If I had known what I know now, when my girls were little, I would feel a lot better. And here's why I would feel a lot better, I would feel that I was educated on the products I was putting on their bodies without the fear that I now have the damage that I know I probably have done to their poor systems. Luckily, our bodies are resilient, and they can recover. But if I had only known then what I know now.
3 Toxic Ingredients to Look Out for When Choosing Natural, Clean, and Eco-friendly Bath, Body, and Hair Products for Your Babies and Kids
When my girls were little I was paying attention to the cleaning products I was using in my home but I was often getting greenwashed. I was tricked into thinking the products I was using in my home were safe, but they weren’t as safe as I thought they were. I wasn't reading the ingredient labels and I was trusting the marketing of the products.
I was using cleaning products that I thought were safe, but I had not really even thought about the products I was putting on my baby’s body, hair or face. I remember registering for my baby showers and picking up you know Mustella and Dreft laundry detergent because they were marketed to be safe for babies and newborns, but I was being greenwashed.
I remember my daughter is getting their first bath in the hospital and of course the hospital use Johnson and Johnson that little yellow baby wash. Would I use that today?
The answer is no. Heck no!
Before we get into the toxic ingredients to avoid, the reasons why you should pay attention to the ingredients in your kids and baby products, is that first of all, our skin is our largest organ. You'll hear people say everything you put on the skis is absorbed into the bloodstream, but this really isn't true. About 60% of what we put on our skin is absorbed straight into the bloodstream. The reason why aren’t absorbed is the size of the molecule. So some of these molecules will really penetrate the skin and go all the way in whereas some will sit on top of the skin.
We also know that a lot of the ingredients in conventional products aren’t good for this. We have to do our due diligence, and read those ingredient labels to make sure that what we're putting on our skin is not linked with cancer, doesn’t irritate the skin or exacerbate asthma, that it doesn't make eczema worse. So this is why we need to look out for red flag, toxic ingredients in the products we buy for our children.
This is especially important for babies and children because their bodies are developing so incredibly fast.
Yes, this is important for our babies and little ones, but it’s also important for our pre-teens, tweens, teens, and even us old adults too. As we go through developmental stages, these toxic ingredients can be even more harmful than they typically are.
3 Toxic Ingredients to Look Out For
Mineral oil:
Mineral oil is derived from crude oil. Yes, gasoline is is derived in the same way. In America, because of the lack of regulations around the refining process, there are often contaminants left behind. Contaminants that are linked with cancer. And we really don't want to be slathering our tiny little baby in mineral oil, which is potentially a carcinogen.
Fragance:
The second thing that we want to look out for is fragrance. And the reason why is because the term fragrance, or natural fragrance, is a proprietary term. And because of the lack of regulations in the United States, a company really can have any sort of chemical included within the term “fragrance”. Studies have been done to to find how many chemicals are actually within the term fragrance and there are 1000s of them. If you see the term “fragrance” on an ingredient label, you really don't know what it is in it. If you're going to take the time to read that ingredient label, you really want to know what's in that product. So if you see “fragrance”, put it back, or if it's at home and you're ready to ditch and switch, throw that product away and choose a product where the company is fully disclosing every ingredient that is in the product. The other problem with fragrances that they often contain phthalates.
Parabens:
Parabens are endocrine disruptors which are ingredients that mess with our hormone system. As we know, our hormones control all of the organs of our body. When these chemicals mess with our hormones, they can do a number of things to our body, they can harm our fertility and our reproductive organs, they can impact birth outcomes, and they also increase the risk of cancer. An ingredient that acts like a paragon that you’ll often find in natural products is phenoxyethanol. It's still a very controversial ingredient, so I avoid it and I encourage you to find products that have a better preservative than phenoxyethanol.
There are a ton of other products for your entire household that I’ve researched for safety and tested for effectiveness at my online shop detox.design/thebox. It’s my passion to help people detox their homes without feeling overwhelmed or blowing their budget. Connect with me and I’d love to help get you started!
