Essential Oil Diaper Rash Cream

I have found a few uses for essential oils that I do believe have helped. Hopefully I'll get around to the details of all that, but today I'm here to share about a DIY diaper rash cream.

Sometimes, my little bug just very suddenly breaks out with a terrible diaper rash. Maybe it was a really intense poo, that just didn't get changed fast enough. But... yikes.

I always feel so terrible for him, too. It must be an extremely annoying and painful thing to overcome for little ones in diapers.

I'm not lying when I say, that I've put this concoction on him at bedtime and he has woken up with the diaper rash nearly gone. Still faint, but people, nearly gone!

The recipe is simple:

◼︎1/4 cup Coconut Oil
◼︎10 drops of Lavender (essential oil)

I fractionated the coconut oil (meaning I put it in a ziplock bag and ran it under warm water until it was melted. I added it to a small bowl, added 10 drops of lavender, put the lid on and gave it a few good shakes. It would eventually solidify again on it's own, but I did stick mine in the refrigerator to speed it up.
Coconut oil in general has odd characteristics. It's sort of a chunky solid, but becomes very runny when warmed up. So, applying to a baby's bum is probably nothing less of comical. Especially a wiggly child.

I just grab a little chunk of it and start rubbing it around until it melts enough to spread over the area.

Now, to be fair, I sometimes also apply a diaper rash cream over the oil - because diaper rash creams act as seals, right? So, you're sealing in the oil, while hopefully creating one against diaper moisture. But, I don't always use a store purchased ointment on top of the DIY one. It's your choice.

The success or lack thereof is most likely dependent on skin types and severity of the rash.

My personal list of brands for this recipe are below:

Coconut Oil (much cheaper from my local Trader Joes, but this is for the same brand on Amazon for $14.99)

Essential Oil: Lavender (from my personally trusted Edens Garden for $7.25)

Calmoseptine Ointment (store purchased cream that I sometimes use over the DIY oil for $7.99 - it's really great stuff)

Hope it works for your little one if they're in need of some relief!

Homemade Cream Soda

Drinking soda is a rare treat for me, so I've really gotta make it count when it happens. I've tried a few homemade cream soda recipes before, but the one I'm about to share is by far superior to all others I have tried. 

1 cup of club soda
1/4 - 1/3 cup of vanilla syrup (like coffee aisle syrup or make one similar to this recipe)
2 tbsp of half and half
Put a nice mound of whip cream on top (yum!)

Tada! Cream soda. Enjoy :)

Homemade Baby Food Basics

I knew for a long time before ever getting pregnant that I'd most likely have the opportunity and chose to be a stay-at-home mom and wife. 

When I had my son, that's exactly what happened. I decided I didn't really have excuses to not breast feed or make baby foods, etc. (p.s. Formula and baby food are expensive, yo?).

I think it's easy to be intimidated by making your own baby food. I know I was anyway. But after making a few batches, I realized it's not difficult at all. 

I even recently did all the math to see if it was really worth it. On average, for the same amount of baby food in store purchased jars (that cost $1 or more - but sometimes less if you catch them on sale), I'm spending $0.20. Now that's a give or take 10 cents kind of thing, but that was the average. 

That's with organic foods as well. You get the peace of mind of knowing your baby isn't getting any processed foods or preservatives. I also like the idea of making that transition to non-pureed foods too. My son won't have to accommodate for a whole new flavor of food again, just a new texture.

I found this pretty helpful resource online: Puree Recipes. 

They have quite a few helpful recipes. But, I wanted to break it down even more simply than that for you. 

Almost any fruit I'm making, I steam it for 20-30 minutes in my dual purpose rice cooker that has a handy steaming basket (here for $24.53). Except for bananas, and they don't have to get cooked. 

Then, I pour it into my food processor (here for $39.99) for about 30 seconds on "chop" then 30 more seconds on "puree" (with 1/4 cup of liquid from steamer). 

Then, tada! Baby food. 

It. Is. That. Easy. 

For vegetables, I sometimes bake or boil depending. I get bags of frozen vegetables that I'll boil for 20 minutes then puree. For potatoes I peel, and slice long ways, wrap in foil then bake at 400 degrees for 45-60 minutes then puree.

All of my puree batches get 1/4 cup of liquid. 

I scrape that mush into ice cube trays, freeze, then pop out into labeled baggies.

I usually spend about half of a day every 2 weeks making food. Of course, you could just make small batches whenever you're cooking your own foods as well. 

A trick I learned for when baby is getting a little older and ready for a little more texture is to mix the food with a mixer instead of pureeing it in the food processor. Just adjust the time you mix for more or less texture.

I also found that there is a brand called Organics that has some peeled and cubed frozen fruit bags. Time saver! I always get the mango this way, because I find it such a pain to peel and slice mango for some reason. 

This is the best picture I found of the brand:

Sometimes I get lucky and find organic squash this way as well.

So... to say it simply:

• Steam/Bake/boil (20-60 minutes)
• Puree (60 seconds)
• Serve fresh or freeze in ice cube trays and store in baggies