It’s hard to believe soap could be bad for you, isn’t it?
We are taught from a very early age to use things like soap regularly to kill off germs and keep us healthy. This is just basic healthy habits and personal hygiene, but what if that seemingly innocent soap is actually one of the reasons we get sick?
There are so many recalls on food and items we use every day that it is hard not to look suspiciously at everything we consume as a potential threat to our safety. Even without a current recall, there are many ingredients in the things we use that could actually be causing us to become sick or develop unwanted health concerns.
Additionally, many of the ingredients in soaps and lotions strip our body of immunity fighting capabilities and dry out our skin, especially in winter months. These harsh ingredients create the opportunity for us to be less likely to fend off germs even though we are regularly washing hands and avoiding sick people.
Bad Bubbles?
There’s a little storybook my son and I love called Bubbles, Bubbles. It’s about the Sesame Street characters getting baths and there’s bubbles everywhere going pop! It’s a cute little story that teaches it’s fun to get clean and play in bubbles.
How disturbing though to think about placing your sweet baby or child in a bath of toxic bubbles. It certainly changed the Bubbles, Bubbles story for me.
Before you tell your kids that soap is bad and they run off gleefully at never having another bath, here’s the deal. The reason for this concern is that today’s modern personal care products like soaps, bubble baths, body wash, hand sanitizer, shampoo, conditioner, lotions and toothpaste are not exactly what they seem. Those sweet little bubbles are small doses of all kinds of danger.
Sadly, our personal care products, like bubble bath we give our kids, have been overdosed with high levels of chemicals and dyes that we are lathering on our hair, washing our skin with and we’re getting it into our noses and mouths.
Think about this the next time you brush your teeth, you are rubbing your teeth with chemicals not toothpaste. Dragonspit Apothecary & Crafts
In the end we could actually be doing more harm than good to our health and creating a irreversible situation that could result in chronic illness. All from brushing our teeth or taking a bubble bath!
Toddler smiling while brushing her teeth
That’s crazy to consider but turns out, it’s more than paranoia or science fiction. Most of the ingredients that we apply to our body, hair and teeth contain chemicals that are considered toxic to our safety. These are known ingredients that we should not be ingesting, applying or using at all. They are on special lists labeled NOT FOR HUMAN CONSUMPTION OR EXPOSURE. Yet, the FDA classifies them as small enough doses as to be a “minimal” risk but still acknowledges they are some very dangerous ingredients.
So once may not hurt or kill you but over time?
The big dirty secret is that even in small doses, you’re using it every single day, sometimes multiple times a day, and over time that adds up to a BIG dose of some bad stuff.
Soap’s Dirty Little Secret
This is the body wash I was using on our then toddler son. It was the “good” stuff and was even supposed to help him be a happy little guy who was calm and ready for bed. Look at the 3 metrics below that measure toxicity and then rates them on a scale of 1-10 to show the level of danger.
In this case, the baby bath wash I was using was basically a bottle of chemicals that could have long term hurt our son. What bothered me the most was the second metric that says the chemicals in this bottle have known developmental and reproductive side effects.
Side effects from soap! I was horrified what I saw this and then it only got worse when I looked at his shampoo and lotion. To make sure I wasn’t seeing things I also checked our toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner and soap. The results all the same!
This data is from a free app called Think Dirty – Shop Clean. You can look up any typical product and get this information by scanning the bar code from the container or typing in the name.
So if this is what is in the kids personal care products, think about how much worse it is with the adult versions! When I looked up what we were using I thought I was going to faint. I encourage you to check out what you and your family is using for yourself.
Is this the End of Bubbles?
Obviously, many of us have been using these same products for years, if not most of our lives and for the most part we seem ok right?
I think a couple things have happened that we should be concerned. For one, over time, manufacturers of these items have updated their process for making these items and they have increased the amount of chemicals used to make them “improved”, more desirable and attractive. Our consumption of goods has dramatically increased from a time when most homes made their own soaps and other items they needed including growing some of their own food. When this change occurred, manufacturers of goods brought in ingredients to enable high production and extended shelf life at the least expensive cost. This has created the convenience society we enjoy today.
While convenient and easy, we also cannot ignore the scary trend increases of diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, ADHD, Autism, and others that I believe are directly linked to the changes that have occurred in our food, water and personal care products. These illnesses and diseases are not going away either with amounts and types of pesticides, preservatives and chemicals used continuing to increase. We have to acknowledge that we have to take control of our own health and what we are exposing our family to when we choose what we bring into our homes.
The current general acceptance that it is alright to wash our bodies with chemicals won’t stop until we stop consuming it.
We still need to have products for personal care but using things that are this dangerous and known to have these kinds of side effects to us and our children, how is that ok?
Replacing the Bad Bubbles
Soaps and Body Washes
We now make our own soap. There are many easy recipes available and the ingredients are inexpensive. We put doTERRA essential oils and natural oatmeal or coffee grounds in our soap as well.
I really enjoy the doTERRA Spa body wash and scrub. They are a great non-chemical replacement for what I was using. They also have a really wonderful body butter and bar soaps!
For our son, I got him the doTERRA baby collection but as he learned to read and saw that it said baby he didn’t want to use it anymore. Now I simply put it in a different bottle and he goes on using it. It’s gentle on his skin while giving him that good clean that is safe and non-toxic.
Toothpaste
Seriously look at your toothpaste ingredients. I know you will see the same thing I did….a bunch of stuff you cannot pronounce and if you’re brave enough to look in the Think Dirty – Shop Clean app, a bunch of toxic chemicals. The problem is, especially for children is all of the regular toothpaste has the chemicals and a high overdose of fluoride that we don’t need that much of. We already get fluoride in our water and other sources too.
Natural toothpastes I found were hit or miss. We all want the whitening power while having clean teeth and protection. Some natural toothpastes taste awful, others don’t work and it can be a real long experiment funding the right one for you.
We use the doTERRA OnGuard toothpaste and mouthwash. It works extremely well. Has a pleasant taste and it changes the Ph of your mouth so it is healthier!
Shampoo & Conditioner
I know this one is going to be tough to hear but ladies, your shampoo and conditioner, while overpriced isn’t good for your hair or your health. Again, I encourage you to check the ingredients yourself but 80% of what’s sold is not good for you.
Trust me I totally get why this is such a hard one too. I had a real hard time breaking up with my beloved Aveda Brilliant shampoo and conditioner. Aveda’s products are “mostly” natural but they still contain some ingredients that are questionable.
The doTERRA shampoo and conditioner smell divine and work really well. While I miss the scent of my Aveda Brilliant products, I have to admit the doTERRA ones also smell really nice.
So my favorite is that little bottle above called the Root to Tip Serum. Yes, this is the stuff that made me love switching hair products.
Interested in more?
Why take risks with soap?
Natural versions without all the dangerous ingredients are just as good at cleaning you, keeping you smelling good and supporting your health. You seriously cannot put a price on that.
If you have question about the items int his blog post or any of the other natural health products doTERRA offers, please reach out.
amyk@dragonspitapothecary.com
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