Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Awesome Old Fashioned Remedy

(I put a dab of this on a bandage just to show you what it looked like.)

My daughter has had two splinters within the past couple of weeks and both times she tells me "please just go get the black stuff." She asks this after I have tried unsuccessfully to remove the splinters with tweezers.

This "black stuff" is called Ichthammol and we use it here all the time.

It is a drawing salve that will draw infection out of cuts or wounds and it's also excellent for drawing splinters out.

This is black.. like tar and smells like tar.. so we always apply it with a bandage so that it doesn't get on anything and stain it. I apply this and leave it on for just a few hours and then a splinter will usually pop right out with little effort. If I'm using it to draw out an infection of a small cut then I apply it at bedtime and bandage it well so not to get it on the sheets. In the morning we remove the bandage and the infection (pus) is usually on the bandage. It works like magic to draw all of the yuck out.

I can only find this around our area in the small old-fashioned family owned drug stores and not in the big chain pharmacies.

The last tube that I bought cost me just under $7.00 and it will last me for several years if not more. This is a great old-fashioned remedy to keep in stock!

7 comments:

Kritter Keeper at Farm Tails said...

that is a great post! thank you. i think 'the country store',the thin catalog (from vermont) has that stuff in it...sounds familiar! they even have 'gee your hair smells terrific' shampoo...remember that? big in the 70's.

Stacey said...

I absolutely love old rememdies. Sometimes I think they work the best, even compared to what we have today. Thanks for sharing! I will definitely have to put this on my list of things to get and keep around. Any more remedies?

Have a great day!

Hugs and blessings,
Stacey

Carmen S. said...

I'll have to find me some of this "black stuff", we get splinters all the time!

Olde Dame Penniwig said...

My husband grabs his knife and "digs" out the splinters I get -- OW! Going to try this instead! I wonder if it IS tar?!

Country Whispers said...

Kritter Keeper...I've seen the shampoo in that catalog but I don't remember it as a kid.

Penniwig...the ingredients are Petrolatum,ichthammol,anhydrous lanolin, and light mineral oil.

ELLOUISESTORY said...

Gosh, this brings back a memory. My mother and grandmother used to have this stuff around and use it in the 1940s when I was a little kid. I remember the black stuff, the smell and that it worked. Now I have to have some myself.

Buttercup said...

I've never seen this before, but it looks great. Thanks!