Good-To-Knows about Switching to Zarbee's Medicine for You Babe and Kiddos
Pediatrician Dr. Zak Zarbock created Zarbee's Naturals after years of being annoyed at the sub par offering of cough syrup for his patients. Years filled with tests, trials and research finally resulted in a dark, honey-based, completely-natural kids’ cough syrup. With his passion ignited (and #1 pediatrician ranked proof of concept) Zarbock eventually expanded his line into 24+ different products for babies and children.
In my opinion, the Baby Bee Prepared Kit, is one of my top new-mama must-have products! If you are going to a baby shower and aren’t sure what to gift, grab this. The kit is packed with four different common infant medicines: Cough Syrup, Chest Rub, Gripe Water and Multivitamin (w/ extra Iron).
In the kit, I think the gripe water and the chest rub are by far the stars of the show. First off, the gripe water smells a bit like tea—it’s made from chamomile extract, fennel extract, lemon balm extract and ginger. I was a bit surprised that the coloring was brown (and I accidentally spilled some on the babe’s changing table fitted sheet) but luckily it didn’t stain. One thing to note with the grip water: Make sure and store it in the fridge. I know the packaging says it can be stored at room temperature, but I’m on my 3rd bottle and I did notice that my first bottle’s lid got moldy if I just left it in my nursery drawer. Ever since then, I’ve just kept the bottle in the fridge and my next two bottles both lasted the full (advertised) 90 days.
Zarbee’s chest rub leaves Baby Vicks in the dust. It smells far more subtle than your typical chest rubs and seems to last a couple hours longer than other chest rubs I’ve used. The lavender balances out the eucalyptus smell really nicely and it’s free of artificial fragrances, menthol and and petroleum. I like to incorporate the rub into my baby massage time in the colder seasons. The jar the rub comes in is a bit small (at least smaller than what I was expecting). So, if you have a tendency to go hog wild with vapor rubs you might either want to stock up, or find a bulkier brand.
As far as the cough syrup, at first glance I was worried about using a product that had honey in it. But then I did a bit of research and found out Zarbee's baby-specific products are made with agave syrup instead of honey. It’s the kid’s and adult line that actually contain the dark honey Dr. Zak first experimented with.
I also am a big fan of Zarbee’s vitamin line (and my toddler is too). I started giving her two gummies a day right before preschool started (in an quick-ditch immune-building effort). If you’re raising your kids in a vegetarian-friendly home (shout out to my friend Stephanie) these gummies don’t contain animal gelatin, they use fruit pectin instead. I also love that the coloring for these vitamins comes from vegetable juice and grape skin extract (hence the deep purple). If you are cutting out all corn syrup from your kids diet, then these vitamins might not be the best option for you (maybe opt for Garden of Life’s Mykind Organics Kids Gummy Vitamins instead) but if you are more concerned about High Fructose Corn Syrup, then you’ll appreciate that Zarbee’s corn syrup is fructose free.
What baby or kid friendly medicine brands do you use? Let me know in the comments below!
Cheers,
Hazel
