24: Safe Aromatherapy for Children Using Essential Oils and Hydrosols

Nico (my grandson aged 7)
I have to burp.

Liz Fulcher (Host and Nico's Nana)
Go ahead. Whenever you're ready.

Nico (my grandson aged 7)
This is the Aromatic Wisdom podcast Episode 24. Today, my Nana will teach you how to safely use essential oils with children.

Introduction:
You're listening to the Aromatic Wisdom podcast With your host, Liz Fulcher. If you're interested in learning about essential oils, hearing interviews with industry experts, And discovering ways to grow your own aromatherapy business. This is the podcast for you. For more information and show notes, Visit the website at aromatic wisdom institute.com. Now sit back, relax, take a deep breath, And enjoy as Liz shares a dose of aromatic wisdom. Hello, everyone. Thank Thank you so much for being here with me again today. I'm Liz Fulcher.

Liz
I'm your host for the program, and I've had a bit of a break. I just sorta didn't get any episodes done for the last couple of months and was amazed at the number of emails I got and from from you guys. Thank you so much. It always floors me when I get emails saying we really listen to your podcast frequently. Some people've listened to the episodes 2 or 3 times. As an educator, that warms my heart because I know that people are getting value from what I'm sharing. So I will continue to be here with you As long as I've got a voice, I intend to just keep sharing what I know and what I've learned and experienced using essential oils for 25 years And what I keep learning because I continue to strengthen my own knowledge through classes and and reading and experimenting and And walking the talk as I practice aromatherapy in my own life every single day. Did you enjoy the intro for today's show? 

That was my little grandson. He's 8 years old. I call him The Bean, and I thought it would be appropriate. It's an episode about children, and why not have a child do the introduction? 

He had such fun doing that. I'm afraid next, he's gonna be asking for his own podcast, so we'll wait and see how that evolves. Alright. I will keep you waiting no longer. You've all been waiting for today's topic, and I'm gonna give an overview of using aromatherapy with children and, of course, with an emphasis on safety because it's our precious little people. We wanna keep them safe.


I'm gonna share what essential oils and other aromatics because there are aromatic ingredients besides essential oils that are effective and safe for kids 10 and under. 

I'm gonna talk about how much you should use, and then I'm gonna offer some methods of application. Again, this is a big, big, big topic, so know that this is just an overview, but it's gonna be enough that you're gonna have a good idea of what to safely and effectively use with little people. Part of why I enjoy the topic of using aromatherapy with children so much is I have a lot of experience in this area. I have, I mean, experience from newborn, and I mean newborn, like an hour old, all the way up to To grown-ups. I've been using essential oils with my own children. I have two sons, and I also have a grandson, and they've all been exposed to essential oils From the time they were very small. Many of you know the story about how I got into aromatherapy, and I'm not gonna tell that now because I have a blog post about But when my youngest son, Gianluca, was born in Rome, Italy in 91, he was given an aromatherapy massage, and that's what opened the whole the door for me for this entire modality.


So the blog post I wrote about that is called my unusual introduction to aromatics, and I will put a link to that blog post in today's show notes. To find the show notes, go to AromaticWisdomPodcast.com/24. 

Now my boys are older. They're 25 and 30. I cannot believe I have a 30-year-old. Because they were raised with an aromatherapist as their mother, they didn't have a choice about whether they were gonna get essential oils or not. And I am so happy that I did because there were many, many things that I was able to do, try not to say the word treat, but I'm gonna say it. There were there were things issues that came up with them that I was able to treat using essential oils and hydrosols.

Speaker B:
And I'm really happy that they still rely on them in their adult lives. And, of course, with my little bean, my grandson, he knows all about essential oils, and he will even ask, Nana, do you have tea tree a cup myself? So I'll tell you, I have used essential oils with children For everything from a runny nose this is with my children. From a runny nose to pneumonia, from bruised shins to healing stitches, From anxiety about the 1st day of kindergarten. That was fun. Gianluca was so nervous about kindergarten, so I took a drop of lavender, put it on a tissue, and stuck it in his pocket. And I said to him, if ever you get nervous, just smell the lavender and think of home. We have addressed panic just before college finals and I've even eradicated a double case of head lice with essential oils. 

It's true. My kids went to a very high-dollar private school when I lived in Rome, and it was there they brought home the critters. That would be a good podcast topic, wouldn't it? I'm gonna write that down. So let's clarify the specific names That we call children at their different stages, so we're all on the same page. A newborn is 1 to 2 months old. Some people say 1 month. Some people say 1 to 2, but you get the idea. I would say the 1st 8 weeks, they're a newborn.


An infant is between 2 months and 1 year. However, we usually just refer to these little guys as babies, And toddlers are about 1 to 3 years old when they're learning to walk and run. Toddlers really fall a lot and get bruises and because they're so stinking Clumsy and cute. And essential oils and hydrosols are great for these little guys. So newborn, 1 to 2 months. Infant, 2 months to a year. Toddlers, about 1 to 3. I'm gonna cover 4 points now.

Number 1, safety. Number 2, what to use with children. Number 3, how much to use. And number 4, methods of use. So let's get into safety. Children of any age respond very quickly to natural healing remedies. You if any of you have children, you've probably noticed that Anything that you've used, whether it's aromatherapy, whether it's herbs, whether it is, homeopathy, They tend to respond very quickly because their little bodies are very unpolluted and clean. You know, we they haven't been filled up with the toxins of our world, so They tend to respond very quickly to to these remedies.

Their skin is also really different than adults. It's thinner, and it's more sensitive, and Things tend to absorb quickly, and they're very sensitive to things that they're exposed to. So when using essential oils and hydrosols, Always know that less is more. If you are not sure if it's the right oil or the right amount, on the side of caution. Also, always try to use a hydrosol first. And if that doesn't seem to be effective, then go ahead and try essential oils at 1%. And I'll talk about how much make up 1% when we get to point number 3. Something else to keep in mind with kids in terms of safety, When you do finally introduce your kids to essential oils, and I'm hoping it would be in the toddler age and not before, Use 1 essential oil at a time.

You're still not sure what this baby is allergic to, what, they can tolerate, whether they will like it or not, or Whether their skin is very sensitive, so just start with 1 oil and see how the child responds. If you use a blend with them topically for their very first exposure to essential oils and they have a problem with it, you're not going to know which was the essential oil that gave them the reaction. There are 2 final points I'd like to make about children and safety. 

The first is, unless you've had a lot of training in aromatherapy, I'd say 200 hours of professional aromatherapy training, certification preferably. Please don't use essential oils diluted on their skin. It is overkill. These are highly concentrated substances, and the child could become overexposed both Systemically, you know, absorbing it. And also topically, they could become sensitized, and it's just too much.

You just really don't need to use essential oils undiluted on little kids. And finally, again, especially if you're new to this modality, don't give children essential oils to take by mouth. There's still so much we're learning about the effects of essential oils inside the human body when ingested. So, until we know more about the effects of ingestion on the human body. Don't give them to your kids. To me, it is nothing more than experimenting, and I would never experiment on my child. There are, however, a lot of natural remedies, plant-based remedies, that have been proven clinically and historically to be safe to ingest, that you could give kids A cup of tea is perfect. You can use tinctures and you an use Hydrosols. 

Hydrosols are fabulous to take by mouth even for kids. They would need to be diluted, and I'll talk about that more in a minute when we get to part number 3. Now let's move on to point number 2, which hydrosols specifically and which essential oils are recommended for kids. Let's start with hydrosols. Now there are a lot of hydrosols available on the market, and there are many, many. Probably, you know, I could probably name 15 There are 20 that would be fine for kids, but I'm gonna talk about only 3. And they are hydrosols of calendula, Hydrosol of lavender and Hydrosol of German chamomile. I picked those 3 based on their safety, their efficacy, and their versatility.

You can do an awful lot from brand newborns up to adults, really, with these 3. So there's an awful lot you can do, but in particular, they have properties that are great for wee ones. So let's start with calendula. Calendula has some terrific properties. It's anti-inflammatory. It is antifungal and antiviral. It's great for stimulating the immune system. It's super for wounds.

Now I don't know that many babies are gonna have wounds, but, I mean, think about when the when the belly button is cut, when the cord is cut the umbilical cord. There it is. I knew I had that word in my head somewhere. When the umbilical cord is cut. Now, generally, that area does not become infected, but, you know, you could spray that area with either lavender calendula or German Chamomile. I'd probably recommend German chamomile, but any of those 3 would be great for that little wound. If your child has any kind of Topical rashes, any sort of boo-boos or scratches, go ahead and just spray the area with calendula hydrosol. It's very calming and soothing and cooling.

It'll feel fabulous, and it'll facilitate the healing. I especially like Calendula Hydrosol for addressing diaper rash. So when you change the baby, you can just spray the little hiney with some, hydrosol. Let the bottom dry naturally, and then go ahead and put on the diaper. Next, we have lavender hydrosol, which like lavender essential oil, lavender hydrosol is a classic, and it has so many applications. It's really good for the skin, especially in cases of heat. So if there is some kind of a burn, an irritation, rash where you can feel that there's heat coming from the body. Certainly, for a sunburn, it's fabulous and is especially nice if you keep it in the refrigerator, which You should do anyway.

They don't have a very long shelf life, so I always recommend you keep them in the refrigerator. I always have a 2-ounce bottle in the door of my fridge For whatever. Sometimes I'll just open the door of the fridge and spray my face and go back to whatever I was doing. So you can have it right there handy for, burns, cuts, If you even just need to calm the child down, lavender is great for anxiety. So if there is A monster in the bedroom, the boogeyman. There's some kind of nighttime fear. Give your child a little bottle of lavender hydrosol and tell them it's monster spray. Don't tell them that there are no such things as monsters because, in their world, there are.


What you want to do instead is give them a tool to empower them. So if you give them a little bottle of lavender hydrosone, just say they hate this. And then just instruct them to spray around the room whenever they feel frightened. Lavender is great for spraying the pillows, the bed linens, and so forth because it has a nice aroma. It does not smell like the essential Oil, it's not quite as floral because it has, some different components, but it's still hands down, it's one of my favorite hydrosols just because It's good for so much. All the hydrosols are great for mouth care. So if your child has Braces or any kind of orthodontic appliances. Hydrosols are great for helping with oral health.

You can use them as a mouthwash or some kind of healing rinse when the gums are irritated. I knew a little boy who used to get canker sores when he was about 7 on the inside of his mouth. I recommended to his mom that he just rinse out his mouth a couple of times a day with hydrosol, and sure enough, it cleared it up every time. Another bonus of using lavender hydrosol is its analgesic. So if a child has pain in their mouth from, let's say, new braces you want them to rinse with a lavender hydrosol. Oh, and by the way, if your child is using 1 of the 3 hydrosols I recommend, Angela lavender and German chamomile for their mouth and they swallow it. There it's fine. They're not in any danger.

However, if You're going to use hydrosols in this way. Please, please, please be responsible with where you source them. You wanna buy fresh hydrosols, That have absolutely no preservatives. That is a big no-no. And organic hydrosols. Alright. And now moving on to the last hydrosol that I recommend for babies and children, and that is meant for babies and children, and that is German chamomile. It has a lot of the same properties that I've spoken about already, super for the skin, also cooling, great for wound care.

It's a little bit of a bigger gun in terms of its antiseptic properties. Another thing that German chamomile offers is it's highly anti-inflammatory. Emotionally, it's German chamomile's calming, So it's a nice one to use in a nighttime pillow spray. You can mix your hydrosols. You don't have to use each one individually. Just as we blend our essential oils, you can make a hydrosol blend. The reason I'm saying that is German chamomile, it it smells good. It smells like chamomile, But some people are not wild about the smell.

So if you want to use the German chamomile for inflammation for sleep for your child, Go ahead and add lavender to it. Another condition for which I would use German chamomile hydrosol is Cradle cap or cradle crap as my mom used to call it. Spray the the top of the baby's head and, watch the healing. German chamomile hydrosol is very helpful in cases of psoriasis, eczema and itchiness. It's also really good if, a child is suffering from allergies. Now I will say the German chamomile essential oil is Has more antihistaminic properties, but start with German chamomile hydrosol and see if that helps some of the symptoms of allergies. Okay. There we have our 3 hydrosols, calendula, lavender, and German chamomile.

Remember, you can use them from newborns on up, And don't start with essential oils until after they are walking. Or if you can't remember at what age You should be using hydrosols. Just remember, learning to crawl, hydrosol. Meaning, from one down, do not use essential oils. Okay. So speaking of essential oils, let's move into the essential oils now that I suggest for kids. I'm going to give you a list of 10, and I'm going to just briefly go over the properties of each one. There are quite a few you could use for kids.

The 10 that I'm recommending are like the hydrosols, they're safe, effective, and versatile. They're also easy to find, and With one exception, quite affordable. The 1st essential oil is probably obvious. It's lavender. Lavender essential oil is Has so many properties that it can be the only one that you own, and you're good to go. Lavender is great for sleep, For, stress and anxiety. It's antibacterial and antimicrobial. It will help heal cuts.

It is great for bug bites, scrapes, burns to disinfect, and it's actually very good for pain. So there are tons of ways that you can use lavender Both topically and also for emotional issues. The next essential oil is Roman chamomile. This is the one that's a bit more high dollar. Roman chamomile, you can you should probably able to find it in a small quantity, like 5 mil or less to make Get more affordable, and you really don't need a lot. It's a very powerful oil, and it smells terrific. Now I just wanna Digress here for one second. The hydrosol that I recommended was called German chamomile, matricaria chamomilla.

Roman chamomile is from a different plant. It's still in the chamomile family. That Latin name is Chamomileum nobile. Don't panic. You don't have to remember all of this. I'm actually going to make a list of the, hydrosols and the oils in the show notes. I'll put the Latin names next to them, and I'll also tell you, I've written blog posts about a lot of these, so I'll give you links to my posts So you can read a lot more details about each one. Okay.

So Roman Chamomile is my go-to essential oil for sleep. Sometimes kids are just miserable and we don't know why. Roman chamomile is very good for reducing some of that fussiness and calm the central nervous system. So it's great for sleep. It's also really good for pain. I would take some Roman chamomile and put a tiny bit on your fingers and rub it over their gums if they're teething. It's good for, tummy pains, so you can take a little bit. And I'm gonna give you the dilutions in the next section.

Take a little bit with, Like a carrier oil or lotion, rub it in their tummies if they have upset bellies because it's very antispasmodic. The next essential I'm gonna mention is a real favorite with kids, And that is sweet orange citrus sinensis. Everybody loves orange, but especially the children. And Probably because they like oranges, and it smells just like a fresh-cut orange. Sweet orange has a happy, uplifting, cheerful Energy and aroma. I always think of sweet orange essential oil as kind of the embodiment of children. Like, if children if children could be bottled And put into an essential oil, or if children were represented by 1 oil, I would say it would be sweet orange. Sweet orange energetically corresponds with the 2nd chakra, which is where a lot of childlike creativity, that pure, unbridled, childlike energy lives in our bodies.

One thing I particularly like about orange essential oil out of all the other citrus oils is that it is not phototoxic, Which means you can put it on the child's skin, diluted, of course, which we're getting to, and, you don't have to worry about They're the essential oil reacting with the sun on their skin. You do need to worry about not worrying, but, you know, you need to be aware of that with lemon, grapefruit, And some of the others, Bergamot in particular. So with orange, it's perfectly safe, to apply it to their skin and have them go out into the sun. Alright. The next essential oil I love to use with children is frankincense. And it always surprises me how much they like the smell of frankincense because it is very unique. It's a It's a resin, and it smells kind of sweet and woody, and it's got kind of an exotic and what I feel to be a complex aroma. And I just always find it fascinating that kids enjoy the the smell of it.

Frankincense and orange smell super together. So if you wanna make a blend with those 2, You, you'd have a lovely smelling blend. So frankincense is my go-to for, well, for a lot of things. But first and foremost is for the lungs. Frankincense has the effect of slowing down and deepening breathing, and this makes it really good if, for example, if a Child is very anxious. We all tend to breathe in a very shallow way when we're anxious, and that does not allow a lot of oxygen into the Bloodstream and we get more anxious because we it's a vicious cycle. Frankincense is nice in a nasal inhaler. You put a few drops in a nasal inhaler and let the child Breathe that in.

Again, it's another empowerment tool, and it helps them control when they're anxious. They have something to to do to make themselves feel better, Or you can make a nice nighttime lotion with, frankincense and lavender and a little orange to help them slow down and slow down their breathing and Calm down at the end of the day. It's a very comforting essential oil, and it's also really good to use for skin eruptions. So for example, in the Case of of, eczema, which a lot of kids have. That's a good one to use on for skincare in general for kids to heal wounds. If they'd had something as big as an incision after surgery or after, you know, if they've had stitches, it's what's called a secretrescent essential oil. It helps to Form scar tissue and close it up so that it heals very nicely. Okay.

Our next essential oil, I love for respiratory issues. It's called Rosalina, and it is in the genus Melaleuca. It's called Melaleuca Erychifolia or erichifolia. Say it however you wish. I'm not really sure. I'm guessing the common pronunciation's going to mean melaleuca erichifolia. And if you'll notice the genesis melaleuca, the other melaleuca that we have in aromatherapy that's very popular is melaleuca alternifolia, which is tea tree. This oil is related to tea tree.

It's known as the lavender tea tree because it is so gentle. It has a component called 18 cineole, Which makes it superb for the respiratory system, and it also makes it an oil that you wanna be careful with kids under the age of, say 6. I would save this for your older kids for when they have Upper respiratory tract congestion, lung, you know, any kind of infection of the respiratory system, sinuses. It has a gentle, expectorant action, and it's also anti-infectious. The nice thing about this too is it won't burn. So tea tree will sometimes burn the nasal passages if they do for example, if you do a steam inhalation or if you put it in a nasal inhaler, Rosalina is much more gentle, and it will not burn. And part of the reason, chemically, is it has a lot of Linolol, which is a skin friendly molecule. So bring that, Rosalina, out when you when somebody's got a cold, flu, just general crud, a snotty nose.

This is a good one to use in the diffuser And to use in a nasal inhaler, in in a chest rub. Very nice mixed with frankincense since frankincense also supports the lungs. Just remember, because of the 1 8 cineal content, you wanna save this for your older kids, 6 and above. Okay. Moving on to our next essential oil, a lovely grounding oil called cedarwood. There are a of different types of cedarwood out there. And the one that I recommend you use because it's very effective and it's easy to find and it's not expensive is called Juniperus virginiana. Cedarwood comes from a tree and the heartwood of the tree as opposed to the sap or the leaves. This is so great for slowing kids down. I use all of these with my Bean. But sometimes he gets going around like a whirling dervish, and his energy is all over the place, and he's Jumping around. And for whatever reason, it happens a lot before bedtime.

So he's had his shower. He's in his jammies, and now it's suddenly time To start being energetic and running around the house when Pap and I are exhausted. So my husband calls that he's tired wired, That something happens when he gets more tired. He gets more wound up. So one of the exercises that I've taught him to do is to be a tree, and I'll have him Smell the cedarwood essential oil and imagine that he is a tree. And I'll have him gather open up his arms, Gather all the energy around the room that he you know, parts of him. Like, gather his energy from around the room, bring it in, bring it in, And then start at his head, and I have him use his hands. Start at your head and bring it down, and I have him bring his hands down over your head and your face, Over your shoulders, down, down, down, and I have him take his hands all the way down to the floor to the roots.

And then I'd have him stand up again, and I say, you are a tree. You are rooted to the ground. You are calm. You are strong. You are steady. I don't always say the exact same words, but that's the basic message. Part of it is just getting him to slow down. I think that's what works with this.

Smelling the cedarwood calms him, grounds him doing the visualization exercise, but getting him to visualize and sort of brings his energy down to his feet. So it is not spread out all over the room. So cedarwood is great for grounding and calming. It's a good one to use before bed. It smells amazing with the orange. Smells good with just about anything. So it's a good one to, again, to ease anxiety, and emotional balance. It's another one that is supportive of the lungs.

Cedarwood is highly effective in treating respiratory concerns in general. It's awesome for coughs. It is a decongestant, so it helps reduce some of the nasal mucus. It is also expectorant, so it can help, you know, expectorate, which is what that word means, remove excess mucus from the respiratory system. The next essential oil that I find to be really effective with children in very small doses is Ylang Ylang, and it's spelled l y a n g l y a n g, Cananga odorata. It is extremely sweet. It is a beautiful flower. And because it is so almost sickeningly sweet, use it in very small doses, and I would blend it with something else.

One of my all time favorite blends to use both with Children and adults is ylang ylang, cedarwood, and sweet orange. It's amazing. It smells so good. Lang Lang is very calming to the spirit, very soothing to the heart. If a kid's had a really rotten day at school or they're, You know, something big has happened, like they're getting bullied or they've had some sort of a I don't know. I guess, like, a childhood trauma where they're really upset. This is a really good one to bring out. It's kind of a big gun for emotional things.

If there's a lot of deep anger, This is also a good one to soothe anger and those sort of very uncomfortable big emotions that kids are experiencing. Again, you make it in that blend and do maybe a gentle massage, put it in a diffuser, put it in an inhaler. But, again, remember, ylang ylang is Extremely sweet and very strong, and it takes very little to get overwhelmed. So, I mean, start with 1 drop in your blend. Some other nice therapeutic properties of ylang ylang for kids okay. As I said, it's sedative. It's calming to the central nervous system. It's analgesic.

So this is another good one for pain. It will help to stimulate and boost the immune system, and it is cooling. So if there's a hot situation or or there's something on the skin that is hot, Lavender and ylang ylang together are very nice to to cool things down. I just have to stop here for a second and say something that just popped into my head. One of the things that is so magnificent about using essential oils with children is mom and dad benefit too. As the parents and grandparents are, applying the essential oils on the children, are making the blends, are using all of the Aromatics with children, they are benefiting as well emotionally, physically, and spiritually. Everyone who's around them is benefiting. Okay.

I just had a little burst of super enthusiasm about essential oils. I've been doing this for over 25 years. It still Gets me so excited when I talk about the benefits of essential oils. Any of you out there who teach you know exactly what I'm talking about. Okay. Moving right along. The next essential oil on our list is actually another expensive one. I had mentioned Roman chamomile as being one where you're gonna pay a little bit more, But it's worth it.

Helichrysum is the next oil, also a bit pricey, but one that you really must have, especially if you have boys or daughters that are tomboys and kind of like to be rough and tumble or they're very athletic because it is such a great oil for topical wounds And for bruising, it's my go to a 100% of the time for bruising. One time when Gianluca was about 7, we had been to a football game. And if you think about how a stadium is structured as you go up the stadium steps, there's a void between the steps. Well, at some point, he was going up the steps. Actually, I think anyway, I don't know if he's going up or down. But regardless, he went through and Scraped his shin very badly on the step. That night before bed, he called me into his room and said, mom, look at my leg. It's really ugly.

Sure enough, he had a ginormous bruise on his shin, I mean, the size of a lemon. It was huge. And he was about 7, so it was it was pretty significant. I immediately got the helichrysum. I put it in a tiny bit of carrier oil, And I rubbed it right into the bruise, and, he went to bed. The next day, it was already starting to turn yellow the way a bruise does After 3 or 4 or 5 days, the healing was so quick. And within a week, it was gone. I've seen such remarkable Transformations in the Skin with Helichrysum.

I have a lot of Helichrysum stories and not the least of which, and this has nothing to do with children, but I smashed my finger in my car door. I literally closed my van door on my hand, and it's quite a big story, and I'll tell it one day. But, basically, it the helichrysum saved my my finger. Helichrysum is really big plant medicine, and it's one that you definitely wanna have in your first aid kit when you've got kids. Some of the properties of helichrysum, it is anti-inflammatory, Antiallergenic. It helps it can help relieve the symptoms of allergies. It's antiseptic, antispasmodic, Skin healing, wound healing, and it is sicatricent. There's that word again, healing for scars, promotes skin cell regeneration.

Some of you know I speak Italian from having lived there for so long. And in Italian, there's a word for scar. A scar is called a cicatrice, And it's spelled c I c a t r I c e. Cicatricent, healing for scars, promotes skin cell regeneration. So It is a fabulous oil for for the skin, for all things related to skin. Speaking of skin, essential oil number 9 is also very skin-friendly, and that is geranium. Geranium consists of about 50% or more of monoterpenils, Which are the alcohols of citronellol, geraniol, and little ol, and that's what makes it so wonderful for the skin. It's anti inflammatory and cooling.

It's also an antidepressant. It's a nice balancing oil in that if kids are kinda bouncing off the walls and wound up, it can help bring them down a bit. And if they're kinda dragging their feet and they are just kind of boohooing and miserable, it could also help to bring the mood up. It is Cicatrescent. There's that word again. I would say frankincense and helichrysum are more powerful in their cicatrescent properties, but, Absolutely. You can use geranium to help heal anything with the skin, and also it's great for eczema. I like to use geranium also, For insect bites and things like that.

It's astringent, so it contracts and tightens the tissue. It's antifungal. So if you think of, roundworm is a fungal condition as well as toenail fungus. And there's another common skin condition that children get called molluscum, And Drainium is very good at addressing that as well. It's antidepressant. This oil is nice also for cradle cap. One drop. That's all you need in some lotion or oil.

It's also a good insect repellent. So if you're trying to keep the bugs away from your child and you wanna make a homemade insect repellent, this is a nice oil to add. And finally, for essential oil number 10, I wanted to go with a conifer. I really wanted to have at least 1 conifer on this list, And there were a number to choose from. Siberian fir was 1 I almost went with, but I'm gonna go with scotch pine because it's readily available. It's not that expensive, and it's really effective. And what it's effective for is the lungs, the sinuses, and the head. It's got a component in it called alpha pinene, and it makes it really nicely Decongesting.

You can use that in a steam inhalation with kids who are old enough. One drop. That's all you need. If they're coming down with the Rosalina is good as well as the Scotch pine. You could also put them together in a little nasal inhaler. Another thing that's nice with these essential oils, for example, scotch pine, you could have your child help you make your own green cleaning products. And scotch pine is one I put in a lot of my cleaning products have your children help you make cleaning products for the house. Now I'm talking about older children 5 and above.

It's a great bonding activity, and it teaches them a couple of things, the value of essential oils. It teaches them the value of taking care of our planet and using Natural things in the home. And while you all are blending, you're breathing in the essential oils and boosting your immunity. Alright. There we have the 3 hydrosols and the 10 essential oils. The 3 hydrosols again were calendula, lavender, and German chamomile. The 10 essential oils were lavender, Roman chamomile, sweet orange, frankincense, Cedarwood, Rosalina, ylang ylang, helichrysum, geranium, and scotch pine. Alright.

We have covered 2 points. The first was safety. The second was which products to use, which hydrosols, which essential oils. We got into that pretty deep. And number 3 now is how much to use. So let's talk about dilutions, for kids. Starting with hydrosols, they're very safe. I think I've pretty much made that point.

And as such, they really can be used undiluted for just about anything, With the exception being ingestion. So what I mean is if you have any sort of topical issues or Emotional issues, like if you're using the hydrosols either to cool something down or heal something on the skin or just to Soothe the child, calm anxiety. You do not need to dilute them. You can use them in a little spray bottle. You can use them in a squirty bottle. You can even use them in a pipette To just add it onto the skin. But they're so safe, you really don't have to worry about diluting them for topical application, with the exception maybe of peppermint, because of the menthol content, but, you know, even that, you don't necessarily have to dilute it for topical application. However, If you're going to be giving children hydrosols to swallow to you know, for ingestion, then you do need to dilute them.

Some reasons why you might want to use hydrosols for ingestion, first of all, because you don't wanna use essential oils ever for ingestion with children, not Unless you have a lot of experience, years years of training. Some instances when you might wanna use hydrosulfur ingestion or to soothe tummy issues, If they've got little belly cramps, diarrhea, constipation, you know, indigestion, anything like that, also for emotional issues. Lemon balm is great for calming Children down. If they drink it with a little bit of water, it starts to soothe them and and relieve some anxiety and some, you know, nerves and even insomnia. So here's a story that just recently happened. Let just last week, it happened with my grandson. He had eaten something before he went to bed that gave him an upset stomach. And he woke up in the morning, and the first thing he said is, Nana, I have to vomit.

And boy, he did. He threw up a couple of times. He wasn't sick, but something hadn't digested well with him. And what happened was he had a lot of acid in the vomit. So when he threw up you know how the The acid irritates your throat. So he said to me afterward, he said, Nana, my throat burns now. My throat and, like, the top of my chest It's burning. And I said, honey, that's because of the acid in your vomit.

So although he felt a bit better, he now had this irritation in his throat. Well, hydrosols are very soothing for irritation. Mucous membranes are very delicate, and so I thought, well, you know what? I'm going to give him some hydrosol to drink. So I took a little bit of lavender hydrosol, and I measured out probably about 3 tablespoons in a cup of water. It might have been a little bit more because he's 8. And told him just to slowly sip it. It was room temperature. It wasn't too cold.

And then just wait a few minutes. And after he finished half of what I had given him. I think I had given him half a glass of water. A lot of these things I do tend to "eyeball" things at this point in my experience. But he'd had about half of it, and he said, you know, Nan, it already feels better. And then he drank the rest of it, and he said, I think the burning's gone. And he didn't Have any more discomfort the rest of the day. So there's an example of how you might want to use hydrosol for, ingestion.

In terms of how much you should use for ingestion, I recommend about half a teaspoon to a cup of water for babies. After the age of 2 or 3, you can up it a little bit, so to 1 teaspoon in 1 cup of water. After the age of 10, 3 teaspoons to a cup of water should be fine. So much depends on the child, and, you know, it also depends which hydrosol you're using. A lot of Why we dilute it is because it doesn't taste so great. And straight drinking straight hydrosol, they probably will go, ugh. I don't want any more of that. You dilute it with water and it's a little bit better.

Alright. Let's move now into the essential oils. And when would you use them and how much? So when you would use essential oils is when you wanna kill germs. You can do that by diffusing. You can use that by, even with cleaning, if you're gonna add them to your cleaning products, you can use them then, of course, for topical issues. But, of course, for topical issues, they're always going to be diluted. So how much do we dilute essential oils? You have to remember, first of all, why we're diluting them. So we wanna protect against irritation to the skin.

We wanna protect against photosensitivity, which means that these essential oils react with the sun on the skin. You wanna protect against sensitization, Which is a fancy word for contact dermatitis or an allergy because kids well, anybody can develop sensitization by using essential oils neat on the skin for a long period of time. And you wanna protect your child from systemic toxicity, which means absorbing too much into their bloodstream and getting sick. Okay. Here are the amounts that I use with kids and that I recommend as being perfectly safe for children, ages 3 to 6. Now remember, under 3, we're gonna try and use hydrosols. From ages 3 to 6, go with a half percent dilution. A half percent is 2 to 3 drops of essential oil in 1 ounce of carrier.

If your child is older or extremely healthy or it's a more serious thing that you're trying to address with the essential oil, you can bump it up to 1%, Which is 5 to 6 drops in 1 ounce. But always on the side of caution. Go with less first, and if that works, excellent. If you feel like, yeah, you might need a bigger punch, then go ahead and bump it up to 1%. After the age of 6, you can definitely use 1% consistently with kids, Which again is 5 to 6 drops of essential oil to 1 ounce. And if it's something more serious, they you can even go up to 2%, which is 10 to 12 drops of essential oil in in 1 ounce of carrier. One ounce is 30 milliliters of carrier. If you would feel comfortable measuring in a you can you can buy, like, a 1 ounce bottle, but you can also buy a graduated cylinder, which is a glass tube that has lines on it that will you can measure exactly how much you're using.

Some parents feel comfortable doing that because they wanna be more exact with their children. So I'll put a link in the show notes where you can buy one of those very inexpensively. So when we talk about a carrier, I mean, anything Substance that's gonna hold the essential oils and dilute it. So fatty things are better because essential oils dilute beautifully in fatty things, And that would be oil, unscented lotion. In some cases, you can even use, like a castile soap, or you can use aloe vera gel. In terms of the oils, I would stay away from nut oils till you're sure the child does not have any nut allergies. And go with jojoba, Which is actually a wax, and it tends to be really, you know, fine for kids. It mimics our natural sebum or fractionated coconut oil.

Again, check for those nut allergies, but fractionated coconut oil seems to do real well. I know this is a lot of information. This is a longer podcast than I usually do. Normally, they're, I'm done in about 30 minutes. This one's a little longer because of the extent of information I'm sharing. But if you want to find all the show notes, you can go AromaticWisdomPodcast.com/24 And finally, we've reached point number 4. So we've been through, number 1, safety, number 2, what to use, number 3, how much to use, and now number 4 is Methods of use.

I've already covered ways that you can use hydrosol pretty much, so I'm not gonna go into that any deeper, But I'm gonna talk about a few ways that you can use essential oils with kids. Okay. So the first method I'm going to recommend is making a body oil or a massage oil. You can use your dilution that I just gave you, the 1 half percent or 1% depending on the age of the child. This type of an aromatherapy oil, this base blend is great for stress and anxiety. Now let me just say one thing as a Massage therapist, I really recommend that if you're going to massage your child, massage the feet, the legs, the back, please ask your child for permission. First of all, we want them to know that they're safe and it's, you know, good touch and all that. But, also, kids have rights.

Even if they feel safe and comfortable, they may not wanna be massaged. They just may not wanna be handled. Perhaps they don't even like massage. Some children are overstimulated by massage. So talk to the child and ask them, you know, for permission. May I rub your back with some oil? And maybe I can help you you can go to sleep a little bit faster, Or I can rub your feet. Maybe you wanna, you know, relax a little bit. They're just they're people just like us.

They're just really small and don't have the Communication skills that we have. Okay. So anxiety, stress, if a child has a headache, if they can't sleep. Sometimes kids have growing pains, And using, like, lavender with a carrier oil and gently massaging their legs often will feel really good, and it'll kinda help relieve some of that pain. Older kids may be getting into sports and putting essential oils in lotions or oils and Massaging the sore spot, the ankle, wherever it's hurting them can also go a long way toward making them feel better. Essential oils are great in the bath. So you just wanna add a couple of drops, and you wanna put the essential oil in something like whole milk because, remember, we want that fat, or you can add it to a vegetable oil, Any other kind of dispersing agent, just throw that into the tub and then put the kids in. And that's really nice to do it in the evening.

At the end of the day, put in a little bit of lavender, Maybe a little cedarwood, and it'll help them wind down at the end of the day. It can even become something where they are associating the aroma with bedtime, and they already start to relax Just at the smell. And we've got room sprays. They're great. You just need a bottle of water and essential oil and Shake it up really, really well because the oil and water will separate. And so if you just just you know, without having to put alcohol or vodka or anything in there, just add essential oils and water. Just remember to shake it well. Those are fabulous for killing airborne bacteria, for, soothing emotional states, maybe Having the child spray their pillows themselves with a little bit of lavender essential oil or lavender hydrosol, that will help them To relax, and it can even become part of a bedtime ritual.

And let's not forget that classic method of use, diffusion, Which is areal dispersion via an electric diffuser, and usually it is with cold. A cold mist diffuser is what Seems to be pretty popular right now. You can get some gorgeous diffusers out there. For kids, I like the ones that have the lights in them because they can make a nice soft nightlight for kids. Again, it can become part of a bedtime ritual. Diffusers are great. I mean, you can have 1 in every room in the house. You wouldn't be making any mistake.

And finally, I just wanna talk about inhalation in general. So inhalation is, you know, where you're breathing the essential oil in different ways. So one is direct inhalation. You can simply take out a bottle of essential oil, take off the cap, and have the kids smell from it. If you really need a super quick fix, Be careful which oils you do that with, that, a, it's not too strong, and b, that they don't touch it to their nose. Because if it's an oil that could be a little, burning, It may be uncomfortable on their nose. Direct palm inhalation is one that I really like, and I do this when my my kids were smaller of course, they're older now, but when they were small and they would get kinda rammy and bouncing off the walls or in the supermarket if they were acting out, I would tell them, come here. I had a bottle of lavender, and I always carried it with me.

And I would just tell them each, open a hand. They would open their hand, and I would put 1 drop on their palm, Have them rub their hands together, and, yes, this is neat application. I didn't do it very much, but I'd have them rub their hands together And have them cup their hands over their nose and deeply inhale the lavender. If you're not comfortable doing this neat, You can take a little bit of organic aloe vera gel and dilute the lavender in that spray on their hands, and have them do the same thing. As So he said I didn't do it very often, but, boy, was it effective. Or I would even put it on my own hands and kind of cup my hand over their nose. But In any case, they would take a deep breath and start to calm down. And a part of it was the lavender, of course.

Part of it was the deep breath. Part of it was just stopping and Redirecting their attention. You can, you know, you can do that with a tissue as I shared earlier my when Very often, I would put a centralizona tissue and put it in my kids' pockets so they would sniff it. And I would do that if either they weren't feeling well or if they were going into A situation where they had a little anxiety. And then, of course, there are these beautiful, nasal inhalers. They're little tubes that are designed to hold essential oil. They have a little cotton, wick inside of it. And if you're going to do that, especially with kids, See if you can find organic cotton wicks.

They're hard to find, but sometimes local health foods food stores will carry them. And for kids, I would put, You know, not more than, say, 10 drops of essential oil on the wick. This is a great empowering tool for kids. You can have them make their own nasal inhaler with oils that they like or with oils that they feel drawn to, and it can be theirs and theirs alone. They don't have to share it with anyone. It is their personal inhaler. They can keep it by their bed. They can keep it in their pocket.

I just love inhalers because they have so many applications. And there you have it. That was a lot of information. I hope you didn't run away overwhelmed and that it was really helpful for you. There's still more that I could say I could go deeper, but it really is that's a really good primer, a good starting tutorial for those of you, especially, who are brand new to essential oils To help you get started using them safely with children. And now it's time for that little segment I like to call smell my life. Smell My Life is just a brief little segment I like to do in at the end of every podcast Where I share some way in which I used essential oils or hydrosols or some aspect of aromatherapy in my life in the past week or so. I did share with you about, my grandson drinking the lavender hydrosol and soothing the the acid irritation in his belly and his throat and esophagus.

But I'll tell you another thing that I did this week with not geranium. The German chamomile hydrosol. I have many cats. I have 4 cats, which is about 3 too many. And one of them is Luther, and our cat, Luther, is kind of a wild guy. He loves to be outside, and he's the one that will bring home dead The dead mice, the dead baby bunnies, 2 birds the other day. He's always getting into trouble with critters, and he does fight with a neighbor's cat. Well, the other night, we noticed that he had a wound on his side, and it was pretty big.

It was about the size of of a pea, But it was oozy and infected. And he'd been kind of looking at it, and we finally stopped and pulled the fur back and took a look, and it was bad. And I said to my husband, do you think that we'll need to take him to the vet? And, you know, he wasn't sure. We talked about it, and we figured She'd probably just give him antibiotics and some sort of a topical wound healer. And I said to James, I've got hydrosols. I'm gonna try that on this. So For 2 days, 3 times a day, I washed his wound with German chamomile hydrosol. Of course, he hated it.

It took 2 of us to hold him down. But, you know, I would first, I poured it on there with a paper cup and then realized it was getting everywhere, so I just used a small squirty bottle and just literally washed out the wound with the German chamomile hydrosol. And by day 3, we could see it was really starting to heal. We could just see that it wasn't oozing anymore, so we Just continue have continued doing that. And he's it's still there, but it is so much better. And I feel now that it is on its way. I don't have to I'm going to keep addressing it with the German chamomile hydrosol, but I'm not going to take him to the vet. I think he's gonna be fine.

Oh... the power of hydrosols! It's good plant medicine. It truly is. 

That, my friends is a wrap. That concludes episode 24 of the Aromatic Wisdom Podcast. Thank you so much for hanging in here for an extra-long episode. There was a lot to cover because kids are important. We have to take care of them. 

If you'd like to leave a review I would love that. You can go AromaticWisdomInstitute.com/itunes. If you would like to just learn more about the school go to AromaticWisdomInstitute.com 

I am doing a live aromatherapy certification program that starts August 31st in Central Pennsylvania. I've had people travel long distances, fly, and everything for the class. So if it's something you're interested in, please check it out. 

Until next time, 

Be Happy, Be Well.