Looking for safe essential oils for kids? From soothing lavender to immune-boosting frankincense, we’ll cover the safest essential oils tailored for children aged three and up. Plus, find out must-know usage tips and safety guidelines.
In a Nutshell
- Always dilute essential oils before using them on children, using appropriate carrier oils and sticking to safe dilution ratios of 0.25% for topical application.
- Choose child-friendly essential oils like lavender, chamomile, and citrus oils, and utilize them for calming bedtime routines and boosting the immune system, while avoiding oils that can pose health risks for children with specific conditions.
- Ensure essential oils are safely stored out of children’s reach, and always consult with healthcare professionals before using them to avoid potential adverse effects and ensure their safe application.
Safety Considerations for Kids and Essential Oils
While essential oils offer numerous benefits for your children, careful usage is paramount. Children above the age of 3 can typically benefit from essential oils, but the key lies in proper dilution and the right choice of oils. Essential oils are highly concentrated and can pose a risk if not used properly, particularly due to a child’s more permeable skin. A general guideline for safe usage involves a dilution ratio of approximately 0.25%, equating to about 1 drop of essential oil to 1.5 tablespoons of carrier oil.
However, many essential oils should not be used or handled by children with specific health conditions, including:
- lung conditions such as asthma
- allergies
- pregnancy
- seizure disorders
- heart conditions
- high blood pressure
- certain types of cancer
Children with these conditions should consult their healthcare provider before using essential oils. Additionally, expert advice from healthcare professionals on suitable dilution ratios and application methods is recommended.
You can also create some delicious immune building homemade elderberry gummies for kids to keep your child’s immune system in tip top shape.
Kid-Friendly Essential Oils: Top Picks
Navigating the maze of essential oils for kids can be daunting but fear not, there are certain essential oils deemed safe and effective for children over the age of 3. These include popular picks like:
- lavender
- peppermint
- citrus oils like sweet orange or mandarin
- ginger
- chamomile
- frankincense
- cedarwood
- sandalwood
The following sections will further elaborate on these kid-friendly oils and their benefits.
Calming and Soothing Oils
When bedtime tantrums are in full swing, calming and soothing oils can be your saving grace. Lavender oil, for instance, is renowned for its sedative properties. It helps relax the body, calm the mind, support sleep, and even ease itchy skin in children.
Another comforting essential oil is Roman Chamomile. Known for its gentle nature, it provides a soothing effect on children’s minds and bodies, promotes better sleep, eases colic discomfort, and uplifts mood.
Other soothing oils worth mentioning include Rose and Mandarin essential oils. These oils possess soothing properties that contribute to winding down before bedtime. Mandarin oil in particular offers a calming effect and is a good substitute for Lavender to promote restful sleep.
And let’s not forget Cedarwood essential oil and sandalwood essential oil. These oils are beneficial as part of a calming bedtime routine, creating a restful environment for children.
Concisely, these oils can serve as your secret tool for tranquil bedtime routines.
Immune Support Oils
Given the current times, strengthening your child’s immune system is of utmost importance. And that’s where immune support oils come into play. Some potent oils for immune support in children include:
- Black spruce oil: can calm and boost immune support
- Frankincense oil: known for its benefits in strengthening immune function, uplifting mood, and promoting relaxation
- Sweet Marjoram oil: helps in strengthening immune function, supporting respiratory and digestive systems, and encouraging restful sleep
The world of aromatherapy also offers ready-to-use blends that harness the power of multiple essential oils for immune support. For instance, the Immunity blend for kids includes Frankincense, Lemon, Lavender, Cardamom, and Marjoram, all beneficial for immune support. Likewise, the Thieves® essential oil blend, suitable for children over two years old, supports the immune system when applied to the feet with proper dilution. Nonetheless, for safety reasons, it’s necessary to follow age recommendations.
Mood-Boosting Oils
Children can have their off days too. But with mood-boosting essential oil, you can uplift their spirits and create a positive atmosphere. Citrus essential oils, for instance, are widely recognized for their ability to enhance mood and create a positive atmosphere for children. Neroli Essential Oil is another mood-boosting oil, known for providing emotional upliftment and can help stabilize mood swings in children.
Then there’s Tangerine Essential Oil, known for its properties that relax the body and ease an anxious mind, supporting overall tranquility. And last but not least, Bergamot essential oil, with its bright and cheerful aroma, is perfect for diffusing in children’s spaces to promote an uplifted and joyful environment.
Truly, mood-boosting oils could be transformative in handling those unexpected mood swings!
Carrier Oils for Children: Safe Options
Before jumping into essential oils, carrier oils warrant a discussion. Essential oils should never be used undiluted on children’s skin to prevent skin and eye irritation. Safe dilutions for children generally range from 0.5-2.5% depending on the condition and the child’s age and weight. And this is where carrier oils come in. They help dilute the essential oil, making them safe for topical application.
Some common carrier oils include:
- Coconut oil
- Jojoba oil
- Sweet almond oil
- Olive oil
- Avocado oil
These carrier oils can be used alone or in combination with each other to create a safe and effective blend for children.
Some safe carrier oils for children include:
- Fractionated coconut oil: popular choice for diluting an essential oil, liquid at room temperature, odorless, tasteless, easily absorbed by the skin
- Calendula oil: offers healing properties and benefits
- Sesame oil: offers healing properties and benefits
- Mustard oil: offers healing properties and benefits
- Almond oil: offers healing properties and benefits
- Castor oil: offers healing properties and benefits
- Sunflower oil: offers healing properties and benefits
Each of these oils can be used to dilute an essential oil for children and has its own unique properties and benefits.
Methods of Using an Essential Oil with Kids
Implementing an essential oil into your child’s routine can be as simple as diffusing a blend of Grapefruit, Rosemary, and Patchouli essential oil in their room for a calming and focused environment. Or, you could use the Herbal Bliss Diffuser recipe, with Lemongrass and Basil essential oil, to sharpen a child’s focus through aromatherapy.
There’s also the option of a Focused Breathing Body Oil, created with Lavender and Eucalyptus Essential Oil in a jojoba carrier oil. This can be massaged onto a child’s skin after a shower for a soothing effect. For children who may have sensitive skin, personal inhalers are a safe method to experience the benefits of kid safe essential oils without skin contact.
A relaxing aromatherapy bath, aromatherapy massage, or an aromatherapy spray can also be fun and effective ways to use when diffusing oils and any other essential oil with kids.
Precautions and Potential Reactions
While essential oils can be beneficial, they can also cause a range of adverse effects if not used correctly. These can include:
- Skin irritation
- Allergic reactions
- Headaches
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Respiratory problems
- Seizures
- Coma
- Liver toxicity
If a child experiences skin exposure to an essential oil, the area of the child’s skin should be decontaminated with soapy water. If eye irritation occurs, seek an ophthalmology review if symptoms persist.
Furthermore, using water-based diffusers should be done cautiously as they can lead to overexposure causing irritation to lungs, eyes, and skin. Before using any essential oil on a child’s skin, conduct a patch test on a small skin area and wait 24 hours to check for adverse reactions. This can help prevent potential allergic or irritative responses.
Essential Oil Blends for Children
As a parent, you might be looking for ready-made solutions that are both safe and effective for your child. Essential oil blends like the Peace & Calming blend, with constituents like Tangerine, Orange, Ylang Ylang, Patchouli, and Blue Tansy, offer a relaxing atmosphere before a child’s bedtime. There are also specialized collections like Plant Therapy’s KidSafe Collection, which includes blends like Germ Destroyer and Sniffle Stopper, designed to address common childhood concerns from cold symptoms to restlessness.
Another notable line is the ‘OK For Kids’ collection by Edens Garden. This line forms a suite of essential oil blends that have been formulated for the safety of children aged 2 and above. Each blend in this line is crafted by aromatherapists and chemists, ensuring a focus on child safety and blend effectiveness. These blends simplify safe topical application for children, making it easier for you to reap the benefits of essential oils for your child.
DIY Essential Oil Recipes for Kids
If you enjoy creating your personalized blends, here are some DIY essential oil recipes for kids. The Blissful Sleep Blend, for example, can be prepared using 2 drops each of Mandarin, Lavender, and Roman Chamomile essential oils in a carrier oil in a 10 ml rollerball bottle at a 2% dilution to help kids relax. A DIY Sleep Support blend made with 2 drops each of Sweet Orange, Frankincense, Roman Chamomile, and Lavender essential oils in a 10 ml rollerball bottle contains a sweet almond or grape seed carrier oil for a gentle 3% dilution.
For improvement in focus and concentration, use a blend of 3 drops of Lemon and 3 drops of Peppermint essential oils with 2 teaspoons of jojoba oil in a 10 ml glass roller bottle. You can also create aromatherapy sprays for children over the age of 3 by mixing essential oil with witch hazel, which can be used as pillow sprays or to dispel nighttime fears with a ‘monster spray’.
These DIY recipes can be a fun activity to do with your children, teaching them about the benefits of essential oils while creating custom blends suited to their needs. To customize the blends, simply add essential oils according to your child’s preferences and needs.
Storing and Handling Essential Oils Safely
Having equipped yourself with essential oils, correct storage and handling is very important. Here are some guidelines to follow:
- Essential oils should be stored in dark or amber-colored glass or stainless-steel containers to protect them from light and chemical interactions that could change their composition and degrade their quality.
- To prevent accidental ingestion or misuse by young children, essential oils must be kept securely in a place out of their reach.
- Essential oils should also be kept away from heat sources to reduce the risk of fire.
When purchasing essential oil, make are from reliable sources that provide pure oils without any adulterants and include detailed labeling information. For optimal preservation of their quality, essential oil can be stored in a consistent climate like a refrigerator; however, they should be allowed to return to room temperature before use. And remember to keep essential oil bottles tightly sealed when not in use to prevent oxidation, which can alter the properties of the oils, thereby affecting their effectiveness and safety.
Consultation with Healthcare Professionals
Despite the wealth of information provided in this blog post, consulting with a healthcare professional is essential to:
- Establish safe usage
- Determine suitable dilution ratios for essential oils
- Prevent worsening of conditions that could be adversely affected by essential oils
Using essential oil is considered a complementary therapy to conventional medicine and should not replace it, especially for the support of children’s immune systems.
Special caution and professional guidance are needed for children with the following conditions:
- Cancer
- Heart-related ailments
- Skin disorders
- Hormone-related ailments
- Epilepsy
- Taking prescription drugs
- Undergoing major surgery
- At risk of strokes, heart attacks, or atherosclerosis
Making sure the well-being of your child should always be the priority when considering any form of alternative therapy.
Final Thoughts
Wrapping up, essential oil offers a a lot of possibilities to enhance your child’s well-being. From calming bedtime routines with lavender and chamomile to boosting immunity with black spruce and frankincense, essential oils can be a valuable tool in your parenting arsenal. But remember, safety first! Always use essential oil with the right dilution, consult healthcare professionals, and follow the guidelines for safe usage.
The journey of diffusing oils with your child can be both rewarding and enriching, opening up a world of natural wellness options. So, get started, explore with caution, and let the power of nature nurture your child’s growth and development in a wholesome, holistic way!
Frequently Asked Questions
Which essential oils are safe for kids?
Lavender, chamomile, Frankincense, Cedarwood, Sandalwood, peppermint, sweet orange, mandarin, and ginger are safe essential oils for children over the age of 3, as they are gentle and effective.
What essential oils are good for children’s colds?
Eucalyptus radiata and officinal lavender essential oils are great choices for relieving children’s cold symptoms, as they are soothing and promote sleep, making breathing easier during the night.
Which oils are good for kids?
Coconut oil, almond oil, and jojoba oil are considered safe for children. Make sure to dilute essential oils with a carrier oil before using them on kids.
Are essential oils safe for kids?
Yes, essential oils can be safe for children over 3 years old if used correctly, including choosing the right oils, diluting them properly, and seeking guidance from healthcare professionals.
How can I use essential oils safely with my kids?
You can use essential oils safely with your kids by using methods like diffusers, inhalers, aromatherapy baths, massages, and sprays, and always diluting the oils with a carrier oil before applying topically. Be mindful of proper dilution and application methods to ensure safety for your kids.