So fresh and so clean

Bug has been having trouble with Excema lately. At least, that’s what we think it is. The patches on his skin are barely visible but he scratches all the time. It’s been a busy few weeks with Little Bear turning three but some initial research on Google led me to find some articles indicating detergent as a leading cause of skin trouble.

Unfortunately, a little more research illuminated an important, yet discouraging, point.

1. Detergent is in everything. Literally.

2. “Detergent” is not just one ingredient.

3. People use the word “detergent” when they don’t actually mean it AND

4. Not everything that has detergent in it is labeled detergent.

Again, I haven’t done a ton of research on this but while I did, I came up with two laundry options that are both detergent free.

One is Zote soap flakes. They can be found at Wal Mart and are about $2.60/box (at least that’s what they are here). Several washes with this and several wash cycles with no soap left both clothes and cloth diapers smelling, well, like clothes. Even the diapers were totally fresh. I was initially a little worried because they have quite a strong citronella smell out of the box but it dissipated by the time the clothes were out of the dryer.

When I had a tiny bit more time on my hands, I followed this recipe from “Nature’s Nurture” for making my own laundry soap. This is an awesome blog but once again, the author is using the word “detergent” for something that is, finally, not actually “detergent.” Which is great for me! Anyway, it was easy to make, other than the fact that my arm got tired after grating the bar of soap (that’s a little bit sad, isn’t it). Also, all of the ingredients could be found at Wal Mart.

Now, I do want to note here that I am not in love with that specific store BUT my husband and I work full time and it was important to me to be able to find things locally. The ingredients used added up to probably less than $8.00 but I don’t remember exactly.

 

In any case, the castille soap comes in packages of three so I made two batches. I actually sort of miss the smell of the Zote, though, and as a bonus, it’s already shredded, so I might use that instead next time. And as for Bug? His skin actually seems better. Of course, there’s still the detergent in shampoo, sun screen, hair products, makeup, dish soap….

…but we’re getting to that.