Hand hygiene is essential these days. Wash your hands well, with an organic soap, a natural soap, a Marseille soap, a washing frost ... Indeed choosing the right hygiene product for the hand washing of children is not an easy task. How to choose the right product? To wash the sensitive and fragile skin of their hands well, while being effective against bacteria, viruses and dirt. Lilikiwi gives you advice in this blog article to help you. To see more clearly and choose the best.
Children's skin is more fragile than that of adults, frequent washing of hands with bad products can damage it.
In a situation of pandemic, epidemic encountered during community life (school, crèche ...) the frequency of recommended hand washing is more important.
But children's skin may have redness, chapters on the back of the hands or between the fingers. Your children will also be able to feel very uncomfortable tingling and itching.
You must therefore choose a product that is both soft for children's skin, safe for their health, but also effective against bacteria and viruses and good for the planet.
It makes a package of conditions to be fulfilled, how to find your way?
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Avoid using an alkaline product
First of all, the "real soaps" such as Marseille soap or solid Aleppo soap are 100 % of natural origin, obtained by a green chemical reaction from saponification between vegetable oils and a very alkaline agent Strong (soda for solid soaps and potash for liquid soaps). The vegetable oils most often used in France are: olive oil for Marseille soap and bay oil for Aleppo soap.
Like all washing products, soap removes fat and skin dirt because it contains surfactants. The surfactant (TA) has a molecular structure which acts as a bridge between water and dirt that does not leave with water. TA in soaps are sodium/potassium olivate (in solid/liquid Marseille soaps) and sodium laurate (in Aleppo soaps).
On the other hand, they belong to a family of your very aggressive and striking for sensitive and fragile skin: your anionics.
As a result, soaps are very detergent and perfect products for the maintenance of the house, but are not suitable for the hygiene of the hands and body of our children. From the 1960s, scientists revealed that soap was not an ideal product for washing our children (1). Indeed, frequent use of soaps is responsible for dermatitis, redness and itching, not only because of the aggressive they contain, but also because of the pH of natural soaps. You may not know it, but the skin does not have a neutral pH (that is to say a pH of 7), it is actually slightly acidic (pH of 5). It is this acid coat that maintains the skin balance.
It gives an environment favorable to good microbes and prevents bad microbes from setting up and spreading on our skin. The natural soaps are very alkaline (pH located between 8 and 10) and can disturb the skin balance. This can be the cause of many discomforts and skin pathologies such as psoriasis, verneuil disease and/or atopic dermatitis.
Avoid products containing sulfate, even in organic products
The TA of the Sulfates family has long been used in hygiene products thanks to their foaming capacity and low cost. The best known is sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS). In laboratories, the SLS is known to be the cause of irritations. 0.2 % SLS alone is enough to irritate the skin of a child. In hygiene products for children present in supermarkets, we often find the SLS or its derivative sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLES), relatively soft but always aggressive for the fragile skin of our children. In addition, the SLES comes from an ultra polluting chemical procedure.
Did you know that even in organic certified products, we cannot escape sulfates? Indeed, there are 3 components of sulfates authorized in organic certified products. The famous SLS, the lauryl sulfate ammonium (ALS) and sodium coconut sulfate. Admittedly, the manufacturing process of these 3 compounds comes from natural chemistry, but that does not remove the fact that they are always very irritating to our children's skin. The next time you see the word "sulfate" on the label of a child care product, run away!

Favor a product rich in glycerin
Glycerol, better known as glycerin, is naturally present in our body and represents a source of energy for our organism.
Glycerin is obtained following saponification, that is to say the manufacture of soap. And glycerins can be of animal, oil or vegetable origin. A so -called "surgras" soap naturally contains glycerin (about 8 %). The presence of glycerin could alleviate the aggressiveness of the soaps.
Glycerin can contain its water weight several times, making it an essential moisturizing asset. Its role is to attract water from the strong humidity to the lower humidity. In short, it attracts tap water to the skin.
The properties of glycerin smooth and soften the skin, improve its elasticity, normalize the design. It is the perfect ally of the skin which, associated with the surgras of our products, is the last protection of the skin of our loulous.
Favor a soap without soap and 100 % natural origin, it is economical and ecological
An soap -free and 100 % natural lavish treatment of natural origin most likely contains:
- TA of the glucoside family: DECYL CLUCOSIDES, COCO CLUCOSIDES or LAURYL CLUCOSIDES obtained from corn starch and coconut oil.
- TA of the Glutamate family: Sodium Cocoyl Glutamates, Sodium Lauroyl Glutamates from vegetable oils and amino acids.
The TA of these two families are perfect for the skin of children and the environment, but only downside, their price is about 16 times more expensive than that of a your result of petrochemicals or 8 to 10 times more expensive than that of 'A soap. This is the reason why, very often, a 100 % natural soap -free washing product is much more expensive than a liquid soap or a product containing sulfate.
But if you use an aggressive washing product, you must always apply a cream on the hands of our little funny after washing to repair the damage caused by the TA. In the end, it is more expensive and is less ecological (knowing that the hand -like tube is rarely reusable). In addition, you also have to pay attention to the composition of hand creams, which still represents a puzzle as a parent.
For a child without any particular skin problems, a Washing gel 100 % natural origin Without soap is enough to maintain good hygiene and guarantee the health of your children's hands.
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to send a message on our site or to contact us by email cowcou@lilikiwi.fr. We will be happy to answer you quickly!
Source :
(1) Samuel et al. Alkaline toilet soaps are not the cleansers of choice in routine pediatric care
Clinical Pediatrics Vol.3 No. 1