About Barrier Balm (Previously Hiney Healer)

Dr. Donald Boldt (everyone calls him "Doc") is a small-town Iowa family practitioner who's seen his share of sore baby hineys. When he found that the big name, expensive creams were no match for bad diaper rash, he concocted his own formula: Barrier Balm (Previously Hiney Healer).

Unique Formula for All!

  • Unique Formula not available elsewhere - 40% Lanolin, 6.6% Zinc Oxide in a proprietary base.
  • Helps treat any skin-related irritation including diaper rash, chapped or cracked skin, and helps protect against drying effects of wind and cold weather.
  • Provides a unique protective barrier against wetness.
  • Works great for Fussy Babies, Athletes, Farmers, and Outdoor Enthusiasts
  • Pleasant Scent, Spreads Easily - Providing an Even Barrier of Protection
  • Satisfying Customers for Over 30 Years

Effective, soothing, easy on, easy off, and it smells good too. Doc has used it to treat rears for over 30 years. Now you can too! 

Graphic of a globe with a paper airplane representing global testimonials for Barrier Balm

Barrier Balm miracle cream now sold over the counter

By LaDona Roelfs, Editor ACKLEY

If you have raised kids, you are probably aware of how terrible a bad case of diaper rash can be. Nobody sleeps and everybody in the family suffers as a result of one poor baby with a sore “hiney.” But for more than 30 years, if you were fortunate enough to be a patient at the Ackley Medical Center, particularly with Dr. Don Boldt, you may have received a prescription for a special salve. This “miracle” salve was a lifesaver for parents of a fussy baby. Dr. Boldt started practice in the Ackley Medical Center 35 years ago after completing a family practice residency at Broadlawns Hospital in Des Moines.

“The cream was actually a formula out of a book from when I was in training, but no one else seems to remember it!” Boldt said, with a laugh. “I have been prescribing it ever since I came here, of course with some modifications that we have learned over the years. It still seems to work better than anything else I have found.”

Image of MedCara CEO Tom Swegle and Hiney Healer (Barrier Balm) creator Dr. Donald Boldt, circa May, 2015.Then one day, Boldt received a visit from Tom Swegle from MedCara Pharmaceuticals asking if he would be interested in marketing his special cream through them.

“It’s a good cream and you couldn’t get it commercially before this,” Boldt said. “They are using me and my reputation, I guess, and my recommendation of it as a marketing tool. We had to come up with a name for it... a lot of the ones we tried to trademark were already used... so we settled on 'Hiney Healer' and now that we've reformulated it, we call the improved formula 'Barrier Balm."

Very appropriate. Ackley NuCara pharmacist, Donna Roberts, said all the Ackley doctors use it as well as some of the Iowa Falls doctors as they get familiar with it from use at the hospital.“ It is a great product for rashes and irritations, a nice formula,” she said. “It moisturizes the skin and washes off. Most medicines like this are sticky and you have to rub to get it off. This is as easy to get off as it is to get on, but still has the skin protection.” Roberts added that the cream is also being used in the Ackley and other area care facilities where the pharmacy does business, saying it protects the skin from breakdown.

“We have gotten calls from as far away as California for use as a moisturizing cream. It is a good barrier and yet it washes off easily,” Boldt added. “Although the salve has been on the market for only a few months, sales have been very, very good here in Ackley,” Roberts said, adding that could be because everyone knows Dr. Boldt. “Many people used it when he started way back. It’s the same stuff. It was good then and it still is.” “The best thing about that is that I don’t have to be on call on weekends,” he joked. “I’m not sure though about full retirement.

I’m not looking forward to quitting. I’m not sure if retirement is the best thing for a person — slowing down and enjoying life more is worthwhile though. It’s good to have time for family and grandkids and other things.”


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