Ep. 92: Essential Oils for Kids: How to Dilute Safely for Every Age - Part 2
SHOW NOTES
In this episode of the Vetiver Vibes podcast, hosts Nikki Fraser and Rachael Dean continue their safety dilution series, focusing specifically on dermal dilution by age. As Certified Clinical Aromatherapists, we understand the importance of using essential oils safely, especially when it comes to children and the elderly.
We begin by discussing the varying dilution ratios needed for different age groups, emphasizing that the essential oils suitable for babies can differ significantly from those for adults. Our chart outlines the recommended dilution percentages for various age ranges: from infants (0-3 months), babies (4 months to 24 months), to young children (2-6 years), and then older children (6-16 years) and adults (16+ years). We stress the importance of starting with lower dilutions and gradually increasing them as necessary, while also highlighting that sometimes essential oils may not be needed at all.
A significant portion of our conversation revolves around the safety of using essential oils on babies. We share personal anecdotes about our experiences as parents, particularly the challenges of dealing with diaper rash and the careful consideration we took when choosing to use essential oils like Roman chamomile and lavender. We caution against using certain oils, such as clove, on infants due to their potential risks.
We also touch on the importance of proper dilution, especially for sensitive skin, and the need for a risk-benefit analysis when deciding to use essential oils on children. As we move through the age groups, we explain that while young children can handle slightly higher dilutions, it’s still wise to err on the side of caution and use the lowest effective percentage.
Additionally, we address the topic of using essential oils with the elderly, emphasizing that frail skin requires lower dilutions and that hydrolats can be a safer alternative, especially for those on oxygen therapy. We remind our listeners that aromatic use of essential oils can often provide the desired benefits without the need for topical application.
Throughout the episode, we encourage our audience to reach out with questions and to download our free dilution charts available on our website. We conclude by inviting listeners to tune in for the next episode, where we will delve deeper into dermal dilutions and their applications.
Thank you for joining us for this informative discussion on essential oil safety and dilution by age. We hope you find the insights shared here valuable for your aromatherapy journey!
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00:00:00 - Introduction to Vetiver Vibes Podcast
Welcome to the Vetiver Vibes podcast with hosts Nikki Fraser and Rachael Dean.00:00:14 - Sponsor Message: Essentria
Information about Essentria, an online school for aromatherapy.00:00:29 - Part Two: Safety Dilution Series
Introduction to the topic of dermal dilution by age.00:00:44 - Understanding Dilution by Age
Discussion on how essential oil dilution varies from babies to adults.00:01:59 - Essential Oils for Babies
Guidelines for using essential oils on infants and the importance of natural scents.00:03:01 - Risk-Benefit Analysis
Personal anecdotes on using essential oils for diaper rash and the importance of proper dilution.00:04:28 - Microdilution for Babies
Explanation of microdilution and its significance for infants.00:06:04 - Safe Essential Oils for Babies
Discussion on which essential oils are safe for babies, emphasizing lavender and Roman chamomile.00:07:08 - Dilution Guidelines for Young Children
Overview of dilution percentages for young children and the importance of starting low.00:09:03 - Dilution for Adults and Sensitive Areas
Guidelines for dilution percentages for adults and sensitive areas like the face.00:10:02 - Avoiding Overuse of Essential Oils
Cautions against using essential oils too frequently and their effects on the autonomic nervous system.00:10:44 - Considerations for the Elderly
Discussion on dilution for elderly individuals and the importance of using hydrolats.00:12:32 - Aromatic Use of Essential Oils
Benefits of using essential oils aromatically, especially for the elderly.00:12:42 - Questions and Resources
Encouragement to reach out with questions and information about free resources.00:13:05 - Conclusion and Next Episode Teaser
Wrap-up of the episode and a preview of the next topic in the series. -
Rachael: Welcome to the Vetiver Vibes podcast, where your hosts, Nikki Fraser and Rachael Dean, certified clinical aromatherapists. We are excited to have you here on today's episode, where you know that you'll get the best essential oil scoop.
Nikki: This episode is brought to you by Essentria a leading online school for aromatherapy. If you want to learn more about aromatherapy with kids, check out the courses at www.schoolofessentia.com. Welcome to this week's episode of Vetiver Vibes. Nikki Fraser here with Rachael Dean. Hi. And we are part two of our safety dilution series. And today we're going to be talking about dermal dilution by age.
Rachael: by age because the essential oils you need to use on a baby could be zero, but can change drastically between if you're a baby through to an adult, through to an elderly, and then everything in between. So depending on kind of what your health status is, et cetera. So typically when we're chatting, I think we said in the last episode that we're talking about just a standard healthy adult. So those are our normal blend ratios and stuff so This one here is another chart I can kind of show here a little bit, but it kind of goes over babies, um, zero to three months, babies, three to 24 months, young children, which is like two to six years. Um, and then children to young adults, which is six to 16 years. And then adults, which is 16 plus years. Um, and the range of that changes drastically. So it kind of goes from 0.1% all the way up to 5% on this particular chart and. The difference of that is based just on kind of where people are at. And as I said before, we want to start low and then you can slowly increase. And sometimes you don't actually need essential oils.
Nikki: So yes, that's something that we remind people all the time. We do get the question a lot of. You know, I have a baby at home. Uh, I just had a baby. My baby's three months old, six months old, one year old. How much can I use? And one, like you said, Rachael health is always, so we typically, like you said, talk about healthy adults. These are healthy children. It's not compromised health children either, healthy children, but their lungs are still developing, their organs are still developing, their skin, their senses, and they can get overstimulated very, very quickly. And on top of that, especially when we're talking about babies, babies need to smell parents. This is important for bonding. This is important for nurturing that growth and bonding experience between babies and parents, which is a lot of times why we say, you know, don't diffuse around little ones. especially for birthing, different things like that. But we want as much natural scent as possible between babies and parents. So if you can avoid essential oils and just use carrier oils or hydro lats, even better. But if you always outweighing the risk, where I've definitely used essential oils when my when my babies were baby babies, at just a few weeks old, because the diaper rash was atrocious. They didn't fit into their, we used cloth diapers, and they didn't fit into their cloth bums yet. They were too tiny, my second was too tiny, so we had to use disposables for those first couple weeks, and for my oldest too, but my oldest I wasn't aware of essential oils yet, but my second I was. it was like blister upon blister on his poor bum and i was heartbroken as a parent trying to figure out how to help and outweighing the risk of something over the counter that i wasn't comfortable putting on their body because it had carcinogenics all kinds of other products that i wasn't comfortable putting on his skin or a blend of coconut oil and one drop properly diluted of Roman chamomile or one drop properly diluted of lavender, to me, it was a no-brainer that that's what I would use. And that's where you need to take that risk-benefit analysis of yourself, of what you're comfortable, but this is why it's important to properly dilute. So if you haven't listened to our part one where we talked about dilution, how to dilute appropriately, this is where microdilution comes in. This is why we have that microdilution chart. is because of babies and young children that we need to properly dilute in those micro amounts.
Rachael: And one thing to add to this as well is just because you have an essential oil and just because you can dilute the essential oil to like what we're saying right now is the basic overall required percentages for safety, that doesn't mean you should ever actually use that essential oil. It still depends on what are the safety, what are the safety outlines of that specific oil. So like you would never use clove on most people kind of thing. But for babies, typically the only two oils that I think either of us would typically use is lavender and Roman chamomile. You know, there will be other ones that are potentially out there that we would use. But those are like two of the simplest, gentlest essential oils. that you could use a baby so you know but we wouldn't use i wouldn't use citrus on a baby i wouldn't use lots of other oils on no not when applying and especially clothing i'm so happy you brought that up because.
Nikki: Honestly, it breaks my heart the amount of posts I see of teething babies and I see parents putting clove on their jaws, which when they're then eating it, which is so, so dangerous at that age especially because they can't voice how it does hurt and will burn them.
Rachael: um or even on the jaw which at least it's slightly better but clove should please don't use clove on your baby's wall teeth no but you could use lavender lavender can help with pain so can roman chamomile and if you feel like that is something that could uh that you were dealing with and you wanted to try it as long as you dilute it um to Those lower very low.
Nikki: Yeah, or even a frankincense and yeah, and we're rubbing our jaws. So those who are on YouTube Don't put it on the gums apply it on the jawline. So wherever the tooth is coming through, you know put it on on that area along the jaw line, and that is going to be more beneficial than putting it on the gums. Please don't put it there. I can't stress it enough. But that's where is, you know, that risk-benefit analysis of what you're going to do. But for babies, you know, it's that zero, and so babies, that zero to three months, 0.1 to 0.2 percent. So not even a full percent, like 0.1 percent. This is why we get into that micro dilution. So it really, really doesn't take a whole lot. And to get a full drop of that, you need to make 60 milliliters of a blend to get a 0.1 dilution. And that's one drop in 60 milliliters. So you really, really don't need a lot at those infant ages.
Rachael: Yeah, exactly. Um, the percentages then slightly increases, you know, people get older, the babies get older, and they turn into young children. But even then, like at two to six years, you're still using one to 2% at the most, you know, and you can use less. So you could also just use the carrier oils, you can just use hydro lats, there's lots of other options. And you know, you can try if the 0.5% and if that's works for whatever it is that your child needs, great, use that. There's no reason that you have to use the 1%. That's a guideline. All of these are guidelines. This is just, you know, you could always use less, but don't use more.
Nikki: Yeah. And the thing I like to point out on this chart too, is that, so for babies, it says three to 24 months. Um, so the second, age group of babies, three to 24 months, and then young children is two to six years. So you have two years technically in both because 24 months is two years. And we often will see people with two-year-olds making that 2% blend. So remember, there's a huge difference between two and six years of age. Like that child will triple in size and be able to handle a lot more at six versus two for anything life in general, but even essential oils, right? Keeping it down. I still, my kids are 11 and nine. I will still often only do a 0.5% blend for them if I need to make anything. depending on what it is. So, you know, like you said, Rachael, you can always go down, but at that two years, I typically go with the lower, always at the lower, because again, that's at the bottom of young children. You're at the bottom of the age. So I always start at the lowest amount possible.
Rachael: Yeah. Um, and then as you become a, you know, healthy adults, you know, you can go up to the two to 5%, but as we've already been saying too, you could also use 1% and see if the blend works for you, you know, and the next episode we're going to talk about is kind of where you're using them on your body and why that might change what percentage you can use in different areas. So please stay tuned for that because that's also very important. Um, but if you're using them in a very sensitive area, such as your face or, um, mostly I guess your face is the really most sensitive area. Don't use the higher percentages there. You know, the maximum for your face is 1.5%, but you also want to use much less. The skin on your face is significantly more sensitive. I personally have rosacea, as I've mentioned before in the podcast. And so, you know, if I was to use anything higher, like it would just make that very upsetting for my, for my skin. Whereas I could use essential oils and, at a lower dose and it can calm my face. Right. So, you know, you don't want to sensitize yourself or trigger issues either.
Nikki: Yeah. And you don't want to use them too much throughout the day. Like not every product that you use needs to have essential oils, because then again, you're inundating the body. with oils all day long, which can then have the opposite effect of what we need. Instead of calming, it can actually dysregulate our autonomic nervous system, which is what we are not wanting to do. Typically, we're using it to help regulate and strengthen that parasympathetic system. So this is why if you're using it, only use it when needed. The other thing, this dermal dilution by age, it really focuses on children, but there are elderly too. And so elderly, and I really don't like saying elderly, think of them as children because that's not at all what it is. But when we're looking at essential oil use, you know, it's that, again, that lower dilution, that 0.5% is going to often be great. And by elderly, I mean frail. Just because someone is, to me, 60 is not elderly.
Rachael: Also, but like it could be, yeah, the frail, I think it's like if you're, you know, if you're grabbing someone's hand and you can tell that the skin is very thin as it ages, right? You know, I might get in trouble for talking about, but both my parents, they are technically elderly seniors, what have you, but neither of them have frail skin at all. Like they would a hundred percent use the same blends I would use still. They're both in great condition that way. Um, but I know lots of other people who are the same age as them and their skin is very frail and like thin and you know, um, if they get a wound, it might not heal as easily and things like that. So that's kind of what we mean by elderly.
Nikki: Yeah, and that's where you know hydrolats are great. And especially if they are on any kind of oxygen, then you don't want to use essential oils either. You want to stick with the hydrolats if they are on oxygen, just because we want to avoid anything that could be flammable or anything like that around it. So it's always just better to err on the side of caution when people are on oxygen and only use the hydrolats. And even at that, a lot of times too, using them aromatically is another great option. I know we're talking about dilution, so when we're really focusing on applying it topically but aromatically a lot of times that will have just as many benefits as applying them topically and a lot of times that's all that's needed is that aromatic aspect of using the essential oils that way.
Rachael: Yep, that's important too. Yeah, so if you have any questions about these things, please feel free to reach out and, you know, ask on our social media page, that kind of thing, so that other people can, you know, help get those answers as well if they have questions. And don't forget to download these free charts at our website at schoolofacentria.com slash en slash free.
Nikki: Thank you for tuning in to part two of our safety and dilution series.
Rachael: We'll see you soon with the dermal dilutions. Have a great day, everyone. Bye. Bye. Thank you for spending your time with us here at Vetiver Vibes. This episode was brought to you by Essentria a leading online aromatherapy school. Don't forget to check out some of our free resources at www.schoolofessentia.com.
Nikki: If you loved this episode or you got a lot of value out of it, please make sure you share it with someone in your community who you think would enjoy it too. If you haven't already subscribed or reviewed the show yet, you can go on over to your preferred streaming platform and hit subscribe, then leave a review. This is the best way to help support us and we appreciate it. Email us with a screenshot of your review and we will send you a free guided meditation as our way to say thank you.
Rachael: This podcast is for information purposes only. We are certified clinical aromatherapists and holistic health professionals. If you have a medication concern, please refer to your health team. Everyone's health is unique to themselves, so the topics and suggestions stated may or may not apply directly to you.
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This podcast is for information purposes only. We are certified clinical aromatherapists and holistic health professionals. If you have a medication concern, please refer to your health team. Everyone’s health is unique to themselves, so the topics and suggestions stated may or may not apply directly to you. Please reach out to an aromatherapist to work with or consider training to become one yourself!
Show music: Happy Dreams - By David Fesliyan
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