Miracle cream

One thing I think most, if not all, parents of diaper-wearing children can relate to is a case of incurable diaper rash.  Little Homesteader was really easy in that sense for the longest time.  And then, all of a sudden, last summer, he broke out into so bad of a rash I couldn't even believe it.

We tried EVERYTHING.  We bought so many creams and lotions and combinations thereof...I couldn't even tell you all of them.  We must have spent hundreds of dollars trying to cure that rash.  Little wailed during diaper changes.  He was just starting to talk and would bawl, "All done!!!" It was heartbreaking.  It finally cleared up after about a month.  A very long month.

Last fall I was introduced to essential oils by a good friend.  I've never been big on modern medicine, though I have lucked out with relatively good health and have the luxury of making that statement.  So it's only natural that I fell into essential oils.  Okay, I became slightly obsessed.  Maybe extremely obsessed.  

One of the first things I read about was making over your diaper bag.  There was a recipe for diaper cream and I thought, "Why not?"

The recipe goes like this:

1/2 oz beeswax

3 1/2 oz fractionated coconut oil

2 drops melaleuca essential oil

2 drops lavender essential oil

Melt the beeswax over a double boiler and stir in the coconut oil.  Let cool a bit and then add the essential oils.  Stir to combine and pour into a 4 oz glass jar (hint: use an old baby food jar).

Well, after the experience I described above, I had a healthy skepticism about yet another diaper rash cream.  So I quartered the recipe.  Since we were past the baby food stage, I used some plastic containers I bought cheaply.  The next time Little started to get red, we put a little of the cream on the budding rash before bed.

The next morning, there was no sign of the redness.  At all.

And the same thing happened the next time.  And the next.  And the same thing happened with Wee Homesteader.

I think the key is in the beeswax.  Every cream we tried just soaked into the diaper, whereas this one seemed to stay on the skin and really protect against any wetness while the melaleuca and lavender soothed the pain and worked on the underlying cause of the rash, and the coconut oil calmed the irritation.

It's pretty much a miracle cream in our house.  I put it on cuts and dry skin and burns and anything else.  It's like my Windex, if you will.

And I'll never spend hundreds of dollars on chemical-laden creams again!

A fresh batch - one for home, and one each for school!  It will harden to a white paste as it cools.