Essential oils around children and pets

Most worried messages I receive about essential oils are not about skin, but about a toddler found sitting on the bathroom floor with an open bottle, or a cat that started drooling an hour after the diffuser went on. Oils that most adults tolerate well can be dangerous for small bodies, and for some animals the problem is not size at all but the way their bodies deal with the chemicals in the oil.

If you are reading this because something has just happened, go straight to the section near the end headed "What do I do in an emergency?".

Can I use a diffuser with a baby in the house?

With a newborn, no. For babies under 3 months I would not diffuse in any room where the baby sleeps or spends time, and I would put no essential oils on their skin. Their airways are tiny and their breathing is still settling into a steady pattern.

From about 3 months to the toddler years, if you diffuse at all, use a gentle oil such as true lavender, mandarin or Roman chamomile, in a large, airy room, for no more than about 30 minutes. Never diffuse while a baby is asleep, and never overnight. A good habit: scent the room, switch off, open the window, then bring the baby in.

For older children, use adult habits with a lighter hand: 30 to 60 minutes and then off, with the lower end of the maker's drop guide (often 2 to 3 drops for a small ultrasonic diffuser), and nothing running all night in a small closed bedroom. Put the diffuser somewhere high and stable so it cannot be pulled down by the cord.

Stop and open the windows if a child coughs, wheezes, sneezes, rubs their eyes, complains of a headache or says the smell is too strong. If your child has asthma, ask their doctor before diffusing at all, because strong scents can set off an attack. Children with epilepsy should avoid rosemary, eucalyptus, camphor, fennel, sage and hyssop, and their doctor should know about any oils used at home.

Which oils should stay away from young children?

Hakka deserves a special mention for anyone in Japan. Mint oil sprays, a speciality of the Kitami area of Hokkaido, are sold in drugstores and souvenir shops across the country, and people spray them on face masks and pillows. A whiff of menthol on an adult's mask is one thing; the same spray on a cot sheet or a baby carrier is another. Menthol and camphor chest rubs carry age limits on the label for the same reason.

Skin strengths for each age are in my dilution chart, and the reports linking lavender to hormone effects in boys, with their uncertainty, are in what the research shows about lavender.

Why is a swallowed oil so serious?

Essential oils are concentrated. A few millilitres of eucalyptus or camphor oil have caused serious poisoning in young children, including seizures and loss of consciousness. Signs include a burning mouth, coughing or choking, vomiting, drowsiness, unsteadiness, unusual behaviour, fast breathing and fits. They can start within minutes or be delayed for a few hours, which is why you call for advice even when the child seems fine.

There is a second danger. Oils are thin and slippery, and if a child coughs, gags or vomits, some can slip into the lungs and cause a chemical inflammation that is harder to treat than the swallowing itself. That is the reason nobody should try to make the child sick.

Typical accidents: a bottle with its dropper insert missing, a sip from a diffuser reservoir, a reed sucked from a reed diffuser, a roller-ball top prised off, a scented cotton pad chewed.

How should oils be stored in a family home?

• In a high cupboard that closes with a child lock. "Up high" alone is not enough, because toddlers climb.
• Caps on tightly after every use, with the dropper insert left in place. Many bottles sold in Europe have child-resistant caps, and the insert lets out only a drop at a time. Both slow a child down, but neither stops a determined one.
• Never decanted into drink bottles, cups or anything that looks edible, and every homemade blend labelled.
• Not on bedside tables, bathroom shelves or the edge of the bath, and not in handbags or coat pockets. Think of grandparents' homes and visitors' bags too, where menthol balms often sit within reach.
• Diffusers emptied, rinsed and dried after each use.
• Reed diffusers and simmering liquid potpourri kept out of reach of children and pets, or not kept at all.

Why are cats a special case?

Cats have very low activity of one of the main pathways the liver uses to clear many medicines and plant chemicals, a process called glucuronidation. It is the same reason paracetamol is so dangerous for cats. Several components of essential oils, phenols in particular, are cleared through that route, so in a cat they build up.

Grooming adds to the risk. Anything on a cat's fur ends up being swallowed, including the fine droplets that settle from an ultrasonic diffuser. Animal poison services list tea tree, wintergreen, sweet birch, pennyroyal, cinnamon, citrus, peppermint, pine and ylang ylang among the oils of concern, and vets add eucalyptus and clove.

Watch for drooling, vomiting, pawing at the mouth or face, red lips, gums or skin, wobbly walking, trembling, unusual sleepiness or hiding, fast or open-mouthed breathing, coughing and wheezing. Liver damage can show days later as poor appetite or yellowish gums and eyes.

My rules with cats: never put oils on a cat, including "natural" flea or calming remedies, unless a vet has prescribed the product. Wash your hands after blending before you stroke one. Never diffuse in a closed room with a cat, or where it eats and sleeps, and keep diffusing away from cats with asthma altogether.

What about dogs?

Dogs process these compounds better than cats, but they are still at risk, and size matters: a small Shiba or a toy poodle is not a retriever. Concentrated tea tree oil put on dogs for skin problems or fleas has caused weakness, trembling and unsteadiness, and pennyroyal oil used as a flea remedy has been linked to fatal liver failure. A dog's sense of smell is many times keener than ours, so a scent we barely notice can be overwhelming. Keep oils off collars, bedding and coats, mop up spills before paws find them, and leave the dog at least one room without scent.

And birds, rabbits and other small pets?

Birds breathe through a system of air sacs that takes in airborne substances very efficiently, the same reason bird keepers are warned about fumes from overheated non-stick pans and aerosol sprays. Do not diffuse, spray or burn scented candles in a room with a bird, and in an open-plan home, not in the same air at all. Tail bobbing, open-mouthed breathing, fluffed-up feathers or sitting on the cage floor mean a vet visit.

Rabbits, guinea pigs, hamsters, chinchillas and ferrets are small, have sensitive airways and usually live in cages they cannot leave. Rabbits also groom constantly and cannot vomit. Keep diffusers out of the rooms where they live. Keep diffusers away from fish tanks and vivariums too.

Is passive diffusion safer?

Active diffusers push droplets into the air: ultrasonic models make a cool mist from water and oil, nebulisers spray pure oil, and heat diffusers warm it. Passive diffusion lets oil evaporate by itself: a drop or two on a tissue or cotton pad, a clay or wooden diffuser stone, a reed diffuser. The scent is fainter and stays closer to the source, and there is no mist settling on fur, feathers or a sleeping child, so it is my first choice in a home with pets or small children.

The catch is that the source itself is concentrated. A reed diffuser knocked over by a cat means neat oil on fur and paws, which is a vet emergency, and a scented tissue is something a toddler will put in their mouth and a dog may eat. So in a home with pets:

• scent one room at a time, with the door open so animals can leave;
• run an active diffuser for 30 to 60 minutes, then switch off and open a window;
• never scent a room with a bird, a caged pet or a cat with asthma;
• keep anything passive on a high, stable shelf;
• watch the animal, and stop at the first sign of trouble.

What do I do in an emergency?

If a child has swallowed an oil:

1. Take the bottle away and keep it. Wipe any oil left in the mouth with a soft cloth.
2. Do not make the child vomit, and do not give milk, salt water or anything else unless a poison service or doctor tells you to.
3. Call an ambulance at once (119 in Japan, 999 in the UK, 911 in the US, 112 across the EU) if the child is coughing or choking, struggling to breathe, very drowsy or floppy, unresponsive, or having a fit.
4. Otherwise, call for poison advice now, even if the child seems well. In Japan, the Japan Poison Information Center's public lines are 072-727-2499 (Osaka, 24 hours) and 029-852-9999 (Tsukuba, 9am to 9pm), and #8000 connects you to a children's medical advice line out of hours (times vary by prefecture). In the UK, call NHS 111; in the US, Poison Help on 1-800-222-1222. Have ready the oil's name, how much might be missing, when it happened, and the child's age and weight.
5. For oil on skin, take off soaked clothing and wash with mild soap and plenty of water. For oil in an eye, rinse with lukewarm running water for 15 minutes, then get advice.

If a pet has been exposed:

1. Switch off the diffuser and move the animal to fresh air.
2. Do not make it vomit, and give no food, milk or home remedies unless a vet says so.
3. If oil is on the fur, stop the animal grooming (a towel wrapped round a cat helps). Your vet may ask you to wash it off with mild washing-up liquid and lukewarm water.
4. Call your vet or an out-of-hours animal hospital straight away, and take the bottle with you. In the US, the ASPCA Animal Poison Control Center is on (888) 426-4435, and a fee may apply.
5. Breathing trouble, fits or collapse: go now, without waiting to call back.

Before you open the next bottle, save the poison advice number for your country in your phone and on a card inside the cupboard where the oils live. The aroma pocket guide keeps the other basics on one phone screen. In a house with small children or animals, the safest oil is the one that is capped, locked away and used in a room they can walk out of.