Infusing oil with your preferred herbs to achieve a particular goal, is actually easier than you think. Depending on the time you have, supplies, and method, you can make your custom infused oil for anything you want, but this time I’ll be talking about making your own night-time bath oil to help your babe get to sleep easier, and stay that way!

 

Picking the right oil can make a difference between having a baby that’s moisturized, or ready for a slip and slide. Using a fast absorption oil, allows the benefits of the herbs you’ve infused to penetrate through the skin faster, thus allowing your baby to feel the effects as well.

 

Sweet almond, avocado or fractionated coconut oils are great options as they’re all fast absorbing and thin to the touch.

 

For a night-time oil, using dried flowers like lavender and calendula are perfect as they both work as a perfect team. Lavender acts as a sedative and helps improve sleep, while calendula hydrates and nourishes the skin (and is found in many baby products). Calendula also helps with skin irritation, so having this infused into the oil can help with any rug burns from your baby crawling, or even rubbing from diapers.

 

If you have a colic baby, this oil and massage routine below may help calm them down enough to even take a nap!

 

Having the appropriate sleep hygiene for your baby will always help establish the familiarity of the process of events, from bath > massage > clothe > feed > your personal method of getting or maintain your baby to sleep. But one step many parents tend to miss, is the importance of massage after a bath. Applying and rubbing in lotion on your baby may seem like enough of a massage, but focusing on affecting the nervous system as opposed to just rushing through or skipping a step in the routine, can result in better success.

 

When you apply lotion or oil on your baby quickly, you’re actually creating stimulation through the skin, which would affect the nervous system.

 

Think about an athlete prepping for a competition. They would go to a therapist, and that therapist would perform techniques to stimulate the tissue and therefore nerves (as nerves innervate the muscles and the skin) to ‘wake up’ the body. After the event, the athlete would go back to their therapist. But now that their body is hyper-stimulated from the demand the body was put through, the therapist would perform rhythmic, slow techniques like stretching or rocking to calm the nervous system which would then calm their muscles, and their mind.

 

Have you ever fallen asleep during a massage? You can do that for your baby too!

 

It’s hard to apply the principles of massage on a baby when it comes to general-specific-general, and superficial-deep-superficial combined, meaning general/superficial > specific/deep > general/superficial. Babies are so small that your hand covers their whole back so it becomes difficult to apply the principles accurately, but you can definitely still apply some and achieve great results.

Starting with baby supported on their stomach on a nursing pillow, apply some of your homemade infused oil on their back. Gently knead in large circles, taking care you don’t push too hard on their spine. Be very slow and rhythmic, and feel free to knead linearly from the low back, up to their neck and shoulders.

 

Then turn your baby on their back and perform the same techniques on their stomach and chest. With their arms and legs, you can hold one limb at a time, and use the other hand to apply the techniques gently with the pads of your fingertips. When it comes to the feet, grasp their right ankle between your left hand index and middle fingers, and their left ankle with your right, and use your thumb to apply circles from their heels, up to the balls of their feet.

 

Massaging a babies feet is their kryptonite!

 

For the infused oil you’ll need;

 

Dried lavender flowers

Dried calendula flowers

Carrier oil of your choice

 

Infusing machine

Or

Mason Jars

 

 

Stovetop Method:

– To infuse the carrier oil in a double broiler method, fill a mason jar of your size to the top with dried plant material

– Add the oil into the mason jar to just above cover the plant material

– Place the jar into a saucepan filled with water on an element at low

– Allow to heat for an hour, adding more water to the saucepan as it evaporates

– After the hour, remove from heat, allow to cool, and filter the oil with a fine cheesecloth

 

 

Crockpot Method:

– Same steps apply as stovetop, but set timer for 8-12 hours

 

Infusing machine Method:

– Add your oil to the top chamber where the oil will be infused

– Add plant material to the mesh compartment, and place inside oil reservoir

– Set temperature to 175F and timer to 20 minutes

– Leave until timer goes off, and push button to pour into the jar of your choice

 

 

Slow Infusion Method:

– Same steps apply as stovetop, but gently mix oil and plant material until combined

– Close the lid on the jar, gently shake, and store in a cool, dry place for 4 weeks

– During this time, shake the jar gently every other day

– After this time, strain out the plant material

 

 

Give The Honesty Policy a follow on Facebook at @thehonestypolicyca and on Instagram at @thehonestypolicyca . Here you can watch my tutorials and read condensed versions of my blog posts!

 

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