Why I created a natural hand sanitiser for my 6-year-old

One of the ways my 6-year-old son's anxiety presented itself was through a lot of hand washing. Between hand washing with soap and using hand gel from the pharmacy after school, at the doctor's, in hospital, his hands were red and sore. Doctors visits resulted in cortisone cream as it was ‘just a flare up of his eczema’. The cortisone hurt him as his skin was broken and it became a vicious cycle.

Preventing Dry Hands

Once we had healed his skin after his worst breakout (see photo), we realised prevention was going to be key. It was around this time I had started studying Aromatherapy. I was learning the antiseptic power of Tea Tree Oil and Lavender Oil and started thinking that there must be a way to get this onto my son's hands that would be more gentle than the commercial hand sanitisers. Between my course and some research, I learned how to make a hand gel that wasn’t too oily, dried in quickly and that the kids liked the smell of.

Over time, using this hand sanitiser I created, we had a gel that the kids reached for themselves and had all the antiseptic properties needed to kill any bacteria/virus/fungi.

The base in this product is Aloe Vera combined with Almond Oil which is both very gentle and moisturising on the skin. The oils used are Tea Tree, which kills any bacteria/virus/fungus, and Lavender which also has antiseptic properties and increases the effectiveness of Tea Tree Oil.

As an aside .. I would not use essential oils (even in a blend) on broken/inflamed skin. If the skin is damaged, I would use a base oil on the area, then a blend elsewhere, so there is no risk of irritation and the oils will still be absorbed into the bloodstream to take effect.