Baby and Child Organic and Natural Skin Care

"When it comes to chemicals we know may do harm," says Greenpeace's Mark Strutt, "then, as a parent, why would you chance it?

Although it can seem like a very small decision, one of the most important choices you’ll make is what kind of skin care and hair care products you are going to use on your newborn babies and growing children. Being the start of their life, and having newly arrived from the warmth and security of the womb, an onslaught of harsh skin cleansing agents disguised cleverly with pretty baby perfume is ‘not’ surprisingly the best choice for your little one.

Your decision of picking something branded but full of artificial and synthetic chemicals and perfumes because of enticing Buy One Get One Free Offers or fancy packaging and advertising can greatly affect your child’s health and wellbeing. It may seem like a good idea at the time ‘ what everyone else uses’ or ‘they sell it so it must be fine’, but clinical research shows us that the impact has deeper implications.

The average one-month-old baby is bathed four times and shampooed three times every week, according to University researchers. Yet newborn skin is slow to mature, and the outer layer is highly permeable and sensitive to chemicals. In fact it’s 5 times more permeable than our skin.

"Until they are six months old, infants lack a blood-brain barrier to prevent blood-borne toxins entering the brain: low-level exposures that would have little or no effect on an adult brain can sabotage a foetal one." EWG (WEN)

Most of us assume that the chemicals we put on our babies and children daily, in the form of powders, wipes, lotions or shampoos, have been thoroughly tested and regulated, and are safe for even the smallest bodies. This is technically correct: all the ingredients within any toiletry and cosmetic product are subject to EU regulations and testing. But some toxicologists, and many environmental groups, believe such tests are inadequate.

Your average baby "hygiene" product contains a complex mix of chemicals to make it froth, slide or bubble, as well as various fragrances, preservatives and colours. A current U.S report in clinical paediatrics has revealed that 75% of newborns suffer rashes during the first few months of their birth. Suspected factors contributing to this include the very products that cosmetic and toiletry pharmaceutical companies assure us will soften, clean and moisturise our baby and child’s skin. They say that “Newborn skin is relatively more permeable to topically applied agents than adult skin. Therefore, the risk of systemic toxicity is much greater in newborns.”

Bubble bath, shampoos, baby talc, petroleum jelly, massaging oils and lotions are the most commonly sold baby skincare products

As a Parent we urge you to stop and read the labels of supermarket and chemist baby skin care products. Amongst them you may find a barrage of ingredients such as synthetic fragrances, artificial colours, highly allergenic and irritating preservatives including quaternium 15, imidazolidinyl urea, and Propyl parabens, PEG, Tea, Mea, Phthalates, and Petrochemicals which are also irritants and used in many baby toiletry products. All of these chemicals are absorbed through your babies delicate skin into their pure uncontaminated bodies. Also, most of these chemicals may have been tested on un-suspecting animals and deemed safe, however many may be contaminated with formaldehyde, 1,4 dioxane and nitrosamines ( known carcinogens!) and have multiple uses as plasticisers, or heavy duty cleaning detergent, engine degreasers, car wash detergents and floor cleaners.

Dr Michael Cork, consultant in dermatology at Sheffield Children's Hospital says "some detergents can break down the skin's natural barrier, so that it allows other irritants and allergens - such as house dust mites - to penetrate, and if you took away such factors as harsh shampoos and bubble baths for babies and children, you could prevent vast numbers of children being affected by eczema ".

Dr Vyvyan Howard, a toxicopathologist specialising in foetal and infant growth at the University of Liverpool, says that: "From the day they are conceived, our children are exposed to a soup of chemicals, most of which would not have existed when our grandmothers were in the womb. "There are, he says, around 70,000 chemicals currently in commercial use, with about 1,000 new ones added each year. To test just the commonest 1,000 toxic chemicals in unique combinations of three would require at least 166m experiments, ignoring the need to study varying doses. In other words, we really don't know what all these chemicals may be doing in our children's bodies."

Scientists are concerned that some of these chemicals can "bioaccumulate" (be stored in your child’s body),"Most children have measurable levels of at least 300 groups of chemicals in their bodies, taken in through food, household or garden chemicals, cosmetics and even the air they breathe," Dr Howard says. This process may even start in the womb: "Most of these chemicals cross the placenta or may be passed to the newborn via breast milk." But no one knows for sure if they’re dangerous, but some so- called "gender-bending " chemicals can, it seems, disrupt the human endocrine system (our hormones).As the rates of hormone-dependent cancers (such as breast or prostate) are rising, some toxicologists believe there is a link.

Another recent report has found that Phthalates, that have been linked to adult reproductive problems, especially boys, have been turning up in baby wee! Researchers think that they’re coming from the baby and skin care toiletries used everyday although more research still needs to be done Sheela Sathyanarayana M.D on the study suggests that all mums need to do to avoid this happening is by using a little less toiletry products or switch to artificial fragrance free products, because phthalates are used to stabilize fragrances. No scent often means there is no need for them. Alternatively a natural organic baby skin care product scented with pure therapeutic essential oils will also not require any phthalates. The study also found that higher level of phthalates were more prevalent in younger babies, most likely due to their more delicate skin and overall vulnerability.