Treating poison ivy

In My Humble Opinion
1

I know it’s somewhat against the rules to ask for medical advice here, but I hope this question is innocuous enough that it won’t get me in trouble with the mods.

I have a rash caused by poison ivy. (Woo, how exciting for me.) I’ve been putting calamine lotion on it 2-3 times daily, and I think this is successfully drying out the rash. However, I am wondering if the calamine lotion, in drying out my rash, is also drying out my skin–and so, would moisturizing further reduce itching?

Thanks and sorry if this is a violation of board rules…

2

Tecnu Best stuff ever for poison ivy

3

I like this stuff (the second one, the cream):
http://www.blistex.com/ivarest.htm

It does have lanolin, so I bet that moisturizing is somewhat helpful, but what I like are the walloping-strong active ingredients.
http://www.blistex.com/Ivarest_Cream_ingredients.htm

YMMV, of course!

4

**Zanfel **cream is great for poison ivy. Can stop the itching in a matter of minutes!

My sister is extremely sensitive to poison ivy, and she loves Zanfel. She says it is a bit expensive, but worth it.

http://www.zanfel.com/help/

5

Another vote for Tecnu and will add IvyDry.

6

Okay, but should I put moisturizer on my arm after using calamine lotion?

7

I am not a doctor, but have years of experience as I apparently am hyper-allergic to poison ivy*. (Luckily, there is none here in Las Vegas!)

I would NOT put moisturizer on it, as the whole point of the calamine is to dry out the skin, so the poison ivy fluid drys out and does not spread any further. Let the skin completely heal (and be dry as dust) first.

*I have had it on the palms of my hands, in my ears, nose, all over my scalp and places I don’t even want to mention. One of the worst cases I had as a kid was in December in Illinois - they figure I was probably sledding and somehow actually got it from the root of a plant! I had to be hospitalized once, and they had to put special gloves on me so I wouldn’t scratch in the middle of the night. Back when I was a kid, they didn’t have any of the wonder drugs mentioned above - all we had was calamine and it didn’t really help me much as mine spread so quickly over my entire body.

8

The above creams will probably work. One thing I found that does not work on poison ivy is hydrocortisone cream. Don’t waste your money on that crap.

9

I have sort of a resistance to all but the nastiest contact poisonous plants but have had notable success with aloe vera gel. YMMV.

10

I don’t know about healing, but to kill the itch the best thing I ever found was just hot water. Get some water pretty hot (hotter than the shower), then dip in a washcloth and press it to the rash. Re-dip and press 8-10 times and you’re good for about 8 hours. Of course don’t scald yourself. I only tried this after using everything I could to stop the itch and just wanting to be able to sleep.
The best part is the feeling. When you first press the cloth to the rash, it’s a combination of the *most *satisfying scratching you can imagine with the pain of hot water. Incredible.

11

I’ll second the effectiveness of Zanfel that pudytat72 mentioned. I always keep some around in case I break out in a particularly uncomfortable location. Because of the price I only use in the most sensitive of areas - everywhere else I just let it run its course.

I always wanted to comment on the hot water recommendation by purple cow. First of all, I am highly highly allergic to urishiol and have had poison oak (I’m in CA) many many times (I have spent entire summers working in the crap). The hot water treatment really does work wonders. I use a removable shower nozzle with the hottest water I can stand but the end result is the same. The wonder of it is that it feels absolutely amazing. It’s like you’re actually getting that deep down itch that your body is craving. Several of the wildland firefighters I worked with used to refer to it as “oakgasm” which is about as appropriate as anything I can come up with.