Essential Oils: Essential Oils (The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Uncovering the Healing Benefits of Aromatherapy) (8 page)

Congratulations! You have learnt thirty eight natural habits to lose weight. You must incorporate each one of these into your lifestyle. It will be a good idea to review your action plan (mentioned towards the end of each chapter) frequently, till you gain mastery over these habits.

Another very important habit is to forgive yourself. You have developed these habits, you are practicing them, but one day, you feel like giving in to the temptation and after that long battle in your brain you finally grab a cheeseburger.

Just because you ate that cheeseburger does not mean that you can’t practice your newly developed habits. You just fell on the road; you can get up and still continue to walk! Look at your indulgence as a small bump on the road, which you can easily cross! You don’t need to beat yourself on it or be extra harsh to yourself!

In fact, if you feel guilty, you will get depressed and crave for comfort. And where will you get that comfort from? Food, of course!

Don’t let that happen to you! You indulged, it is fine! You can still move ahead. This is not the end of the road!

And, whenever you indulge, burn off with the other healthy habits – exercise, being the most important one. Incorporate exercise as a part of your lifestyle and reap the benefits for a life time.

The system will get easier with time and practice, in fact these habits will become ingrained in your personality and seem like your natural self. Good luck!

If you enjoyed my book please join our Reader’s List in the TOC Thanks!

Parent’s Guide to Using Essential Oils for Children

By: Abigail Cruise

INTRODUCTION

I want to thank you and congratulate you for downloading the book:
Essential Oils for Kids!

Is this book right for you?

As a parent, you are definitely worried about doing all that is best for your kids. This includes choosing the right foods, medicines, recreational activities, clothes and school. This book serves as your guide and companion to help you maximize your child’s energy, immunity, health, vitality and even radiant skin.

If you want to experience the benefits of completely natural, non-toxic, non-synthetic plant products that can help in enhancing your child’s health, energy and appearance – then this is the right book for you.  The book explains what essential oils are and why they should be an important tool in the parent’s box of techniques to improve the lives of their children.

If you want to gain from the following benefits of essential oils then look no further! Essential oils can be used:

• As An Effective Antibacterial
  
• As An Antiviral
  
• As An Anti-Fungal
  
• As An Anti-Parasitic
  
• To Reduced Stress
  
• To Lower Anxiety
  
• As A Pain Relief
  
• As Immune System Strengthening Enhancer
  

What will you learn?

You will learn:

• The Benefits Of Essential Oils For Kids
  
• The Safety Precautions That You Must Adhere To
  
• Different Ways To Use Essential Oils In Kids
  
• How to decide on the correct dosage?
  
• Essential Oil Blends For Your Child’s Skin
  
• Essential Oil Blends For Fever And Pain
  
• Essential Oil Blends For Flu And Cold
  
• Essential Oil Blends For Better Sleep
  
• Homemade Essential Oil Lotions And Creams For Babies
  

Essential oils are natural aromatic compounds that are found in plants. They are extracted from a large variety of aromatic herbs through processes of cold pressing or steam distillation.

Since they are the aromatic compounds of the plants from which they have been extracted, they retain the natural healing qualities of their mother herb. As a result, they are much more powerful than the herb in itself.

In fact, even though they are referred to as oils, in reality they are liquids that do not feel oily at all. They are extremely powerful, highly concentrated, fragrant and safe.

You open the pages of any family oriented magazine and you would most certainly find an article about certain natural or complimentary therapies that may or may not make sense. In fact, some of them may initially sound a bit strange. However, as you read the success stories mentioned further in the article, you begin to believe that some good old natural therapies do make complete sense. Aromatherapy is one such natural therapy.

The use of essential oils in aromatherapy is not an unrealistic and fanciful new age concept. In fact, essential oils have been used since time immemorial in order to treat various mental and physical illnesses. Scientific research also proves that the use of these oils can provide definite and noticeable benefits – like we mentioned, the compounds in these oils are extremely powerful and contain healing properties that cannot be duplicated in a laboratory.

Let us talk about babies now.

Almost all babies are blessed with clear, glowing, beautiful skin. As they grow, their angelic beauty must be sustained through extra care, starting from their skin and subsequently, taking care of their overall health.  

Now, as a parent, I am generally concerned about the long term impact that various medicines, shampoos, conditioners and even wipes with harmful chemicals can have on my children. I understand that this is your concern too. That’s why you downloaded this book, correct?

As long as you use them in the right manner, essential oils are natural, effective and safe to use for babies and children. In fact, using them optimally can ensure that your child’s health is protected from most harmful products.

Let me ask you a question –
what is the number one thing that worries you most as a parent?

All parents want their children to be healthy and therefore, it mostly it is inflammation that worries them in particular. Inflammation is the root cause of most of the ailments that impact our children every day. Now, in order to keep this at bay, we must rethink our choices in terms of exercise, food and therapies to treat illness.

By making simple healthy lifestyle choices such as feeding your children real, unprocessed food and ensuring that they get enough exercise, you are providing a solid base for them to establish healthy habits for life.

You can boost your child’s health and immunity through complementing these healthy lifestyle choices with optimal use of essential oils.

Your little ones should be protected from harmful products which may have a devastating impact on their health. Although some reputed brands include healthy ingredients, however, the choice sometimes becomes difficult since we are not sure about the authenticity of these brands.

And not to mention,
nature has its own tender way to help the body heal and recover its health and energy
. Practically, that is all that kids need – a little bit of help for their fight with an unpleasant external agent.

Therefore, using essential oils for kids just makes more sense.

Essential oils have been known to provide tremendous psychological, emotional and physical benefits. These health benefits are attributed to the therapeutic plants that they are derived from.

They are natural compounds that do not contain a single chemical ingredient. Therefore, they are safer than most commercial products available today.

Essential oils are also affordable and handy. They can be made quickly, easily and stored for future use.

They can help in relieving various ailments in kids and even babies – ranging from relieving a runny nose to getting better sleep to treating skin infections, bruises, and rashes, along with providing relief from ailments such as constipation, hiccoughs, jaundice, fever and even teething pain.

Modern day antibiotics cannot penetrate the cell membrane whereas the essential oils can penetrate the membrane to kill viruses and bacteria with ease.

Essential oils can also form a part of the natural ingredients for baby and kids oils, powders, lotions and wipes. Along with the therapeutic benefits that they provide, they also ensure that these products maintain a unique fragrance.

Well, essential oils are completely natural. However, certain precautions are necessary to ensure that you are able to use them safely and effectively.

We have understood that these oils are distilled, highly concentrated compounds of the plants that they are derived from – this is also what makes them extremely powerful and therefore, you need to be careful in the manner in which you use them.

The concentrated nature of the oils implies that they are at least a thousand times more powerful than the compounds found in nature. This makes complete sense – after all, a vast amount of plant matter needs to be processed in order to produce just one small bottle of essential oils. Now, this one bottle of oil contains the healing power of thousands of leaves, roots or petals that went into creating this oil.

PROCURE THE PUREST GRADE OIL: There are loads of commercial products available today that boast of using essential oils as one of the ingredients. They may probably have some essential oil content, however, the concentration of oils in shampoos, bath soaps, bath oils, etc. is negligible and may not do any good to your child. These products may smell great but that is not how you want to incorporate essential oils into your and your kids’ life. You need to be sure that you are able to find 100% pure essential oils. This may mean going to a specialist store, or maybe searching online for the best available product. It is extremely important to buy the purest grade essential oil that you can afford. In fact, it is advisable to not buy any essential oils at all rather than settle for some second grade, adulterated oils.

Be very sure that the label mentions ‘100% pure’ or ‘therapeutic grade.’ The label must also list the common as well as the botanical names pf the plant that it has been derived from. Good brands also list how the product was distilled and the region it belongs to.

Believe it or not, there can be a difference in the components of the oil when it comes to being region specific. An example here could be the Lavender essential oil. You must understand that the Lavender grown in France is very different from the Lavender grown in the United States, even if they are the same species.              

The local weather conditions, the soil in which the plan is nurtured, and even the manner in which it has been stored influences the therapeutic qualities of the oil.

BE AWARE OF THE MANNER OF EXTRACTION: The process by which the oils are extracted is also important. Oils may be extracted through the use of solvents – this is generally the case with resinous oils and oils that can be damaged due to high heat during the process of distillation.

Higher quality oils are manufactured using the process of water or steam distillation.

WATCH OUT FOR FRAGRANCE OILS: Two words to watch out for are ‘blend oil’ or ‘fragrance oil.’ In the case of ‘blend oils,’ the companies must list down exactly what oils have been used to create the blend. Before using the oils, you must be 100% sure that the oils used for blending are safe for kids and babies.

Blending pure oils with less expensive ones that have similar fragrance is a common practice these days.

Fragrance oils should never be used. Although they smell similar to the oils that have been produced synthetically, they have no therapeutic benefits. These oils are generally some cheap substitutes to pure essential oils and must be kept at a distance from kids and babies.

PRICE IS SOMETIMES AN INDICATION OF PURITY: If the price seems too good to be true, it probably is. If the prices across a range of oils for one company seem about the same, it is best to avoid that brand – essential oils should vary in price depending on how easily they are distilled, how much plant material is used and how common the plant is.

REMEMBER TO DILUTE ESSENTIAL OILS BEFORE USE: You must always remember to dilute essential oils before using them. This is because they are highly concentrated. This rule applies to all essential oils including the Lavender oil and the Tea Tree oil. A number of aromatherapy practitioners may recommend use of neat Tea Tree oil or Lavender oil. However, always remember that kids have sensitive skin and using these undiluted may lead to sensitization reactions.

KEEP OUT OF REACH OF THOSE LITTLE FINGERS: This one is extremely critical. You must store all your essential oils locked in a cool and dark place. Always make sure that children are not able to reach these oils. In case, they do happen to spill some essential oil on their little fingers, have them wash their hands. Take a wet facecloth and wipe of traces of essential oil in case they have managed to get in on their skin. After wiping the oil off, apply plain aqueous cream. If the child gets any oil in their eyes or mouth, it is best to wash the area with cold milk first.

If the skin seems burnt due to the concentrated accidental application of essential oil, rush your child to the emergency room and let the doctor know what oils you used.

DO NOT TAKE THESE OILS INTERNALLY: A number of aromatherapy advocates recommend using essential oils internally. This can be quite dangerous. The oils can be toxic, even if consumed internally in very limited quantities. If you suspect that your child has swallowed even a bit of essential oil, force them to vomit and take them to a doctor as soon as possible.

BE VERY CAREFUL WITH NEWBORNS: Ideally, the use of essential oils should be started only when the baby is approximately ten weeks old. The reason for this is that due to the still developing immune response, introducing essential oils extremely early may lead to allergies.

Even after introducing essential oils in a ten week old baby, it is advisable to first test for allergic reactions. A patch test on the skin therefore becomes important. If you are unsure of whether or not an oil is going to irritate your baby’s skin, try and diffuse a little quantity of oil in their general vicinity and watch for any adverse reactions.

USE THE RIGHT DOSAGE: It is important to take into consideration the age and size of your child as you try and decide on the right dosage of essential oils for kids. The general rule is smaller the child, lower the dosage. You must remember that the concentration of oil increases with addition of even a single drop. We shall discuss proper dosages within each age group in further chapters.

KNOW ABOUT PHOTO-TOXICITY: Some oils, especially the citrus oils are phototoxic. Well, this is not as bad as it sounds. All it implies is that these oils will react to sun and this can sensitize the skin. If you plan to use these oils, just make sure that your child is not going to be out in the sun for at least an hour or two after application.

STORAGE IS A KEY: If you want to achieve the best results from your essential oils, it is important that you store them with care. They should be stored in dark colored glass bottles in fairly cool temperature. The same principle applies to the carrier oils that you will be using. Therefore, it only makes sense to create some storage space for these oils in the basement or in the area under the stairs.

Just remember to store these oils under lock and key, especially if you have curious kids who want to open every bottle that they see.

BEWARE OF RANCIDITY IN OILS: Well, we have mentioned that essential oils are not technically oils. However, it is important to understand that the usual lifespan of the oil depends on the oil itself, along with the storage methodology employed and of course, the quality of the oil. An example worth considering is the citrus oils that are prone to losing their effectiveness much faster than the others. They are also a lot more sensitive to light and oxidation reactions. The typical lifespan of an oil could range from six months to a couple of years. This is also true of carrier oils and blends.

LET’S KEEP IT SIMPLE: Well, there are too many essential oils available today and each one comes with a definite set of benefits. Now, it is not an issue as long as these oils blend together. However, they can work against one another if they are non-compatible. You will be able to identify a bad blend by its smell.

Now, when you are beginning to use essential oils with your kids, it is advisable to use only one oil at a time. Let us imagine that you blend three amazing oils together and use it on your child. God forbid, if your child develops an adverse reaction, you will not be able to tell which oil is the real culprit.

So, the key is to begin slowly, one oil at a time, and gradually, you will be able to understand which oils are great for your child and which ones are unacceptable.

This book does not provide information on which oils can be blended together. However, if you are interested then there is loads of information available on this subject.

To begin with, you may stick to the blends mentioned in this book – they have been designed to be synergistic. Another great rule is to stick to the oils within the same family while blending. Citrus oils tend to blend well with spice oils as well as woody oils.

Generally, oils with completely opposite properties do not make a good match. You wouldn’t want to blend a sedating essential oil with something that energizes the mind.

GET THE BLENDING CORRECT: Whenever you are trying a new blend, use no more than 10-20ml. of your chosen carrier oil. That way you don’t have to worry about wasting too many ingredients.

Choose two or three essential oils, add them in one drop at a time and smell the blend after each addition. This may seem like a painstaking process, but once you get the correct blend – well, it will seem totally worth the effort.

You may want to add a few lighter oils to compensate in case one oil seems more overpowering than the others.

LABEL ALL YOUR JARS: This is an extremely important step. You definitely want to give your child the best blend and once you have created it, you wouldn’t want to waste it. Name all the essential oils with the quantities that you used on the bottle – cover the label with a protective cover or cellophane paper so that it is protected from spillage from any oil or cream.

TEST ON YOURSELF FIRST: If you plan to use a new blend on your child’s skin, it is always advisable to perform a patch test on your own self first. If it irritates your skin, dilute it further and perform the test again. Remember, your child’s skin is a lot more sensitive than yours.

BEGIN WITH THE LOWEST CONCENTRATION: No matter how tempting blending essential oils with high concentration may sound, do not fall into the trap. This may lead to unnecessary irritation. Even a single high dose can lead to sensitization to this particular oil for lifetime.