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5 MD-Approved Home Remedies for Eczema on Hands
Reader’s Digest But if you have the symptoms of eczema on your hands, including redness, itching, deep painful cracks, and blisters, and they tend to get worse in the winter and with frequent hand washing, you'll try anything, right? First, try using regular … |
Tag Archives: hands
The Best Mittens and Gloves for Eczema on the Hands
Another great post from itchylittleworld.com – Natural remedies for eczema to soothe your itchy little world..
By Laura Dolgy (bio below)
Eczema on the hands is a pain to deal with, especially since we use our hands for almost everything! If you or your little one is suffering from intense itching and dry skin on their/your hands, then you’ll want to check out this week’s post that discusses everything you need to know about mittens and gloves for eczema to protect and heal the hands!
Please keep in mind that although these treatments can relieve eczema, we are in no way medical professionals. If you’re experiencing severe eczema symptoms like fever or an infection, it is best to seek medical advice immediately.
Why Wear Gloves for Eczema?
With eczema on hands, your dry, sensitive skin is constantly being exposed to drying soap, chemicals, you name it! So, the first step to healing your hands is to protect them as often as you can, night and day. We recommend wearing gloves to protect the skin from the elements, your daily tasks and from scratching. Protection from these irritants will help your skin begin to heal and when combined with a good moisturizer, you’ll really see results much faster. For best results during a flare up, apply a good moisturizer (this one is our favorite!) and then cover with the gloves overnight. Remove the gloves in the morning, apply moisturizer again and wear the gloves overtop during the day. You should start to see healing at the end of the first 24-48 hours. Wearing gloves also means you can forgo using soap, which can be so drying. So, skip the soap, wear your gloves and give your hands the relief they deserve!
When shopping for gloves for eczema, we recommend you look for the following qualities:
- Thin, breathable, natural material. The last thing you need is for sweat to further aggravate your eczema. Bamboo and cotton are great fabrics for gloves, as is TENCL fabric. Read more: Why Natural Fibers Are Essential for Eczema Clothing.
- Stretchy fabric. Your gloves will last longer and maintain a nice fitted shape if they contain elastaine or latex. But if you have a latex allergy, beware of all stretchy fabric and look for latex-free elastaine.
The following are some great gloves for eczema to protect and heal your hands.
Eczema Gloves for Kids and Toddlers
These gloves are extremely soft and made from bamboo and Lycra, which means they are lightweight, cooling and stretchy. Not only can they help prevent children from scratching their eczema or psoriasis, but they can also double up as a dry or wet wrap garment by applying a natural eczema treatment (read all about wet/dry wrapping below!). The gloves are also tailored fit and don’t stretch like typical cotton gloves.
Aside from eczema, these gloves are also perfect for children who suffer from allergic contact dermatitis and dermatomyositis.
Eczema Gloves for Adults
If you’re still suffering from eczema on the hands, then you’ll want to check out these gloves for eczema that are great at preventing scratching, but also provide protection for contact dermatitis, psoriasis and much more.
Similar to the children gloves mentioned above, they are made from bamboo and stretchy latex, which means they are also lightweight, cooling and won’t stretch out.
Why Eczema Mittens?
If your little one cannot stop scratching due to eczema on hands, then it might be worth checking out eczema mittens as well.
Eczema mittens are mostly used as a protective layer for children who cannot stop scratching their irritated, itchy skin. By protecting the irritated skin, their eczema has a chance to properly heal and infection can be avoided.
When shopping for eczema mittens, we recommend you look for the following qualities:
- Thin, breathable natural material. Like with gloves, avoid sweat and keep to natural fibers that are gentle and cooling like cotton and bamboo.
- Openable mittens. With babies and children, it’s very important not to keep their hands covered for long periods of time during the day so they can develop their fine motor skills. To combat this issue, some mittens can be worn all day and night and folded open for play and folded closed when the child is itchy or for sleep.
- Closure system. If you have a little Houdini that just loves to remove their mittens, look for a Velcro or tie closure or another way to keep the mittens on to the skin can heal.
Here are some great options for eczema mittens for babies to children:
ScratchMeNot Mittens
These mittens are probably one of the top tools in properly treating hand eczema, especially for little ones. They are usually worn over clothing or as long sleeves under clothing and cannot fall off or be removed by your child. By leaving the mittens in place, your little one will not be able to scratch their skin to the point of infection.
These ScratchMeNot Original Flip Mitten Sleeves offer an outer silk mitten layer, which provides comfort and less friction against your little one’s skin. The bamboo material also provides a cooling sensation, which makes it perfect for use in both warm and cool weather. The ScratchMeNot Cotton Flip Mittens are also a great mitten for little ones who are sensitive to materials such as lycra and latex.
These mittens are also extremely beneficial for any child that is suffering from chicken pox, poison ivy, post-surgery stitches and more.
Goumi Mitts
For little, little ones these mitts will stay-put, protect and prevent scratching. The bamboo and organic cotton blend allows for a breathable, cooling system and also blocks 99.7% of UVA/UVB light. The mittens are also naturally antimicrobial and include a two-part closure system with both velcro and elastic.
Other Ways to Heal Hand Eczema
Although both eczema gloves and mittens can help heal hand eczema, there are several other key ways you can control hand eczema. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Limit Soap Exposure
- Avoid Contact Irritants/Allergies
- Try an Elimination Diet
- Wet and Dry Wrap the Skin
To get more detailed help for your hands, check out: 5 “Handy” Ways to Keep Hand Eczema Under Control
Although treating the eczema on your hands with the suggestions above can offer much relief, it’s always important to know which underlying issue is causing the flare-up. By knowing what causes your eczema, you can be better prepared and eventually heal your hand eczema all together!
Have you found success with any mittens or gloves for eczema? Let us know in the comments below!
Bio: Laura is a contributor and content developer for It’s An Itchy Little World. She is in no way a medical professional. Her comments, suggestions, and reflections are not intended to replace any medical advice. Always seek the help of a medical professional before undertaking any diet or lifestyle changes. Please see It’s An Itchy Little World’s disclaimer for information about affiliate links and more.
The Best Mittens and Gloves for Eczema on the Hands appeared first on itchylittleworld.com. Come read more about natural remedies for eczema!
Global Handwashing Day – A Guide to washing your hands
To mark Global Handwashing Day here is our guide for washing your hands the right way. Handwashing is the easiest way to prevent the spread of germs and infections, such as the common cold, meningitis, diarrhoea and hepatitis A. It only requires soap and water or an alcohol based hand sanitiser to reduce spread of bacteria. Keeping your hands clean consistently is crucial for preventing yourself and others around you from unwanted illnesses.
When should you wash your hands?
Throughout the day we touch many objects and come in contact with people that we often forget to remind ourselves to wash our hands or sometimes we do not even know when we are supposed to wash our hands after:
- After using the toilet
- Before eating
- After touching animals
- Treating wounds or caring for someone who is sick
- After sneezing , coughing or blowing your nose
- Handling household waste or garbage
- After changing a baby
- After shaking someone hand
- Before, during and after preparing food
How to wash your hands
- Wet your hands with running water it can be cold or warm.
- Apply soap and gently rub your hands together with the soap. Make sure the soap reaches the back of your hands, nails and fingers.
- For 20 seconds lather and scrub your hands.
- Rinse the soap off your hands with clean running water.
- Dry your hands thoroughly using a hand dryer, towel or air dry them.
Washing your hands this way will reduce the number of germs that your hands may come in contact with. It is also important to remember that hand sanitisers do not eliminate germs but only reduces them quickly. If you have a skin irritation after washing your hands please visit your GP for help and advice. More importantly, washing your hands helps keep you clean and the environment around you.
Eczema hands and weaning a baby
A post for Everything for Eczema from Healthy Little Frugals
Eczema has always been part of my life, though its intensity has varied a lot over the years. When I was a child, my hands, knees and arms were badly affected, and I can still remember not being allowed anywhere near a sandpit because of my bandaged hands. I was lucky that most of my symptoms had eased up significantly by the time I started school, and apart from the occasional outbreak, I could keep my eczema largely at bay without using steroid creams.
During my first pregnancy, my skin was as good as can be and I had hardly any eczema related symptoms. A few months’ post- birth, however, it was a very different story. Whether it was a change in hormones, a sudden new reaction to certain foods (my diet had not changed), or just bad luck, the skin inside both my palms became extremely dry and itchy. It happened overnight. I tried to manage with a range of over the counter moisturisers, but with no effect.
I started to dread washing my hands (which, with a new baby, seems to happen every 3 minutes approximately), as they were raw, sore and my movements were restricted by painful cracks. Simple things such as opening all my fingers at the same time brought blood to my hands and tears to my eyes. In the initial baby haze, I was too caught up in my baby and being a new mum to take my skin problems seriously, and rather optimistically I assumed that things would somehow get better by themselves.
As those with children will know, the amount of hand washing you do with a precious new baby in your life is unprecedented. There are countless nappy changes, bath time, and the general ‘every germ is out there to get your baby’ paranoia, where washing your hands becomes the main weapon for protecting their innocent little immune systems.
With all that in mind, my eczema was just about manageable until we reached the 6-month mark, and a new adventure into early parenthood began: weaning and solid foods.
I don’t need to tell anyone who suffers from eczema just how painful it is to handle certain foods (citrus fruits, onions, tomatoes), combined with the added dryness from the over-cautious hand washing, when you already have highly irritated skin. Holding a burning hot piece of coal in the palm of your hand is the closest I can come to describing it, and to then repeat this ‘experience’ countless times every day.
Not only was I preparing different snacks and meals for my baby about 5-6 times a day, but I was also careful that every piece of food I gave her was as clean as can be, on an equally sparkling clean plate, with her own hands being washed all the time as well. Unsurprisingly, all this additional exposure to food and water meant that the skin on my hands went from bad to worse.
One of my first points of contact was my GP; however, I didn’t find the advice I was given particularly helpful. After taking one quick look at my hands, I was given some Aveeno samples and sent on my way.
On my second trip the doctors, this time with a different and more understanding GP, I was prescribed a mild steroid cream. Even though I didn’t want to use it, largely out of fear that some steroid components might filter through to baby through breastfeeding, I gave in, and luckily for me, the cream did its job very quickly.
Once my skin had improved, I tried to find ways to prevent the problem from coming back. Finding a (non-steroid) cream that was suitable for breastfeeding and had restorative ingredients became a game changer.
I started with a GP prescribed hand moisturiser that, despite smelling rather unpleasant, was brilliant. I have since done a lot more research, and come across many products online that for me, are a lot more effective than most big-branded creams from supermarkets and drug stores.
What has also been very useful to me was to purchase some gloves for everyday use at home. Whilst this might sound a little strange, I highly recommend them to anyone with sore hands, as I noticed a huge improvement shortly after using both latex and cotton gloves.
The latex gloves are pretty much exclusively for use in the kitchen, as they act as a second layer of skin, under which you can apply your moisturiser, and then get on with it – chopping, cooking, and cleaning without exposing your skin to water and food.
They also have the added benefit of making you feel a bit like a surgeon! I know not everyone can use latex as it can be an allergen, but if you can, I would strongly recommend them.
The cotton gloves helped overnight. I would wear them over a thick layer of moisturiser which would give my sore hands some precious time to heal.
These little life-hacks made a huge difference for me, and I made sure that after baby number 2, I made most from my new eczema knowledge and paid more attention to my skin from the start. We are nine months into life with a (weaned!) baby and toddler, and so far, my skin seems to hold up well.
B x
Healthy Family Cooking on a Budget – eat well, spend little, be healthy!
A SolveEczema Perspective: “The Cure for Dishpan Hands” – Part 1
Over the years, I have been thanked by many people who used SolveEczema.org just to solve a dry skin problem, even if they did not have eczema. I have been thanked by many parents and more than one doctor who realized they could wash their hands frequently when necessary, without drying their skin out. As I am very clear about on my website, I am not a doctor, this is based on my own personal observation and research. Getting results relies on capitalizing on that new perspective.
I am writing this to share what we — and now many others — have done using the Solveczema.org perspective to get unexpected, out-of-the-box results with ameliorating dry skin, for those who maybe can’t seem to find any moisturizing cream thick enough to prevent painful cracked skin during the winter or on travel, or who struggle with washing the dishes even with gloves.
Obviously, I can’t promise a “cure” without a traditional medical study, the title above is just a restatement of the usual idiom and my opinion about its applicability, although this is a perfect set up for a clinical study. I believe this perspective could not only improve the health of health providers’ skin, but also improve compliance with handwashing, and thus help reduce hospital-borne infection.
If you are ready to try this, first read the SolveEczema site disclaimer, watch the SolveEczema site video linked from the home page (note, I made it for a long-concluded crowdfunding for my book and haven’t been able to update the ending, it’s an amateur effort — sorry, it puts me to sleep, too — but it’s only about 45 minutes and is still a good summary of the site). Read everything here, use your judgment, talk with your physician as needed for health and safety issues, and don’t make any changes until you understand how different this is. It’s not about individual products, it’s about learning how to have optimal skin health without treatments or moisturizing, by understanding what, in my observation, is really going on.
I need to mention here again an open source paper I posted online about SolveEczema, giving a rough description of how it relates to the eczema and allergy epidemic of recent decades, and summarizing many of the novel observations: https://thewinnower.com/papers/3412-abnormal-ampli-fication-observations-from-applying-the-engineering-method-to-solving-eczema-and-atopic-disease
It’s only two pages — please refer to the Analysis and Observations section for essential novel observations.
Again, with my apologies for the presumption of giving this a personal, alliterative name like this in hopes of making it more memorable, I also need to restate this very different-from-traditional view of why skin becomes dry after washing, per my own observations, because it’s crucial for getting results:
Lumsdaine’s Law: For most people, under most conditions, eczema and dry skin are more the result of what is left on the skin than what is stripped from the skin by washing.
Water alone on the skin increases the membrane permeability. Membrane permeability is basically just how easily certain substances — like water molecules — can pass through the membrane, from within and without. If you wash your hands in the winter and don’t dry them well afterwards, your hands chap even if you only washed in water, because the water left on the skin increases the permeability and accelerates water loss.
Under normal conditions, the restoration of water in the skin is quite rapid; if someone washes and it takes days for the skin to rehydrate, my contention is that it’s because of what is on the skin in the meantime, not usually from what was stripped from the skin by normal washing. Detergents on the skin (see the paper) in combination with a small layer of water, including from sweat, dramatically increases permeability and subsequent water loss.
Continued in Part 2…
Eczema hands and weaning a baby
A post for Everything for Eczema from Healthy Little Frugals
Eczema has always been part of my life, though its intensity has varied a lot over the years. When I was a child, my hands, knees and arms were badly affected, and I can still remember not being allowed anywhere near a sandpit because of my bandaged hands. I was lucky that most of my symptoms had eased up significantly by the time I started school, and apart from the occasional outbreak, I could keep my eczema largely at bay without using steroid creams.
During my first pregnancy, my skin was as good as can be and I had hardly any eczema related symptoms. A few months’ post- birth, however, it was a very different story. Whether it was a change in hormones, a sudden new reaction to certain foods (my diet had not changed), or just bad luck, the skin inside both my palms became extremely dry and itchy. It happened overnight. I tried to manage with a range of over the counter moisturisers, but with no effect.
I started to dread washing my hands (which, with a new baby, seems to happen every 3 minutes approximately), as they were raw, sore and my movements were restricted by painful cracks. Simple things such as opening all my fingers at the same time brought blood to my hands and tears to my eyes. In the initial baby haze, I was too caught up in my baby and being a new mum to take my skin problems seriously, and rather optimistically I assumed that things would somehow get better by themselves.
As those with children will know, the amount of hand washing you do with a precious new baby in your life is unprecedented. There are countless nappy changes, bath time, and the general ‘every germ is out there to get your baby’ paranoia, where washing your hands becomes the main weapon for protecting their innocent little immune systems.
With all that in mind, my eczema was just about manageable until we reached the 6-month mark, and a new adventure into early parenthood began: weaning and solid foods.
I don’t need to tell anyone who suffers from eczema just how painful it is to handle certain foods (citrus fruits, onions, tomatoes), combined with the added dryness from the over-cautious hand washing, when you already have highly irritated skin. Holding a burning hot piece of coal in the palm of your hand is the closest I can come to describing it, and to then repeat this ‘experience’ countless times every day.
Not only was I preparing different snacks and meals for my baby about 5-6 times a day, but I was also careful that every piece of food I gave her was as clean as can be, on an equally sparkling clean plate, with her own hands being washed all the time as well. Unsurprisingly, all this additional exposure to food and water meant that the skin on my hands went from bad to worse.
One of my first points of contact was my GP; however, I didn’t find the advice I was given particularly helpful. After taking one quick look at my hands, I was given some Aveeno samples and sent on my way.
On my second trip the doctors, this time with a different and more understanding GP, I was prescribed a mild steroid cream. Even though I didn’t want to use it, largely out of fear that some steroid components might filter through to baby through breastfeeding, I gave in, and luckily for me, the cream did its job very quickly.
Once my skin had improved, I tried to find ways to prevent the problem from coming back. Finding a (non-steroid) cream that was suitable for breastfeeding and had restorative ingredients became a game changer.
I started with a GP prescribed hand moisturiser that, despite smelling rather unpleasant, was brilliant. I have since done a lot more research, and come across many products online that for me, are a lot more effective than most big-branded creams from supermarkets and drug stores.
What has also been very useful to me was to purchase some gloves for everyday use at home. Whilst this might sound a little strange, I highly recommend them to anyone with sore hands, as I noticed a huge improvement shortly after using both latex and cotton gloves.
The latex gloves are pretty much exclusively for use in the kitchen, as they act as a second layer of skin, under which you can apply your moisturiser, and then get on with it – chopping, cooking, and cleaning without exposing your skin to water and food.
They also have the added benefit of making you feel a bit like a surgeon! I know not everyone can use latex as it can be an allergen, but if you can, I would strongly recommend them.
The cotton gloves helped overnight. I would wear them over a thick layer of moisturiser which would give my sore hands some precious time to heal.
These little life-hacks made a huge difference for me, and I made sure that after baby number 2, I made most from my new eczema knowledge and paid more attention to my skin from the start. We are nine months into life with a (weaned!) baby and toddler, and so far, my skin seems to hold up well.
B x
Healthy Family Cooking on a Budget – eat well, spend little, be healthy!
Hand Eczema Treatment – How to Cure Eczema on Your Hands Fast Using Natural Treatments
Eczema is a pesky skin condition that can affect various parts of the body. The dry, red, itchy patches of swelling skin can be found on the legs, neck, back, chest, face and hands. While eczema on the face can be painful, eczema on the hands is worse, considering most people need to use their hands on a constant day to day basis. Luckily, there are hand eczema treatment methods available to help ease the pain.
Regular Hand Eczema Treatment
Most people who have eczema on their hands more than likely are already using a steroid cream given to them by their doctor to treat their eczema. While these creams can work at times to help alleviate the symptoms of eczema, they don’t actually do a good job at curing it. In fact, they’ve been known to make eczema symptoms worse and cause allergic reactions in some.
Because of all this, I highly recommend one hand eczema treatment that is completely natural and can help clear your eczema up fast!
Using Epsom Salt Wraps
One of the hand eczema treatment methods that I’ve known of and used successfully are epsom salt wraps. They are simple and easy to make and are highly effective.
To make epsom salt wraps, grab 2 cups of epsom salt and mix with warm water. Using surgical gauze, soak the gauze in the solution for 5 to 10 minutes. Take the gauze out of the solution and wrap your hands with it. Leave on for roughly 30 minutes. Unwrap carefully and rinse your skin with cold water and pat dry.
Epsom salt wraps help cleanse any wounds, remove dead skin that causes itching and will reduce any swelling. When used consistently, they can dramatically reduce swelling, inflammation and itching that eczema causes. Plus, they can accelerate the speed of healing eczema. They truly are one of the greater unknown all natural hand eczema treatment methods out there!
So, what have you got to lose? Give this natural eczema treatment a shot today. Your skin will thank you.
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