I made some Baby Balm recently, what with all the new grandbabies … but its also great for dry heels and elbows and even to protect facial skin before going out into the wind or cold.

This balm is soft and smells so good. The best thing about it is that it WORKS for helping rashes heal and protecting baby’s skin from moisture and diaper messes.

Here’s my recipe, if you know anything about herbs and have preferences, you can substitute which herbs you like.   I used these particular herbs because they are safe for baby’s skin.

Ingredients:

  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil as the base, it calms itchy skin and contains vitamin E.
  • Shea Butter for calming rashes, reducing swelling and calming itchy skin.
  • Beeswax – I use pastilles because I don’t like grating wax, but its essential in this recipe. The beeswax keeps the balm in a more solid state. In warm weather you can add a bit more to keep the balm more solid.
  • Chamomile and Arnica for soothing chapped skin and Arnica has an anti-microbial action. You could use Calendula in place of Arnica if you prefer.
  • St. John’s Wort used externally this herb has antiviral and antibacterial properties and is a great addition to this balm just in case your baby does get a diaper rash.
  • Plantain for healing, antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties.
  • Lavender essential oil or Lavender flowers if you prefer not to use essential oils for its antiseptic qualities plus is smells good.

A kitchen scale is a great help with creams and balms. You’ll need to weigh out the beeswax and shea butter.  The olive oil can be measured in a regular measuring cup.

First you’ll need to make infused oil.  You’ll need extra virgin olive oil for this and organic herbs.  Most of the herbs that I can’t grow, I purchase from Mountain Rose Herbs. This isn’t an affiliate link I just like their products.

Making An Infused Oil

Put 1/2 cup of each of your herbs in a glass mason jar. Next, pour in extra virgin olive oil to cover the herbs and fill the jar all the way to the top. Just leave enough space that it won’t spill out easily when you move the jar around.

Cover the jar with a fitting lid and put it in a deep, Heavy bottomed pot.
Fill the pot with water to the level of the oil in the jar.
Place the pot over low heat and allow it to simmer for 4 hours, adding water if needed.

You could use an Instant Pot for this as well. I learned this method from Haniya Cherry at Traditional Cooking School. Place the filled jar in the insert pot of your Instant Pot and place it in the Instant Pot, fill with water to the level of the oil in the jar. Place the lid on the Instant Pot. Use the Slow Cook function and cook for 3 hours.

After the cooking time, strain the herbs out of the oil using cheesecloth.

Add 15 – 20 drops of Lavender essential oil and stir it well.

You’ll have around 18-20 ounces of infused oil to work with now. If you were going to use this for adults and hard working hands and feet you might even want to infuse it again with more herbs to give it more healing power. But for babies and every day use , this is fine.

We’ll start by using 3 ounces of infused oil, 1 ounce of beeswax and one ounce of shea butter. Remember to grate your beeswax or use pastilles. You can always make more than this, just remember that your ratios are 3 parts oil, 1 part beeswax and 1 part shea butter.

 

Put the beeswax and shea butter into a small pan and heat it on low til its melted.  Now you can combine the melted wax, shea butter and olive oil. There are a couple of ways to do this.

You can just combine them and stir with a spoon.

Or you could mix them together in a wide mouth mason jar using a stick blender. This is what I do.  I think it blends up the ingredients and gives the balm a lighter, somewhat fluffy texture. To clean your stick blender afterward, just run it in some boiling water, carefully.

 

 

Once melted, you just pour it into your prepared containers. The amount you make is up to you but if you used 3 ounces of oil and 1 ounce each of wax and shea butter you’ll have 5 ounces. Be sure you label the containers and if you’re giving it away be sure you write the ingredients down for the one you’re giving it to.

 

I buy containers from Specialty Bottle.

Let it cool and its ready to use.