Erbaviva’s Organic Diaper Cream
by Kara DiCamillo, Newport, Rhode Island on 09.14.05
We’ve certainly written a lot of posts about all natural health & beauty products, including some for babies as well. But one thing we haven’t touched on yet is a product for one of Baby’s most sensitive parts of the body. Erbaviva’s Organic Diaper Cream has a natural cream base made from Echinacea, lavender and chamomile so Baby’s bum is protected. Erbaviva started their business with organic baby and mommy-to-be upscale products completely free from harsh detergents, chemical fragrances and other unhealthy additives. They’ve recently expanded to organic aromatherapy and bath & body and offer soaps, lotions, deodorant and bath salts. ::Erbaviva
The phrase "natural creme base" had me confused, so I checked the Erbaviva site for details and yes, zinc oxide is still the active ingredient, just like other brands. The main difference seems to be details on just what exactly "fragrance" means. It's probably worth noting that Erbaviva uses the same sort of chemical preservative agents as everybody else. They also charge much, much more. It looks like something you'd get as a baby shower gift rather than something most people could affort to use on a regular basis.
We've always used California Baby Calming Diaper Cream which runs about $10/tube. It also contains zinc oxide - 12% -it's what forms the barrier and I gather it's pretty hard to avoid - as that's the purpose of a diaper cream - they suggest for minor rashes to use their calendula cream which contains no zinc. The diaper cream also contains tea tree oil which is an anti-fungal and works great with little flare-ups.
The company chooses organic and sustainable products whenever possible and is very fragrance concerned using only essential oils (some of their products are available fragrance free). They also don't use Sodium Laureth Sulfate (SLS) or DEA. We've never had to use anything else to combat diaper rash - and all the products we've used smell great.