Salvation – soothing salves for peachy bottoms

There are two key ingredients to a peachy bottom – the first is a good, comfy cloth nappy, changed regularly. The second is organic baby bottom balm. We’ve tried pretty much everything – from homemade lotions and potions to expensive oils and unguents. Here are our current favourites for our babies’ bottoms:

Green People – Baby Bottom Balm
Green People – Baby Salve (great on eczema and sore creases and currently on special offer)
Maison Boo – Baby Boo Organic Bottom Balm (expensive but delicious)
Weleda – Calendula Nappy Change Cream (this is our all time favourite – an every day nappy bag essential)

Salves and balms are really useful if your baby suffers from bog standard  nappy rash(sorry – couldn’t resist at least one toilet joke). They work by providing a gentle barrier that keeps moisture away from the skin. They’re also helpful to use on sore neck creases, if your baby is inclined to dribble milk and then end up with a cheesy neck (it’s happened to the best of us). Wash gently with warm water and nothing else (no soap, no bubbles, nothing!), pat dry gently and then slather on the balm!

Organic creams are great if your baby tends towards dry, sensitive skin or eczema. Make certain sure that they don’t contain any perfume. It’s completely potty, but a lot of non-organic baby products feel the need to include perfume (parfum) as one of their ingredients and it’s the source of a lot of irritation – for mums as well as babies!

For both scarlet bottoms and skin irritations, it’s worth keeping an eye on diet (yours if you’re still breast feeding and theirs if they’re already weaned) - citrus fruits are a common culprit (when eaten by the handful as our children tend to do)

Finally, if you’ve got a properly sore bottom on your hands, fresh air is the best remedy! Get that nappy off and give that pudgy bottom some air.

Skin care for babies with sensitive skin and eczema

Eczema is incredibly hard to live with as a child. As a parent, one is constantly on the lookout for new ways to help ease it. Any parent whose child has eczema will very swiftly become an expert in what works for their own child. We have a lot of personal experience with managing eczema. Here are a few top tips on skincare for babies and children with eczema.

Bath time?
Sensitive skin tends to be quite dry and the key in caring for this type of skin is to avoid stripping away the skin’s protective layer of oil. Babies and young children really don’t need soap or bubble bath. Even bathing with plain old water will tend to dry skin out. Children don’t get smelly like adults do and most of the muck that needs washing off them will succumb to a good flannel! 

There! It’s out in the open - our children are a bunch of soap-dodgers.

Top and tail with a soft flannel, avoid bathing unless they’re properly grubby (we’re talking an afternoon of mud pies) and give yourself a green pat on the back, because with a stack of soft flannels at hand, you’re also avoiding throwing away mountains of baby wipes!

Soothing the itch
The best products we’ve found are:

AVEENO – available in most pharmacies and some supermarkets. The intense dry skin range from AVEENO uses colloidal oatmeal and natural ingredients to soothe irritation and put moisture back into the skin. The colloidal oatmeal bath is wonderful. Follow it up with a massage before bedtime (we use organic olive oil for this) and you’ll have glowing happy children.

Baby salve – an organic baby balm from Green People, specially formulated for babies with eczema and sensitive skin. Use it on your nipples too if they’re in need of some loving care!

Viridian Organic Chickweed Ointment – chickweed is super against eczema. Of all the old fashioned remedies out there, this is the one that does the business. If you’re looking for a friendly alternative to cortisone steroid creams, try chickweed! We haven’t found it in any shops, so we usually buy it online – just search in Google.

More soon…

DamTam – breasts, babies, business as usual

Green is a way of life that is increasingly mainstream. You no longer need to croon to an acoustic guitar or have flowers painted on your naked breasts to count as someone who cares about the planet (though of course what you choose to get up to at the weekend is entirely your own business).

When our babies were born, we were filled with such a sense of love and awe, that immediately and effortlessly, we became dyed in the wool greenies. Not that we didn’t start off a bit eco at heart, but babies brought it all into focus.

To be honest, that was far from the only thing that changed. We also learnt swift and vital life lessons in cat-napping, cake-scoffing and the subtle art of getting your breasts out in public.

Still, long nights aside, there is nothing better in the world than a newborn baby. Half dreaming, only just arrived, but already the centre of everything…

DamTam is a business answering to the heart. It was created as an answer to a lot of the questions that we asked as new parents, and we started the business in the hope that it would also answer the needs of lots of other new parents (and aunties, and uncles, and grandparents, and good friends).

Now, five years on, our babies are not so tiny any more. They have blossomed into rambunctious, cheerful, filthy and fearless children. As they have grown, we have gradually expanded our range, from essential organic cotton babywear to a whole range of colourful organic clothes for growing girls and boys.

Our children (and their friends and cousins) thoroughly road-test any new designs. When they have painted masterpieces, helped with the cooking, and rolled down the grassy bank in the garden, we throw all the clothes into the wash and see if they come out looking as good on the next outing, and the one after that.

We’re now old hands at organic babygrows, and real nappies, and t-shirts, and trousers, and dresses, but we’re new to the world of blogging. Nevertheless, there are oodles of things that we have diligently researched over the last few years in our capacity as inquisitive green mummies.

So, we decided to get out that file (you know the one - in our filing cabinet it’s called “Interesting things”) and start blogging, in the hope that you may find a few nuggets that are useful, gossip-worthy, or simply raise a smile. Yes, even at 4am!

In the mood for shopping?

For funky organic baby clothes and colourful organic children’s clothing, come and visit the shop: http://www.damtam.com