What is Baby Perfume? [Safety, Tips & Recommendations!]

Whether you’re a lucky parent welcoming a baby or a proud uncle researching the perfect gift for a baby shower, you cannot go wrong with baby perfume. This product has only recently gotten segmented beyond fragrance-infused products, so most adults don’t know what baby perfume is.

Baby perfume is a fragrant product for babies and is made from gentler chemicals to make it safer for newborns and toddlers to wear. The degree of safety differs from brand to brand, and you should check the packaging for your individual selection.

This article will introduce you to the world of baby perfumes. You’ll find out uses of these products beyond just making your kid smell good, how safe such perfumes are, and how to safely apply perfume to your baby.

Can You Use Your Usual Perfume Around Babies?

Perhaps the first thing that may come to your mind when you hear the term “Baby Perfume” is that it is another marketing gimmick. You may wonder whether we can just use our usual perfume for babies. But, here’s what you should know –

Your usual perfume is not safe to use on babies as it contains chemicals that are harmful to the delicate skin of babies such as alcohol, phthalates, and parabens. You should also avoid using your usual perfume around your baby; while handling the baby or even breastfeeding.

In fact, you may also want to inform your family members who tend to use perfume to try and avoid it while visiting your house.

Check out my other article on whether perfume bother babies for detailed information and tips on what to do when you want to wear perfume while having a baby in the house!

What is Baby Perfume Used for?

Baby perfume is used to make your baby smell good but also for other reasons like creating scent memories and improving a baby’s mood. Your perfume purchase must be informed by the primary reason you want a baby perfume.

For instance, if you want to create a bond with your baby through smell-triggered memories, you can choose a perfume that you too can wear. If you want the baby to smell nice, then any perfume that’s safe for the baby should be fine. 

Moreover, baby perfume is really helpful when you want to cover any foul smell originating from your baby pamper!

Regardless of your reasons for getting a baby perfume, make sure it is not too strong. Also, check for use of chemicals that are usually considered harmful (more on this in the next section).

Is Baby Perfume Safe for Babies?

Baby perfumes are regulated and hence relatively safe, though you must exercise caution to ensure that the baby isn’t harmed by the wrong application. In short, baby perfume is safe only if you use it right.

Safety Tips When Using Baby Perfume

Water is safe, but one can still drown in it. The case with baby perfumes is the same. They are safe, but you can still use the wrong application method or go overboard, putting the baby at risk.

Again, you cannot take this as a judgment on baby perfumes; one can endanger a baby by putting him in the wrong clothes. Here are the precautions you must take when applying baby perfume.

Make Sure the Perfume Is Hypoallergenic

Baby perfume or not, any chemical product you’re putting on a baby must be hypoallergenic, which means they minimize the risk of your baby having an allergic reaction. For maximum safety, the perfume should be free of the following chemicals:

• Parabens 
• Phenoxyethanol
• Alcohol

If you know a thing or two about perfumes, you already know that alcohol is a necessity for many perfume manufacturers. But it is also harmful to sensitive skin, which brings us to the next point.

Do Not Apply Baby Perfume Directly to the Skin

Even if your perfume doesn’t have alcohol, it is always wiser to apply baby perfume to the baby’s clothes instead of his body. That way, the chemical contact remains minimal, and you don’t have to worry about dry skin or contact allergies. If you want to apply it to his skin, scroll down to the uses section for directions on how to do it safely.

Keep a Lighter Hand

It is advisable not to apply your baby’s perfume right after you’ve put on yours because you’ll be in the adult perfume application mindset. With babies, you want to keep a lighter hand, which is why applying perfume after your baby has taken a shower is the best for moderation.

Many parents want to apply baby perfume after a diaper change. Again, spraying perfume here can cause an overcorrection and lead to applying too much. 

A baby’s skin is sensitive, and he cannot tell you that he finds his perfume too strong. Think about how you feel when you accidentally put on a strong scent; a baby can feel that even if you don’t smell your kid’s perfume.

A good measure of your child’s perfume strength is to ensure that you can smell it only when you’re carrying the baby. If someone else can smell it while the baby is in your hands, or vice-versa, you may have sprayed too much perfume on your baby.

Benefits of Using Baby Perfume

We have already covered briefly what baby perfumes are good for. Now, let’s discuss the many benefits of using baby perfumes.

1. Memory Triggers

Scents can be used to ground memories, and for babies, these can be moments of bonding. By using baby perfume on your neck while you breastfeed the baby or on his torso while you cuddle with him, you build a positive association between feeling good, yourself, and the perfume. This brings up the next advantage of baby perfumes.

2. Mood Stabilizing

You can use baby perfumes to make your baby happy. As covered above, scents are linked to memories, and by using a single scent during your baby’s most positive experience, you can create a trigger to use whenever you want your baby to feel calmer

A word of caution, do not overuse the trigger, or it gets weakened, and your baby will start associating it with too many things. A good rule of thumb is to use the perfume nine times out of ten during good times to maintain its positive association and once every nine times to use its positive association to calm an agitated baby.

3. Social Appeal

Humans are social, and the more your baby is accepted and appreciated early in life, the more socially compatible he will be growing up. A perfume gives your baby an early start even though it is by no means the most significant contributor to your child’s social appeal.

When your baby smells nice, people holding him feel nice and, as a result, have positive body language around him. Since humans are great at picking up body language (with 90% of our communication according to Psychology Today being non-verbal), your child will form positive opinions about others and grow to be more extroverted.

4. Reduce Stress

While not all fragrances have the same effect, the ones that are labeled specifically as “calm inducers” can help reduce anxious feelings and relax your little one. Such fragrances are best to carry on your travels and whenever there’s a change in the environment of the baby.

5. Enhancing Sensory Experiences

According to an MSU article, there is evidence that babies rely on their sense of smell to enhance their experience of material reality since their other senses (like sight, for example) aren’t as specialized. 

By using distinct fragrances for specific repeated experiences, you help your child develop a connection between smell and sight. This can also be used to encourage associations between a kinesthetic experience (like baths) and smell.

6. Fragrances Can Be Used for Bedtime

Using a specific fragrance at nighttime can help your baby get into the mood for bed. While any baby perfume can serve this purpose provided, you use it consistently; it is advisable to use floral varieties and avoid citric ones, which are known to energize people.

How to Use Baby Perfume?

You can put baby perfume on your baby so that he smells nice, but there’s so much more you can do with the product (as detailed above), so why limit it to be used as a personal fragrance? Here are some ways you can use baby perfumes.

1. Use a Citrus Scent to Induce Hunger

Whether your baby can be spoon-fed or is breastfeeding, you can use a citrus scent-like product to get your baby in the mood to consume food.

There’s a common association between citric scents and an increase in appetite. Apply this perfume to the child’s bib (or your neck in the case of breastfeeding) consistently to form a connection between the perfume and feeding time.

2. Use Floral Perfume to Induce Sleepiness

If your child seems restless at night, he might be anxious or simply not in the mood to sleep. Adding a little sleep-friendly floral perfume-like product will get your baby in the mood for bed. Again, you must use this repeatedly to get him to associate the two.

3. Add Perfume to Bath Water for Better Engagement

Children’s interest in bathtime is a hit-or-miss phenomenon. Some babies love bath time, while many prefer not to get wet. Bubble baths are popular with toddlers but can be dangerous for babies. Using something lighter like a baby perfume (product) can enhance your baby’s sensory experience and help educate his senses.

4. Add It to Baby Lotion to Make Fragrant Mix

This is an alternative application safe only for alcohol-free baby perfumes. Oil-based perfumes can be diluted in baby lotion to make a moisturizing body fragrance. 

But since most baby lotions come with their own signature scent, this way of using baby perfumes seems redundant unless you use non-fragrant baby products.

5. Spray On Clothes as Personal Fragrance

Finally, you can spray baby perfume on your child’s clothes, so he smells nice with every change of clothes. This has social and sensory benefits that are more abstract than the tangible benefits listed above. 

But when you choose a fragrance for your baby, you do so the pleasant scent above all. And a baby perfume will have your child safely smelling nice.