When browsing the supermarket or baby store shelves, you will probably have noticed that for every skincare and bath time product available, there is a baby-friendly version with different packaging and different ingredients. Now, this isn’t all just clever marketing.
Babies can in fact benefit from specially designed and created products, as their skin is a lot more sensitive than ours and requires different levels of ingredients which help them to build up a natural protective barrier against the toxins and wear and tear of modern life.
Why Babies Need Specific Products
In this blog post, we share some of the reasons why baby-specific skincare products exist, and some of the ingredients to avoid.
To Support The Skin Barrier
If you’ve never heard of organic barrier cream before, then this is where that really comes into its own. Barrier cream is designed to not only soothe and nourish the skin of babies and young children and protect them against the effects and irritation that stem from dry skin - it is also crucial for protecting babies while their natural skin barrier develops. This barrier will eventually help the skin to lock moisture and hydration in the body - but until that develops, barrier cream is there to do the job for them.
To Keep Skin Soft and Hydrated
“As soft as a babies bottom” is a well known phrase - but without the help of specific skincare products designed for babies, that soft skin wouldn’t stand a chance. Baby’s skin is so much more vulnerable than adult skin, and as such it requires products made from natural ingredients which boast humectant properties - that is, they bind to moisture found in the skin and form a seal on the outer layer of the skin which traps hydration and gives the skin that soft touch finish.
To Protect From Skincare Toxins
So many products on the skincare market have perfumes and dyes in them to give them that coveted creamy appearance and attractive scent - but these can be harmful not just to babies skin but to sensitive adult skin as well. As infant skin is more vulnerable to penetration from the kinds of toxins which appear in these perfumed and mass market products, something which is fine for us can be bad for their skin and can even lead to those toxins getting through the skin and into their bloodstream without proper care.
Baby and infant skincare products are made without these harmful ingredients and are kept super simple for the benefit of both their skin and their overall health.
To Protect Against Eczema and İrritation
Similarly to the above point, lots of standard skincare products created for adult skin contain the kind of irritants which can cause and exacerbate huge reactions in infant skin - whether that culminates in eczema or dry patches which won’t go away. Using natural and organic ingredients means that babies can benefit from the protection of a good skincare product but without the irritating ingredients which can cause more problems.
To avoid prickly Heat
It may seem like a good idea to slather your baby in sun cream, but traditional creams for adults can often clog infant skin and increase their risk of developing prickly heat - a condition which occurs when the thinner skin of a child cannot regulate itself in the same way as an adult and the child starts to overheat. This is particularly prevalent in babies who cannot communicate when they are too hot, so always stick with a specialist baby sun cream for safety.
What not to do
Earlier this year we released a blog post focussed on the ingredients which can be harmful to babies and their skin - from those containing perfumes and dyes, to those which exacerbate itching and dry skin problems. Check out the full blog for more information or keep reading for a round up of things to avoid when it comes to skincare for a baby.
• Avoid perfumes
• Avoid dyes
• Avoid chemical ingredients or things you can’t pronounce
• Avoid ingredients which clog pores, as baby skin does not regulate itself in the same way