Keep your essential oils in a safe place - not only will it keep them out of the reach of small hands, but a cool dark place will also help to retard oxidation of the oils.

Never use essential oils undiluted on the skin, and when preparing a blend for a child, remember that you would halve the strength - where you would normally include a 2 % dilution of essential oil to the carrier oil, you would prepare a 1 % dilution for use on a child.

You use a weaker dilution on children because their bodies are smaller and their skins are also more sensitive - in adults you would use 6 drops of essential oil to 20 ml carrier oil, while on children you would only use 2 - 3 drops to 20 ml of carrier oil.

Should you use essential oils in steam inhalation, never leave the child alone or unsupervised, and keep the inhalation to 1 minute.