I\'m Summer, a mouthy, sarcastic bitch. I\'m passionate about natural birth, long term breastfeeding, and living naturally. I curse too much, love tattoos, and will some day be crushed to death by my book collection. I homeschool, dream of gardening, and swing to the left. 
Do You Know What’s In That?
Let’s talk about bath time, there’s nothing controversial about bath time. Oh, wait…
Last night I read a post at The Alternative Baby about the dangerous ingredients in many so-called “gentle’ baby soaps and shampoos.
What is often overlooked, is that there are countless sinister chemicals in the most common baby care products and children are extremely vulnerable to the vast array of chemicals prevalent in personal care products. A child’s skin is 30 percent thinner than an adult’s, but the surface area of skin (relative to body weight) is greater. This means that the potential dose of a chemical following dermal exposure is likely to be three times greater than in an adult. Another worrying fact is that the blood-brain barrier, necessary to protect the baby’s brain tissue from penetration by the aforementioned preparations (which are often neurotoxic), is not fully formed until the age of six months.
Yikes! Who knew that just a simple bubble bath could be so freaking dangerous? I actually wrote about something similar back in March when studies came out about possible carcinogens found in baby bath products. Johnson & Johnson was one of the biggest offenders, and one of the most widely used brands. The scariest thing about it is, as I wrote, some of the most worrisome chemicals aren’t even listed on the label. You might not even know if you’re using something dangerous.
I usually use just warm water, which works wonders at getting the dirt off. If the kids do need a little something extra I’ve got my bottle of Angel Baby Shampoo & Body Wash. It works great, smells like heaven, and I’m not worrying about what possible crap I’m rubbing into my kids’ skin. See:
- Clinically tested, Hypoallergenic
- No 1,4-Dioxane, formaldehyde, or phthalates
- No sodium lauryl sulfate, cocomidopropyl betaine or other synthetic surfactants
- No artificial preservatives (parabens, phenoxyethanol, etc)
It’s scary what we’ve got to look out for today. Possible cancer causing agents in our baby’s freaking soap? What the hell kind of world is this?
Yea…I’ll be making sure our baby is bathing in soap we made. For sure. Moisturizer too. Oy.
I’ve been using Dr. Bronner’s for the last 6 months and I like it a lot. Using the liquid and bar baby soap for baby B. Here in Costa Rica, we get lots of Bioland products, which I also like.
Trish\´s last blog post..Nursing in Public as an Immigrant
Summer Reply:
June 30th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
Everyone talks about how awesome Dr. Bronner’s is, but I swear I can’t find it anywhere. LOL I’ve looked for months and I’m either blind or it’s just not something the local stores sell. Which is sad.