Severe Eczema On Hands

[BlessedMommy]

Does anybody have any tips for stopping itching while healing up contact dermatitis on your hands? I've had skin troubles in the winter year after year, and this year was the absolute worst. Finally, a dear friend helped me to clue into the fact that I needed to be wearing gloves while doing dishes and other things like that, but I'm still trying to heal up the damage. My skin has thinned up a lot from damage and steroid creams, so it's quite sensitive and gets very itchy.

 

 

[LauraTX]

I get a new eczema patch somewhere on my body every year, and my hands will start to develop it if I let them get too dry.  In my teenage years before I learned to get it under control, I would have cracked bloody hands all winter.  I, too, try to not use steroid creams too much.  I am very proactive about using moisturizer on any scaly/dry places, and the ones with dimethicone in them seem to stay on and protect really well.  Once a patch is no longer broken skin, I will apply the thickest lotion with dimethicone on it after every shower and as needed... spots on the hands it is after every hand washing.  I use silicone glove by Avon. It claims to stay on between hand washes, but I wash my hands very thoroughly so I reapply.  It works great for spots on the face and the nostrils, doesn't irritate or smell.

 

But yes, especially with the hands, I wear gloves when I do things like cleaning, etc, and I apply lotion year round after I wash my hands.  For my regular lotion I use my store brand equivalent of the Vaseline intensive rescue repairing moisture unscented body lotion.  Also, I use a ton of hand sanitizer being a germaphobe, and I only use Germ X.  It seems to have the best balance of moisturizers and germ killing power- all the purells irritate my hands.

[notme]

i make my own salve.  it's petroleum jelly, coconut oil & tea tree.  

[CassidyMama]

I was told about the coconut oil too. My daughter has some terrible dry skin on her hands, either eczema or DH, not sure yet.

[notme]

also, if you use hand sanitizer, it's made with alcohol.  which is very drying.  i use soap & water (love my face olive oil soap) because sanitizer only makes whatever is on your hands germ-free.  so, if (this is what i did lolz) you're making sandwiches/handling food, say, at a bbq, and you use hand sanitizer then eat your burger with your hands..........  you see where i'm going (straight to the bathroom haha) with this

[LauraTX]

Ah yes, I forgot to mention coconut oil!  I felt like I forgot something.  I use coconut oil on scaly patches on my face before they get bad.  It really thins out once it gets on your warm skin, so it is a nice light moisturizer.  And smells lovely.

[weluvgators]

We found cold wet cloths to be the most soothing treatment for this condition before we could figure out how to get rid of it.  We tried using different oils (olive, coconut, jojoba, argan), but they never seemed to help much - well, they helped reduce the "cracking" that would happen when it would get really bad.  We use shea butter in general for treating our skin issues now.  I have some calendula salve as well for more intensive skin treatment.  It took us a while to figure this one out, but one of the most effective things for a "flare-up" for us has been Zyrtec.  And we have found that our chronic skin conditions can be helped with daily Zyrtec if we are having trouble determining/eliminating the source of the problem.

[1desperateladysaved]

My home made soap and the right nutrients seemed to have solved my eczema problems years ago.

 

Dee

[BlessedMommy]

Do you make your soap and market it to anybody else?

[1desperateladysaved]

I don't, but I have been known to give recipes and notes for free.  The book I use is The Natural Soap Book :  Making Herbal and Vegetable-Based Soaps.  By Susan Miller Cavitch  The base is coconut, olive and palm oil and lye turns it to soap.  If you add the right essential oil and perhaps some shea butter; it will sooth that sore skin.  One can watch a "how to video" on You Tube, really the only tricky part for me was knowing when the soap traced while stirring it.  Tracing is also a cooking term and something traces when you can pour a small stream across your pot and it leaves a trail for a little while.  I do wear gloves and googles when I work with the lye.  The end result of the process is a soap that leaves the skin very clean.  I carry a tin of it in my purse so as to always have some with me. 

[natureman]

Vaseline creamy! With a dab of triple antibiotics . Before bed time.

[natureman]

Aslo use. QUICK RELIEF . PSORIASIS AND ECZEMA TREATMENT. NO CURE BUT . SUPPRESS 'S IT GREAT.