Coconut Oil: Beyond Baking

Trader Joe's is now selling coconut oil and using it instead of butter in their cooking demo stations. Within the "crunchy" mommy circles, coconut oil has been such a hot topic. Using coconut oil for more than baking and for skin is something I keep hearing more and more about.

I started up on the coconut oil train after reading about it on Dr. Mercola's blog several years ago. I bought a tub from Whole Foods and used it primarily for baking or high temp cooking. I use coconut oil for making muffins or stir fry dishes. Ava's favorite right now is a vegan recipe with coconut oil, egg-free Maple Brown Sugar Oat Muffins. I make a batch and keep them in the freezer afternoon snacks at school.

Then I discovered homemade deodorant last year! The deodorant is a mix of coconut oil, arrowroot powder, and baking soda and it really eliminates stinky pits! Coconut oil is solid until about 76 degrees. It works well for deodorant because of the solid paste. And the antibacterial properties help eliminate any funky smells.

Coconut oil is also great for diaper rashes on baby's bottoms. If you're cloth diapering, you need to be careful about using traditional diaper rash creams because they cause the cloth to not absorb as much. I remember one of my daughter's care givers slathering diaper cream innocently and then it clung to our cloth diaper like crazy. You can use a diaper liner if you use a barrier cream, or simply use a small amount of coconut oil on the baby's bottom to heal her skin.

This week, Ava had I have had nasty colds and instead of using petroleum-based Vaseline on our noses and face, I used coconut oil. It's so soothing! I have noticed it's much more healing than any other lotion that I've used on a sensitive skin during a cold. And believe me, we have used loads of tissues on our noses this week.

I keep a very small container in the bathroom of coconut oil so it's convenient for skin applications and it won't be contaminated in our larger jar.

I really like the Nutiva brand (available at Whole Foods and Amazon). I also recently bought a giant 54oz tub from Costco that was about $15. A great value!

Have you tried coconut oil either in cooking or on your skin? What do you think?

Homemade, All-Natural Deodorant

It was very easy to mix with a spoon in this small bowl.

We recently had an interesting thread discussion in my La Leche League Facebook group about using deodorant without aluminum, which can be especially harmful for women since it's linked to cancer. When I was pregnant, I was diligent about using all natural deodorant, but then I got lazy. Most of the ones that I tried had to be reapplied very often. If you use a traditional commercial deodorant, it's also combined with an antiperspirant to reduce sweating. I had best success when I applied a crystal stick (antiperspirant) first, and then the natural deodorant. One of the moms shared a "recipe" to make your own deodorant. In fact, she's been making it for several years for herself, husband and even her family members. So, I decided to give it a try!

I mixed this batch of deodorant this afternoon. It has three major ingredients: equal parts baking soda, arrowroot starch, and coconut oil. I've started to use coconut oil for more than just cooking. Because of it's in a solid state and contains antibacterial and healing properties, you can use it on a baby's bum to fight diaper rash or on a cut or scrape.

Store the deodorant in a wide, small glass jar that will be easy to put your hand into to apply. The blog post that I found has a tutorial for putting your homemade deodorant in your commercial container.

Baking soda can irritate your skin if you use a lot of it so it's recommended to use a thin layer. I'm going to experiment with using the crystal stick first and then applying a very thin layer of the deodorant to see how it works for me.

Since Aaron is going to try it as well, I decided to add a neutral scent using Tea Tree Oil. We have that oil on hand because we use it on our dog as a natural mosquito repellant. It smells fantastic!

After my shower tonight, I applied the deodorant mix and it rubs into your skin very easily. I'll let you know how we like it!

Here's the link to the original post with the recipe and tutorial. I also posted it to my Pinterest "For the Home" board. Have you tried your own deodorant?

UPDATE: May 6, 2012
I don't think I can ever go back to commercial deodorant! I LOVE this stuff. It rubs into your skin so well without the annoying white flakes from commercial deodorant. It works for both me and Aaron and no funky body odor to report! Aaron was skeptical, but he was really impressed. We went on a hike and I sweat like crazy, but I wasn't smelly at all! That never would have happened with my old Secret. The one thing to watch in the warmer weather is the coconut oil will melt to liquid at 76 degrees. So you can put in the refrigerator and then bring it to room temperature before you apply it. Coming out of the fridge it's rock hard. You should try it!