Organic Baby Care - Organic Baby Care

Welcome to the TERRESSENTIALS web site! We hand-craft a wide range of certified organic products: organic skin care, organic hair care, organic baby products, and other goods made with certified organic herbs and certified organic essential oils. USDA Certified Organic!

Terressentials isn't like other companies. We only use ingredients that the USDA permits in certified organic food. We proudly list the ingredients of all of our products so you can scrutinize them and compare them to products by other manufacturers. Many of our products aren't just "organic" by the USDA standards — they're 100% certified organic — every single ingredient is USDA certified organic.

Terressentials
Organic Baby Care

If you're an organic consumer, you might be a little jaded, and we don't blame you. It seems that the internet, organic stores and organic magazines are bursting nowadays with "certified organic" this and "100% natural" that for modern living. But what is organic? When it comes to skin care, body care, shampoos, lotions and other personal care products, what is the definition of organic? Does it mean that a product meets USDA organic standards, or is 100% organic, or is certified organic? Sorry folks: when it comes to body care, if you don't see the USDA Certified Organic seal, the word "organic" doesn't mean anything. The important thing is the ingredients.

Instead of stearic acid or cetyl alcohol, we use certified organic cocoa butter and certified organic shea butter. Instead of ammonium lauryl sulfate or decyl polyglucose, we use mild, traditional cold-process castile soap made from certified organic olive oil. And we don't slip in any funny stuff in the fine print at the end of the list of ingredients. The end result is true certified organic skin care, body care and hair care products of unprecedented quality — that's what our customers tell us.

Asthma, allergies, hyperactivity, cancer, developmental disorders, aggessive and violent behaviors...where does it end? You want to protect your child from the bad things in the world and provide the best nourishment so that he or she will have the best foundation possible for a strong, well-developed immune system. You buy organic food, use organic cotton clothing and diapers and buy all of your baby's personal care products at the local health food store.

Regulations define the word organic for the foods that you buy. Sadly, there are no regulations defining the word organic for labeling of personal care products. Did you know that?

We think that natural body care products that are labeled as organic should contain ingredients that you wouldn't be afraid to eat. After all, isn't that how the word organic is interpreted in the natural health food industry--to define the purity of food? When we mix our small, pure batches of organic foods and create our organic baby body care products for you, we're proud that we use only the healthiest ingredients to make what we think of as food for the skin. You'll love the fresh smells of our cold-pressed organic sunflower oil, organic karite nut butter, organic marshmallow root and organic chamomile and organic vanilla and organic orange oils. You can smell and feel the difference on your skin and on your baby. Soft, protective, pure.

You've got enough on your mind. Why do you need to study labels on body care products? The 1993 National Academy of Sciences (NAS) report "Pesticides in the Diets of Infants and Children" included recommendations that: all sources of (pesticide) exposure be considered (when attempting to reduce your child's pesticide exposure). The NAS report concluded that in the absence of other factors, "infants and children are subject to rapid tissue growth and development, which will have an impact on cancer risk."

Did you know that 60% of what you rub onto your child's skin is absorbed through the skin and can be detected in the blood within minutes? Children's bodies are small and because they do not have an adult's ability to detoxify and excrete toxins, they absorb proportionally higher doses of toxins per unit of body weight, which means that their organs may suffer permanent and irreversible damage more quickly because they are not fully developed.

Chemicals in body care products have been linked to reproductive problems in both women (e.g., endometriosis and the increasingly early onset of puberty in young girls) and men (e.g., falling sperm counts and congenital birth defects of the reproductive organs) and to some cancers. Many synthetic chemicals have also been linked to developmental deficiencies and learning disabilities in children. The FDA website has an update that lists some body care chemicals (some found in "natural" baby body care products!) that were found cause to cancer in laboratory animals. The National Toxicology Program (NTP) recently found that repeated application to skin of some of these chemicals (that the FDA lists)-- diethanolamine (DEA), or its fatty acid derivative cocamide DEA--induced liver and kidney cancer. NTP also emphasized that DEA is readily absorbed through the skin and accumulates in organs, such as the brain, where it induces chronic toxic effects. Chemicals from the FDA list like cocamide DEA, lauramide DEA or MEA or triethanolamine (TEA) don't belong in baby products or body care for anybody! (These chemicals are also found in dishwashing detergents.)

Because children are more susceptible to these toxins than adults, we need to be especially careful about what they inhale and what we rub onto their skin. Problems from synthetic "fragrance" reported to the FDA have included headaches, dizziness, rashes, skin discoloration, violent coughing and vomiting, and allergic skin irritation. Exposure to fragrances can affect the central nervous system, causing depression, hyperactivity, irritability, inability to cope, and other behavioral changes. Did you know that fragrance chemical ingredients don't need to be included on product labels? Remember, babies can't tell you that they are experiencing a migraine or lung tightness when you use the lotion with a synthetic "fruity" fragrance.

Here's the bottom line: chemicals pollute the planet in their manufacture and they pollute your body and your home. They don't benefit you or your children in any way. So why use them at all?

© 2009 Terressentials®