The rashes that seem to go with babies' sensitive skin are a big factor in any mother's stress levels, especially when she's doing her best to give her child super-care. Anchalee Dheva-Aksorn, managing director of Healthy Foods, knows that stress better than most.

Learning she was pregnant, Anchalee, 34, decided to give up her 10-year career as a financial expert. But after dedicating all her time to looking after her son, Prin "Dukie" (now two), she found he was allergic to almost every food she fed him -- even her breast milk.

"When he was two months old, he had a rash on his face despite the fact that he was totally breastfed. It wasn't until I introduced him to other foodstuffs at five months that I realised he was allergic to egg. I had eaten egg almost every day while breastfeeding and it had transferred to my breast milk," she says. "After visiting the doctor for tests, we found Dukie was also allergic to nuts, soybean, seafood, cow's milk and even fruit such as oranges and apples. So I had to watch everything we eat.

"I did piles of research on allergies and food because it was alarming to see Dukie developing rashes and grey hair."

Aside from learning that organic food is free from hazardous chemicals, she found that Britain's Soil Association has reported plants grown organically have as much as 27 per cent more vitamin C, 21 per cent more iron and 29 per cent more manganese than their chemically fertilised counterparts. "I decided to cook only organic rice, vegetables and fruit for Dukie.

The experience spurred Anchalee to think about starting a business producing instant organic food for babies.

"I realised that mothers these days are often too busy to cook from scratch, so there was a market for organic baby food. Brown rice, for example, takes quite a long time to cook. But what if you could make it instantly, by adding hot water or milk?"

And so the brand Baby Natura was born, with healthy ingredients like organic brown rice, pumpkin, Klauy Namwah banana and carrots from an organic farm in Suphanburi. Six packets cost between Bt75 and Bt90.

"Baby Natura meets the needs of new mothers who want an organic alternative for their babies. But more importantly, every mother wants her child to grow and develop healthily."

Dukie is doing fine on that front.

He can now eat eggs and soy sauce," she smiles.- The Nation/ANN