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Sunday, September 26, 2010

Coconut Oil

One of the challenges we discovered when we started cloth diapering was the fact that most diaper creams on the market are not "cloth diaper safe."  Using these creams with cloth diapers will cause the cloth diapers to repel moisture rather than absorb it.  Not good.

After some good old fashioned research, I read that some people have good luck using coconut oil as a rash cream.  Loving the natural idea of this, we picked some up from a local natural food store.  We bought a large peanut butter sized jar for about $10.  I was surprised to find it is thick, almost like a salve (it turns liquid when heated). 

Love, love, love it!  Works just as good or better as any of the rash creams we have tried.  Bonus: it doesn't cause little man's diapers to leak all over the place!   Along the way we have discovered many other wonderful uses for it:
  • Skin care: does wonders for cradle cap/dandruff, dry/cracked skin, and even wrinkles (so I hear)
  • Healthy cooking
  • Hair conditioner
  • First aid:  speeds up the healing of bruises and protects cuts/scrapes from bacteria 
  • Arthritis treatment