Does Hard Water Cause Skin Problems?

Because hard water deposits minerals on your skin, it's like to be one of the causes of irritated skin. But as for dryness? Seems like heavy duty lotion and a humidifier would be more effective.

Mama Earth Angel Baby has a coveted "zero" rating on the Environmental Working Group's Cosmeticsdatabase dot com. It's available at Babygro and at World Health Store. Organic Earth (see um a competitor's website called City something for info and rating) they have wonderful shea butter based rubs, delicious scents from essential oils (or unscented) and cold crafted soaps. These two are excellent choices if u don't feel like making your own soaps, that is! Liora

my 3-year-old daughter has a persistent rash around her mouth -- seems like it comes and goes but is never not present.

i think it has something to do with one of the following:

-- the toothpaste she's using (which would explain why it's concentrated around her mouth)
-- something in the soap and/or lotion that we put on her face

I'm thinking this:
http://www.aocd.org/skin/dermatologic_diseases/perioral_dermatiti.html

anyone else having this issue?

Keep us posted. Reina sometimes gets a reaction like that from eating certain foods when she gets it on her face around her mouth. Could be something like that too. Guess it depends how messy your daughter is while eating. Sometimes Reina likes to wear her meal.

you don't need to shower every day -- it dries out the skin, especially with Beijing's harsh water, and removes much-needed natural oils. Just use a warm flannel every second day to wash all the important parts (ie. one day shower, next day flannel and so on). For sore skin nothing works better than vit e oil (try the world health store). Failing that, use cold-pressed olive oil that you can buy at most foreign supermarkets.

@CanadianGal, have you changed washing powder since arriving in China? Its extremely destructive to human tissue (breaks down proteins) so might be causing your problems as particles do remain in clothing and can be reactivated by sweating or temperature change.

Just an idea

Good call with the washing powder/laundry detergent question, Herbie!
We use a liquid detergent called Earth Choice natural for sensitive skin - it's an Austrailian brand and was overpriced but we bought it when we first moved here because that's similar to what we used at home in Canada.
HOWEVER...my hubby bought some liquid fabric softener and we had been using that recently to help with the static cling issues! I'm not going to use it anymore...I think that might be the problem.

Thanks for the reminder to go scent-dye-"everything"-free

P.S. Any recommendations for a large bottle of all-natural body lotion? We go through it so fast at our house!
Also, where do people buy truly scent/dye free natural liquid laundry detergents at a good price?

Thanks!

Dibs on her cinnamon toast! Hope you figure it out as rashes are no fun to deal with.

Hard water is really very harmful for skin especially for kid’s skin. Many harmful minerals like copper, magnesium and lead exist in hard water that causes many skin problems like itching and black spots. So to prevent from these problems you can also try some magnetic water conditioners or chemical water softeners.

We LOVE our shower filters. Well, I call 'em shower filters, but one is on the kids' and my bathtub, and one is on the hubby's shower.

Water is not DRINKABLE, but the chlorine, chloramines, metals and some minerals are removed. It is a little softer. It has helped our skin and smells and feels so so good. Aquasana-china is what we got, American Charlie Thomson is the representative here.