Aloe Baby herself, courtesy of Amy Bethune Photography
Motherhood has forever changed my life for the better. But motherhood has also posed challenges I would have never imagined. The worst was when my daughter had a 3-month bout with diaper rash that refused to heal.
Blisters; open, bleeding wounds that have left her scarred; agonizing bath times; extremely painful diaper “events”: it was excruciating watching her go through so much pain, and none of the products I used–prescription, mainstream, or green–helped her heal. Medical science was unable to stop the diaper rash.
After weeks of critically thinking about the products I was using and how they affected the diaper rash, it dawned on me that my baby needed the barrier creams to adhere to all of her skin (including the open wounds) to protect her from the diaper environment, but that the barrier cream itself posed problems:
- Any moisture trapped between her skin and the barrier cream fed the microbes that were actively destroying her skin, fueling the diaper rash.
- Plant-based powders like corn starch are actually food for fungus, which is inevitably involved in any moderate to severe diaper rash.
- Barrier cream kept her skin from breathing, so if I rushed from cleaning straight to applying the barrier paste, her skin got no air time between diaper changes. None.
But it also occurred to me that these barrier creams generally didn’t do much to support the skin as it healed, so she also needed something underneath the barrier creams to help her heal from the diaper rash. Something natural. Something nutritive. Something bio-active.
That’s when I developed the product: Tender Defender. I crafted the first batch using aloe and essential oils that I had on hand. Then I did more research. I found out that higher concentrations of aloe help skin heal faster, so I got samples of concentrated aloe. I researched a range of oils. I brought in strong women with manufacturing and essential oil expertise to refine my product. I looked for sustainable, free-trade sources. The result? My daughter remains free from diaper rash, and I have gotten positive feedback from everyone who has tried it–young and old.
My sincerest wish is that other families can benefit from this new approach to skin care and the development of Tender Defender. And I hope that the company can grow so that we can offer products to people of all ages and skin needs as well as animals, like our family pets. More products are under development!
