Pretty Natural Baby: Nasty Ingredients Notice

Your baby's bath may not be the squeaky-clean experience you think it is: Last month the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics released a report called "No More Toxic Tub," which found that "dozens of leading body care products for babies and children contain the toxic chemicals formaldehyde and 1,4-dioxane." These chemicals are linked to cancer and skin allergies, and are banned from personal-care products in many other countries.

An independent lab tested 48 popular products and found that 61 percent contained both chemicals. But don't bother looking for these ingredients on your own kid's shampoo bottle — they're not actual ingredients at all; rather, they're contaminants, and therefore not listed on the label.

Here's what you can do:

• Check to see if your favorite baby brand contains these contaminants.
• Look for common culprit ingredients like PEG-100 stearate, polyethylne, ceteareth-20 and sodium laureth sulfate, which are likely to be contaminated with 1,4-dioxane.
• Ask Congress to take action.
• Look for natural alternatives. (Skin Deep, the Environmental Working Group's Cosmetic Safety Database, is a great resource.)

I use the California Baby Super Sensitive line for my toddler almost exclusively, but on occasion I've bought other brands — brands that it turns out tested positive for 1,4-dioxane. The CSC report doesn't cover natural products like California Baby, but you can get the dirt, so to speak, on their ingredients at Skin Deep.

Happily, the California Baby Super Sensitive Shampoo & Bodywash tested well. Of course, as the CSC notes, the exposure to these chemicals from a squirt of bubble bath or a dollop of shampoo is teensy. But if you can find alternatives, why not use them?