A lot of people are confused when it comes to essential oils and which ones are okay for kids.
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I actually spent a considerable amount of time reading stuff online about kids and essential oils. Not to mention I have read several books on essential oils. But, depending on what you read some people give you bad advice when discussing essential oils and kids.
I have to admit I get overwhelmed when reading about essential oils. Therefore, to help me concentrate I commonly use peppermint and rosemary when writing for MyScentedOils.com.
So, here are some reasons you might want to use essential oils for your kids:
- Poor concentration.
- Not sleeping through the night or trouble falling asleep.
- Cuts and bruises.
- Getting sick.
- Insect bites.
Essential Oils For Kids
Because kids obviously aren’t fully developed essential oils can’t be used the same they would be for an adult. As, an example when your kids have a headache you can’t give them regular Asprin. When your kids have trouble sleeping from coughing you can’t just give them Nyquil. Instead, you have to give them children’s Nyquil. Essential oils work the same way.
Thankfully there are three brands of essential oils that I recommend that sell essential oils formulated for children. Below I will talk about the brands Plant Therapy (see review), Edens Garden (see review), and Rocky Mountain Oils (review coming soon).
Plant Therapy Kidsafe Essential Oils Product Line
Plant Therapy does have an essential oil line for kids. It’s called “KidSafe”. Their essential oils that are safe for kids are for children that are 2+ years old.
What is really neat about Plant Therapy’s KidSafe essential oils is you can get single essential oils, blends, and even organic essential oils blends. Plant Therapy sells 90 single essential oils, 30 synergy blends, and 6 organic synergies.
One thing I really like about Plant Therapy is they offer stuff animals (Lil Stinkers). They currently have 3 which are called Coco, Otis, and PJ. These stuffed animals are called Aroma Plush. They come with their own signature blend set. They have refill pads in them which you can put a few drops of essential oil on. Your kids will get the benefits from the essential oils.
These essential oils are a great way to help kids that are having problems with focus, runny noses, and anxiety. Additionally, they do sell sets which do allow you to save money.
Edens Garden Ok For Kids Essential Oils Product Line
Edens Garden does sell essential oils which are called “OK FOR KIDS”. These essential oils were formulated by Dr. Robert Pappas who is a well-respected chemist and Sylla Sheppard-Hanger who is a well-respected aromatherapist.
This “OK FOR KIDS” brand is safe to use with kids that are 2 years and over. Their essential oils are available as synergies and roll-ons. They offer 18 blends in total. For example, here are some blends Edens Garden offers:
- Germ Ease.
- Calm ‘Em Down.
- Aches & Pains.
- Focus, Focus, Focus.
Additionally, Edens Garden does sell kits with 3, 6, 12, and 18 where you do get them for a reduced price.
Rocky Mountain Oils Kids Daily Essential Oil Product Line
Rocky Mountain Oils does have a product line for kids. This means their essential oils are good for children that are 2 years and older.
Instead, the essential oils come in a roll-on bottle. Meaning, that you apply the essential oils topically. It’s already pre-diluted with a carrier oil (see this article on carrier oils). For instance, their roll-ons are:
- Ouchie.
- Concentrate.
- Breathe.
- Counting Sheep.
- Muscle Soothe.
- Tummy Time.
- Clear Head.
- Bug Away.
- Immunity.
Additionally, you can purchase their kid’s line roll-ons in a kit which should help you save some money. Otherwise, you could buy them individually for $14.95 a piece.
Essential Oils For Kids: Cough & Sickness
It’s a fact that kids immune systems are not as strong as adults. Therefore, they are more prone to germs, bacteria, etc. Sure, you can tell them to wash their hands, keep their hands out of their mouth, etc. Truth be told they might not really listen to you, though.
So, aside with providing your children with a healthy diet to boost their immune system; essential oils can help. Here are some essential oils and blends that can help with sickness and coughs for your kids:
Plant Therapy’s Immune Boom. This blend contains lemon, palmarosa, dill weed, petitfain, copialba oleoresin, and frankincense. It can be diffused for 30 minutes 3 times a day and applied topically with a 2-4% ratio. It’s USDA Certified Organic and will help strengthen your children’s immune system.
Edens Garden Sniffles & Sneezes. This blend contains silver fir, cedarwood, pine, spruce, sweet orange, and lavender. You can diffuse it 3 times a day for 30 minutes.
It’s recommended that you apply this synergy at 1% dilution topically to your chest and sinus area. Additionally, you can put two drops with your kids favorite stuffed animal.
Rocky Mountain Oils Immunity. This roll-on consists of frankincense with a carrier oil. It should be applied to your chest, back of the neck, and the bottle of your feet. It will help boost your kid’s immune system and keep them from getting sick.
Essential Oils For Kids: ADHD
Kids have a hard time concentrating on their homework. ADHD can stunt children’s learning and be difficult for many parents to deal with. Here are some blends that can help with attention problems:
Rocky Mountain Oils Concentrate. This roll-on is 2% diluted with fractionated coconut oil and frankincense, lavender, vetiver, and cedarwood atlas. It’s recommended that you apply it to your child’s back of neck, chest, and wrist throughout the day.
A+ Attention KidSafe. This roll-on is diluted 2% with fractionated coconut oils and petitgrain, bergamot, cedarwood atlantica, grapefruit, lavender, and vetiver. Apply it to your child’s back of neck, chest, and wrist throughout the day.
Edens Garden, Focus, Focus, Focus. This roll-on is 5% diluted with fractionated coconut oils and grapefruit, lavender, pink pepper, lime, cedarwood, sweet orange, sandalwood, geranium, and vanilla CO2. Apply it to your child’s back of neck, chest, and wrist throughout the day.
Essential Oils For Kids: Cuts & Bruises
Let’s face it kids run into everything, get cuts, and bruises all the time. If your kids are in sports there is a chance their legs, muscles, etc. are going to get sore from time to time. The below essential oils for kids blends can help heal their bodies quicker:
Plant Therapy Sore No More. This is a synergy blend was formerly known as “Tame the Pain”. This blend is 2% diluted and contains citronella, Rosalina, palmarosa, black pepper, lavender, fir needle, geranium (bourbon), and geranium (Egyptian).
It’s recommended that you dilute it with 3-5% with a carrier oil. You can apply it to sore muscles and even make a bath with 3-5 drops and 1/2 cup of Epsom salt, and a teaspoon of carrier oil. Soak your child in it for up to 20 minutes.
Rocky Mountain Oil’s Ouchie. This is a roll-on with a nice floral scent to it. This blend is made with 2% dilution of mandarin, lavender, foraha, helichrysum, and geranium. It uses fractionated coconut oil. It’s good to apply to stings, sore muscles, and bruises.
Edens Garden Ouch Ease. This is a synergy blend. It contains lavender, juniper berry, tea tree, German chamomile, ylang ylang, and davanna. It’s recommended that you apply 1% dilution and apply topically. It’s good for healing scrapes, scratches, and bruises quicker.
Essential Oils For Kids: Sleep
I have already written extensively on sleeping and essential oils. But, as you guessed it’s different for kids.
Ask any parent and they will tell you getting their children to sleep can be a chore. Thankfully, there are essential oils synergies that can help. The following synergies can help your children sleep at night:
Plant Therapy’s Nighty Night. This is a USDA Certified Organic synergy that will help your children calm down and get to sleep. It contains lavender, marjoram, mandarin, cedarwood, clary sage, Roman chamomile, and blue tansy. You can make a 2% dilution with a carrier oil and apply it to your child’s chest and back of the neck (30 minutes before bed). Diffuse it for 30 minutes on and 30 minutes off during the night.
Rocky Mountain Oil’s Counting Sheep. This roll-on contains patchouli, lavender, sandalwood, ylang ylang, and fractionated coconut oil. It’s made with 2% dilution. Apply this roll-on to the bottoms of feet, legs, and back. It has a lot of sedating properties in it which will create a relaxing state of mind for your child.
Edens Garden’s Sleepy Head. This is a synergy that contains lavender, cedarwood, frankincense, tangerine, petitgrain, ylang ylang, marjoram, and Roman chamomile. Dilute it with 1% carrier oil or make a lotion and rub it on your children back of neck, chest, and bottle of feet. You can use at 1% dilution with castile soap and have your child take a warm bath 30 minutes prior to going to sleep.
Summary
So, there you have it. You can use essential oils on children over 2. However, you need to use them safely. You should play it very safe when applying essential oils to kids, though. If you notice any skin reactions immediately stop using those essential oils on your kids.
I highly recommend you consider getting a starter set for your kids. For instance, my top recommendation for your kids is the “KidSafe Starter Set” from Plant Therapy. It contains 6 awesome synergy blends.
Additionally, Rocky Mountain Oils does sell a 4 pack of roll-ons which is called “Kids Daily Kit”. And Edens Garden does sell an “OK For Kids Set” which contains 6 awesome synergy blends.
Please let me know if you have any questions regarding to kids and essential oils down below.
19 thoughts on “Essential Oils For Kids – The Ultimate Guide”
Awesome information. I am a soon to be father and planning for my future. I want to make sure that essential oils are safe for our baby. They have been a big part to my life and I am very grateful for that!
You know what is funny is I have been using Rocky Mountain Oils for years and didn’t ever realize that they have essential oils for kids, though. I guess you learn something new every day 🙂
Hey Barry,
Congratulations!
Make sure you don’t use any essential oils around the newborn, though. Typically, within the first 3 months.
Yeah, Rocky Mountain Oil is an awesome company. They have some of the highest quality essential oils that I have tested.
I actually added them to my list of best essential oil brands:
https://myscentedoils.com/best-essential-oil-brands
This is incredible. I use essential oils all the time and love them. However I have never thought of using them for kids.
We are raising our 7 year old grandson and he has severe ADHD. He does take medication at the moment but we would like to lessen that or take it away completely.
I am so excited to try this. I was so happy to see this article. People who have never tried essential oils should try and I guarantee you will never go back.
Dale
Wow, I feel like a fool for never realizing that essential oils had to be different for kids. I am so glad I read this before I was going to use Roman chamomile with my grandson who is having a lot of issues falling asleep. I have heard that is a good essential oils for sleep issues? Have you ever used it? Is it safe for kids?
Hey Engelhardt,
Roman chamomile is a great essential oil to use to help with sleep issues. It’s actually my preferred one to use. Along with vetiver and lavender. Those three are an awesome combination. Yes, Roman chamomile is safe to use with kids.
Informative post, thanks for sharing.
I know that people use essential oils for aromatherapy and as home fresheners, but I came to learn lately that they can also be used as a natural remedy for some common health problems. I have tried using essential oils to keep me calm and as stress reliever. But when it comes to using essential oils for my kids to help them sleep better, I can’t help but be extra cautious because I am not sure I am using the right brand.
Before learning about essential oils, I was using chest rubs for my kids to help them breathe and sleep better. And they seemed to be effective. But then I was told that essential oils are a better option. I’m wondering what’s the difference. Anyway, I will be trying out Edens Garden’s Sleepy Head. I like the scent of lavender and frankincense so a combination of both, along with cedarwood and ylang ylang are sure to produce calming effects.
Hey Alice,
Essential oils are great for stress relievers. I have actually written an article on stress and anxiety which you can check out here:
https://myscentedoils.com/essential-oil-for-anxiety-and-stress
There are a lot of different brands of essential oils to choose from. I have narrowed the selection down at:
https://myscentedoils.com/best-essential-oil-brands
The funny thing about chest rubs is a lot of the ingredients in them are actually essential oils. However, a lot of store bought rubs do have chemicals in them, too.
The difference would be with essential oils you are using something that is all natural.
Sleepy head is a good blend for sleep, though. I am confident you will like it.
Thanks so much for this post! It really is hard to find good recommendations for EOs for kids. There is so much conflicting information out there. I noticed you said to only use them for over a year old, does that mean they are not safe for babies? EOs are used in a lot of cloth diaper wipe solutions, homemade and store bought. I’m trying to decide if they’re safe.
Hey Nicole,
Let me clarify. Essential oils can be used for kids that are two years or older. Not one year or older.
For infants it’s best to use hydrosols for babies. I wouldn’t use anything on a newborn and would certainly wait for 3 months after that.
Hope this helps.
Wow, did not know that using the essential oils for kids was not the same as adults. What you pointed out makes sense, by the kids version of the medicine that you need a smaller dosage since they are not fully developed.
I am a essential oil user but I do agree with you that there could be health risk. I only use it for my diffuser only. I currently use frankincense and also bergamot. I think after reading this article I will explore more to improve my health.
I do have a question for you is diffusing frankincense or bergamot harmful for kids? I have a 6 year old and never thought about it being harmful.
By the way, your article will be on my Christmas shopping list lol all my friends they have small kids and I want them to give healthy and natural options for their kids as well.
Hey Nuttanee,
Yeah, a lot of people are actually surprised to learn that essential oils need to be used differently with children. It’s best to play it safe when using essential oils the first time, especially with children.
A lot of people actually only think of using essential oils in their diffuser. However, there is so much more to aromatherapy than just diluting them in the diffuser.
Frankincense is safe for children. For instance, Plant Therapy has it in their “KidSafe” product line. Also, bergamot is safe for kids and it’s also in their “KidSafe” product line.
I have heard that if you’re going to use essential oils with kids that you should do a skin patch test? What exactly is this and how are you supposed to do one?
Sorry for the newbie question. I am new to essential oils, but I want to start using them.
I am new to essential oils and I have heard that you can put them under your feet. However, this seems kind of odd to me. Why would someone want to put essential oils under their feet? It seems like a waste of essential oil? Also, is it recommended to put them under their feet for children, too?
I am into essential oils at home but had no idea there was such a thing as kids safe essential oil.
I totally get that kids are very different and not at all little adults. This article is a game changer for me.
I especially like the ones for ADHD. Although my children do not suffer from that, essentially the calming effect is what I like and the focus as well. Thanks for this super article.
Personally, do you recommend Rocky Mountain Oil, Edens Garden or Plant Therapy?
Thanks for the information on essential oils for kids.
I do have a question that concerns teenagers, though. Can the same amount of essential oil be used for children as teenagers? Surely, there has to be some kind of age cut off.
Sorry for the newbie questions I am not all that familiar with essential oils.
I’m happy I landed here today to read about essential oils for kids use. I’m familiar with essential oils, especially for physical and mental conditions to back pain so this was just down my alley. Kids are more prone to sicknesses, coughs, it’s and bruises at such an early age and essential oils are definitely the way to go about doing things the natural way.
Each essential oils has a purpose and that’s what I love about them. You can use frankincense as an anti-inflammatory and for things like stress and anxiety which is great because you get multiple targeted pains in a roll on topical or bottle.
I’m happy that there are roll on versions as I feel these are safer than consuming them by mouth for kids. You obviously can’t give them the same dosage and potency as for adults but they are just as effective for them at their age. I like how you mentioned about NyQuil, and it’s true that their are alternatives to it just like there are for adults. That’s really important to understand.
Essential oils are critical to a solid health and wellness foundation. Problem is most of them are geared for adults and not the best for kids.
The Rocky Mountain Oils line looks perfect for him and his family as they are roll on which is much easier to apply for kids and much quicker. My girlfriend has actually used Rocky Mountain Oils in the past and loves them!
In fact i may just buy them for him for Christmas.
Thank you so much!
I had no idea that their are even product lines that were made exactly for kids. That is pretty neat. I have heard there are some essential oils that can actually cause breathing problems for kids. Do you happen to know what some of those essential oils are so I can completely avoid them altogether.
My children are already adults today, but my sister has a little cute boy and he gets sick quite often. She always gives him a pill against pain, so I think it’s time for her to change her habit. I’ll show her this article, I am sure she will find it very useful!
I do have a question. Her son has asthma. Are there any best practices when using essential oil for kids with asthma?