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Original poster

When should I start using products to bath my baby?

107 replies

Stefka · 29/12/2007 12:28

My DS is 10 weeks and I just wash him with warm water and cotton wool. I don't feel the need to use any products on him yet - is there a point when I should start? I was thinking he will be ok until he starts on solids.

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PrismManchip · 31/12/2007 08:58

Hmm I wash every day too
And ditto short armpit-hairs
Oh well.....
I have just got one of those deodorant bricks from Lush but they are no better really when it comes to chemicals

NewYearNewBumperlicious · 31/12/2007 09:21

I can't really get away with no deodorant either but I have started using one of those crystal ones and it's ok (I am a v sweaty betty and used to use industrial strength deodorant before getting pg)

I've also just bought a load of stuff from lush. I bought a facial scrub and one the ingredients is "colour 2415" or something like that . Also I was talking to one of the shop assistants about their temple balms as it didn't smell very much so I said what's the point? She said "you don't need to smell it it just goes into your temple" How exactly does it do that, I thought it was the smell that was supposed to help? "well it goes into your temple through your skin" really, don't think I really want that then!

Anyway, back to the point: I used water and cotton wool on DD until she was about 3 months. Then I relented an started to use baby wipes, though I try and buy the Earth Friendly Baby ones if I can afford it. We also use the Earth Friendly baby shampoo and body wash. DH insists, he one of those "more soap the better people". (I am trying to wean him off fabric softener in the laundry - he likes the smell ). I did make some spray for baby wipe for a bit but it smelt a bit rancid, I used Chamomile tea, tea tree oil and lavender oil. I really must do it again properly. How do you do yours if you use them?

chocolateteapot · 31/12/2007 09:31

Mears has linked this in the past, it is an article published several years ago in the BMJ about the effects of skin care products on the skin of new born babies

There was also a study last year which linked lavender and tea tree essential oils to prebutertal gynecomastia in boys. Can't find the link at the moment and the study was done on a very small number of boys who had this condition and it was concluded that further research was necessary.I bet if a big study was carried out looking at the prevelance of gynecomastia, it would be a very tiny percentage. But to my mind these sorts of things make it well worth thinking about what you put on your child.

My philosophy with DS (didn't have a clue with DD) has been the simpler the better. Plain water usually does it, if I need something extra I use a good quality handmade soap (very far removed from commercial soap which has the glycerine which results from the chemical reaction between the products stripped from it and is sold as a by product) or some Dr Bronners. He has had his hair washed in shampoo about 5 times in his life (he's just over 4 now), water to my amazement does the job the rest of the time - and I would not have believed someone if they had told me this before. There is no difference in how his hair smells compared to DD's hair who is washed with a shampoo bar. For moisturiser I use oils such as calendula, rosehip etc, which used on slightly damp skin absorb in well and do the job nicely. I'm quite convinced that he would have a lot of problems if I used things like bubble bath etc. DD found an old bottle and put some in the bath without me knowing and poor DS broke out in hives which wouldn't go for 3 days, he also reacts to washing powder.

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warthog · 31/12/2007 09:32

that's a good point - i never considered baby wipes. but what alternatives?

MrsBadger · 31/12/2007 09:38

if you use washable nappies you can just use flannels and wash them with the nappies - we keep a tub of water by the changing mat for wetting them, or you can use this sort of thing.

warthog · 31/12/2007 09:39

with shampoo, i think it depends on what type of hair you have. i tried not using shampoo on dd's hair, but after a while it was plastered down i still get away with once every 1 - 2 weeks though. some people just have naturally greasy hair. i tried not washing my hair for 6 weeks and it was pure torture.

NewYearNewBumperlicious · 31/12/2007 09:43

You can make the spray yourself too, I'm just not sure what the best recipe is. I'm fairly sure some people make a mixture and leave reusable wipes in it in a tupperware box or something. I keep meaning to do this. But water would work just as well. Problem is I keep forgetting to get some when I change the baby and I can't leave her on the changing table (chest of drawers!)

Furball · 31/12/2007 10:19

I personally think it's fine to use shampoo, soap etc but just be aware what is in the product. Commercial names like Johnsons are full of really harsh un skin friendly chemicals. Maybe the reason they claim 8 out of 10 midwives use it is because those whose babies came out in a rash after using it donated it to the maternity unit

PrismManchip · 31/12/2007 13:31

I think the assistant in Lush is swallowing a load of cobblers - anything designed to go in through your skin has to be licensed as a medicine, apparently - if it is getting into your bloodstream (is that what she was suggesting?). If it just goes into the top couple of dermal layers then...what's the point of that?
That was always my quibble with aromatherapy when it was really popular and quite new in the late 80s/early 90s. If you put an essential oil on your skin and it's being absorbed into your bloodstream (some aromatherapists claimed this) then it's a fecking medicine and probably pretty dangerous.
Though lately there has been some stuff about chemicals from facecreams getting in, hasn't there? I haven't been following it.

hunkermunker · 31/12/2007 16:48

Oh, thank goodness, some sane people who don't think not using lashings of soap on children is in some way precious or shocking!

kiskidee · 31/12/2007 16:50

LOL

PrismManchip · 31/12/2007 16:50

We're a clique
The MN Soap-Dodgers

kiskidee · 31/12/2007 16:50

lol lol.
never been in a mn clique before
i think i like this one.

warthog · 31/12/2007 16:53
Grin
soapdodger · 31/12/2007 16:59

twirls and takes a bow.

FrannyandZooey · 31/12/2007 17:41

we used to use plain chamomile tea as a wipes mix and it worked beautifully

it keeps for a couple of days before you need to make some up fresh

The Women's Environmental Network are very informative about all this stuff. Here's a page on cosmetics which contain a lot of the same ingredients as many commercial baby washes and so on

MumtoCharlotteMay · 31/12/2007 18:50

I'm not going to start worrying about the effects talcum powder has on my child. For heavens sake, seriously?

Ok, so they have chemicals in them. So does a lot of the products we use, food we eat, things we drink etc. I personally feel it's a hell of a lot more dangerous and toxic to take my dd out for a walk in her pram where cars are all pumping out chemicals by the gallon, than to use Johnsons talcum powder on my baby after her bath. Does that mean you're all going to stay in doors with your kids forever?

This thread is starting to get a bit ridiculous! It's the same type of argument over and over again.

Breast vs Bottle
Disposable vs re-usable
Jars of baby food vs home made mush
Baby wipes vs lotion
and so on...................

My mum used these products on all of us and we haven't all keeled over and died, we don't have any health problems i.e. allergies, skin problems etc. I think you're all giving Cote a really hard time when she simply said she didn't understand why you didn't use soap on your kids. Which is the same as all of you who don't understand why we do.

There is no right or wrong answer, it's a personal choice.

hunkermunker · 31/12/2007 18:53

Have you shares in Johnsons?!

FrannyandZooey · 31/12/2007 18:54

talc and cancer

up to you whether you worry about it or not, but it sounded like you didn't know

ibroughtxmascake · 31/12/2007 18:56

That link is really really scary

FrannyandZooey · 31/12/2007 18:56

This is the information which is most relevant to you:

"Talc poses a health risk when exposed to the lungs. Talc miners have shown higher rates of lung cancer and other respiratory illnesses from exposure to industrial grade talc, which contains dangerous silica and asbestos. The common household hazard posed by talc is inhalation of baby powder by infants. Since the early 1980s, records show that several thousand infants each year have died or become seriously ill following accidental inhalation of baby powder.3

Q. What about infants?

A. Talc is used on babies because it absorbs unpleasant moisture. Clearly, dusting with talcum powder endangers an infant's lungs at the prospect of inhalation. Exposing children to this carcinogen is unnecessary and dangerous."

FrannyandZooey · 31/12/2007 18:57

sorry cake, cross posts, i meant it was relevant to MtoCM!

jorange5 · 31/12/2007 19:01

I thought that it was common knowledge about the dangers of using talc and was shocked recently to see a friend use it after changing her DC's nappy. I remember the health professionals in my family telling me about how they weren't to use it any more and that was years ago. I was shown a picture of a load of scar tissue that had been formed over talc somewhere in the body

Furball · 31/12/2007 19:08

heres more info on talc from ivillage website

warthog · 31/12/2007 19:14

that's really scary.

it's very easy to stop using chemicals on your baby. it's not easy to stop breathing so you don't inhale traffic smoke.