Saturday, May 3, 2014

Vaseline, like Gasoline, Should NEVER Be Used to Treat a Baby's Skin

First of many EWWWWs!
This week I visited a Mommy for a newborn care consultation. Her baby had horrific eczema, head to toe. For those of you who've never seen eczema, it looks much like an extremely irritated rash and this poor baby had it real bad. To make matters worse, Mom was advised to treat her baby's sensitive skin with Vaseline! GASP!

To me, that is really bad advice! For eczema, or any other skin irritations on our babies, vaseline is NEVER the answer. Vaseline sounds like GASOLINE for a reason. It's a petroleum-based product. YES. It's base ingredient is CRUDE OIL! "Ewwwwwwww" is what you should be saying!

Petroleum blocks the normal skin cell function of "breathing," it clogs the skins ability to regenerate!  It simply greases the baby up, making the skin APPEAR less dry, but, certainly in the long run making the problem even worse! "GASPING" is what you should be doing!

Most moisturizers are often just as bad. Silicone compounds are often used in skin products to give that "silky smooth" application feel.  While silicone is naturally available, it goes through chemical modifications to be commercially available.  Many adults, let alone babies, simply are too sensitive for silicone based products, just as many people cannot handle prolonged exposure to latex.

Lanolin is also frequently used in products.  Lanolin is actually a sheep derivative, it is the substance removed for the sweat glands of sheep (EWWWWW again).  It is a waxy substance that may make the skin “look” better, but certainly, not curing anything!

Bottom line: our bodies, our skin (and certainly our baby’s skin) can't handle processing synthetic compounds! I think that crude oil and animal products are completely at odds with sensitive skin.

As for the recent mommy consult, after we tossed the vaseline in the garbage, I told Mommy to treat her baby's eczema with organic coconut oil and/or olive oil. These plant-based natural remedies can be applied directly to the skin and don't include any harmful ingredients that can make the problem worse. They are also far more effective at TREATING the problem.

Look at the products you are using on your baby’s sensitive and fragile skin. Outside the marketing campaign, many items found in the baby aisle are anything but gentle!

One last GASP!


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