A Few Alcohol Free Products

Nurses Recovery

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I noticed that there are a few posts from folks who may be new to Nurse Monitoring Programs. I have been in for a year now, and the main thing that kept me up at night especially at first was trying to make sure I completely avoided incidental exposure to any topical products containing alcohol (which is WAY harder than you might think). The Talbot Recovery Guide used by most programs is available online, but the last update was in 2014. Its got a ton of stuff with alcohol to avoid, but not much in the way of acceptable products. I found the list a little helpful if I was sick and needed to take any medicine for cold/flu etc but I would always get a script. I would ask my MD for a prescription for ANYTHING medication wise, even if it was on the Talbot "Class C" list, including Zytrec or Claritin, as some of the cold medications contain things like Dextromethorphan which I think is sometimes tested for. I have listed below a few products that I have found which are alcohol free. However, PLEASE be sure to always read labels as I'm sure formulations can change from time to time.

Mouthwash Crest and Colgate have alcohol free mouthwash. I do not recommend the Kroger brand of alcohol free mouthwash, because I bought 2 different "flavors" of their alcohol free mouthwash and both smelled like they had some traces of alcohol

CVS has a store brand of alcohol free hand sanitizer (Yay!) I keep this with me at all times. I typically use soap and water for hand hygiene, but sometimes that is just not practical.

Pantene Air Spray hair spray. This is also alcohol free

Tressemme has several varieties of hair gel that do not contain alcohol. They are not listed on the front of the package as being alcohol free, but there is no alcohol listed in the ingredients.

Moisturizers I use Vaseline, Johnson's Baby oil, and Burt's Bee's Lip balm. These contain no alcohol, but again read package labels. Lots of lotions have some form of alcohol for fragrance, etc so be careful.

Soap I use Ivory soap, as well as Dove. I could find no mention of alcohol in their bar soap ingredients. Be careful with the liquid body washes as some have alcohol. I also recommend avoiding using Baby Shampoo. There have been some anecdotal reports of positive drug screens for THC after frequent use ( and a girl in my nursing class who tested positive SWORE it was the baby shampoo)

I also Avoid any other aerosols such as Lysol, Febreeze, Body sprays, perfumes, insect repellant, sunscreens, deoderants, etc as there are often alcohol additives for either fragrance or propellants.

I'm sure that there are many more products that those in monitoring have been able to use safely, these are just some that I have stumbled across and have worked well for me.

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Specializes in Med/Surg & Psych.

I think the alcohol test is what scared me the most in the beginning and I don't even drink! I guess just fear of the unknown but once I got about four or five test under my belt I started to relax a little bit.

I continue to use my same deodorant same shampoo and same liquid body wash, same hair spray. I use body spray one to two times daily.

The one thing I closely monitor is everything that I put into my mouth anything I'm not sure of I read the label and if it doesn't have a label I don't eat it!

Lord, it's going to be a long 3 years

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Yeah, I'm super careful about any food products as well. However, those of us in monitoring for alcohol related issues have seen/heard of many instances of false positives from incidental exposure (whether they are accurate or not is enough to make us really scared). I was just super stoked to find an alcohol free hand sanitizer!! And I almost had a stroke when I found out one of the products I was using to straighten my hair contained close to 20% ETHANOL!!! Yikes! It was a trial size given to me after a hair appointment, so it didn't have an ingredient list on the label, I had to look it up online. And I only did so after one morning my husband came in the bathroom and told me "it smells like booze in here". Talk about having to clean some pants out after that incident !!

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I get my fragrances from an Etsy seller that uses essential oils mixed into a simple olive oil carrier...it comes in a tube with a roller ball for application. I messaged her just to be EXTRA sure it was alcohol free, and it is. She makes it in her kitchen, so no chance of equipment exposure to something else either.

Body sprays in general make me nervous now. The essential oil/olive oil mixes have amazing varieties possible and they last, without being overpowering. So, I've chosen to swap them out for the time being. I'll take any piece of mind I can get.

I guess I could try to make them on my own, but I'm not about that...and they are all under $10, so they are reasonable. I just about wet myself the other day when I went to use a Noxema acne facial wipe without reading the label...I've been away from alcohol so long, it instantly smelled like I was rubbing my face with vodka! Looked at the ingredients, sure enough, alcohol was near the top of the list!! My head knows that it would probably be fine, but I'm not about ready to find that out.

That being said, I don't worry about deodorant or shampoo. Alcohol is low on the ingredient list there and my armpits don't exactly cover a huge surface area to absorb it, and it doesn't give off vapors like the face pads or hairspray would.

It's ironic...the people in these programs who are freaking out the most about incidental exposure are probably not the ones the program needs to be worried about slipping up. If I won't use body spray, you very well know that I'm not going to try to find a way to sip champagne on New Year's Eve.

Regardless, I'm going to keep reading my labels. One year down, four more to go. :-/

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The one thing I closely monitor is everything that I put into my mouth

I wish my ex had done that

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Specializes in Med/Surg & Psych.
I wish my ex had done that

LOL!!!!

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