WHEN a Vale mum discovered her eldest daughter had developed eczema, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Lisa Tanner, of Bennetts Hill, Offenham, soon found two of her other daughters also suffered with the same condition and were all cows’ milk intolerant.

After moving to a four-acre smallholding from Flyford Flavell three-and-a-half years ago and buying a small herd of goats, Mrs Tanner, aged 40, soon found their milk had some useful properties.

Sufferers of skin complaints including psoriasis and eczema have found goats’ milk soap alleviates their symptoms and her daughter’s skin condition soon cleared up.

“We get about nine pints a day,” she said. “I had so much milk and didn’t know what to do with it. I looked at milk recipes and soap came up, which I hadn’t heard of before.

“I made a batch and give it to friends and got really good feedback.

“Making soap isn’t something I thought I would do.

My background is nursing.”

Since the launch of Its Baaath Time in June 2010, the business has gone from strength to strength with products being sold in Meadwell Farm Shop, Middle Littleton, and the Little Present Shop in Evesham. During busy times of the year, Mrs Tanner makes up to 150 bars of soap a week and has even branched out into bath bombs, cocoa butter and exports overseas.

But despite the soap becoming a fruitful business for the family over the last two years, Mrs Tanner has not forgotten why she launched it in the first place. “Everything we’ve done here in the smallholding has been for the children’s benefit in a way,” she added.

“The allergens and things people can be allergic to are not in my soap.

“It’s nice for them [the children] to want to use things in their bath, especially the eldest.”