Buying Tips: 5 Toxic Ingredients That May Be In Baby Care Products That You Should Avoid

Most parents especially the first-time moms and dads have questions how to take care of their newborn babies particularly looking after their baby's skin. The parents then shop for baby products that they think would make the skin of their babies healthy. On the other hand, some baby products such as lotions, shampoos and soaps may have toxic chemicals that may harm your baby, according to expert.

It is advisable that parents must know these toxic chemicals that some baby products contain. Likewise, they must practice and adopt safety measures in shopping for their baby products. Fox News gathers the five toxic ingredients that some baby products have:

1.       Phthalates and Parabens

Phthalates and parabens are used as softener and preservatives in personal care products such as shampoos and lotions. 

Experts say that phthalates affect the development of boys as it may show signs of impaired production of testosterone while parabens may cause skin irritations, reproductive problems, endometriosis, cancer and developmental disorders.

To prevent these products with parabens look for products that have ingredients ending in "paraben" such as butyl paraben, propyl paraben, methyl paraben or benzyl paraben. To avoid buying products with phthalates, you look for labels that say "Phthalate-free" or "no phthalates."

2.       Fragrance

Most of the baby's lotion and cologne smell so good. Yet, these can harm your children as some of them have harmful chemicals that cause allergies, eczema, skin irritations and organ toxicity, experts say.

3.       1-4-dioxane

1-4-dioxane is a chemical byproduct that is found in liquid soap and baby's bath products. It may cause skin allergies and organ toxicity. To inhibit this product from buying, you must not shop for products that contain PEG compounds, sodium Laureth sulfate, oleth, ceteareth and xynol.

4.       Formaldehyde and Formaldehyde-Releasing Preservatives

A study shows that formaldehyde is a preservative that can be found in baby shampoo, baby bubble bath and baby lotions -- causing skin irritations, watery eyes and wheezing to children. To stay away from these toxic chemicals, do not buy baby products that are labeled with formaldehyde, Diazolidinyl urea, quarternium-15, 2-bromo-2-nitro propane-1, glyoxal, 3-diol (bromopol), sodium hydroxyme thylglycinate, DMDM hydantoin and polyoxymethylene urea.

5.       Vitamin A and oxybenzone

Vitamin A, used in sunscreen and skin, may harm your children. According to National Toxicology program, this form of Vitamin A may cause lesions and accelerate the development of skin tumors.

Oxybenzone is a chemical that is also found in sunscreen which may cause reproductive problems and endometriosis.

In shopping for baby products, read the labels carefully and avoid items with vitamin A, retinoic acid, retinyl linoleate, retinol, retinyl palmitate and retinyl acetate.

WebMD reports that environmental advocacy group like "Environmental Working" said that some of these personal care products are not standardized; however, you can prevent these products by visiting the group's skin deep cosmetics safety database and read the labels cautiously for products with harmful chemicals.

The thing there is to be mindful with what you buy for your little ones -- reading product labels is indeed a good start.