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, Guide to Less Toxic Products

Other Blogs Addressing the topic:

Mom 4 Life

Remember, your skin is your largest organ and your bodies first defense.  Take care of it and take good care of your baby!

 

Wipe It, Wipe It Good

Tweenie’s Greenies

Week 4:  Take Good Care of My Baby

I am on to a new frontier in turning green!  My babies.  Well, a couple of them are full fledged toddlers now but I have one lovable little babe that is still smack in the middle of infantdom.  I am excited to dive into the topic of “green” baby care!  I know that this is a very applicable topic to most of my readers, and for those that don’t have “babies” anymore, you can always appear to be all knowing and pass on the information to those that need it.

Again, I am trying to find cheap and healthy ways to green the care of my baby.  Whether it’s wipes, diapers, ointments, soaps or whatever else babies need, I hope to become greener for the same cost as conventional or cheaper.  We’ll see how this goes. 

My first idea was born from a great friend of mine, Big Binder.  She is the queen of great inexpensive ideas for the kids (Don’t worry, Good Idea Momma, I have you on a different topic. So watch out!).  I thought this was a great thing that she did with her first born.  She made her own wipes!  Some may find it may be hard to break away from the standard wipes you buy at the store, but I think it might be doable and I am going to try it.  It also is in my scientific nature to experiment with mixing things together, so I am excited!!  Our big box of Costco wipes is almost gone and I am going to whip up some “green” wipes. 

A babies skin is very sensitive and can be easily irritated.  Therefore, it becomes important to know just what is going on it, especially if they have a skin allergy.  The main issues in baby wipes are that they contain things like fragrance, alcohol, and other chemicals that irritate their little bums.  Making your own wipes is supposed to be easy, very cheap, and also lets you control the ingredients.  I like the control part because when you have 3 toddlers you lose control of most areas in your life.

Most homemade wipes have the same basic ingredients.  You will need cloth squares (for washable, reusable wipes) or thicker paper towel (for disposable) and a container (perhaps your old store bought wipes container).  The liquid mixture usually takes an oil (to keep the skin soft and to help “glide” over the skin), a soap (to help with the cleansing), an essential oil (for scent and antibacterial purposes), and water (for cleansing and diluting).    Sounds easy, right??  We’ll see! 

There are many different recipes online that you can try, they just vary the amounts of ingredients.  The only downfall that I can see to making these is the warnings of only making a “small amount” at a time because they lack preservatives.  I am happy that there are no chemical preservatives, but not happy that the wipes can get musty and grow mildew if they are not used quickly enough.

Because there are so many recipes, I have listed the links to some below.  You can choose which one you want to try based on your needs.  I will experiment with this myself and let you know how it goes!  Happy wiping!

If you want to go “lightly” green with your baby wipes, try Seventh Generation’s or another natural store brand choice.  Be sure to read labels to know what you are getting.  Aim for fragrance free, unbleached, and alcohol free.

Links for wipe recipes:  http://www.naturalfamilyonline.com/5-diap/43-diaper-rash.htm,  http://www.naturalbabyworld.com/natural-baby-wipe.html, http://babyparenting.about.com/cs/diapering/ht/wipes.htm, http://www.babiesonline.com/articles/baby/homemadebabywipes.asp, http://www.recipezaar.com/41326