Since it’s cold and flu season, and soon enough to be allergy season…

On a recent Oprah Winfrey program, featured medical expert Dr. Oz talked about rinsing sinuses using a “Neti pot.” I have no experience with this product, but the testimonials on the program were very positive. Someone on Oprah’s staff was able to get chronic congestion under control by using it. I also like that Dr. Oz admonished people to continue to figure out why they get chronic sinus congestion (if that is why they use it) and deal with the underlying problem, not just rely on the rinses.

Another option I have found is a product called “Simply Saline – Sterile Saline Nasal Mist” from Blairex Laboratories www.simplysaline.com. On the package it says it’s “The only sterile preservative-free nasal saline solution.”

The mist is very gentle, and I find, less frightening to children than other ways of flooding the sinuses with fluid to help clear congestion. I LOVE this product! And it’s just sterile saline. I just had a cold myself recently, with severe congestion, yet I was able to breathe and sleep every night because of this stuff.

While surfing over to Simply Saline’s web site, I found that Blairex also makes a diaper creme and ointment (the names of which I’m not going to print because of search and spam problems that come up with certain terms), as well as a new product for the face and lips, Boudreax’s Baby Kisses. (The links are to drugstore.com product descriptions, rather than to Blairex, because drugstore.com gives the ingredients while the manufacturer does not. I don’t know why it is so few manufacturers list their ingredients on their own sites! Drugstore.com is a great place to find product contents, one of the reasons I shop there.)

Looking at the ingredients in the above cremes, all are probably good barrier moisturizers. I have not used them or gotten feedback about them, but the ingredients seem similar to other good barrier moisturizers.

For one ingredient I have never come across before, Peruvian balsam, I found an informative link to help evaluate whether individual allergy might be an issue (or not): [link]

Boudreax’s body wash and shampoo, however, appear to be detergent based.