Dear Parents,
I am a part of a wonderful group on Facebook called 'Indian Vegans' (any one can join the group), where someone shared this link http://www.ewg.org/skindeep/top-tips-for-safer-products/
(Vegans and talking about chemicals??? Yes - because the ones who care about animals and the environment are also the ones who care about whats going inside the human body, directly through food or from elsewhere)
Coming back to me - I think I will just kill myself from guilt today for having used baby wipes on my 2.5 year old son and 2 month old daughter since day one, simply trusting that why would companies put unsafe ingredients in a product manufactured solely for the most delicate skins.
(Can't imagine when I never ever trusted ready made baby or other food, western medicines, cosmetics including diaper creams or the rest - why did the wipes never struck me! )
You might say - why the fuss? After all they are just wipes, which touch the external skin - right? Wrong! - 60% of what you use on the skin, gets absorbed by the body!
I've been using Kirkland Baby Wipes - a brand which uses (common name:) *Bronopol (Chemical Name: 2-Bromo-2-nitropropane-1,3-diol) .
I also checked Huggies - which uses a equally unsafe chemical called DHDM - equally harmful
Couldn't find Pamper's wipes ingredients, but trust they wont be any better!
I also found a "recipe" for homemade paper wipes that the author has used for over an year.
http://parents.berkeley.edu/recommend/where2buy/diaper_wipes.html
Cut a roll of Bounty paper towels in half and remove
the paper tube core Lift up the flap that glues the
outside sheet. (You'll be using the paper from the
inside out though.)
1 rubbermaid 10 cup container (2.4 liter size) with
lid (score a "X" in the middle of the lid and cut out
a hole approx. 1/2" diameter)
1 and 3/4 cups of water
6 drops of lavender oil
3 drops of tea tree oil
1 tablespoon of sweet almond oil
1 tablespoon of dr.bronner's castile soap
Slosh the water, oils and soap around, drop in the half
roll of paper towel (it'll take about 20-30 minutes for
the water to be absorbed)
Pull out the center most towel an inch or so through
the lid, snap in place.
* (From what I gathered from various websites)
Bronopol is
•Banned in EU cosmetics: must not form part of the composition of cosmetic products
•A corrosive eye irritant
•Causes a moderate to severe dermal irritant in rabbits; moderately to highly toxic to estuarine/marine invertebrates; slightly toxic to estuarine/marine fish; slightly toxic to birds on a acute oral basis
•It becomes formaldehyde after coming in coming in aqueous contact (formaldehyde known to be a human carcinogen)
•Dangerous for the environment
• ... do you need more reasons or research or tests before stop using it on your delicate little one? If you do, there are a lot more not listed above.. if you just google. For me, I have just need to run to take care of my little ones.
