Newborn baby skin is delightfully soft, supple and free of impurities. As you can probably guess, it is also much thinner than adult skin – up to 5 times thinner – and much more absorbent and sensitive to irritation. Skin has many essential functions, one of which is to act as a barrier to protect us from harmful chemicals and pathogens. With baby skin being extra absorbent, we need to be super cautious in selecting a wipe that takes this into consideration. The average baby undergoes something like 6,000 changes before becoming toilet trained. You can imagine how many times a moist wipe is rubbed over the skin used during this period.
Big brands betting on lack of consumer knowledge
Given how often we use wipes on our babies, it is important we do our homework to ensure the safest product is chosen. The most irritating chemicals are usually preservatives, whose chief purpose is to kill germs and keep mould at bay for the duration of the shelf life – which is usually 2 to 3 years. Many big brands know the average consumer has little to no chemical knowledge, and choosing cheap and effective preservatives that ensure the shelf life of their product is their main goal. The welfare of the baby is secondary to profits and product integrity. But along comes the informed consumer since the advent of google and smartphones, and the market is changing. It is no wonder that smaller wipes brands such as Joonya, founded by parents whose children had extra sensitive skin, are rising to the fore and filling the gap in demand.
How do I know which wipes are safe?
Joonya uses ingredients that score very safely on the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetic ingredient database. For those who don’t know about EWG, this is a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting human health and the environment. Their mission is to empower people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. With breakthrough research and education, they drive consumer choice and civic action. The ingredient safety scores on their website can be found by searching for the ingredient name here – https://www.ewg.org/skindeep
The lower the EWG score (1-10), the safer the ingredient for humans. What a fantastic tool to have at our disposal – an objective measure of chemical safety that we can all use with ease. Thankfully Joonya has done the homework and ensured their wipes are completely safe for our babies. Co-founder Leanne Sexton says “We are very pleased with the feedback from our customers. Babies who were previously prone to rash are seeing big improvements. That makes it all worthwhile for us!”.