Using essential oils

Health statistics

How does this chemical exposure affect our babies & kids? 

Australian Cancer rates

• 1 in 3 Men 

• 1 in 4 Women
  

And in the US it’s 1 in 2 men, and 1 in 3 women.

But...many of these are due to lifestyle choices, reducing chemical exposure is one easy way to reduce this risk.

Isn’t this worth it?

We’ll explore how you can easily transition to reducing the chemicals in your home.

Epigenetics

Extra - read up on Epigenetics if you haven’t heard of this term yet. In a nutshell it’s about how your lifestyle and environment can determine how genes are expressed and which ones turn on and off. Truly life changing!!

My natural toolkit: Essential oils

For me essential oils are my first go-to as part of my natural toolkit.  Often they may stop minor issues becoming major issues, and I like exploring natural alternatives first, especially when it comes to my delicate babies!! Let’s explore the most popular ones, starting with the single oils (meaning they come from a single plant)

Lavender

Commonly referred to as the Swiss-army knife of oils! Add this to the diffuser before bed to help create a calming atmosphere ready for sleep. I love adding this to a sleepy-time rollerbottle and my kids apply it themselves! Recipe next! As in an earlier slide, it’s also great for healthy skin, especially after a long day in the sun.

Lemon

All the citrus oils are great to uplift your mood. They are cold-pressed from the rind of the fruit (i.e. the zest), and it’s refreshing in water (without the acidity from the juice). It’s also a great compliment to your weight management program, and great for cleaning and removing any sticky residue after peeling off stickers!

Frankincense

This is commonly referred to as The King of Oils! It’s been used in spiritual ceremonies for thousands of years, so a great addition for meditation, setting intentions before your yoga practice, giving you inner strength when needed, and of course a key ingredient to rejuvenate ageing skin. A friend of mine told me about popping 1 drop on her child’s head during the crazy afternoon period and worked wonders!

Copaiba

This is the key single oil in the Stress Away blend, so it’s great to elevate your mood, and also incredibly soothing for troubled skin which is why I like it in my face and eye serums. 

Peppermint

1 drop is equivalent to 28 cups of peppermint tea so this is POTENT!! Young Living’s essential oil smells exactly like the plant. Others can smell sweet, almost like a candy cane, and can potentially be as they have been adulterated and have had synthetic vanillin added. This is typically produced using petrochemicals and byproducts from the paper industry.

This is one of my hubby’s favourites as it’s great for mental focus, is very cooling so great on hot days (just add a few drops to a little spray bottle with water), and for tired muscles.If you’re up for a couple of challenges: 

1. Pop a drop of Peppermint in the palm of your hands, rub them together, cup them over your mouth and nose (not eyes!) and breathe deeply. BOOM!

2. Pop a drop of Peppermint on the back of your hand, let it run a little, then lick the bottom that drop first (then the rest), and notice how you feel? Refreshing??

Recipe – Sleepy-time 

Everyone (adults + kids!) in our house is covered in this blend before bed time! We have it in a rollerbottle for easy use, and we apply it to our wrists, temples, back of the neck and the bottoms of our feet.

Lavender, Frankincense and Cedarwood all promote a calm atmosphere, and for an extra boost treat yourself to some Vetiver – WOW. 

Just be warned that you will need patience when waiting for the Vetiver oil to drop from the bottle, it’s an incredibly thick oil so hang in there! We like to call this our Vetiver Meditation ;-)

TIP – I found I was making lots of pre-diluted rollerbottles so they were ready to use for the kids, and a great way you can do this is to reuse your old 5ml or 15ml essential oil bottles and pop a YL Aromaglide fitment (rollerball) on it and use a liquid carrier oil like fractionated coconut oil/MCT for easy use! These fitments are in steel so the rollerball won’t fall out (like it does with plastic ones).

Essential oil blends

Now let’s explore some of the most popular essential oil blends. Here single oils have been blended to work together synergistically, and many of them are named after their purpose, or their emotional quality:

Purification

If you ever go out for a nature walk – pack yourself some Purification, trust me! It’s cleansing for the skin, helps with outdoor annoyances, and is also an odour neutraliser (stinky shoes anyone?) Just mix 10 drops into a 50ml bottle of water, shake and spray!

DiGize

Is simply amazing after a big meal, or when you’re travelling and have decided to experiment with some local cuisine! Simply rub on your tummy (grab some carrier oil for a bonus massage), and you’ll be ready for dessert in no time ;-) This was really useful when my little boy was a newborn too and his tummy was getting used to digesting breastmilk just dilute with extra carrier oils for babies.

Thieves

This is a powerhouse oil! It protects and defends your body, and your home, and is the key oil blend in the Inner Defense supplement, which supports the immune system.

It is a blend of Clove, Lemon, Cinnamon Bark, Eucalyptus Radiata, Rosemary.

Clove essential oil has the highest ORAC (antioxidant rating) of any plant, soars to over 10 million, most other antioxidants are rated in the 10,000’s-100,000’s at best (e.g. acai berries, blueberries etc).  Which is great news for your cells and protect against free-radicals which cause inflammation and lead to disease.

Diffuse this during the change of seasons to kill airborne bacteria (and mould!), and apply to the bottoms of the feet of the whole family to defend and protect.

The Thieves blend has so many additional uses within cleaning and a healthy oral health routine that I’ll share info on it later.

RC

Is a blend that contains 3 types of Eucalyptus oils, it is so REFRESHING and is great for clear breathing. We love to dilute it with a carrier oil for a soothing vapour rub and rub it onto our chest and bottoms of our feet.

PanAway

This is the one my hubby claimed straight away as it soothes tired muscles. We popped on a rollerball to this bottle so we have quick access when it’s needed! It’s also great to add a couple of drops to some Epsom salt for a post workout bath (recipe next!)

Stress Away

As the name implies, this blend relieves occasional head tension & promotes relaxation. It smells like a tropical island in a bottle, due to the Lime and Vanilla oils. Great to have in your bag with a rollerball for easy access, and also popular in a body sugar scrub or a relaxing massage.

Peace & Calming

Again as the name implies, this was the blend that hooked me into these oils. My 2 year old (at the time) asked for this oil by name! I knew it was something special. It promotes relaxations with a beautiful combination of citrus oils. Great to apply to the kids before bed, in a diffuser or as a relaxing massage.

Valor

This blend is a a grounding blend to promote feelings of courage. Great to apply to the back of the neck, shoulders and wrists before an event to ease those butterflies in your tummy. I also love using this on the kids to give them some extra courage before school or a big event, or on the soles of their feet at night time.

Recipe – Post-workout soak

After a long day or a hard workout soothe your muscles by treating yourself to this invigorating bath soak!

PanAway contains a blend of Clove, Wintergreen (giving it that typical post-workout scent!), Helichrysum and Peppermint. Together these oils are incredibly soothing for your body, but I encourage you to read up on these individual oils too to see why they pack they punch that they do and why this is such a popular blend!

Diluting for babies & kids 

One of the main questions I get from mums is if the oils are safe to be used on babies and kids. The key thing here is different dilutions, and to also test patch each essential oil first on your child as everyone is different. 

If it’s your first time using essential oils, I’d recommend you check out Young Living’s KidScents range of oils and roll-ons. They’re pre-diluted so you can be assured they’re not too strong for your little one, and they’ve pre-formulated blends for all the main areas of concerns for little ones!

When I started this range wasn’t available, so I started using soothing oils (like Lavender, Frankincense, Copaiba, Cedarwood, Gentle Baby, Valor) as soon as my little boy was born – but please also connect with what YOU as a parent are comfortable with. 

I always suggest to start SLOW, then if you’re not getting the desired effect within 10 minutes re-apply (then you may like to add more essential oils to your pre-diluted bottle). 

There are LOT of recipes out there that in my opinion use TOO much essential oils, and also be aware that some recipes are for different brands of essential oils. Young Living is the most potent I’ve come across so less is required (and saves you $$!).

As a general guide:

• Ages 0-1: 1 drop essential oil to 8 drops carrier oil

• Ages 2-6: 1 drop essential oil to 3 drops carrier oil

• Ages 7-11: 1 drop essential oil to 1 drop carrier oil

• Ages 12+: Full labeled concentration (for some oils applied undiluted, some diluted)

For more information please see: https://www.youngliving.com/blog/guide-to-diluting-essential-oils-for-kids-and-babies/ 

Recipes - Baby & kids

Here are our favourite rollerbottle recipes for use on babies and kids, especially when the kids are heading back to school!

Wellness – roll along spine and bottoms of feet before school each morning

Calm – roll in hands or wrists to smell if you need some calmness

Tummy – roll on tummy and massage in clockwise direction

Easy breathing – roll on chest for clear breathing

Outdoors – roll onto exposed skin (arms/legs/neck) before heading outdoors or a hike for an annoyance free experience. Also soothing on skin if needed. Make this same recipe but mix in with water in a spray bottle for healthy school hair.

Note: these recipes are all fairly diluted so suitable for babies, so just re-apply more often to achieve the desired effect.

Fragrance favourites

I know it’s hard when we’re doing an online class as you don’t get to SMELL the oils, but I hope the information so far has shown how incredibly versatile they can be, and that you’re excited to use them based on what they can offer, and trust me that they don’t smell like stinky socks! Some are definitely nicer than others and I’ll be very honest about which ones I would not put into a diffuser! (hint hint DiGize!)

And with 5.6 MILLION customers worldwide over the last 25 years – we hope that this eases any concerns ;-)

Fragrance for the guys

We haven’t forgotten the guys – there are plenty of oils and oil blends that my hubby uses each day as his natural cologne, used with a carrier oil for shaving or in a moisturising beard oil!

• Northern Lights Black Spruce: Uplifts mood, grounding (this is a key oil in the Valor blend)

• Sacred Mountain: Promotes feelings of strength, empowerment, grounding, and protection

• Shutran: Supports men, boost feelings of masculinity & confidence

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