Baby Massage - Oil query

[harverina]

Hi,

Have recently started baby massage class and we were given a small bottle of oil when we started the class which I have now finished. Went to Holland and Barratt today and bought sweet almond oil, lavender oil and chamomile oil.

Anyone know if these oils are ok? The women in the shop said to use only one drop of the fragranced oils in with the sweet almond oil.

Thanks in advance.

[sazm]

yep,its usually almond oil that we are given at our local baby massage class.
sounds lovely,lucky lo lol x

[BaDaBing]

How old is the baby? I'd recommend using unperfumed oil, such as olive or grapeseed. Essential oils can create localised sensitivity in small babies.

[harverina]

badabing, my DD is 16 weeks.

[ursigurke]

I always used sweet almond oil but one of my friends' baby seemed to have a reaction to it (not sure if it was really the oil) and she used sunflower oil which was fine too.

[PaulineCampbellJones]

I used olive oil to start with and put a drop of lavender in it now DD is older. Lots of people in my class used sweet almond oil. Enjoy!

[harassedinhants]

What you need to remember with the sweet almond oil, is that it's a nut! So don't use if there's a history of nut allergy in the family.

Alternatives such as grapeseed, olive and sunflower oils can be used. You can also massage with cream.

I wouldn't recommend using fragranced oils yet, as your lo is quite young, and they can be quite potent. Unless it's a specially blended oil for babies, but even then check the ingredients in the case of nut allergies.

HTH's, I'm a massage therapist.

[WillbeanChariot]

I go a baby massage class run by a HV who is a qualified baby massage instructor. We use organic sunflower oil. It suits DS's skin and it's cheap compared to the dedicated baby oils.

[thumbwitch]

I prefer to use grapeseed oil to almond oil, it's slightly lighter. One drop of lavender oil or one drop of chamomile (assuming it's Roman chamomile - if it's German chamomile I wouldn't use it at all - you can easily tell, German chamomile is blue) in about 30ml of oil. If you buy small plastic dispenser bottles (like in a travel kit) then one drop of essential oil in that much base oil will be ok. A normal amount of lavender oil in that much base oil is 7 drops, so 1 drop will be fine. Roman chamomile is stronger - usually needs 1-3 drops of oil in 30ml, so might be a bit much for your baby at this stage (good for you though!)

[BlueChampagne]

I just took olive oil from the kitchen and had a tendency to refer to baby massage as basting.