A Sensitive Issue...

One thing Little Lady has inherited from me, is extremely sensitive skin. The poor little mite breaks out in red, flaking, itchy, bleeding excema if anything artificial or chemically enhanced touches her skin. This means that we have to be vigilant with body washes, shampoos, moisturisers, sunscreen and washing detergent. Most kids love a bubble bath. Unfortunately LL doesn’t get to enjoy these little pleasures, because it’s the foaming agents in soaps and body washes that affect her the worst. So, she has baths with essential oils, sulphate and paraben free body wash and shampoo, almond oil and paw paw ointment for moiturising and sunscreen specially formulated for sensitive skin.

Washing detergent is another matter. Luckily, we have a front loader, and front loader detergents have less foaming agents than top loaders. We also use one of the more natural detergents. However, LL always has a couple of patches of excema that we can never seem to get rid of. She also suffers from nappy rash.

When we started this experiment, I read about a recipe for making my own washing detergent. I started making it because I knew it would save me money. I didn’t realise that it was going to help LL’s skin as well. Her excema has almost completely disappeared, and the nappy rash is no more!

This Laundry Liquid recipe (thanks again to Rhonda Hetzel of down---to---earth.blogspot.com) works out to $4.50 for 10 litres. 10 litres of a leading brand detergent will cost you up to $50. That’s a huge saving!

I wasn’t sure how well it would work. After all, we have a toddler in the house! A toddler whose clothes are constantly covered in food, dirt and bodily fluids. Usually I add a scoop of Napisan to every wash I do. With my home made laundry liquid, I rub some into the stains, leave it for half an hour and then wash as normal. The clothes are coming out beautifully clean! Little Lady’s cloth nappies were the real test. I popped them into the washing machine, with half a cup of my home made laundry liquid and set it on a hot wash. They came out spotless!

Yes, it requires a little more effort on your part, in terms of finding the stains and treating them accordingly, but the effort is worth it for the savings! And the fact that it has cleared up Little Lady’s skin.

It’s not difficult to make and all the ingredients can be found in the supermarket. Take 1 cup of lux flakes OR 1 bar of laundry soap grated on a cheese grater, ½ cup of washing soda (not bicarb or baking soda!) and ½ cup of borax. In a medium saucepan add 1 ½ litres of water  and the lux flakes/ laundry soap. Stir over a medium heat until all the soap is dissolved. Add washing soda and borax and stir until thick.

Pour the mixture into a 10 litre bucket, then add another 8 litres of water. Stir to combine. Store the liquid in clean bottles and shake before each use, because the ingredients will separate. Use ¼ - ½ cup of liquid per load.