Choosing Your Toddler’s Skin Lotions or Skin Creams

Your toddler’s skin is more sensitive so it is best to go natural when choosing your toddler’s skin care products. According to Ruby Panganiban, a registered chemical engineer, “Creams or lotions are a mix of oil and water. Creams are heavier or thicker in consistency than lotion because they contain more oil.” Here are the basic ingredients found in lotions and creams:

•    Water: main ingredient; provides moisture
•    Active Ingredient: depends on the function of the lotion; e.g. for delicate and dry skin, sweet almond oil has regenerating, restructuring, and hydrating properties and is rich in vitamins.
•    Oil: to hold water on the skin the lotion or cream is applied to; e.g. white petroleum jelly provides a layer of oil on the surface of the skin to prevent water from evaporating quickly.
•    Emulsifying Agent and Stabilizer: ensures that the mixture of oil and water do not separate (so you don’t have to shake the bottle every time you need to use it); e.g. stearate acid (derived from soy beans), beeswax, jojoba oil. Lotions can also contain preservatives, ph balancers (e.g. Sodium Hydroxide) to regulate ph balance of the skin, and thickeners (e.g. Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer) to improve consistency and smoothness of the lotion (e.g. Glycerol).
•    Some products have add-ons like vitamins and fragrances. All these can improve the lotion or cream’s “feeling” on the skin, but none of them are necessary.

Check out common skin health problems:
Prickly Heat
Sunburn
Skin Asthma

Photo from sxc.hu