What I Learned at the BabyTime Show from My New Friend Diane

Location is everything, as the real estate agents tell us. And I certainly lucked out in terms of booth location at the Fall 2011 BabyTime Show. My "Ask Ann" kiosk was placed beside Diane Lai Group (an all-natural skin case products company), and Diane and I hit it off immediately, which made the show fly by. 

Diane isn't just a fun person to hang out with at a baby show, however. She's also incredibly knowledgeable about babies and skin care (by necessity, as it turns out). Her firstborn experienced such severe outbreaks of eczema that doctors were prescribing steroid creams to try to manage his symptoms. 

Diane was determined to get at the root causes of the problem (as opposed to treating the symptoms after the fact) so she started experimenting with ways of eliminating her son's skin woes.

She discovered that changing her family's laundry routines made a huge difference.

Her advice to other families who have babies with extremely sensitive skin? 

• Use half the recommended amount of laundry soap when you wash your baby's clothes; and choose an extra-gentle liquid (as opposed to powdered) formulation.
• Either hang your baby's clothes to dry or allow them to tumble dry in the dryer. Note: Don't use dryer sheets or fabric softners, she advises, as these products can be irritating to baby's skin.

Diane also went on the develop (with the help of an organic chemist) a line of products that are designed to meet the needs of people with highly sensitive skin. (I fall into this category myself and purchased one of Diane's creams at the show. I've been using it for two weeks and am loving it.)

I also love the fact that Diane's is a family-run company. Her husband supports her efforts 100 percent. (In fact, he was handing out promotional samples from a wheelchair at the show while his leg was on the mend from a hockey injury.) Is it any wonder I left the show with a feel-good glow? (And, for once, it wasn't because of my rosacea.)