Homemade Baby Shampoo by Jennie from Our Adventure

Hi there, Jennie here from Our Adventure. I'm so excited to be guest posting today for the lovely Morgan. I really enjoy DIY, cooking, gardening and everything homesteading. Here is a bit about making homemade baby shampoo for your little ones.

My son has extra dry skin and usually gets an eczema like rash whenever I use regular baby shampoos and occasionally during weather changes. We switched to the California baby brand and it works well but I wanted something even better. When I started researching making more homemade products it made sense to try and make some for him too. I found a recipe for eczema cream and converted it to use ingredients I already had on hand. The ingredient it contains that helps relieve the eczema is the avocado oil, so I thought hey why not add it to the soap that he uses every other day to help relieve the dry skin/rash even more and maybe even prevent it from happening.

I found a recipe for homemade baby soap that contains bar soap flakes, that you melt into water and then add to water and an essential oil. It sounded great and easy but why not skip a step and just get liquid castile soap...right? So I chose my favorite brand of castile soap that I have been using for years and use in my homemade shampoo, Dr. Bronner's!

Dr. Bronner's products are wonderful, they have been around since 1858! Their labels contain the moral ABC's, and all products are:

Completely Biodegradable and Vegetable-Based
Made with Certified Fair Trade and Organic Oils
Simple, Ecological Formulations Based on Old-World Quality and Expertise
No Synthetic Foaming Agents, Thickeners or Preservatives
100% Post-Consumer Recycled (PCR) Cylinder Bottles and Paper Labels Simple

I chose to go with they baby mild/unscented for my little guy but they also come in peppermint, eucalyptus, almond, rose, citrus, lavender, and tea tree. Since I am up in Portland, I hit Whole foods to pick some up. I was pleasantly surprised that they had it in bulk pumps! I grabbed a blue bottle and pumped in about 1/3 of the bottle full. It was only 36 cents per ounce which was cheaper than buying it in a pre-packaged bottle, plus I needed to buy a bottle to put it into anyway. When I got home I was pleased to find out that I had pumped exactly 1/4 cup of the liquid soap, I wish I had counted how many pumps it took. The soap and the bottle only cost $2.21 (I'm in OR, no sales tax!).



Recipe:
1/4 cup liquid castile soap
1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp avocado oil (optional, you could also substitute olive oil, vitamin E oil, etc.)

Mix all ingredients into a bottle and shake well the first time. Then swirl it around before each use and use as you would regular baby shampoo.

It soaps up way better than the California baby I was using, plus I can see an improvement in his skin already. I am really pleased with it and I am hoping it prevents the rash from coming back, maybe I won't need our homemade eczema cream anymore.

Thank you Morgan for having us!

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I not only love Jennie's blog, but she's also a friend in real life. We've known each other since high school! Thank you SO much for sharing this recipe, Jennie! I can't wait to try it. Seriously, I'm going to go out and buy the ingredients today!

Don't forget to visit Jennie's blog, Our Adventure, more recipes, info on green living and Jennie's adorable little boy!