Sick season is upon us, well it's upon our family ALL freaking year long- anyway, homemade hand sanitizer it is!! First of all why not just use the crap alcohol gel at the store, read this from The Holistic Mama:
"They are harmful to the Environment. Most anti-bacterial products contain Triclosan, an antibacterial agent that kills bacteria. Some scientists are calling for the removal of triclosan from consumer products because it is building up in the ocean’s food web. One-third of the bottle nose dolphins tested off South Carolina and almost one-quarter of those tested off Florida carried traces of triclosan in their blood. The concentrations found in the dolphins are known to disrupt the hormones and growth and development of other animals. Studies in bullfrogs found that triclosan disrupts the endocrine system – blocking the tadpoles’ development into frogs at concentrations found in the environment. In addition, a 2008 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention three-quarters of people tested in the United States had triclosan in their urine. A substance that can cause hormone disruption and growth problems isn’t something we want in the human body, or in animals for that matter.
They are damaging to your immune system. Hand sanitizers kill bacteria on your hands. The problem is that there are good bacteria and bad bacteria and the sanitizers aren’t selective. Some bacteria may be the cause of getting us sick but other bacteria actually protect our immune system.
Killing off the friendly bacteria can damage our natural defenses against other infections. We definitely don’t want to kill off that bacteria. In regards to the bad bacteria, or the ones that can cause sicknesses, it’s not certain that its in our best interest to kill them either. There is considerable evidence that some exposure to bacteria in the environment is actually beneficial because it helps the immune system develop. Some studies have shown an increase in allergies and asthma in people who were raised in an overly sterile environment. Mothers are always trying to keep their kids away from germs but some exposure is not bad. That’s not saying that kids shouldn’t wash their hands but using a harsh hand sanitizer even a few times a day probably isn’t helping a child’s immune system.
They might cause superbugs. In some countries, like Canada, the use of anti-bacterial products are not recommended because of resistance. Resistance is already a problem with antibiotics because they have been overused. Triclosan is thought to cause a similar resistance especially because it is very widely used. The concept is easy to understand. If a product doesn’t kill all the germs, it’s the susceptible ones that get killed first, leaving the hardier ones behind. These can multiply and eventually outnumber the susceptible bugs."
Let me say first thing , that Clove Oil is my new favorite essential oil. " Clove essential oil killed more than 60 types of bacterial strains, 15 strains of fungi plus several viruses (Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, 2004)" And like I say, that's just scratching the surface of it's uses, I have a friend that used it for her baby's teething and it gave him relief!! And it smells spicey good. I even put it vinegar water spray to kill a puke virus in our house and it stayed to only 2 out of the 5 of us, thank You Lord!! It's also a very warming oil. When I was coming down with a cold a couple weeks ago, I took my vitamins, zinc, caprylica acid, etc etc.. I also put some of this on my wrists and breathed it in a few times in the day, the cold never got a chance to really materialize and fizzled out... so placebo, who knows, but I'll try it the next time I'm fighting off something. I read if you put some on your skin it does get in your system.
Recipe:
You will need a 4 oz spray bottle, ideally, glass and amber or blue to preserve the integrity of the essential oils and protect them from light.
-Water
-2 tsp Aloe vera gel, the real kind you can eat.
30 drops of essential oils that are anti bacterial/ anti viral I would be careful about using tea tree oil on boys, I read it can disrupt their hormonal system. You can use any combo I believe I used eucalyptus, clove and grapefruit.
Put your aloe and oils in the sprayer, fill the rest of the way up with water and as my 3 year old would say " voila!"
*I use a 2 oz bottle so you can half the recipe for a 2 oz bottle for on the go.
