The Best Natural Products for Kids

Brian Strickland  00:06

Hey everyone, welcome back to Nutrition Made Simple a video series where we take a look at ideas surrounding natural health topics. And then we break them down into easy to understand and actionable steps that pretty much anyone can take. I'm joined today by Cady Kuhlman, she's the co-owner of Nutrition World, she's a mom, just an overall great person. And for the month of August, we've actually been taking a look at some back to school essentials. So so far, we've taken a look at how to help your kids to focus as they go back to school through natural ways. We've taken a look at some immune basics. But this week, we wanted to just talk about some of the different kids products that we actually have in the store and the effect that they can have on their health as they go back to school. So we're going to get right into it. We've got a lot of things to cover. So Cady, what's up first, what do you have for us? Yeah, so if you guys have caught some videos of Brian and myself together, you've probably noticed a slight trend of me loving to discuss skincare and shampoos and body washes and that whole industry. I find it fascinating. But I also find that kind of a missing link sometimes in a place people don't know where to start. It's overwhelming. There's so many options out there. There's Ulta, there's Target, there's wonderful, beautiful branding, it's just like where do we begin and so for me this is kind of a subject that isn't always chatted on and yet it can have a big impact on our health but really on our kiddos health and I hear a lot from moms about you know a child that has dry skin a child that has eczema, psoriasis, irritation dermatitis and I can't help but just you know I want to look to the food of course first I want to look to what's going inside of their bodies, but also let's think about what's going on the outside of their bodies. And so when I started building up the skincare and external section for babies and theirjust their daily use products I was like this is a big missing link in in this whole movement of you know bettering the health of us and of our children. And so I really would love to start with something let's just talk about like, their bath time like what would we use for a baby a toddler or a young child in the bath and so absolutely love Alaffia bubble bath just love it love the smell of it. This is a Eucalyptus mint. So first ingredient on this is lemon balm, second ingredient is Shea leaf so two plant extracts right there at the very top of the list. That means that that's the majority of what is in this bubble bath. My son loves it the bubbles are great. I couldn't say enough about this. So love that one. Carina Organics this is a really outstanding line and we carry a lot of the haircare skincare, hair gels, hairspray in our store. This is a baby shampoo and body wash so this can kind of double as effect for the whole body. A head to toe kind of wash. Now I've used this on my little one since he was probably probably two three months old I would say and I don't know why I didn't use it before then I just said use something else but once I found this I was absolutely sold on it. So coconut oil based cleaner inside of it. Pine extract, magnesium oil, chamomile,  nettle, dandelion. And what's really cool I've never seen this before. In something that is not just a Johnson and Johnson baby shampoo that says it's tear free. The reason that's tear free is because it has a a numbing agent that goes over the eyes. This is actually an extra gentle tear free baby shampoo. But with no numbing agent. How cool is that? And then lastly, just to call out one more brand that I think is outstanding. Vermont Soap. It's an unscented body wash for kids. And again looking at ingredients aloe, coconut oil, shea butter, olive oil, glycerin, organic shea butter, calendula and rosemary. Simple some  Very nice. 

Cady Kuhlman  04:11

Yeah.

Brian Strickland  04:12

Alright, so as we know, summer well, summer is almost over, technically, I guess. But we still have a lot of kids playing outside, there's still a lot of outdoor activities. And with that, there's the danger of sun damage plus bug bites. So you've got a couple things for us in that category. Don't you? I do yeah, I brought my favorites. And so this category is dominated by a brand called Badger. So Love, love badger. Badger makes a baby sunscreen, but they also make a kids they make an adult, they make a clear zinc formula. Let me just describe real quickly about sunscreen. So there's two ways to block the sun. There's a chemical agent that can go in and actually change the way that you absorb the sun's rays. And so that's more like the titanium dioxide and that's a different that's a different type of chemical agent that Don't carry at our store. And then there's actually a barrier agent. That's the other way that you can block the sun as you literally are just putting a barrier to where this the sign can't go really into the cells and into the skin. And so these are based upon the barrier method. And so these are made from zinc oxide, and non nanoparticles zinc oxide. The cool thing is, we think of zinc and we think of everyone with their white noses, or we think of like really, really pale faces because the zinc doesn't go in. Well, Badger now makes clear zinc and an actually is a lot clearer. I can't say it's perfection, but I can say that it goes in quite well. So it's a non nanoparticles, so it's not going to go into the cells and interrupt their normal function, just going to sit on the skin sit on the layers, and then the inactive ingredients, which is so important inside of inside of your products, because that's a big chunk of what's going into your your list is sunflower seed oil, beeswax, vitamin E, camomile, and calendula. That's it. super clean, super, super clean. And then for bugs, the bug spray by badger just my absolute favorite. essential oil based lemongrass, rosemary, cedar wood oil, peppermint, citronella and geranium. Safe for little ones say for the whole family. Love the whole family loves it. We don't get bug bites we put this on. Yeah, it works surprisingly well. I'll be honest, that's what I carry in my bag. I've played disc golf a lot. And so that has a permanent home in my bag and works great. Alright, what's next?

Cady Kuhlman  06:28

Yeah, let's chat about I would love to chat about this. We were actually speaking about this before we came on the screen here. And so detergents. So detergents are something we often think about like, oh, yeah, we use that it goes on our clothes. But does that really go on our skin? Does it actually affect our health? It does, if we can still smell our laundry, and we can still know that that fragrance and that scent is stuck on to the laundry, then that means it's going to go onto our skin. Now I never want to live in a place of fear or over analyzing of everything in our environments, because that's not being ultimately healthy. But what I love to do is offer a alternative. And so here's the alternative that we found. I do love another brand called Molly Suds. It's a powder. But I'm very honest with that some people don't want to use powders. And some people want that fragrance that's still clean smelling. But also can they find it where it's natural? Well, I didn't think those worlds existed. So I thought we had to go with the Molly's powder still like the Molly's powder, but happy that we could find something that kind of blended both worlds. So someone that's coming off of like the Gain detergents or the we were speaking about the Dreft baby brand of detergent that sadly is full of a lot of toxins. We were looking at the ewg report. It was what was it on there.

Brian Strickland  07:49

It's an F.

Cady Kuhlman  07:51

It's an F. So for Reproductive toxicity, what did it say asthma, respiratory. So our little babies, when they're born, their little blood, blood brain barriers aren't closed yet. That means that their skin, anything that's going on them anything that's going inside of them, it's going straight up through the brain, and it's passing into basically everywhere of their body, because they don't have closed receptors yet to be able to move things out the way that we do as adults. So laundry detergents, really, really important, especially for babies that seem to have the eczema and psoriasis and it can't really get figured out would always start with looking at your detergent. So Attitude brand is one that I trust fully. It's energy efficient for your whatever kind of nice machine you have smelled delicious. We saw that before, but it's also safe. And so that's the big, the big part of that.

Brian Strickland  08:39

Alright, since we're already talking about eczema, we still have a couple more topicals that we need to talk about. This one in particular.

Cady Kuhlman  08:47

Yeah, this one's amazing by Babo Botanicals, they kind of specialize in the baby kids family department of skincare. They make a collodial oatmeal based eczema remedy. And so it's for cracked skin, eczema, irritation, itching, chapped lips, and diaper area. I've heard really wonderful reviews from customers and clients that have come into our store from this and then the rest of the ingredients again, looking at the inactive. Everything is readable to the eye. So there's not going to be one thing in here that you'd say what is that? I don't understand.

Brian Strickland  09:16

Yeah, perfect. All right. So I have a new three month old at home, we're changing diapers on the regular to say the least. And diaper rash is obviously a real thing. And we're always looking for better products and what you might find in the big box stores and you've actually got something right, we do.

Cady Kuhlman  09:35

Yeah, so back to the Badger brand. Again, they just kind of they make great zinc products. So again, you need a barrier agent when you're dealing with diaper rash because you kind of essentially just want to create a barrier between the urine and the poop and then their little bottoms and their whole area and so you know you get to the diapers as quick as you can but as moms and as parents you you can't get there every minute of every day to to get it immediately. So you want to create as best of a barrier as you can. So this is the zinc oxide based diaper cream with some flour, beeswax and calendula used it for all two years of my little son's life. And if there's ever been a diaper rash, it clears it up within one use, or to prevent it. It does great. And we've had very few diaper rashes.

Brian Strickland  10:20

Now some people might not be familiar with calendula. Could you just tell us a little bit about that and why it's so important? Yeah. So calendula is one of my favorite herbs to use on the skin because it has a healing property that really helps the skin, draw new cells and new layer of skin cells shedding so that it creates this like healing effect essentially to the skin. It's great for burns, it's great for people that have had a little surgery and they need to heal from it. It's great for wounds on an open wound, you would kind of want it to have already done its first few healing stages, but to finish the healing process. So calendula actually has a healing effect for the diaper area. Awesome. We all know the essential oils are very popular right now. But what people may not know is that not all essential oils are actually safe for kids and babies. But we have a couple that are definitely safe for three months and above. 

Cady Kuhlman  11:18

Yeah. Yeah, I love this topic. And so essential oils for a little while became kind of like everybody used them in high quantities on everything, thinking everyone, every single one was safe that all dogs could be that all cats can breathe it all kids. And these The reason that it's not that they're they're deemed unsafe because they are plant medicine, but it's still a form of medicine. And so why is it a form of medicine, it's because it's so potent, it's so encountered. Yeah, it's so concentrated. And so yeah, we love the smells that they bring us but they actually are changing our chemistry, lavender class passes through the blood brain barrier that I was mentioning earlier. That means it can actually change the chemistry of our body and our reaction and our nervous system. So we have to use these things, cautiously, but also in a, you know, in a respectful way, I would say. So Pranarom are lovely essential oil line that's fully organic in our store, makes asleep remedy, a purify remedy, and then a play remedy. And so love the sleep, we've diffused it for my little boy for most all of his life, a purify remedy, if there was a little colder sickness going around the house or during the you know, times of winter time and sickness, I think that's great. I didn't bring the play because most kids love to play play so much that you can you can use other remedies to help the other aspects that you want. But these were not just chosen with just silly names on the front, they actually have the essential oils that help with these. Exactly, you know, with these goals that you have in mind, sleep or purify.

Brian Strickland  12:49

Perfect, yeah, and of course, supplements are high on our list as well, that's a big part of what we do is business. And there are a few essential oils for kids that are really important. And we actually have some that are specifically designated for kids and babies

Cady Kuhlman  13:03

We do so the baby line, I'll talk about it first. So Garden of Life makes this liquid baby line and they make a multivitamin. They make a probiotic. They make DHA, they make vitamin D. And I believe that's the four skus that they make in this line. What I love out of this is on the side, it's going to say that it's safe from think it's think it's gonna say Oh, it's saying this one say from birth and up. And then this one say from six months enough. So how cool is that? That if we question is our baby getting all the nutrients they need? Are they going through a picky phase are they you know, still just on formula or breast milk and is everything in there that we need, we can make sure we get give back by giving these nutrients. They're 100% organic, non GMO, all food sourced, which is phenomenal. So I love that. And then for the older ones that can chew gummies I love their gummy line because they're sugar free so kids are already getting too much sugar in their diets generally, but these tastes delicious. So they're gonna think that there's sugar in them. So zero sugars added or zero sugars at all, which is great. They make vitamin D, they make vitamin C, there's an elderberry and then there's an immune gummy that has vitamin C, vitamin D and zinc. And I love that formula. And so these are just going to be once children can chew and chew up the little gummy. So my son started about a year and a half chewing these daily

Brian Strickland  14:26

Perfect. Anything else?

Cady Kuhlman  14:29

I believe we missed one we missed the toothpaste. So I love this toothpaste. Um, so I don't know you know, a lot of moms may not know where to begin with a kid toothpaste like I know when my son was started brushing his teeth. Most of it was swallowed, right. So it's kind of like let's get something that's real clean because if majority is being swallowed and not being spit out, we kind of want to make sure ingredients are good. He still uses this brand to this day. It's called Jack and Jill. They make an our blueberry and then they make a strawberry that we have and What's cool is it's a calendula based one again, this one was very healing for the gums. what's actually going to be doing the cleaning and the killing of the bacteria is the xylitol that's within this. So xylitol is wonderful for cleaning the mouth. Wonderful. So I love that toothpaste, the tube lasts forever. And that's even when he wants two or three, you know, times are putting it on the, on the toothbrush. And so I hope, you know, out of all of this, my goal was to really have the comprehensive list for mamas, so they weren't having to run to multiple stores where they weren't having to make checklist. Did I order that from there? Did I go into this store to find this? I would hope that this could cover almost the majority, if not all of the mamas list. So they really feel like we've done our homework and empower them with the best choices for the family.

Brian Strickland  15:43

Yeah, absolutely. Everyone that's it for this week. Thank you so much for watching, we hope it was helpful. Of course, if you ever have any questions, please feel free to reach out to us. Come see us and store check out some of these products or you can look online at nutritionw.com/shop. And I will actually try my best to link each of these products in the description below so you can check them out for yourself. Thank you so much, everyone. Take care. We'll see you next time.

Cady Kuhlman  16:08

Thank you.