Good for knees, not so good for nipples! (Kamillosan Chamomile Ointment)

Member Name: i_am_joy

Product:	Kamillosan Chamomile Ointment
Date:	06/11/08 (230 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Helped to heal the sore areas caused by my excema, a nice consistency

Disadvantages: Apparently Kamillosan is not terribly effective for breastfeeding mothers

I have fairly severe eczema which can flare up at a moments notice, I liken my eczema to the little girl with the curl as when it's good it's very very good, but when it's bad it's horrid!

I mentioned to my daughter in passing that I have had a flare up on the backs of my knees which has resulted in the skin cracking meaning whenever I move it is very sore and inflamed. My daughter dug into her changing bag and handed me a tube of Kamillosan, advising me to use it sparingly on the affected area for instant relief of the pain that my cracked skin was causing.

Kamillosan is really a cream designed to stop the chafing and soreness of the nipples which can result from breastfeeding, my daughter commented that it was useless for this purpose which is why I ended up with a brand new tube. I shall include some of her comments at the end of the review as I obviously cannot go into how good it is for breastfeeding mothers as those days, for me, are long gone!

For my eczema this was an excellent cream. It absorbed well and created a kind of barrier (although it was not greasy) across the back of my knee which helped the skin to heal and the awful cracks to become less sore. It aided the healing process because the Kamillosan is such a rich cream that I could immediately feel relief on the affected parts of my skin. It almost has a petroleum jelly consistency but remains just the right side of creamy for me.

I would assume that Kamillosan would work in the same way when used as a nipple cream because as baby is feeding the constant damp sucking motion can affect some women quite painfully. Having said that, my daughter said that Kamillosan provided no relief at all for her and she had to get some specialised ointment from her Health Visitor as she was at the stage where she was about to give up on breastfeeding altogether. I would also be concerned about some of the ingredients in this cream as if you are using this on your nipples then baby is certainly going to be ingesting some of it along with their milk, and some of the ingredients sound a little chemically to me.

Natural Chamomile is used in Kamillosan and this is known for it's healing properties, appearing in many creams and lotions across the market. I don't think this has much of a chamomile smell though so it's debatable how much is used and whether enough is contained in the cream for it to make very much difference to the overall abilities of Kamillosan. It's very good as a nappy cream, I use Bepanthen when my granddaughter stays with me but she was very sore recently and all I had was Kamillosan which seemed to take the sting out for her.

To sum it up, I would say that as a dry skin cream this is fantastic. I will continue to buy it for my eczema, and my granddaughter also uses it when she gets one of her many cold sores on her top lip although I don't think she would be so keen if she knew the true purpose of this cream as she gets quite embarrassed when her mum feeds the baby!

This tube cost £2.75 which I believe is an average price and my daughter bought this in Tesco, she said her Health Visitor was giving away samples recently so if you'd like to try this then perhaps you could ask next time you take your baby to be weighed.

Summary: A nipple cream which is better for eczema than anything else!