Your baby is a little miracle. But while babies are overall quite robust, their skin is among the most sensitive it’ll ever be, especially compared to when they get older. Treating skin conditions like rashes or sores takes a little extra care and consideration on the part of the parent to avoid drying out babies’ skin and unintentionally making them feel worse.
In many cases, plant-based salves are an excellent choice to help soothe your little one. Let’s go over the top four benefits of using a plant-based cream for your baby’s sensitive skin.
Why Is Baby Skin So Sensitive?
On some level, it’s just common sense that babies’ skin is significantly more sensitive than our own. This is partially because baby skin is so new – it just hasn’t weathered the same types of hazards or stresses that an adult’s or even a child’s skin has.
Your baby's skin also regenerates quickly because it needs to be soft and stretchy as it grows. This heightened activity can also make it more vulnerable to certain skin conditions or issues like:
- Excessive dryness
- Eczema
- Raw skin
- Redness or other rashes
The list goes on. Our poor little ones often need plenty of help to stay comfortable, especially as they wear diapers and start crawling around on the floor.
There is a benefit to the sensitivity of babies’ skin: its extra sensitivity means that every touch between you and your little one is all the more meaningful. There’s nothing quite as soothing a mother’s gentle touch to help ease her young one.
Plant-Based Creams and Lotions
Broadly speaking, plant-based creams and lotions are much better choices for relieving irritation on your newborn’s skin. That’s because they’re made with ingredients derived from natural sources, like plants, oils, clays, and more.
Plant-based salves don’t contain the harsher synthetic compounds you’ll find in other lotions and creams--you simply don’t need them. We believe plants are just better, and our products are better because they are effective natural alternatives to putting chemical junk on your baby.
Benefits of Plant-Based Products for Babies
There are plenty of reasons to select plant-based creams for use with babies’ skin. Let’s break down a few of the major ones.
No Artificial Allergens
For starters, any all-natural and plant-based creams won’t contain artificial allergens, fragrances, or other synthetic compounds. These are typically the cause when a product is irritating or inflaming the skin of your little one.
Take Green Goo’s Baby Moisturizer Balm. It’s an effective and gentle product that can soothe and moisturize the skin of your baby without the use of lanolins, parabens, or artificial ingredients. It can temporarily relieve discomfort from a bunch of issues ranging from eczema to diaper rash, and as an added benefit, it’s totally safe for use with cloth diapers.
It has tons of effective plant-based ingredients like:
- Yarrow
- Calendula flower oil
- Chamomile flower oil
- Olive fruit oil
- Beeswax
- Vitamin E
- Jojoba seed oil
- ...and more!
There’s practically nothing better for getting rid of rashes and alleviating dry skin for your baby than this balm. Try it out for yourself and you’ll see firsthand that plant-based salves are almost always better than their chemical-laden counterparts.
Natural Astringents
Green Goo’s Children’s First Aid Salve has a natural, plant-based astringent to help your baby’s natural healing processes along, helping to close the skin wounds so that they can heal. Without using chemical-based astringents or other potentially irritating astringents, our baby balm is a great option to replace most other chemical-laden first aid skincare products.
Better Consistency Than Other Formulas
Many of the best plant-based salves, creams, and lotions are beneficial for use with your little one since they tend to be less sticky than the leading brands’ baby lotions, creams, and ointments. This is both more comfortable for your baby and a little easier to clean off if you use too much.
Green Goo’s Lavender and Chamomile Baby Lotion, for example, is a specially formulated product that is guaranteed to be gentle on the delicate skin of your newborn. Thanks to its nutrient-rich formula, it's able to moisturize, soothe, and protect new skin all at the same time without leaving behind a sticky and uncomfortable residue like other lotions that use synthetic ingredients to try and achieve what our plant-based ingredients do effortlessly.
Meanwhile, the scent of lavender can calm and comfort your newborn as they fuss around. It's a perfect pick for temporarily alleviating some of the symptoms of diaper rash or for treating general dry skin around their knees, elbows, or anywhere else.
The formula is bolstered by a few extra fatty acids and key plant-based extracts for added efficacy and better moisturization across the board.
Common Irritants for Baby Skin
Babies’ skin is so sensitive to so many things that it’s hard to keep track. Here are a few things to look out for when shopping for baby skin care products.
Artificial Fragrances
Soaps, creams, and other products for babies tend to include artificial fragrances to help sell the idea that your baby is squeaky clean or ultra-moisturized after using the product. While these don’t normally hurt adult skin, they can cause an allergic reaction or general irritation when rubbed onto the skin of an infant. For this reason, you should always try to avoid any lotions, creams, or other topical products that have an artificial fragrance.
When you go with a plant-based option instead, you can still enjoy the benefits of a sweet smelling baby thanks to the flower oils that not only naturally smell good, but often provide a ton of other benefits, too, like nourishment and moisturization.
Lastly, Don’t Over-Clean Your Baby!
In general, newborns don’t need to be bathed or washed as much as you might think. For one, their skin has a layer that should wear off over the first week or two of life (unless they were born after their due date, in which case this layer might strip away while still in the womb). Additionally, newborns’ skin is so sensitive that using too much soap and warm water can actually rub it raw.
A good rule of thumb is to give your baby a basic wash with a soft loofah or sponge and lukewarm or cool water every 2 to 3 days. Anything else, and you might need a little extra of the plant-based creams described throughout to help deal with raw and irritated skin.
Summary
Ultimately, there are plenty of creams and lotions you can use to help treat some of the mild conditions and rashes your newborn is sure to experience as they grow. But plant-based creams are the better choice by far. They’re excellent options if you want to maximize your baby’s comfort and minimize the risk of any negative side effects.
With no artificial ingredients or allergens, no chemical astringents, and a better overall consistency to keep your baby nourished by comfortable, Green Goo’s plant-based body care products provide all the benefits of traditional baby care products, without the harmful artificial ingredients, and with the added benefits that plants and their vitamins, minerals, and phytonutrients have to offer.
Don’t forget to check out our Mama + Baby Line of all-natural, plant-based skincare products, designed to help soothe and calm your skin from pregnancy all the way through breastfeeding and your baby’s first playground fall!
Sources:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/infant-and-toddler-health/in-depth/healthy-baby/art
https://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/news/20151027/parabens-breast-cancer