If you are pregnant or breastfeeding, you’ve probably been recommended to use personal care products containing lanolin to ease sore or cracked nipples from breastfeeding by healthcare providers. The FDA has approved lanolin for use in many products, such as cosmetics, lip balm, and nipple cream, but is lanolin really safe for you – and more importantly, for your baby? You’ve trusted Mamavation to cover topics like which retailers are protecting your family from toxic chemicals, 13 foods you don’t need to purchase organic, and ways to support a pesticide-free school lunch now join us as we explore the dangers of lanolin as skin care products.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
What is Lanolin?
Lanolin is a waxy substance that coats a sheep’s fur, keeping it moist and protecting its skin. After a sheep’s wool has been shorn, a waxy substance called sebum is left on the fur, which comes from the animal’s sebaceous glands – just like human sebum skin produces oil – and is affected by hormone production. This is also referred to as “wool wax,” “wool fat,” or “wool grease.”
While lanolin contains sebum, according to “The Scouring Post” by Beth Smith, it can also contain sweat, dirt, dust, pollen, fecal matter, and more. In addition, different sheep breeds create different consistencies of lanolin with different makeups. Lanolin must first be purified before it can be used in any products and that can be a challenge. This refining process varies greatly between different companies, the chemicals used, and the degree of purity in the process. After refinement, lanolin is used in a number of skincare and beauty products for consumers and in hospitals for wound care on top of the skin, but it’s also one of the most common ingredients for nipple cream, which provides relief from cracked and sore nipples to breastfeeding moms.
Lanolin is also used for contact dermatitis as an emollient, for skin irritation, diaper rash, eczema, dry skin, scrapes, nipple pain, swelling, psoriasis, for moisture, and as a lubrication.
Pesticides & GMOs: The Dangers of Lanolin
While refining can be complicated and difficult, the real problem with lanolin is its toxic makeup. Sheep that are conventionally farmed in the U.S. for wool are typically not raised USDA organic. According to the American Sheep Industry Association document, “Fast Facts about Sheep Ecology (PDF)”, sheep eat a range of foods and much of their feed is made of alfalfa, which is considered “grass” and does contain GMOs. They may also be given GMO supplements. GMOs that are doused with glyphosate can have trace amounts of endocrine disruptor chemicals like glyphosate which can, in turn, affect the lanolin that sheep secrete.
Other foods sources hold potential problems as well. According to Susan Schoenian at “Shepherd’s Notebook“, dried distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS), which are made from corn products distilled at ethanol factories, are becoming a popular source of food for sheep. However, this food source may have a negative impact on reproduction in sheep herds. The corn used in these ethanol factories can be GMO-based.
However, one of the biggest dangers of lanolin is that sheep are sprayed directly with pesticides to treat mites and pests. In addition, harvested fur is treated again with pesticides during refinement. Lanolin can legally contain up to 40 parts per million (ppm) of pesticides to be FDA-compliant. This is interesting to note because lanolin that is reserved for hospital use on open wounds is regulated to no more than 3 ppm of pesticides.
Lanolin Can Be Harmful to Babies, So Choose Organic
While these minuscule amounts may not pose much of a harmful effect for human adults, babies exposed to lanolin while breastfeeding may not be safe. According to Livestrong’s article on the “Infant Digestive System Development”, when mothers nurse a newborn, they provide the enzymes the baby is lacking because their digestive system is too immature. Even with the enzymes present in mother’s milk, they may not have enough enzymes to process out pesticides. Exposing them to the impurities inherent in lanolin can be harmful to their systems.
Because lanolin goes directly into your baby’s mouth, we recommend using organic lanolin alternatives instead to ensure that everything that goes on your skin – and into your child’s mouth – is GMO, pesticide, and cruelty-free. For instance, Earth Mama Organics makes a natural nipple cream that is non-GMO and contains no lanolin. Products like this ensure the health and well-being of your baby.
Here are some great products available on Amazon and elsewhere for your convenience:
- Earth Mama Nipple Cream (Mamavation also sent this product to the lab to test for indications of PFAS and received a non-detect lab report.
- Honest Organic Nipple Balm
- Bamboobies Organic Nipple Cream
- Badger Organic Nursing Balm
- E*raorganics Nipple cream
- Pure Haven Mom Balm Certified Organic
Each of these products will be free from parabens, toxic persistent pesticides like glyphosate, petroleum jelly, petrolatum, and mineral oil (baby oil). You will more likely find ingredients like coconut oil, cocoa butter, olive oil, vitamin e, and beeswax.
Interested in Safer Products for Baby
Interested in safer products for mother and baby? Mamavation has done several investigations to find the safest products! Here are some examples below:
Top 10 Natural Beauty Secrets for Summer
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Thanks,
Figure use a very hydrating cream and then seal it with an oil/lanolin.
Then this popped up, and I’m like dafuq….This is more click-baitty than anything.
Nice baby
Nice explanation
cute baby.
I really love your article i will share your post with my friends thanks. <3
Breast feeding has a bi lateral benefits of baby as well as mother. The reduction of being breast cancer is proportion to the rate of breast feeding!
Would love to have a reference to this comment in the article: “…Lanolin can legally contain up to 40 parts per million (ppm) of pesticides to be FDA-compliant.”
This article is frustrating in its lack of statistics. Each possible risk and side effect mentioned is either not related to Lanalin use directly (“this food source may have a negative impact on reproduction in sheep herds”) or too vague to be helpful or reliable (“exposing them to the impurities inherent in lanolin can be harmful to their systems”)
Calendula is great for skin issues also, esp burns. However, it should not be ingested either. I was told this after I gave birth and my Doc and RN saw the jar of nipple cream and looked at the ingredients. Organic coconit oil is the way to go. It also has antimicrobial properties.
Yikes, another article to scare new moms. Like they don’t have enough going on. It’s important to back these kinds of strong statements up with facts and data and it’s unfortunate that there’s no scientific sourcing in this article.
Just because a product is organic doesn’t mean it’s safer for babies and their sensitive digestive systems. There are plant-derived ingredients that are unsafe for ingestion by babies – for example, wholesome-sounding aloe vera may be great for skin but it can cause diarrhea and GI distress in babies. Organic or plant-based shouldn’t be used as proxy for safe.
Lanolin has been used for skin care for thousands of years. The grades that are used for things like nipple cream and other medical products are so highly purified, the contaminants of concern are completely removed.
There is a reason nursing women have used lanolin for decades and there is a reason doctors and LC’s continue to recommend it. There are many independent clinical trials and safety studies online that speak to its safety and effectiveness. Where is the science and safety research supporting these herbal products?
New parents have it hard enough. Let’s not make it any harder or more scary.
(Also, great point in this article about GMO – plant ingredients can be GMO, animal ingredients are not (yet, and hopefully never)… unless that lanolin is coming from Dolly the Sheep herself, your pure lanolin product is 100% non-GMO. 🙂
I am researching lanolin because the vitamin d added in milk bothers my system. I have been druling for the past 3 day because my milk brand I normally get has now added the vitamin d to it. I’m tired of this nonsense and I know there r chemicals added to this. In my experience it is always the chemicals.
Todays Lanolin is so refined that it’s practically Vaseline, simply an occlusive- a barrier that prevents moisture from escaping- There is a much better product on the market called Unpetroleum by Alba. A mix of castor, coconut, vitamin E and beeswax that looks and feels like Vaseline (petroleum jelly) but with better ingredients. Although unrefined raw pure shea butter is the best choice as it actually moisturizes and nourishes the skin while preventing moisture from escaping, and it allows skin to breathe. Good ol’ UNREFINED jojoba oil is also hard to beat as it resembles the skins natural sebum and nothing moisturizes the skin better than its own sebum!
On a sight about nursing mothers, please be careful not to recommend a product that has beeswax in it. This is decidedly NOT safe for babies.
I’ve been trying to research creams and ointments for my husband to use on his hands. He is diabetic and his finger tip dry out and split open. Anyone have any suggestions on a cream/ointment that works?
I’ve had a chronic problem of dry,chapped and cracked hands from childhood.More than 45 years. I’ve been to countless specialists to no avail. Ointments here,ointments there,nothing worked. I found a product called Dermex 5A that works very well and use it multiple times a day. I regularly buy it by the 4 Kg pail every 18 months. It’s a water based barrier cream and it absorbs very well into the skin unlike anything else I’ve tried. Unfortunately it washes out in water but I simply reapply it. You can supplement a little Vaseline after you’ve applied it to enhance it’s action over the top. There’s also a Dermex 7A but it’s not water based and I found it doesn’t work anywhere near as well. Dermex can be bought in Australia from Blackwoods or perhaps from some work safety stores. Alternatively there may be some other brands in your country that are similar but I think the key is that it must be water based to re-hydrate the skin.
Organic Olive Oil!!!
Organic Coconut Oil for open cuts, rash. Cover with Organic Olive Oil.
My husband uses Vamp Boss Healing Body Butter. Natural and organic Raw beeswax, organic Shea and mango and cocoa butters, plus essential oils such as vetiver that helps heal wounds.
He works on our Jeeps a lot and is outdoors where skin protection is important from cracking. I put the website below where we get ours. Cheers!—Todayah
Working hands sav/ balm was what my grandma would get my grandpa who has diabetes and had cracking dry, split open hands and he still says its the only thing that has worked for him
Here’s what I discovered as I tried to find a Lanolin I can buy locally to use as lip protectant (and as of two days ago a burn balm) Lansinoh (the most widely used breastfeeding lanolin — which I used while breastfeeding my now 16yo and 20yo kids) is guaranteed to contain no more than 1 part per million of pesticide, which is 1/40 of what is legally permitted and 1/3 the amount that is allowed for open wounds in hospitals. In other words, it is pretty darn pure. So I’m thinking my 6’2″ 16yo can use it as a lip protectant without my freaking out about pesticides. And i can drive 5 minutes to get it at Walgreen rather than driving 20 minutes to get Honest Company brand organic nipple balm at the maternity store, which I would definitely do now if I was breastfeeding. Of course lots of things are available online, but both these options can be purchased locally. Some Nordstrom and Target stores also carry the Honest balm.
I’m African American and was recently tested for allergies that are environmental. It took 3 visits in one week my reaction was to lanolin! I have several hair products in my house that were breaking out my forehead, hairline, ears sometime the side of my nose.They all contain lanolin. My skin turned red, it peels, itches, swells and bleeds alittle. So maybe look into the ingredients of lotions, shampoos,make-up! Its take me years to find this out. I have great topical medicine that clear my skin up immediately. Linalool is another make for lanolin…..best wishes
Thanks for that! So interesting. You are the first person I’ve met allergic to this. Although I have a girlfriend who has had autoimmune issues for YEARS and just recently discovered she’s allergic to maple syrup. AND SHE LIVED IN MAINE of all places. It was everywhere. She moved and stopped eating it daily and she got her period back, her skin started to clear up…and I’m still getting reports from her of all sorts of things that are getting better. Allergies are a bitch!
What topical did you use to clear breakouts? Thanks! I also am natural and noticed I broke out when using hair wax on my hairline.
“GMOs are endocrine disruptors” –objectively false. GMOs are “Genetically Modified Organisms,” as in any organism whose DNA has been altered. (Which, btdubs, is the exact same thing we do by selective breeding, it just doesn’t take as many generations if you do it in a lab.) There are so many different kinds of GMOs of so many different species that it is absolutely impossible to make a blanket negative statement about them except for maybe “they’re not natural,” which is an argument with a whole different set of issues. Please at least pretend to make scientific arguments. Perhaps you meant to claim that artificial hormones or pesticides can disrupt the endocrine system. This would be a feasible argument, but it would still be problematic to claim that they “are endocrine disruptors” because the phrasing implies that that is their purpose, rather than a possible side effect. Regardless, this would have absolutely nothing to do with genetic modification status.
Yes, thank you for catching that. We did mean glyphosate and it’s been fixed. Thanks!
I only came here to thank you for this comment. Thank you!
You are misinformed, natural evolution (even selective breeding) NEVER involves TAMPERING with existing genetic makeup. Breeding produces a new form of genetics via God through PROCREATION. GMO produces a new form of genetics via scientists (MAD scientists that want to be God). FIGURE IT OUT!
The main problem with GMOs, besides the largely unknown effects they have on the body (a concern because they are scientific modifications and not natural modifications), is not the fact that they are modified but the reason why they are modified. They are modified in order to make them pesticide and herbicide resistant – in order to spray the living daylights out of them.
So far I’m looking into lanolin to see if it is really healthy for me considering I’m trying to do a whole turn around with working out using proteins oils and healthy foods and when I saw this I am still a little lost on how lanolin can be dangerous, and is it mostly directed to women who are pregnant?,
Anyways I guess I’ll continue my research before I keep taking something that may be risky for my health but now this has frustrated me instead of helping
This article is frustrating in its lack of statistics. Each possible risk and side effect mentioned is either not related to Lanalin use directly (“this food source may have a negative impact on reproduction in sheep herds”) or too vague to be helpful or reliable (“exposing them to the impurities inherent in lanolin can be harmful to their systems”)
What are the harmful effects on the babies’ systems? What level of consumption causes a negative effect? What percentage of children show symptoms of these negative effects?
Can’t something edible and pure like coconut oil be recommended to use as a nipple cream?
Thank you!!
Side note I’m doing some research into oils / lanolin for severely dry diabetic feet.
Figure use a very hydrating cream and then seal it with an oil/lanolin.
Then this popped up, and I’m like dafuq….This is more click-baitty than anything.
Also was surprised to see the time stamp of your comment. Guess I’m not the only one looking into this hahaha.
Dry sore nipples from breastfeeding are best treated with the mother applying her breastmilk to the sore nipple area, and open to air. When bathing try not to get soap on your breast as this can dry out the skin. They make nipple shields the mother can use while breastfeeding to allow the skin to heal, but it is best to get the baby latched on well. If the infant is latched well then it shouldn’t hurt while breastfeeding. They also make a product that is worn under the bra covering the nipple area. This prevents the bra from rubbing against the irritated skin, and has openings in it to allow air circulation. I have seen infants refuse to latch/breastfeed because a mother has lanolin or perfume / soaps on her skin. Always consult your doctor / lactation nurse for products and skin evaluation. Most insurances cover private 1:1 lactation Services, and some hospitals offer a free group lactation services after discharge. You don’t have to go to the hospital you had your infant for lactation help. If you are having sore nipples from breastfeeding it might be from a poor latch, or you might have your breast pump settings too high. Breastmilk has been used on the infant’s skin to treat skin irritations. Breastmilk is free and has healing properties in it. Hope this helps ????
Radiantly You’s All Natural and Organic Healing Calendula Balm is a great alternative to lanolin!