Bio Bébé: Coconut Oil

Growing up with a hippie mom meant I was the guinea pig as she experimented with alternative medicines and healing. Tea bags on my face were meant to cure my teenage—and very hormonal—acne. She gave me Ayurvedic oils for dry skin, and at the age of 16 I was drinking ground flax seed with orange juice to give my system an extra oomph to keep things moving. Not everything worked (the flax is a keeper, the tea bags not so much) but what I did take from my hippie upbringing was that natural remedies are at least worth trying.

Since I was pregnant I have used various creams, trying to prevent stretch marks, heal stretch marks, soothe post-labor hemorrhoids, and, of course, sore and chapped newly-nursed nipples. I chose to use products with more natural ingredients and there was one ingredient which appeared in practically everything: coconut oil.

If this particular oil was in everything, I reasoned, it must be the healer of all healers. So what could I do with only coconut oil? While natural remedies do not work all of the time, coconut oil has a multitude of uses—many for baby and also a few for mom. Buy a jar at the bio shop and keep it nearby.*

Cradle cap
My little Grady, like many babies, was born very late, at 41 weeks and four days to be exact. So when she came out, the vernix on her skin was gone and the skin was peeling like crazy. Cut to the rough, scaly patches of skin on her eyebrows and scalp. One pediatrician said to use Head & Shoulders and while I had a bottle in the shower for me, I didn’t feel comfortable using this on my two-week-old’s head, so I used coconut oil instead. The coconut oil helped Grady’s skin peel evenly as she detoxed during the transition from womb to world. I rubbed a little bit on the top of her scalp where the skin was scaly and then used a brush to loosen things up. If it was an evening when we couldn’t get to brushing, I left the coconut oil overnight. Her scalp looked less than fresh the next morning, but she had a full night of moisture.

Note: Grady still has mild cradle cap and without a prescription I doubt it will go away completely but it doesn’t hurt her so I do not mind using a natural remedy. That said, she also has a lot of hair and it’s harder to brush through the scalp. I wish I had taken this remedy more seriously when she was younger.

Dry & Irritated Skin
Along with the cradle cap Grady had dry skin around the eyebrows, which was gone in just a few days with a few rubs of coconut oil. Around six or seven weeks after birth and after a lot of bathtime where I was very careful, I realized that behind her ears and under her neck there was a lot of moisture buildup from me being afraid to dry too vigorously. Again, with only a few days of coconut oil before bed, the red, irritated skin was healed.

Burns
Hopefully you will never have to test this out on your little one and while I have been lucky to not have to deal with Grady having any burns, I have burned myself a few times cooking (or yes, with a curling iron) and keeping the burn moisturized with coconut oil sped up healing.

Mom deserves a benefit too!
Most of the natural salves for post-labor healing contain coconut oil and just like we’re told to massage our perineum before having a baby, it doesn’t hurt to continue to TLC after the labor and coconut oil is a good choice of cream and/or oil to use.

When in doubt…
There are so many ways for the entire family to use coconut oil. You can find it at Paris bio shops like Bio C’Bon and Naturalia in the oil sections. It comes in a jar and looks like white wax. It doesn’t come in a bottle like olive oil.

* For some ailments, prescription medication may be needed. I am not a doctor and this is about my own experience. Please see your doctor for more information if specific ailments persist.

Baby image via Biconi, Coconut jars image via Care 2

Kristen Beddard is the founder of The Kale Project and author of Savez-Vous Manger Les Choux? (Marabout).