Can children ingest Essential Oils?
Essential oil ingestion is a controversial topic in the aromatherapy community, but pediatric ingestion is practically unheard of. However, essential oils offer beneficial effects and are ingredients in many herbal supplements marketed for children.
The reality is that children are already ingesting essential oils in commercial preparations, and in many cases, internal use of essential oils is safer and more effective than pharmaceutical alternatives. Pediatric ingestion of essential oils is a tool that has an important place in a natural medicine chest for kids. However, the key is training to use this tool safely.
Why ingest oils?
As discussed elsewhere, essential oils have multiple mechanisms of action. The first is olfactory, which relies heavily on sensory input and scent memory. This approach is used when aromas are inhaled to calm anxious thoughts or to reduce stress. The second is chemical, in which case the fragrance has nothing to do with the outcomes. For example, when oregano oil is used for a small cut, the antimicrobial actions of the oil are responsible for the effects, not the herbaceous aroma.
There are a lot of situations where inhalation isn’t ideal. In these cases, ingestion offers an alternative, more effective route for administration. Essential oil ingestion is ideal for gastrointestinal disorders, for systemic infections, and sometimes for mental health conditions such as anxiety. Ingestion is not ideal for respiratory health, for topical infections or conditions, or for needs which are better addressed through other routes.
With aromatic medicine (aka essential oil ingestion), the mechanism of action is chemical. This means that scent memory or personal preference is irrelevant. If someone does not like the scent, it can be masked through creative blending. This allows for a much wider range of oils for medicinal applications.
With children, the key is determining the best route of administration for the situation at hand. If ingestion is the best approach, safety is key. Safety with essential oil ingestion is discussed elsewhere, but when children are ingesting oils, there are additional safety considerations.
Digestive Development
Any time a child is ingesting a supplement or medication, digestive development has to be considered. Children have immature digestive systems, which alters their absorption of nutrients and medications. This means they may be less likely to absorb certain chemicals but more likely to absorb others. When it comes to potential toxins, including both environmental toxins and medications, children often absorb much more than an adult. As an example, a child may absorb 40-70% of an ingested amount of lead while an otherwise healthy adult will absorb 5-20%.
This impacts the total dosing protocol. Not only do children need smaller doses due to size, they will also need smaller doses to account for increased absorption. To accurately identify a safe dose for essential oils, a professional should be consulted.
Metabolic Pathways
Dosing is also affected by a child’s metabolic pathways. Metabolic pathways are the step-by-step biochemical processes our bodies follow to process substances we ingest. Children have immature metabolic pathways, which usually means that mediations will remain in the body much longer than they would in an adult body. Usually. Children may metabolize some substances faster than adults. Pediatric metabolism is highly complex.
Furthermore, children have immature blood-brain barriers and enhanced central nervous system receptivity. This impacts the distribution process of pharmacokinetics. And to complicate things even more, children also have a higher proportion of rapidly growing tissues, leaving them more vulnerable to medications that can affect development.
In short, essential oils can be the safest, most effective solution for a childhood condition, but the key to that safety is ensuring accurate doses that are large enough to achieve the desired effects but also small enough to avoid interfering with childhood development and/or increasing the risk of side effects.
Gut Microbiome
Yet another consideration is the gut microbiome. Bacteria play a critical role in overall health and there is perhaps no place in the body this is more clear than in the human gut. While the gut microbiome is notable for all individuals, childhood is a particularly vulnerable time as the microbiome is still developing. The development of a gut microbiome is a complex process with multiple steps which deposit friendly environmental bacteria into an infant’s gut. These bacteria play an important role in digestive system development (discussed above).
Until recent years, it was believed that an infant’s gut is sterile and is populated after birth. However, research in 2014 found that there are some bacteria in meconium and the placenta, which reflect the mother’s oral bacterial diversity. While our scientific understanding is still incomplete in this area, current evidence suggests that the earliest exposures to beneficial bacteria occur in the womb. Therefore, maternal exposure to essential oils in medicinal doses may impact the gut microbiome in its earliest and perhaps most vulnerable stages of development.
The infant’s gut microbiome receives its largest dose of bacterial population during the birth process, particularly in the birth canal. As the baby’s head crowns, it actually compresses the mother’s rectum, causing fecal elimination. This usually makes students in a childbirth class squeamish but is actually a perfect design because the baby’s face is usually in that same direction and it actually ingests some of the mom’s gut microbes. This means that the baby’s own gut microflora will match to mom’s antibodies, which are shared prior to birth. From there, baby latches onto the breast and begins ingesting large amounts of beneficial bifidobacteria.
The infant’s gut is receptive to this exposure because the stomach is far less acidic than an adult’s. In older children and adults, the stomach acid serves a protective role to kill pathogenic bacteria that would otherwise harm the host. These bacteria actually play a role in the development of that highly acidic environment.
Similarly, colostrum and breastmilk are packed with friendly bacteria. This wave of bacteria actually work to help the lining of the gut mature to fully functional status so that it can remain healthy and also assist in absorption of nutrients from food – generally breastmilk. Once this early microbiome is established, it works to mature the digestive tract and remains relatively stable until solids are introduced. The lining of the gut can take a good six months to mature.
During this time, essential oils placed on the breast to treat conditions such as thrush or sore nipples have an opportunity to significantly affect the diversity of the gut microbiome. Similarly, essential oil cleaning products which are used to sanitize a child’s toys or nursery pose an ingestion risk that could inhibit the growth of beneficial bacteria.
Digestive System Development
The critical window for gut development is from birth through age two. Once a healthy gut has been established, damage to the microfloral balance can be repaired within a few months to a few years. The length of time it takes to heal a gut microbiome imbalance ultimately depends on the severity of the disruption and the effort to repair the microflora.
However, when an infant’s gut is disrupted, it has no normal for which it can return. Damage to an infant’s gut microflora may only partially recover. This damage has the potential to impact their health throughout their life. That damage can contribute to numerous chronic issues, depending on their environmental and other health-related factors.
The microbiome in infancy and early childhood determines a lot of health outcomes throughout the entire lifespan. These microbes required for healthy growth and development. They ensure full gut development, they educate the immune system, they ensure tolerance to nutrients ingested into the body, to protect against infection, and so on. So when this is disrupted, problems arise.
So what does this mean for internal use of essential oils on children?
Internal applications in children typically take the form of ingestion in a syrup or internal use of essential oils in an ear oil. However, ingestion also occurs when children put household objects that have been cleaned with essential oils into their mouths. The most common form of ingestion in children is in the form of a cough drop or cough syrup. These are available commercially in drug stores and health food stores around the globe.
It’s important to note that essential oils are not used regularly as supplements or as preventive tools, but can be used internally to treat and address specific health concerns. Internal use of essential oils is ideal for digestive complaints, infectious disease, and similar concerns.