Fragrancing soaps for children

[Primrose]

This may be a bit of a crossover to the essential oils bit, but I thought here might be more appropriate.

I have read a few things about EOs not being safe for children/babies, does this include when they are in soaps, even after the saponification process takes place?

In this respect - is it safer to use FOs for childrens soaps?

Then I've read that babies shouldn't use lye-based soap at all

Are there ages/guidelines available? For example, what age roughly can a baby start to use CP soaps? What age can a child move from unscented to scented soaps (either FOs or EOs)?

Basically the reason I'm asking this, is I am flying to see my family soon (who I haven't seen for years) and would like to make some soap gifts for them, the adults are clearly easy but I have a whole host of nephews and nieces in a range of ages and I'm just wondering what I can and cant do for them. I don't have children of my own so I'm not really sure about this sort of thing. They range from babies up to teenagers

 

[SunRiseArts]

IMO after two years old any handmade soap should be ok. For kids I would use fragrances at only 3%, because they could be an eye irritant. But everything in the kids department has fragrance. Go check the labels. The other day I was looking in the baby area where the baby milk is, and I almost threw a fit, because some milks for new born already have corn syrup.

So I would keep the fragrance low, and just make something fun with a mild recipe like a bastille. You can use baby food for some color. I do that all the time. Carrot baby food gives a nice sunset yellow color. Just make sure is only carrots and water, because some baby food has lemon juice.

Kids get a kick out of fun shapes. Or jelly soaps. BB carries a jelly soap base that would be ready to use the next day. Wholesale supplies has many non detergent MP bases that I guess are ok for even toddlers. They have a buttermilk one that I like.

 

[Primrose]

Oh wait, so no mica for children?

I was thinking of doing some animals for the soap dough challenge and using them as toppers on a gentle bastille type recipe for the younger ones, for the older ones I've got some Star Wars moulds! And on the lookout for other fun shapes

 

[SunRiseArts]

Mica should be ok. But how old are the kids? If under 2 I would not use mica.

 

[Primrose]

I am thinking I will tell my family to not use them at all on the young ones under 2. And for the toddlers it will just be the embeds that have mica, not the whole soaps

 

[SaltedFig]

Not so long ago TEG wrote about using oil as a cleanser on babies skin. Sorry, I have been unable to find it to link it for you.

To add, I was reading a paper on the topic, and it suggested that high linoleic oils like sunflower were the better emollients for babies skins than high oleic oils.

 

[Saffron]

From experience I know that well-cured Castille or Aleppo soap is fine to use on babies. So is goatmilk and oatmeal. My sister-in-law only uses my handmade soaps on her baby and toddler. I make goatmilk and very finely ground oatmeal soap for her, superfatted with shea butter and no frangrance or FO of any kind (no palm or pko or tallow either in this recipe).
My hairdresser also only uses my goatmilk & oatmeal soap on her baby and toddler with eczema. She says nothing else works for them.

I know some people say babies do not need soap, but personally I couldn't do that. I washed my babies with very mild soap after every nappy (diaper) change and they hardly ever got diaper rash.

Just make sure it doesn't get into their eyes.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Most of these prohibitions are more about an overabundance of caution than real potential for harm. What do you think your parents washed you with or your grandparents washed your parents with? Soap. Remember the Ivory soap baby?

Also realize that many of the warnings around "lye soap" are not for what we make. They are for the old-fashioned lye soaps that people made with cups and teaspoons from Grandma's old handwritten recipes, or maybe a purple mimeograph page of somebody else's grandma's recipe. They were terribly imprecise and almost always lye heavy. They would strip the skin off you, and should definitely have been kept away from babies.

By contrast, a carefully prepared hand-made soap using our modern methods, with a designed superfat and oils chosen for mildness is completely different. I'm not sure I'd gift a 100% coconut oil soap to a parent, but I wouldn't use that myself either. I would have no qualms about giving my regular body bar recipe to be used by anybody - including babies.

Now scents can be another matter, especially EOs. I'll leave those to others more knowledgeable than me. I will say, though, that if you're looking for a kid-friendly scent check out Honey, I Washed the Kids from Nurture.

 

[earlene]

Then I've read that babies shouldn't use lye-based soap at all

Are there ages/guidelines available? For example, what age roughly can a baby start to use CP soaps?

Infants and small children don't have a fully developed acid mantle, which is why mild 'soaps' with a pH of under 7 is recommended for them. Therefore no lye soap because true soap cannot have a pH below 7. Depending on the resource you read, that fully developed acid mantle could be complete by age 6 or not until puberty. So I included 3 references for your reading enjoyment to to reach your own conclusions. The last two sources are medical sources. The first is not.

References:

regarding acid mantle and age 6 (Notice this is from Eucerin, a product based source and NOT a medical source)
Understanding skin: Baby and children's skin

regarding acid mantle of infants *
Skin Care for Infants and Young Children: Using New Evidence to Address Common Myths

regarding acid mantle development and puberty:
Biology and Function of Fetal and Pediatric Skin

* If you don't already have a Medscape account you can create one for free, no subscription necessary. For medical articles it is a decent resource.

Not so long ago TEG wrote about using oil as a cleanser on babies skin. Sorry, I have been unable to find it to link it for you.

To add, I was reading a paper on the topic, and it suggested that high linoleic oils like sunflower were the better emollients for babies skins than high oleic oils.

This post? https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/baby-soap-takes-too-much-time-to-set.61624/#post-620349

 

[SaltedFig]

Thanks for the links Earlene!

This post? https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/baby-soap-takes-too-much-time-to-set.61624/#post-620349

Close, but the one I was thinking about was more recent, and also included a brief commentary on using oil as a cleanser for babies being a region (country?) method (I hope I'm getting that right!).