Kids and adults alike love getting dressed up for Halloween – and spooky makeup and face paint are part of the magic. But what if that Halloween makeup contains ingredients you’d rather not use? Yep, heavy metals, talc, and endocrine disrupting parabens are not what I want to paint on my child’s skin! What we need is natural Halloween makeup we can use for babies and toddlers! “You’ve got to be extra careful with what goes on a child’s sensitive skin. Safe, natural options make it easier to enjoy the fun without worrying about harmful effects.” says Sara Millecam of Beautiful Brows and Lashes. It’s so fun and easy to make your own natural face paints that you can use at Halloween and other times of the year. And once you have your natural Halloween makeup sorted – a spooky Halloween outfit, dramatic hair styling, face makeup, and fake blood…
Many large toiletry manufacturers are jumping on the natural skincare band wagon by creating natural baby care products. But can these products really be trusted? Nobody wants to purposefully expose their child to harmful chemicals, but the truth is that many personal care products designed for babies and children still contain unhealthy ingredients. Large brands know that parents are looking for safe skincare options for their children, and they wrap a wolf in sheep’s clothing through what is known as “greenwashing”. Greenwashing is the term used to describe the duping of customers into buying something they believe is natural and healthy, when in fact they’re buying something that contains unhealthy ingredients. How can we as parents be sure that the “natural” brands we use are truly healthy? Well, a bit of detective work is all it takes. Try these four tips to help you find truly natural baby care products.…
In this review, Jonah tries out Weleda Baby Calendula Calming Bath to help heal his nappy rash and relax him ready for a good night’s sleep. Not to be confused with Weleda Calendula Cream Bath. Backstory: after being nappy rash free for fifteen months, Jonah has had quite bad nappy rash these last few days. The problem lies with teething. His nappies have become very runny, and he’s going frequently. A couple of times this week Jonah sat in a dirty nappy, because I hadn’t immediately noticed he’d gone. So I’ve been looking for ways to help Jonah’s skin heal and recover. We’ve forgone our usual natural bubble bath and opted for something milder and with active benefits – Weleda Baby Calendula Calming Bath. We’re big fans of Weleda Calendula baby products. We use the nappy cream and the body wash and shampoo, and we love them both, so I have high…
This post will help you put together a handy toddler first aid kit. Mobile babies and toddlers get in so many scrapes don’t they? Many of these ouchies are treatable at home with lots of cuddles and a few choice first aid kit items. When Jonah started to walk at 13 months, we realised we needed a first aid kit to treat his minor bumps and scrapes. We didn’t want to buy a first aid kit off the shelf, because we wanted more than just practical items like plasters, bandages, and dressings. We also wanted toddler-friendly and natural remedies that would ease common complaints and support Jonah’s body to heal itself. My husband and I aren’t very physical people, so we don’t get injured that often. And luckily, we don’t tend to get poorly much – apart from when Jonah brings the lurgies back from play group. Reflecting this, our…
This post focuses on how to prevent and treat nappy rash. Does your little one suffer with nappy rash? So many babies and toddlers do. Whether it’s teething, colds, food intolerances or eczema. Sometimes it takes some sleuthing to get to the “bottom” of it. This post will help you figure out how to prevent and treat nappy rash with natural remedies, lifestyle changes, and natural nappy creams. Towards the end of my pregnancy, I started to give nappy cream some thought – maybe I would need nappy cream in my hospital bag, and at my baby’s changing area? I pondered if mainstream nappy creams would be full of junk ingredients, like a lot of mainstream baby products. Like a lot of parents to be, a Bounty newborn baby pack was thrust into my hands, with its free mini tube of Sudocrem Nappy Cream. Scanning over the ingredients (including sodium…
In this post, I’ll be looking at how to make a breast milk bath, and the benefits to baby and mama a breast milk bath can bring. A little backstory: it’s been a long time since I expressed breast milk on a daily basis for Jonah. It used to be a regular thing for me to have the Haakaa breast pump swinging from one breast whenever Jonah was breastfeeding on the other. I could leave some milk for him while my husband had him for an hour, and I’d take some much needed self-care time in the form of pilates classes. Fast forward a few months, and I’m done with classes now, feeling fully recovered from pregnancy and birth, and feeling like running around after my steam train toddler is just about as much physical exertion as I can handle. This week, Jonah’s had a few stubborn spots across his…
In this post, I review Green People Nappy Balm. Experts say you should only use nappy cream when baby’s bottom is red. We like to use a tiny smear of nappy cream at most nappy changes – it works well for us. Despite frequent nappy changes, if we don’t use nappy cream, the dreaded redness appears. Thankfully, we’ve not had a serious case of nappy rash yet, so we must be doing something right. For Jonah, I only use a skincare product when absolutely needed – and nappy cream is a skincare need, since being in a nappy for almost all of the day is not very natural! We’re huge fans of Weleda nappy creams – White Mallow Nappy Cream is our absolute favourite, with Calendula Nappy Cream following a close second. However, since I’ve had such great results with Green People products, I thought we should try Green People Nappy Balm…
In this post, I compare Weleda nappy creams to see which is best for your baby or toddler. We’ve been regular users of Weleda White Mallow Nappy Change Cream since Jonah was born. Recently we were gifted a tube of Weleda Calendula Nappy Change Cream by our friend (thanks Andrea!) and were really happy to give it a go. We love the Weleda Calendula range since it is so effective, gentle on skin, and smells great. This nappy cream is no exception to the rest of the range. In this post we’ll look at the similarities and differences between the two nappy creams, research all the lovely ingredients, and make a choice to which is most suited to our baby. First a bit of background on Weleda. From their website: Weleda’s goal is to maintain, enhance and restore the health of people. What started in 1921 as a pharmaceutical laboratory, with its own…
In this post I want to look at some of the popular baby care products that can be found on supermarket shelves. Here are some healthier replacements for mainstream baby products. I’m sure most of our parents used these popular brands on us when we were babies, and people just keep using them. The scary thing is that parents trust these brands. But take a closer look at the ingredients, and not only are many not gentle, they’re downright scary. For every risky mainstream baby product, a healthy alternative exists. Let’s see what easy swaps we can make! #1 – Johnson’s Extra Sensitive Baby Wipes Why you shouldn’t use them These wipes, despite “extra sensitive” in the name, contain phenoxyethanol, which is used as a preservative to extend shelf life. Do you clean bub’s hands with a wipe, and do they suck their hand later? This Dermareview article explains how infant…
Since his birth, we co-bathed with Jonah as it felt safer and more secure, and good for skin-to-skin contact thus supporting breastfeeding, and, well, squeeeeee – bathing with our new baby! We never did figure out which bath support or baby bath to buy and bathing with him felt good. Once he could sit upright at a week past six months, he started to love bath time a lot more and he had more baths on his own in the tub. We still try to avoid bathing him more than twice a week as we think some bacteria is good. But water can be so relaxing, and Jonah got dirtier when he started feeding himself with baby led weaning. At the start we used no bubble bath or any other product in the bath. Then we introduced Weleda Calendula Shampoo and Body Wash to clean his nappy area and hair only.…









