“What goes on your body goes in your body.”
Several years ago, our daughter, about 6 years old, started to develop painful, white, plaque-like canker sores in her mouth. These were no ordinary canker sores – an inch by half an inch, they looked huge in her tiny mouth. We waited until the first one and then the second went away. When it recurred for a third time in as many months, we took her to her Pediatrician, whom we love. He said it was probably viral and to have her swish with saltwater. We didn’t heed that advise because she was six and salt water seemed like cruel and unusual punishment.
Instead, I embarked on research where I found it could be from vitamin deficiencies or sodium laurel sulfate (a surfactant and foaming agent) in toothpaste. She was already taking a daily multivitamin, so we zeroed in on the toothpaste. First, I checked all the toothpastes in our local stores and could only find “training toothpaste” for toddlers that didn’t contain sodium laurel sulfate. We used that for a little while and the canker sores didn’t return. Then, we switched to coconut oil toothpaste. This is our recipe:
Natural Toothpaste Recipe
• About 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 Tablespoon of baking soda
• 8-10 drops of peppermint or cinnamon essential oil
She hasn’t had a canker sore since. She hasn’t had a cavity since.
This had us thinking though – what other personal care and household cleaning products were we using that were harmful to our bodies?
Lucky for us all, her Dad is retired from the Air Force and a smarty pants and has some time on his hands. He can and does do incredible things for which he’s had no formal training. His research and development rival the best of them – especially when it’s a labor love. His focus was, and remains to this day, to cut out chemicals and use products that are harmless and completely natural. Before long, our kitchen was filled with beakers and bottles, a laser thermometer and a magnetic stirrer. There was testing, frustrating failures that sent him back to the drawing board, and then fantastic successes! These personal care products feel so good on our skin – they just soak right in – and our skin has never looked or felt better. He sells these products on the Maitriworks website under the tab: MaitriSPA.
From there, he moved onto our cleaning products. He makes dishwasher soap, laundry detergent, glass cleaner and multipurpose cleaners. These are labor intensive and difficult and expensive to mail, so he doesn’t sell those.
If you want to check out the products you currently use personal care or household – or even look at contaminants in the water in your area, go to the Environmental Working Group at www.ewg.org. But, if you want to just switch over to using the products at MaitriSPA, feel free to do so!
