Help me sort my hands out!

Hi OP, I don't have any children so have never experience pp or breastfeeding but my mother has been doubly incontinent (dementia) and I do 100% of her personal care. My hands use to do this exact same thing and it's so painful!

Last summer, for several reasons relating entirely to her skin, I stopped using baby-powder or Femfresh powder on the pants-covered parts of her skin and switched to using Dermol 500 cream instead.

I also use O'Keefe's overnight working hands cream on my own hands every single night without fail.

My hands have almost completely stopped splitting since I stopped using the powder. The bits that get chafed by incontinence pants on Mum are also 100% better.

Wash with lanette cream. Don't use soap or shower gel. And tape up the cuts with medical tape. Those cuts are so painful aren't they! I end up cutting away the cut (if you see what I mean) and tape it up. It makes the pain go away. Probably not the best tip though!!

Bars of soap instead of liquid shower gel/hand wash.

O Keefes hand cream.

I use taro-clobetasol.

That's alright then - the figure states that topical steroids (mild, moderate, or potent) are all deamed as safe in pregnancy and breastfeeding.

@Goldstar88 @Redflowertable

I looked this up. Also, used topical prescribed steroid as needed during pregnancy and currently while breastfeeding.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1925231/#:~:text=Does%20pregnancy%20affect%20eczema%3F,than%2050%25%20experience%20a%20deterioration.

Had similar issues since the birth of DD1.

When I'm at home, particularly in the colder months, I've started to wear disposable nitrile or vinyl gloves as a default. When I was just doing housework around other jobs, I could never be bothered to put gloves on just for a few minutes each time. Now though, I find it easier to just put gloves on when I get up and keep them on until I leave the house, only changing them if I've done something particularly messy/nasty. Probably looks a bit odd when I'm just watching TV etc, but I think my family are used to it now.

I had this, for the bits where it had split the edges were dry and it just kept resplitting, eventually worked out a fix that worked for me - a blob of the elizabeth arden eight hour orange balm on the cut and a plaster on overnight, then I'd either uncover and let it air for the day, or put a fresh blob and a new plaster on- the fabric sort though, not waterproof ones. works like magic for me.

Did this start after you had your child? I never suffered with eczema until my DD was born and then I suddenly developed it on my hands and eyelids!

GP prescribed me hydrocortisone for my eyelids and a strong steroid cream for my hands. I was advised that it was fine to use while breastfeeding.

I honestly think it was triggered by PP hormones. It seemed to mostly settle after 9 months-ish PP but still lingered mildly on my hands. I was still breastfeeding when I got pregnant again and it's getting worse again as my pregnancy progresses.

I'll probably end up breastfeeding again for 18 months or so once DS is born so it might be a while for me until it settles!

I had hands like this during the nappy changing years (I had 3 under 4 so it went on many years). It did improve, but the only way it stopped was by using Pears bar soap, and now I swear by it.
I only need to use it for washing my hands, although I do use Dermol in the shower for some mild psoriasis in other areas of my body, but it's the Pears that works for my hands

Had been using O'Keefe's for ages but it seemed to stop working for me. Picked up Neutrogena Norwegian formula after a similar thread last week and within a day of very consistent use the difference was unbelievable. Felt much nicer than O'Keefe's too tbh.
I keep some beside each sink in the house and apply every time I wash my hands.

I bought strong disposable gloves from Amazon (supermarket ones were crap - ripped and felt liquid seemed to go through!) and I wear when prepping meals. I wash them just like I'm washing my hands and tend to use same pair all day or multiple days (taking them off when not prepping meals and leaving inside out to air) as I don't want to be wasteful, but they are more flexible and comfortable than washing up gloves.

It's probably not recommended because it's not fragrance free, but after trying many different soaps the one that irritates my skin the least is the amber Pears soap bar.

A mild steroid is fine, like 1% hydrocortisone. My DD was prescribed this as a baby for some poorly skin. You can get it over the counter, check with the pharmacist to reassure yourself it's ok

I find aloe vera gel helps with most skin irritations.

The best thing that worked for me was lathering my hands in sudocream every night. Took about a week but I can’t believe the difference! I also moved to bar soap, but sudocream worked wonders.

@Goldstar88 I had an awful time with this with my first dc a few years ago as we had a very cold spell in winter coupled with all the extra handwashing after diaper changes and I'm prone to eczema anyway. Per pp advice, I also applied moisturizer cream (CeraVe) to my hands thickly with steroid cream on the painful split areas. I wore medical gloves when I changed diapers to minimize handwashing and made sure I applied hand cream regularly and before going out in addition to gloves when outside no matter if it was just a short time.
I've just gone through this again and it's like paper cuts all over my fingers. 😭

You seem to be describing the symptoms of Eczema

I’d begin with reading the treatment pages on NHS website and/or Eczema.org

Your GP has suggested emollients.

If you go back to your GP and explain the emollients have not worked, they will then prescribe you the topical steroid creams mentioned by PP (Daktarin, Betnovate etc)

I think they would want to do this before making a referral to Dermatologist .

Everybody has different triggers for the condition

It may be a product you are using, however it might not.

in my case the trigger was stress and no medication was able to work properly until I was able to remove the source of the stress.

I found Diprobase to be helpful as an emollient and still use this, but YMMV

I have a history of eczema, dermatitis, and psoriasis (the latter on my elbows, back and scalp and the other two particularly on my hands. I find that as pps have said, you can't moisturise too much. I keep a tube of Neutrogena by the bed, another in my bag and another in the bathroom so there is always one available. I also like Aveeno, especially on my back which has been prone to itching since I broke out in psoriasis when I was a teenager. Avoiding heavily perfumed products helps a lot too.

The neutrogena hand cream is the only one that works for me when my hands are bad
I don't use just a dab like it says! Then sleep with cotton gloves on, or socks on your hands

I have this exact problem and was diagnosed with contact dermatitis, i recently changed GPs who gave me a course of antibiotics, anti histamines and steroid cream and it worked wonders. She told me to use an emollient - the only thing that worked for me was double base (got mine from Amazon - quite a big bottle!)

my hands have been awful for years but definitely got worse after I had my baby simply because I was washing my hands so so often.

she told me to use the steroid cream no longer then 2/3 days at a time but to use every time a new crack appeared or the skin started flaring up. She also said I would probably need to use the antihistamines again, whenever I had a flare up but honestly it’s been a month and my hands are the best they’ve ever been!

sorry if any of the above has been mentioned - I’ll read the full thread now. You have my full sympathies as it’s bloody awful, and was really starting to get me down. It felt like everything I had to squeeze my fingers they would just bleed!

My hands are also bad. In summer I get pompholyx, and in winter the cold dry air makes them dry out and they crack. The skin seems to get very thin and fragile at the same time and the slightest knock grazes me.

I use prescription steroid cream but I've run out, so at the moment I'm using hydrocortisone which doesn't do much. Other things I find helpful are Neutrogena Norwegian formula every time I wash my hands, and at bedtime (if not a steroid night) I rub in a few jobs of squalane oil, followed by a small amount of aveeno, and once that's absorbed I layer on a pea size amount of Norwegian formula.

I've heard that people find gloves in a bottle helpful but so far I'm not finding it's making a difference personally. They do samples so it's worth a go https://www.glovesinabottle.co.uk/free-samples/

Very similar here OP.
Shea butter ingredient is what you need to look for. This ARKET one actually heals my hands overnight

www.arket.com/en_gbp/homeware/bathroom/product.hand-balm-white.0487408005.html

Also I wet my hands and put 5 drops of olive oil on them and tissue off the excess.

The aldi hand cream in a green tube is also excellent but it's not a regular stocked line sadly. (I think it's a dupe but it's brilliant- as is the aldi dupe of 8 hour cream. Better ingredients than Elizabeth Arden real one)