Homemade Baby Products

Make your own Baby Stain Remover:

This homemade spot remover is effective, cheap and only requires three ingredients: dish soap, lemon essential oil and water. Fill a 12 oz. spray bottle most of the way with water. Add about 1/2 tsp of dish soap and about 5 or 6 drops of lemon essential oil. Shake and you’re done!

I started making this a few months ago and have found it to be quite effective at removing stains. This dish soap loosens residue and cuts greasy stains, and the lemon oil disinfects and smells great! But, I’ve found it to be the most effective on my baby’s laundry. I haven’t had one stain from a poopy diaper yet. It removes the baby poop off the onesies and diaper covers better than any of the commercial laundry sprays that I used with my older two children.

But, I haven’t gotten to the best part yet. When I calculated up the cost of making this I figured that it only costs me about .07 cents per bottle (figured on a 12 oz. bottle). No more store bought pre-treaters for me. Try it and let me know how you like it.

“Tiny Oil”
good for all those tiny troubles

We use this oil to disinfect and soothe any bite, cut or scrape or to help with teething pain. It contains, tea tree, lavender and clove oil. It has antibiotic, antifungal, antiviral and antibacterial properties. Tea tree and clove are both analgesic and can help with pain wether it’s a scraped knee or those two bottom teeth that are trying to come in. When my littles would come to me for comfort I would say, “Do you want a tiny bit of oil?” My oldest picked up on that and started calling it “tiny oil.” The name stuck. Here’s what you need if you want to mix up your own bottle of “tiny oil.” (You can call it something different if you want to.) 🙂

1 travel sized spray bottle
1 ounce of olive oil (or oil of your choice)
5 drops lavender
4 drops tea tree
3 drops clove oil

This is great to have at the playground when they fall and scrape their knee. Just wash the dirt off and rub this on. If you’re treating a cut you can also spray a little on a bandaid if needed. If using as teething oil just squirt a little on the tip of your finger and rub it on the gums (test it on yourself first to be sure it is not too strong).

Diaper Spray: This combination is good to clean and soothe a messy bottom. Combine 1 tbl. of olive oil (or jojoba oil) two drops of tea tree oil, two drops of lavender oil. Put in a 2 oz. spray bottle and fill with witch hazel. Use with cloth wipes.

Diaper Rash: If you are struggling with diaper rash in the early days from lots of poopy diapers that are acidy, then add a little bit of baking soda to the diaper spray recipe above.

Ear Drops: Every parent must deal with treating an ear infection at some point. This is how I treat my kids. We’ve had good success with this treatment. Combine 2 drops of tea tree oil in 2 tbls. of olive oil. Put the combined oil mixture in a small heat proof bowl. Place this bowl in a larger heat proof bowl and pour boiling water into the large bowl until it is 1-2 inches from the top of the small bowl (be careful not to splash the hot water in the bowl with the oil). Warm the the oil until it is body temperature. You can test it on your wrist as you would test a bottle of milk to be sure that it is not too hot or too cold. You can also put a drop in your own ear to be sure that it is a comfortable temperature. The temperature is important as if it is too hot it will be painful and if the oil is cold, it will cause the ear muscle to contract which will be painful as well. Lay your child on his side and using a dropper put drops of oil in the ear canal until it is filled. Then gently massage around the ear opening, behind the ear and neck area. This will help be sure that the oil reaches all the way into the ear canal and the massage will help drain any fluid that may have built up in the ear drum. Put a cotton ball over the ear and let the child lay on his other side until all the oil drains. I usually do this twice daily until the ear is feeling better. Usually this only takes 2-3 treatments. If your child doesn’t like getting water in their ear, he may not like this either but it works very well. If you don’t have tea tree oil on hand you can also coarsely chop 2-3 cloves of garlic and cover them with olive oil letting them soak for 2-3 hours or overnight. Warm this oil as treat as described above. Continue to massage behind the ear and down the front of the neck until they are well (see description for throat soother above for more details).

Hand Sanitizer: Add one tablespoon of the “Tiny Oil” mixture (above) to a 2 ounce spray bottle. Fill the rest of the way with water. Instant hand sanitizer. Take on the go to spray those tiny hands at the playground, museum (after playing with toy food all day – see photo right) or to clean your hands after you change a diaper. Shake before use.