Vinegar, Baking Soda, and Peroxide

As a newcomer to the world of blogging, I have been contemplating what to blog about. After a few days of reflection, I have decided to start with a short blog about the three household items that have helped me to eliminate a number of allergy and skin problems that have been plaguing my household ever since my children were born.

Unfortunately, my children have extremely sensitive skin. I had never even heard of eczema until  my oldest, now nine, was first diagnosed with eczema when he was only a few months old. For the first few years of his life, we used prescription creams. While it worked at first, over time it seemed that it was not helping as much. In fact, his eczema even changed forms. Once it took on the shape of a circle and I was certain he had ringworm. It turned out to be something called Nummular eczema. Anyway, I also tried about every different laundry detergent on the planet and eliminated dairy from his diet. All in all, his eczema was manageable, but never really went away.

Then came our second child. He also struggled with eczema, but it was so much more severe. He is also allergic to grass (yes, really). The poor kid was always scratching his legs, often to the point of bleeding. The sound of his little voice asking me for more "leg meddy" echoes in my head. It became a ritual, the rubbing in of the eczema cream on his little legs before bed.

Over time, I began to wonder whether the eczema cream was our only option. Then I received one of those emails about how you can use vinegar for just about everything. I began exploring, and after some research and few experiments, have eliminated most of the commercial beauty products from our daily routine. I have also stopped buying commercial cleaning products for our home. The results have been amazing.

Follow below are the ways we use vinegar, baking soda, and sometime peroxide in our house. It is separated into three categories: hair care, laundry, and produce rinse and household cleaner.

HAIR CARE:

For hair care, we no longer use shampoo or conditioner. Here are the 3-steps that replace shampoo and conditioner in our household. (Note, I do all the mixing before stepping into the shower).

First, mix a small amount of baking soda with a large amount of hot water  in a squeeze bottle. This is used as a first rinse of the hair. Wash it into the hair and then rinse. It will not lather but will clean the hair. For people who do not use hair products, you can actually stop here as this alone can replace shampoo. If your hair is long or you use hair products, continue to steps 2 and 3.

For the second step I dilute castile soap with water and add tea tree oil. FYI, tea tree oil is good for dandruff. This is used both as shampoo and skin cleanser as tea tree oil is also good for acne. (Although I also like using honey for facial cleaning). Anyway, this mixture will create a lather in the hair. After rinsing your hair will feel squeaky clean, very different from ordinary shampoo. Again, you can stop here if you want.

 I have long hair so I need the third step, which is the conditioning rinse. Here, a mixture of apple cider vinegar diluted with water is used. Its very simple. Just squeeze it through hair and rinse it out. Yes, it smells like vinegar while you are using it, but the vinegar smell goes away once your hair dries. That is it!

LAUNDRY:

For our laundry we use only one/third of what I used to use of ordinary laundry detergent (I like Tide Free and Clear) and then sprinkle in some borax. Then, instead of fabric softener I use white vinegar. I just pour it into the fabric softener dispenser in my washing machine. No fabric softener sheets in the dryer are needed. My understanding is that the vinegar rinse helps to wash out any residue from the detergent.

PRODUCE RINSE AND HOUSEHOLD CLEANSER

For a produce rinse and general household cleaner we use white vinegar and peroxide. Two separate spray bottles are needed.  Just put ordinary white vinegar in one bottle and peroxide in the other. You can use this to clean produce by spraying vinegar first, then peroxide, and then rinse with water. You can use these also to clean countertops.

For a floor cleaner we use white vinegar and hot water.

In the dishwasher I use water vinegar instead of the commercial rinse agents.


CONCLUSION

I am not sure what was causing the skin issues in our home, but I can attest to the fact that the issues have been resolved. We no longer need the eczema cream! I also like the fact that there are fewer chemicals and toxins in our home and that we have saved a few bucks.