Essential Oils and Children

More and more people are using essential oils in their home and with their families. Today I wanted to give some guidelines about using essential oils on and around children.

Never apply undiluted essential oils to any part of the body. 

Do not add undiluted essential oils to bathwater
Essential oils aren’t soluble in water, so when you add essential oils to bath water, you’re potentially applying them at full strength to your child’s skin, which can lead to reactions and sensitization.

Don’t add to drinks

Keep out of reach of children. 
Some common essential oils are potentially toxic to small children if ingested at full strength. Always keep your essential oils out of reach of children and use oils with child-proof caps if available. Common essential oils, (yes, even when they’re “pure”) can be toxic to a child if swallowed neat, including thyme, peppermint, birch, rosemary, tea tree, cinnamon, clove, basil, pine, oregano, eucalpytus, and some lavenders.

Don’t ingest
Some essential oil companies (or their sales reps) propose that ingesting essential oils can cure ailments. Don’t give essential oils to children to take internally, even diluted. Some essential oils can have accumulative toxicities–just because you’ve been ingesting them for months or even years safely doesn’t mean that it’s okay–you may have hidden toxicities that will appear later.

Properly dilute

Premature infant: do not use
Up to 3 months: .1%
3-4 months: .25%
2-6 years: 1%
6-15 years: 1.5%

(Adapted from “Essential Oil Safety” 2nd ed, Robert Tisserand.)