Essential oils are pure aromatic plant essences – they are distilled from the flowers, fruits, leaves, resins, roots, seeds, and wood of plants. The use of essential oils dates back to the ancient Egyptians who used them for ceremonial purposes.
Today we have refined destillation processes and amplified the range of oils available. Quality standards are different too, there are even synthetic essential oils. As we are talking about children its important to talk about quality. Never use synthetic essential oils on children. Make shire the oils are high quality and with organic certification if possible. Also make shure they are 100 % pure, undiluted therapeutical essential oils. Because essential oils applied in the correct way can benefit a lot our childs health and well-being and yours too.
In general and especially in children essential oils are for external use only. You can add essential oils to creams, lotions, compresses, lotions and bathwater. Aromatherapy addresses the healing of minor illness and accidents, helps to create an overall sense of wellbeing and helps kids to sleep and relax.
How to use essential oils
There are two ways of using the oils, one is via air by inhalation using diffuser, nebulizer or other ways of disperse the fragrance of the oil into the air, by adding it to hot water when bathing for example. The other way is by diluting some drops in creams, lotions or carrier oils to be applied topically.On how to dilute there is a big range of recommendations. In general a tablespoon of carrier oil is mixed with 1 to 5 drops of essential oil. In younger children use less, when alraedy more grown and you already have some experience add more.
There are general guidlines on how to dilute essential oils depending on the age of the kid. Start with low dosis and get into personal exploration, its personal and you are the one who knows your child best. Trust your instinct. This numbers are per age of the child and amount of Essential Oil per One Ounce Carrier Oil for Topical/Massage Application:
Newborn
In the first month it is not recommended to use essential oils. After the second month you can try 1-3 drops of essential oil per ounce of carrier oil.
First years
After the first year you can try up to 4 drops of essential oil per ounce of carrier oil.
After 5, young child
After the 5th birthday you can start using 5 to 8 drops of essential oils per ounce of carrier oil.
Young schoolkid, 6 to 9 years
You can add up to 10 drops to one ounce of carrier oil
After the 9 years up to 12 years up to 12 drops per ounce of carrier oil is fine.
12 years to young adult
10-15 drops essential oil / ounce
DO NOT USE AN ESSENTIAL OIL NEAT (undiluted ) on children’s skin.
Keep essential oils away form the eyes. When using citrus oils – orange, bergamot, lemon, tangerine, mandarin, and lime – do not use where the skin will be exposed to sunlight for the next 12 hours. The most important thing for kids and their physical and emotional health is caring parents. Use aromatherapy to connect with your child, mix a nice oil and give it a gentle massage, this releases tensions of all kind, not only in the kid, also in the parent.Make aromatherapy an excuse to give your child a relaxing moment of total connection with its loved ones. Enjoy.