An ultra-soft intimate cleansing foam from Cattier's Gynea range, 150 ml, formulated for girls from about three years old to puberty.
Why a separate product for children is not marketing. Pre-pubertal vulvar skin is genuinely different from an adult's, and the difference is hormonal. Before puberty there is very little oestrogen, which means the vulvar and vaginal tissue is thinner, the protective fat pads and pubic hair that shield an adult are absent, and crucially the Lactobacillus population that keeps adult vaginal pH acidic has not established. A young girl's genital pH is closer to neutral. The result is skin that is markedly more vulnerable to irritation — and a product formulated around adult acidity is not the right match.
The most useful thing a parent can know about this. Vulvovaginitis is common in young girls, and the overwhelming majority of cases are irritant rather than infectious — caused by soap, bubble bath, shampoo sitting in bath water, scented products, or simply over-washing. Which means the first and best intervention is almost always to remove things rather than add them: no bubble bath, no soap in that area, rinse hair at the end of the bath or outside it, and plain warm water most days.
So use less than you think. A gentle, pH-appropriate, fragrance-free foam is the right product when a product is needed. It is not needed daily for most children, and a foam is useful mainly because it dispenses a small dose already diluted — so there is no concentrated cleanser to rub into thin skin.
What to teach, which outlasts any product: wipe front to back; rinse and pat dry properly, because damp skin is what irritates; cotton underwear rather than synthetic; and do not sit around in a wet swimming costume. These do far more than any wash.
See a doctor if there is persistent itching, redness, discharge, pain on passing urine, or any bleeding. Those need assessment, not a different soap — and threadworm, which is extremely common in children, is a frequent and easily treated cause of night-time itching that no wash will resolve.
Available at Só Verde, an organic concept store in Foz, Porto.