Johnson's No More Tears is a lot of Tears

Johnson's baby shampoo claims that it is "as gentle to the eyes as pure water."



The ingredients in it are: Water, Cocamidopropyl Betaine, PEG-80 Sorbitan Laurate, Sodium Tricedeth Sulfate, PEG-150 Distearate, Fragrance, Tetrasodium EDTA, Polyquternium-10, Quaternium-15, Sodium Hydroxide, Citric Acid, Yellow 10, and Orange 4.

Looking at the ingredients, it seems like there are many possible irritants. Possibly the dye, possibly the fragrance. Though these things probably wouldn't irritate most people, Ben is not most people.

We bathed Ben last night in Vaseline, water, and baby shampoo. He liked the bath and splashed around. A few minutes after the bath, he started scratching and itching, especially behind his ears where the baby shampoo went.

Someone at my doctor's office (not the doctor) recommended that we try this on him. It didn't work. Well, it made his head smell good, but I should have known better than to use anything with a fragrance.

We ended up having to rinse his head off and then bathe him in Aveeno baby oats and Vaseline again to get rid of the chemicals. Because it was so hot last night, we put him to bed in nothing but a diaper and the cotton gloves that he wears to keep him from scratch.

He woke up a few times during the night scratching, so I put some Vanicream on him at 3 a.m. I also put a onesie on him since with the fan on and the window open, his room had finally cooled to 75 degrees.

The reason why we were looking for a new shampoo is that the Mustela foam shampoo for newborns was drying out his head, and he has persistent cradle cap in one spot on the back of his head. So was the California Baby before that. I ordered some fragrance free shampoo from Exederm. I'm just waiting for it to come.

I'm also looking for a good sunscreen. I want to avoid nut oils and parabens.

In spite of the shampoo problem, Ben's neck is starting to look better, and he's scratching less frequently, so we may be able to give him squash again. He first had it on Easter, but we didn't know if it was caused by the heat or a lotion or the squash, so we stopped giving it to him until his eczema was under control. Today, so far, so good.