One of the first choices you will make as a new parent is selecting your baby's care products.

They should be the safest on the market, but in reality, many of the well-known brands out there contain chemicals that do not belong to the ingredient list. 

So here is a piece of advice - do not let the nice packaging mislead you. Develop a habit of reading the backside before buying. Something as simple as shampoo can hide a lot of dangers. And ironically, the ingredient that makes bathtime fun is the one that you should be most cautious about.

Behind the bubbles

Unless you research about it, you will never know that the foaming agent, or SLS, is, in fact, the most harmful ingredient in your baby's shampoo.

True, bubbles are sometimes the only motivation for your little ones to get into the tub. However, it is better to keep their baths bubble-free for the first two years.

Besides being very amusing, they have a deep cleansing effect, which soaks off the moisture needed for protection of the skin from drying and cracking.

Short from Sodium Lauryl Sulphate, SLS is a chemical that found its way into your baby's bath product because of its price and effectiveness. It is the most affordable of all foaming agents, and it does its job, as stated above, a bit too aggressively for babies' delicate skin to handle.

Even the smallest amount of the sulphate denatures skin protein, leaving the side of it vulnerable to environmental contaminants, which in the case of your baby can be absolutely anything – fabrics, diapers, other skin care products. What you put on his skin, you are basically feeding him. And SLS is no healthy food.

To be precise,

up to 50% of what goes onto your baby’s skin

could be easily absorbed.

The result from it will typically be a rash or single itching and flaking patches that cause extreme discomfort and heal slowly.

What is the alternative?

True, not everyone has the time to stand in supermarkets and pharmacies to read labels.

Do your homework beforehand. There are a number of platforms programmed explicitly to check skincare products ingredients. Think Dirty, for example, oppositely to its name, enables you to examine how “clean” the ingredients are in different products, including baby ones. CodeCheck, too, is another app you can use.

Another way to go is to DIY baby shampoo. There are dozens of recipes online but be careful because not all of them are actually efficient. You don’t want to waste products and effort, so look for ones that include vegetable glycerine and castile soap in their formula - the two components mix nicely together and lather well.

Our wash and shampoo makes no bubbles, as well as other organic and all-natural baby bath products. But a newborn will not tell the difference, and if your kiddie is older, you can find other, SLS-free ways to have fun in the bath.