What Ingredients Should I Avoid in my Baby’s Skin Care Routine?

Baby skin is delicate and needs protection. Using ingredients with fragrances is usually not recommended. Fragrances serve no moisturizing purpose and baby skin needs to be moisturized. Instead, fragrances can cause rashes, itchiness and cause babies to be uncomfortable. The more exposed a person is to skin irritants, the risk of contact dermatitis (another type of allergy) can develop. This means that as the child grows up and uses similar irritating products, they can develop an allergy to it which causes itchy rashes and can be very distressing.

Though not a consensus from all allergists, I believe using food derivatives on baby skin is not healthy. As we have now seen, exposure to allergens through the skin can cause allergies. Though there is not enough evidence to say that this occurs with products like coconut oil, sesame seed oil, or others, I don’t believe using these products is worth the risk of a child having an increased risk of allergies to these foods later. There are no studies that are conclusive of the allergen potential of food derivative oils, but I am ok with not having my child moisturized with coconut oil as a baby.

Essential oils are also a no-no. As lavender and other oils are getting more popular, allergists and dermatologists are seeing more reactions to these products. Baby skin is too vital to use potential allergenic products on it.