Editor's note: Barbara O'Neill is an alternative-health educator, not a licensed medical practitioner. For a child's rash, eczema, or any skin condition, see a pediatrician. This article is not medical advice.
Children's skin is physiologically different from adult skin in ways that make product choice more consequential. Understanding what children's skin actually needs — and what to avoid — is one of the most practically useful parts of natural skin care.
How Children's Skin Differs
The stratum corneum — the outer barrier layer — is thinner and less organized in infants and young children than in adults. This reduced barrier means higher permeability to both water loss and topical compound absorption. Substances applied to a child's skin enter their system at higher rates per unit of body weight than the same product applied to an adult.
The body surface area to body weight ratio in children is significantly higher than in adults — a child has more skin relative to their body mass. This means the total absorption of any topical product is proportionally greater in children than adults for equivalent application coverage.
The liver's detoxification enzyme systems are not fully developed in infants and young children. Cytochrome P450 enzymes, responsible for metabolizing many synthetic chemicals, are present at lower activity levels in young children than adults.
What Barbara O'Neill Recommends for Children's Skin
O'Neill recommends the simplest possible approach to children's skin care: fewer products, gentler ingredients, and no synthetic fragrance. That advice lines up well with what pediatric dermatologists say.
She also suggests treating children's skin conditions with diet first, before medicated creams. Here we'd disagree: if your child has eczema or a rash that won't settle, see a pediatrician promptly. Eczema left untreated can crack and become infected, and the treatments pediatricians prescribe are well studied in children.
Choosing Soap for Children
For children's bathing, the ideal soap is gentle, free of synthetic fragrance, free of SLS and harsh surfactants, and unscented or only very mildly scented. The essential oil concentration appropriate for adults may be too high for young children's sensitive skin, so fragrance-free is the safest starting point for babies and toddlers.
A Straight Answer About Our Soap
Our current bars, including Citrus Bloom, are scented with essential oils. They're not made for babies, and citrus oils in particular can irritate young or sensitive skin, so they're better suited to older kids, teens, and adults. Patch-test a small area first and stop if the skin reacts. Browse our bar soaps.
Beyond Clean, Beyond Ordinary.