February 26, 2011

Baby Shampoo Used to Treat Chronic Sinusitis

Yes... It's absolutely true! There's even research on this (limited).

The mixture ratio is 1/2 teaspoon of Johnsons No-Tears Baby Shampoo in 8 ounces of saltwater rinsed into the nose using a sinus rinse bottle can help with chronic sinusitis, especially when there's a lot of crusting present and to which all other therapies have failed to resolve.

The shampoo appears to work via several mechanisms theoretically:

1) It is directly toxic to germs
2) The soap action helps break apart crusting (similarly to the way detergent gets rid of mud from a kid's shirt in the washer)
3) The soap also helps break down and remove biofilms in the sinus cavities which tends to resist antibiotics and cause recurrent sinus infections (just like dishwasher fluid gets filmy food residue off plates)

For saline flushes, the NeilMed Sinus Rinse bottle is recommended for two reasons.

The black cap of the bottle is about 1 teaspoon... and the bottle itself is 8 ounces.

So, for the particularly difficult chronic sinusitis infection patient who has tons of crusting for which all other treatments have failed, the saltwater is made up as per routine using the NeilMed Sinus Rinse bottle, but than to also add 1/2 capful of the Johnson's No-Tears Baby Shampoo as well before use.

They are to flush their nose twice a day for a few weeks.

Reference:
Baby shampoo nasal irrigations for the symptomatic post-functional endoscopic sinus surgery patient. Am J Rhinol. 2008 Jan-Feb;22(1):34-7.





Fauquier blog
Fauquier ENT

Dr. Christopher Chang is a private practice otolaryngology, head & neck surgeon specializing in the treatment of problems related to the ear, nose, and throat. Located in Warrenton, VA about 45 minutes west of Washington DC, he also provides inhalant allergy testing/treatment, hearing tests, and dispenses hearing aids.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I tried this today .... and it feels nasty leaving the smell and taste of baby shampoo in your mouth and nose.

Anonymous said...

There was ONE report done by 7 MD's at Division of Rhinology, Department of Otorhinolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2008. The report is based on ONLY 18 PATIENTS!!!

J&J was not told that their product, a cosmetic, was being used internally, as a medicine. Cosmetics do no require FDA regs, etc but Medicine does.

J&J's baby shampoo had toxic ingredients. It was such an issue that J&J made a promise to consumers to take toxins out of baby shampoo & all of their products by 2013-2015. In the mean time.... idiot MD's are telling Patients to use this toxic item to rinse sinus with. The idiot MD's base this decision on a test of only 18 patients! With NO FDA approval and no J&J approval!

For some strange reason "the" publication (research document) can be found on NeilMed's website. Shortly after the publication came out, NeilMed came out with their own product that NeilMed tole me "was the same product (as Johnson's Baby Shampoo)". NeilMed's product was PULLED FROM THE MARKET in Fall 2011 because it was unsafe! Some but not all of the reasons were: it's addictive and loss of smell. If NeilMed's product, a medicine, was pulled from the market for being unsafe and it was "the same" as Johnson's Baby Shampoo then why would Johnson's Baby Shampoo be any safer for internal use?

And, once the product is reformulated, (1) is it effective? (2) is it any safer?

I found all this out, as a Patient, by simply making phone calls.

Anonymous said...

The report did not mention any specific product name, neither NeilMed nor J&J. NeilMed posted on their website mainly to help promote their product. And by saying Baby Shampoo, the test was more focus on the effectiveness of chemical surfactants other than baby shampoo itself.

I'm not sure what toxins it has in J&J, but my thought is that if it's designed for babies, there shouldn't be anything too harmful, assuming that the babies might accidentally drinks it. We are not talking about human consumption of baby shampoo, very small amount (1% concentration) of shampoo left on the nasal passage shouldn't harm a normal adult.

As a patient myself, who tried multiple medicines from MD, my chronic sinusitis hasn't improve a bit. I don't might trying baby shampoo. It's just another trial and error.

Anonymous said...

@Anonymous on July 18, 2013
Did you try it? How did it go? From what I've read so far, the results aren't encouraging (only 2 patients though).

Anonymous said...

U R DENSE

Sainti sue me said...

SO WHAT? YOU PREFER FEVER AND EXHAUSTION FROM INFECTION? IT LASTS DAYS AND WEEKS SOMETIMES..


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