Why a soap-free grain based cleanser is better for your child’s skin compared to a baby soap or body wash:

• Human skin is the largest sense organ in our body. It is considered the seat of the indrayas / sense organs and is literally the seat of sight, sense, touch, feeling and hearing. It is our first barrier layer and helps protect our internal organs from damage and bacteria. It is a marvel of bio engineering and hosts a massive colony of micro organisms which work along with us to ensure a constant pH of 5.5, with an acidic mantle that keeps harmful organisms away from us.

• The skin and hair structure in children, is one of the last major systems to be formed. This along with the sweating mechanicm is only fully developed when a child reaches the age of three. This makes children’s skin and hair especially vulnerable and easy to damage, which therefore makes their internal organ systems also easy to damage as their barrier function is still not properly developed.
• The branch of Ayurveda dealing with Pediatrics is called “Kaumarabhritya” . The Ashtanga hridaya written by acharya Vagbhatta describes in detail the care of a baby immediately after child birth. Some of the samskaras described immediately after child birth are ulva parimarjana (cleaning of the vernix), naal chhedan (cutting of the umbilical cord), snana (bathing), pichu dharan (external oil application), etc.

• For bathing of baby, Acharya Vagbhatta suggests using a decoction of herbs which have antiseptic properties and a pleasant, natural smell. Oral and cultural tradition in different parts of India also suggest a mixture of herbs for baby care depending upon climate and season.

• The texts list out the large and small orifices in the body in great detail and also enumerate the mala (impurities) that accumulate as a part of normal wear and tear from the dhatus in these orifices. Moisture of the tonge, eyes, mouth, excretions of the eyes, ears tongue, teeth, axilla, genitals, pimples, greasiness of facial skin, sweda (sweat) , sebum secretons of kesha (hair) are all mala from the dhatus (tissues). If this mala is not removed periodically, especially in seasons where the mala can increase, the body loses its health and appearance of well being.

• For babies, our bodywashes and ubtans use bitter herbs like organic neem, organic tulsi and organic thyme. These herbs keep down microbial growth and balance kapha dosha and help support the baby’s immune system. We add regenerative and skin restoring herbs like organic indian gooseberry, forest collected sweet flag and organic moringa to help the skin’s damage repair function. We also add naturally aromatic and gently deodorizing herbs like nutgrass and zeodary to keep baby smelling fresh and clean naturally.

• Our base for our bodywashes and ubtans uses our special medicated manjishta soaked organic grains like mung bean , adzuki bean and navrangi bean. This infuses the grains with the properties of manjishta which helps improve micro circulation in the skin and balances skin tone. The point to note here is that while we call this a “base”, this is not a neutral or an inert base like synthetic soap bases or shampoo bases often are. SLS for example is simply a surfactant – it removes grease non-intuitively, so if you are not careful (as most of us are usually not), it will completely rob your skin and hair of much needed sebum. The action of a grain and herb “base” is much more subtle – it combines exfoliant, temperature altering, scrubbing, micro polishing and surfactant benefits all into one.

ow is the Krya Gentle Bodywash powder for Baby (0 – 1 years) made:

• We first make our medicated manjishta solution to steep our base grains. The Manjistha is boiled in a traditional brass vessel / uruli on a slow flame over 4 hours until it reduces to the exact strength required. It takes over a day for this solution to cool to the right temperature. we then steep our base grains in this solution for a day and then shade dry it for 3 days before processing. Thebase grain process alone, therefore, takes 5 days.
• Every herb that goes into this bodywash is individually hand cleaned, shade dried and processed. Every herb is sieved through our special double filter which uses fine meshed muslin-like cloth as a sieve. Traditional medicine recommends using this cloth sieve for baby products to ensure the particle size is fine, non abrasive and even. This sieving is a painstaking, lengthy and laborious process.
• The final product is extremely fine, even sized and makes an extremely smooth paste which can be safely applied on baby’s skin.

What goes into the Krya Gentle Bodywash powder for Baby (0 – 1 years):

• Certified Organic – East Indian Arrowroot, Fennel,

• Organic but not certified – Medicated Mung bean, Purple Rice, Neem leaf, Moringa, Indian gooseberry, Chamomile, Thyme, Barley, Oat grass, Navrangi bean, Black Rice

• Wild crafted (forest collected)-  Nutgrass, Zeodary, Sweet flag, Psoralea seeds, Indian madder (Manjishta)