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A Mommy's Rant - Baby Lotion and Baby Soap are All Marketing and No Good!Sep 06 '05 (Updated Feb 16 '07) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line Don't fall prey to slick advertising campaigns that market baby-this and baby-that. Beware strong scents and dyes in bath products.
Ahhhh, marketers. As many of you already know, living as we do in this cynical day and age, most companies don't really have your best interests at heart or try to provide you with top quality products. Most companies are really only interested in making money. Before my eldest son was born we took a baby class at the local hospital, and the nurse giving the class warned us that many of those wonderful baby products you see advertised on television and in magazines aren't really "must have" items at all. Apparently somewhere down the line companies figured out that new Mommies and Daddies often will "spare no expense" when it comes to doing what they think is the best for their child, and that new, inexperienced Mommies and Daddies don't really know what items their baby may want/need, making them easy targets for slick marketing campaigns that tout "must have" baby items. Fool Me Once: As a Mommy with sensitive skin, I was on the lookout for signs of sensitivity in my baby's skin when our first child was born. I stocked up on dye-free laundry detergent, and got Johnson & Johnson baby soap and baby lotion for bath time. After all, these bath products have "baby" in their titles so it's probably super-gentle and formulated just for baby's skin, right?. Just as I feared, my firstborn had sensitive skin that felt rough to the touch when he was just a few months old. Worried, I started applying lots of extra baby lotion in an effort to soothe his chapped-feeling skin, but it never did much good. When we took him to his next regularly scheduled doctor's appointment we asked about his rough skin, and she asked us what kind of lotion we were using. When I told her she practically laughed and said "Well that stuff is nothing but perfume!" She told us to start using "adult" lotion immediately, Curel and Lubriderm were brands she mentioned. We switched to Curel and his skin became normal and stayed that way (provided I continued to administer the Curel after every bath or trip to the pool). Fool Me Twice: Fast forward 3 years and now we have baby #2. Feeling like wise old parents we knew to have our trusty Curel on-hand in case baby's skin started getting rough. Of course baby #2 refuses to be just like baby #1 (another parenting lesson learned), but our new baby's skin was even WORSE than his older brother's. He would break out in bumpy red rashes, and although applying my trusty lotion after an outbreak soothed his skin, it didn't seem to stop new outbreaks from occurring. When we took him to his 6-month well baby visit we asked our new pediatrician (we recently moved and had to find new doctors) about it, she asked us what kind of soap we were using. We had received a bottle of Johnson's Bedtime Bath at a baby shower and had been using it most recently -- and as soon as I thought about it I was ashamed of myself for not figuring it out sooner. We have since switched him to Dove unscented soap and after just a couple of baths I've already seen improvement. So what's the deal with these products? In both cases my husband and I had fallen into a marketing trap! We had thought that something marketed as "baby lotion" or "bedtime bath" for soothing babies would be extra gentle and super sensitive to baby's new skin. That's not the case, however. If you've used these products then you are probably familiar with the way they smell -- so many baby-bath products market the "soothing scent" without telling you that these scents are produced by harsh chemicals that are known to irritate sensitive skin! In some cases they can eventually cause an allergic reaction! The products are also usually a distinctive color, be it pale lavender, yellow, girlish pink or boyish blue -- those aren't natural colors, I'm afraid. Dyes are also not good for a new baby's skin. Our original pediatrician also told us that most babies don't need lotion anyway, because their skin is naturally plump and soft, so the companies that make "baby lotion" know that the "lotion" part of their product doesn't really need to do much (or anything) to make the average baby's skin feel soft. It is easy to spot baby items on the store shelves - they have ultra-cute packaging that feature popular characters or depict cherub-like infants. What isn't as easy to spot is the fact that many of these are worse for your baby's skin than frill-free adult products. Because my new baby boy's skin is especially problematic, our pediatrician listed products that she recommended for his skin that are "safe". For baths she recommended Dove Unscented/Sensitive Skin body wash (which is what we were already using for our older son) or Lever 2000. For lotion she recommended Curel, Eucerin, or Lubriderm (unscented versions, of course). Final Thoughts: Buyer beware. You might think, as we did, that products marketed for babies would be gentler on baby's sensitive skin than adult products, but unfortunately that's not the case. When it comes to bathing, the best thing you can do for your baby's skin is to look for products that are unscented and free from coloring agents. Personally, I am downright angry that the makers of these so-called "baby" products are so intent on filling them with skin-irritating fragrances and coloring agents. Shame on them! Note: I am not a doctor, nor do I care to play one here on Epinions. Please ask your pediatrician for further information on baby lotions and baby bath products.  |
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