Johnson's bedtime bath set

Randm - posted on 05/06/2012

Found this post helpful. At about age 6 weeks my little granddaughter started getting colicky, and a friend recommended bathing her every evening before bed with J&J's Lavender Baby Bathtime. Another friend had given my daughter the bath set as a shower gift - powder, baby bath, lotion and shampoo - so we started using it, and it was wonderful. Baby loves her nightly bath routine, no more colicky baby, and she's been thriving - alert, happy and healthy. Except . . . now, after several weeks, we're noticing she's developed these dry, rough skin patches on her body. At first I thought it was just baby acne (her Momma had it bad) but this is too persistent for baby acne, and she now has patches on her shoulders, arms, legs, and torso as well as her face. It's not scaly or red, just relatively large patches of little bumps that you can see when you look closely, and that feel really rough to the touch. She doesn't seem bothered by it, so I don't think it itches (although she's too little to scratch) but from what I've been reading, it's clearly eczema - although I guess that's the term used for any dry skin condition caused by an allergen. The question, though: what's the allergen. Obvious answer: the baby bath.

I feel terrible. I'm thinking we've probably used too much of the baby bath for the amount of water in her little tub. That, coupled with the shampoo and then the powder, probably tipped the scale. There is lotion as well, but we haven't used that much because it always seemed to me that putting cool lotion all over her body after a bath would only reverse the soothing effects of the warm bath.

Anyway, clearly something about our little routine is not working. So, starting tonight, we'll eliminate the lavender bath altogether, and bath her only in warm water to see if it clears her up. I've read that virgin olive oil on the dry patches will help - so we'll try that as well. If her skin improves over the next few days/weeks, we'll re-introduce a small amount of the lavender bath (only because she loves it so much) and see how that goes.

I will come back and update this post when we know more. I just wanted moms and grand-moms out there to know that there does appear to be, at least in our case, a connection between the use of J&J Lavender Baby Bathtime products and dry skin condition(s) - but, because she has loved it so much and it has been beneficial in soothing her colic, I don't want to condemn the product without first determining whether or not we've just mistakenly used too much of a concentration of it.

Cristy - posted on 01/12/2010

As long as you don't notice any problems with dry skin, eczema, cradle cap of flaky scalp, it should be ok. It's nice stuff but quite drying. I can't use in on my daughter for that reason but was ok for my son.

Krista - posted on 01/12/2010

I'd try it, but it has lavender in it -- and my husband is violently allergic to lavender, strangely enough. It sounds great, though.

Nakita - posted on 01/12/2010

I LOVE THE STUFF !! My baby goes right to sleep after a bath with it, then cream her up with it. Settles her down for night, then she gets some cereal a half a bottle, then she goes right to sleep at 9:00, and sleeps right through till 8:30/9:00.

C. - posted on 01/12/2010

The fragrance in the Johnson's bath products is not strong at all. The only way it could be too strong is if you used way too much. For a little baby, you literally only need a drop or two. I used them on my son. The only problem wasn't the fragrance being "too strong" but that he has eczema and the scented stuff made it worse. As long as your baby doesn't break out, it should be Ok to use it.