Organic Skincare for New Mums

Bringing a child into the world is meant to be one of the most special things in the world. When people speak of the beauty of childbirth, women who have had a particularly traumatic experience whilst giving birth may be inclined to disagree! Whether the birth of your child was routine or the single worst experience of your life, your body is still ravaged by pregnancy and childbirth.

Your skin will be stretched to capacity, you’ll be unbelievably tired and ‘intimate areas’ will be sore at best... unspeakable at worst. Everything will be starting to improve when you bring baby home but your body will be on the road to recovery but there is still a long way to go.

Mother is often ignored in favour of baby by well-meaning and excited relatives. Many women feel as though they have lost their identity and the constant pressure and scrutiny is often too hard to bear. It’s too early for exercise but you’re keen to start working on getting your body back. Breastfeeding can burn up to 500 calories a day so dieting isn’t the best of ideas as baby needs all the nutrients it can get. What you CAN do however, is take good care of your skin. Too many new mothers cannot find time to even wash their hair. Natural grease is good for the condition of your hair but your skin needs a bit more attention. Not only can the right skincare moisturise your skin, the action of massaging your skin can drain excess fluid and make it appear firmer. This will clearly take time but once you incorporate it into your daily routine, the benefits will soon become apparent.

buyOrganics has released a small range of gift sets especially for mum and baby. Whether you have just had your first or fifth baby, you will appreciate the richness and luxury of these products. Every pregnancy is different and every baby is different. Some cry uncontrollably and need lots of attention whereas others are delightfully quiet and sleep blissfully throughout the night.

One of the most popular products in the gift sets in the Calendula olive nipple butter. Meant for women who suffer from chapped and sore nipples during breastfeeding, this treatment is thick, glossy and gives an immensely cooling relief.

Organic products are not just available for mummy, if you truly believe in the benefits of organic skincare, and wish to encourage your children to always choose organic over products laced with potentially dangerous chemicals, we have organic baby wipes, cotton wool as well as organic baby sun cream.

Caring for your Children - The Organic Way

Newborn babies can start life as they mean to go on with purely natural organic products plus new mums can heal quickly and stay naturally gorgeous the organic way!

Pregnancy and coping with a newborn baby can now be safe and natural all the way with buyOrganics’ updated and improved Mother & Child store. New branded range additions for mother, newborn and child include MAMBINO ORGANICS and EARTH MAMA ANGEL BABY skincare products. buyOrganics also continues to stock best selling Soil Association certified products by ESSENTIAL CARE, ESSELLE and EARTHBOUND ORGANICS as well as many other brands.

This revamp of the acclaimed buyOrganics site is part of the company’s socially responsible commitment to providing women with the safest, most natural care for themselves and their babies during and after birth, with the longterm view of encouraging women in the mainstream to choose more natural products as the norm.

Having a baby can be a daunting prospect and every parent wants the best for their child – all the buyOrganics products are safe, natural and respectful for the environment. Embrace an eco-friendly start to your babies’ life with organic cotton and bamboo clothing, organic cotton buds and pads by SIMPLY GENTLE, organic baby bedding, mattresses and sustainable wooden cots from PROLANA and ABACA, organic baby sleeping bags, sustainable wood cots, biodegradable organic baby wipes and maternity pads by NATRACARE and the most comprehensive, natural soothing products for baby’s medicine cabinet including organic eczema creams, scalp treatments and post-partum remedies – all completely organic and with ancient soothing and healing properties. Babies will have the trendiest, most eco-friendly bottoms around with the buyOrganics selection of non-disposable nappies in gorgeous colours and the softest fabrics – bamboo and organic cotton – with washable liners, are all available.

MAMBINO ORGANICS skincare products include for mother: Mommy Time Organic Body Wash, Oh Baby Belly Butter, Youth Glow Omega Face Complex, Kissable Lips Moisturiser, Moisture Me Body Toning Oil, Calendula Olive Nipple Butter and for Caesarian section patients – the incredible C-Section Regenerative Scar Therapy treatment. These products contain naturally healing and soothing ingredients which are 100% certified organic, including lemon balm, which fades skin discolouration and helichrysum oil, which promotes skin healing. Also the ancient Sea Buckthorn Oil used since the 8th century to improve skin elasticity, hazelnut, pomegranate and evening primrose oils, all valued for toning and smoothing skin, olive oil for natural nourishment, shea butter and avocado oil to enrich and meadow foam wax, a totally natural moisture barrier.

Many babies quickly develop skin complaints such as eczema and cradle cap, usually due to overuse of synthetic soaps and baby products, but choosing organic products will ensure natural drying, softening and healing remedies for precious new bodies.

EARTH MAMA ANGEL BABY is a 100% organic range of products suitable for pregnant women and newborn babies, which contain no parabens or phlalates or artificial ingredients, and which contain natural healing and soothing properties. EARTH MAMA includes a range of herbal teas with magical properties such as the Morning Wellness blend, Peaceful Mama blend, Heartburn tea and Third Trimester tea. The EARTH MAMA New Mama Bottom Spray and Bottom Balm is formulated for the post-partum perineal area, and the Natural Stretch Oil helps with stretch marks. The Labour Ease Massage Oil and Labour Oil are must-haves for every expectant mother’s hospital kit.

The store also includes a range of beautiful, ethical gifts for new mothers and babies – perfect for relatives or work colleagues as a gift.

BuyOrganics stocks only organic, ethical and environmental products, conducts its own stringent environmental policies and is a member of the Ethical Junction.

For more information see the Mother & Child buyOrganics store at www.buyorganics.co.uk

Common Sense Organic and Natural Skin Care for Babies

In the beginning months of life, it is best not to bombard a baby with tons of toiletries and products. They truly don’t need lots of baths and toiletries.

Most doctors agree that about twice a week is usually enough. Plain water will do just fine most of the time, with baby wash or shampoo reserved for when the need arises and for the bits that need it. Their skin is delicate and significantly more permeable, in fact about 5 times thinner than ours. Cleaning can strip their delicate skin of its essential body oils. There seems to be a fallacy that until you have lathered the body with soap that the skin won’t be clean, and its total nonsense. Babies and young children don’t need tons of products in the bath. Baby lotion and baby powder aren’t really necessary either. Warm water and a good organic or pure natural baby massage oil or lotion is all that is needed, along with a balm for the bottom to prevent nappy rash. When you do need baby skin care products, if you stick to simple pure natural and organic products you should find that their skin will remain naturally soft and supple as they grow.

The growing trend in production and sales of organic and natural toiletries is as a result of the alarming facts about the truth behind baby and children’s skin care products and toiletries. Ian Taylor, of Green People, established by a woman who wanted to soothe her own daughter's eczema, says their baby washes and lotions simply "avoid any ingredient that can irritate the skin and all unnecessary synthetic chemicals ".

The escalating use of unnecessary products in the name of hygiene could certainly be doing our children's skin more harm than good. Warm water, for instance, is all that's needed to keep most babies clean. But Dr Michael Cork, consultant in dermatology at Sheffield Children's Hospital, recently published a paper showing that our consumption of products such as bubble baths, lotions, oils, talc, wipes and even baby perfumes has shot up in recent decades. As up to 20% of British children are now affected by eczema at some stage in their life, compared with fewer than 5% during the 1950s, there is, Cork says, "strong accumulating evidence suggesting that the rise in eczema and the increased use of such products are linked". The best guidance for helping children with eczema naturally is to keep them well moisturised with organic and natural eczema creams such as Essential cares Ultra Rich or Soothing Salve, Repair Lotion or Earthbound Organics Chickweed and Calendula cream. Give only lukewarm baths as hot water can dry out and aggravate the skin further. Use environmentally friendly cleaning products in the home such as eco friendly washing up solutions on their clothes such as unscented Aquaball, and Miessence’s Bio Pure Probiotic Cleaner. Get your child checked for allergies and food intolerances and pay a visit to a nutritionist on guidance with diet. Keep them well hydrated and the house clean and free of allergens such as dust mites.

Shopping for Healthy Organic Baby Skin Care Products

The healthiest baby and child skin care products you will find are those that are genuinely natural and organic. They will contain only the bare minimum of ingredients made of pure organic essential oils that are safe for using on babies skin, and natural emollients such as Shea butter, beeswax or natures oils such as almond, borage, or olive oils. If a skin care product features water in its formulation it must have some natural preservative system to prevent nitrosamines developing. Look for baby skin care products with a gentle natural system such as herbs and essential oils. Natural preservative systems that have been used for centuries include honey, sugar and alcohol. Plant extracts can also be used such as rose, cinnamon, cloves, calendula and vanilla. To prevent fast spread of bacteria natural processes are allowed by the Soil Association such as heat treatment, removing oxygen through vacuum packing and ensuring low water content. Some chemical preservatives are also allowed by certifying bodies such as the Soil Association such organic acids and grain alcohols.

A product that contains a minimum of 70% organic ingredients and no GM or petrochemical products is good enough to be organic through the Soil Association. Other certifying bodies have different criteria but they are all very similar.

Particularly good for babies are pH balanced healing herbs such as Chamomile and Calendula Oil which have anti-inflammatory properties and anti-microbial properties, whilst also stimulating cellular regeneration.

Other excellent skin friendly therapeutic healing herbs in baby bath soaps and washes, baby lotion and baby massage include: Almond Oil, Coconut oil, Apricot oil, Wheat germ oil and Borage oil: this is one of the riches sources of gamma linoleic acid, it also contains important vitamins and minerals. Not only does it nourish and hydrate the skin, but it also helps in cell regeneration. Avocado oil is another goodie. It is a soothing and calming oil, easily absorbed by the skin and scalp and is a good source of vitamins A,D, E, amino acids and sterols. Sea Buckthorn is massively popular in natural and organic skin care products for babies. This incredible oil contains 190 nutritional compounds including vitamins E, C, A, K, B1, B2, folic acid, Carotenoids, Flavonoids, Sterols, Stanols, Polar Lipids. It has a 1:1 ratio of the rare Omega 7 fatty acid as well as Omegas 3 and 6. Its earliest use was in Tibetan medicine in the 8th Century. Sea Buckthorn contains unique anti ageing properties and cell and tissue regenerative qualities making it suitable for a wide variety of skin conditions.

Extremely high in anti oxidant properties; we absolutely love Eselle Organics Sweet Baby Massage oil and all the Eselle Organics baby skin care products. They are completely organic and are filled with nourishing essentials. Eselle products are even purer than those required by the Soil Association for certification.

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.

Baby Massage...it’s got to be organic all the way

Baby massage isn’t the latest craze to hit our fad-hungry society; we’ve known for many years that not only does it help with the all-important mother/baby bond (particularly in cases of post-natal depression for example, where bonding is often one of the biggest issues), but also with many common problems such as colic, reflux, sleep, teething and crying problems. It’s even been proven to be a factor in enhancing brain development and more importantly, in healing conditions such as eczema. A daily massage can be easily incorporated into part of the all-important bath-bed routine or as a regular relaxing diversion during the day to help at naptime, and is often just as rewarding and relaxing for the mum or dad giving the massage.

However what you may not know is that what you use to facilitate the massage is just as important as how you actually do it!

Choosing organic massage oils and baby products is the main way of ensuring your baby isn’t exposed to the many harmful ingredients present in run-of-the-mill baby products. 100% organic products such as Earthbound Organics and Essential Care’s baby massage oils will not only ensure paraben, synthetic chemical and toxin-free products for baby’s precious newborn skin, but also the healing properties of the organic essential oils they contain. Esselle’s Sweet Organic Baby Oil contains Sea Buckthorn oil, which has been used since the 8^thTibet to treat a range of skin conditions. Century in All these products are available on-line at www.buyorganics.co.uk

One of the reasons baby skin complaints such as eczema and nappy rash are on the rise, is the increased use of allergenic and sensitising ingredients in skin care products and washing detergents, chemicals in disposable nappies plus of course the pesticides present in non-organic cotton clothing which can remain in the fabric even after several washes. A good way to cut down your child’s susceptibility to conditions like eczema and even asthma is to ensure organic clothing and skincare products wherever possible and wash using eco-friendly washing products – which is also better for the environment of course!

So, you’re armed with your organic massage oil, and baby’s wriggling around on a soft, clean (preferably organic cotton!) towel in front of you (on the floor please – not on top of a raised surface – you’ll have to watch your back but it is possible!) what on earth do you do next? Here’s our quick and easy step-by-step guide to baby massage – the simple Six Step I Love You massage…

Pour the organic baby massage oil you’ve chosen onto your palms and rub together to warm both your hands and the oil – you can sing or talk to your baby whilst you do this and look into his eyes to increase that one-to-one bond (and distract him from rolling over before you begin to massage!).

Step One: Use two or three fingers to trace the letter “I” on the right side of his abdomen, starting under his ribs and stopping at the hip, with a firm but gentle pressure.

Step Two: Stroke from left to right across baby’s abdomen forming the long side of a sideways “L”.

Step Three: Use a short downward stroke on the right side of baby’s stomach, completing the “L”.

Step Four: Begin the last letter, an upside down “U” by stroking up from baby’s hipbone on the left side of his tummy.

Step Five: The middle of the “U” is made by moving your fingers along the top of baby’s tummy.

Step Six: Finish the massage with the other side of the “U” with a final downward stroke on baby’s right side.

You can repeat this as often as you like until baby falls asleep, you get arm or back ache, or you’ve both had enough!!

Use the organic massage oil after baby’s bath too to seal in moisture and keep skin smooth and free from dryness and nappy rash. It will also be good for your hands!