Safe products for children

Hi everyone

Aromababe pasted a link to this site on the Interesting Websites forum but I thought it might be useful here too as it helps you avoid using nasty chemicals on your children unwittingly.

Babies can't help themselves and they cannot tell us what, if anything, is ailing them. They depend on us totally so we owe it to them to give them the best possible care that we can. This generally means learning about a baby's needs. We should know, for example, how to provide them with a good diet and if we don't know, we can easily find out. But when it comes to baby's toiletries, it's not so easy. There is a daunting range of toiletries designed specifically for babies and young children, and the marketing information about them can be misleading.

This article is based on the Baby Products chapter of 'Cosmetics Unmasked.' It explains why you should not use adult toiletries and cosmetics on babies and toddlers, what to look out for when choosing a baby product and at what age you can switch from baby products to family or adult products. Other topics covered in 'Cosmetics Unmasked' include skin care, hair care, colorants and fragrances, animal products, animal testing and everything else you want to know about the safety of cosmetics and toiletries. It contains details of over 2000 cosmetic ingredients that are potentially harmful, it exposes the truth behind the marketing hype and it explains the science of cosmetics and toiletries in simple, everyday words.

Why are baby products different?

You can buy new-born baby products, regular baby products and products for young children, and when you read the ingredients they all look much the same as the standard family toiletries. So why do you need to pay more for a baby product? The answer is simple. Harmful microbes can breed in cosmetics and toiletries, especially those that contain nutritious ingredients like proteins, vitamins and natural plant extracts. These microbes pose a much greater risk to young children than to older children or adults.

New-born babies have not yet developed an immune system. Instead they rely on physical barriers such as skin and mucous membranes, and on antibodies passed from the mother while in the womb and later from her breast milk. It is essential that babies are not exposed to unnecessary microbes during this crucial period of development so during the manufacture of baby products, great care must be taken to ensure that microbial contamination is minimal and, for this reason, the product usually contains a number of preservatives to prevent contamination during storage and normal use.

European Union (EU) law requires that, during manufacture and normal use, toiletries for children under the age of three must contain at least fifty times fewer microbes than regular cosmetics and toiletries. The regulations go as far as defining the number and type of microbes that are permitted in the various types of cosmetics and toiletries.

What toiletries should you use?

The advertisers would have us believe that we are less than adequate as parents if we do not buy their products and plaster our children in creams and lotions from the day they are born. They even suggest that we could use them ourselves to keep our skin baby-soft. But there is no law that requires all babies to have that familiar baby lotion smell and you should always question whether you really need to use a particular product on your baby.

Do you really need to buy all-over body wash for your baby? This is the child's equivalent of shower gel or body shampoo. Soap has an excellent safety record and a good brand or a well-known store brand of baby soap is probably even safer. Why expose your child to a cocktail of detergents, foam boosters, thickeners, preservatives, colorants and fragrances when you can use something as simple as soap?

Do you really need to use conditioner on your baby's hair? Consider washing your baby's hair with a mild baby shampoo then fore