One of my favourite dad tasks is baby massages. We started doing this around 2 weeks after birth as we noticed chafing and dry skin on our little one. So we start using "Johnson's baby oil" by Johnson & Johnson which didn't really work. In fact the situation got worse and we ended up with lots of little rashes and spots all over the baby's body. Also it didn't actually help alleviate the skin dryness. An allergic reaction? We don't know … but something else worked really well though ... olive oil (literally the stuff we use for cooking).
We got this tip from a midwife after showing her the irritated skin of our baby. She told us to try olive oil or almond oil and it really did the trick. Within days the skin rashes were gone and our baby’s skin felt very soft and moisturised. Even better olive oil is a lot cheaper than the baby oil we used ($6.95 for 200ml).
At this stage we're not sure why the olive oil worked better or whether this was just a one off experience. Perhaps it has something to do with the additives or perfumes in baby oil. A quick check of the bottle ingredients reveals that the product we used is made from pure mineral oil (is that the stuff they pump out of the ground?) and fragrance. It also comes with "clinically proven mildness" (TM of Johnson and Johnson), which according to their website signifies:
- Johnson & Johnson employs rigorous clinical testing assuring a level of safety and gentleness appropriate for use on newborn skin. Only JOHNSON'S® baby products that are tested under the supervision of a dermatologist and demonstrate no adverse skin events in relation to a variety of tests, are approved and can feature the JOHNSON'S® CLINICALLY PROVEN MILDNESS™ statement.
Hmmm ... if they say so. My suspicious "why add stuff when it is not really needed" mind still thought there is no need to add fragrance to this product. I mean why increase the chance of a skin reaction to another substance (apart from the oil)? And it's not like the fragrance adds any real value for the baby.
Anyway, we're sticking with the olive oil and it works really well – apart from the odd temptation to use left over oil for salad dressings … and no I haven't tried whether extra virgin is better than plain olive oil.
-Stef
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Hey Peter - glad our baby
Hey Peter - glad our baby isn't an isolated case :-) The scalp is still a bit rough though (haven't tried oil on the hair yet). The midwife said it's Cradle Cap - so we checked some books but the messages are conflicting. Some say to wash the hair more often others say less frequently (great ... the really helps). So I think we'll try your suggestion. Thanks! -Stef
Hi Stefan, My wife and I
Hi Stefan,
My wife and I found that olive oil is also good for "baby dandruff," just massage it gently onto your baby's scalp after bath time, not only do they get a funky hair do, but it also helps the dry scalp issue.
We also discovered the same dry skin issue with our son when he was about 3 months old, tried using the same product you did only to find that our son's skin was too sensitive or the product was too harsh, not sure which so - we just put it down to the 8th wonder of the world, we used almond oil, and snakes alive! within 24 hours, his skin was smooth, no rashes or dry spots.
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