Help me sort my hands out!

Hot water washing and not rinsing the soap off properly combined with not drying them thoroughly, or on an already damp towel, will make matters much worse. You must moisturise every time you wet them also.

It's miserable isn't it.

I can only wash my hands in cold water or they go nuts. That's shockingly painful in the winter, I can tell you.

Gosh that sounds awful

Dermol is crap though - your GP is an idiot - it’s barely a moisturiser (although great gentle antibacterial cleanser)

something like flexitol as Pp suggests is good. Since your hands are so cracked overnight I’d use foot products - Put balm on the cracked bits. O’keefes foot cream is good as a general moisturiser.

Get a pack of cotton gloves and put them on overnight, every night, till it’s better. If you have to change the baby or go to the loo, reapply and re-glove

during the day I’occatane Shea hand cream is the best I think, but it’s pricey - O’keefes hand cream also good. Add balm to the cracked bits throughout the day as needed.

everytime you wash - reapply hand cream or everytime your hands are dry.

Get a very gentle hand wash. L’occatane do an almond oil one which is good but expensive, so otherwise I guess something like dove.

It’s such a pain but you just have to moisturise endlessly.

If your house is v dry - which lots are with the heating on, consider getting a humidifier to have in the room with you. Peep Club also do a desk size one - I’ve never tried that but their products are generally good.

If you can possibly afford it I would also see a dermatologist privately (it takes a hundred years on the NHS) to check it isn’t some sort of eczema or infected dermatitis that needs specific treatment - often they can just diagnose over zoom. GPs are just not good w dermatology.

I have had eczema all my life so lots of sympathy.

This happens to my hands at times. I really sympathise, because it’s extremely painful. My GP gave me 2 types of creams for flairs. I use eumovate first for a few days, and then hydrocortisone. She also gave me cetraben moisturiser and the cetraben emollient for night time. I use a really thick layer, and sleep with those cotton gloves. I was also given dermol 500 to use as handwash!
I’ve tried every hand cream under the sun, and this is the only thing that worked. Good luck!

My 12 yo DS suffers terribly with eczema/contact dermatitis on his hands. We recently tried a new natural cream called Salcura and cannot believe how much it helped! The final photo is after 3 weeks use but we saw a huge difference after one application. It’s the salcura bioskin zeoderm moisturiser

Sounds like dematitis/eczema. When the skin is damaged like this, it loses its barrier function and things which would normally be ok worsen the irritation.
Where possible, use rubber gloves to avoid all soap/shampoo/shower gel etc on your hands. Yes, at its worst I even wore gloves to wash my own hair.
Use emollient/moisturizer every time you wash your hands. (A million times a day, if needed). Ointments are greasier, but don't have preservatives which can be an irritant.
You don't seem to have a steroid? See your GP and get one. You'll need it daily for a week or two, then probably just on weekends to prevent another flare up.
I find that my hands are irritated by my winter gloves if they're not super-clean, so I wash them every few days.
You have my sympathy.

Aveeno baby cream is brilliant

This might sound a bit weird but have you had B12 levels checked post birth? I didn't realise but gas and air can deplete b12, which obviously makes women super drained but also affects skin. I really think a lot of women post birth are deficient without realising it (I also suspect links with post natal depression but no research into that yet).

Try getting some decent bar soap (triple milled)
Omega 3 and vitamin B.
O’Keefe working hands hand cream.

Try washing your hands less-I’d do when it’s necessary-before food prep, after changing pooey nappy and after visiting the toilet,also after dealing with raw meat.

Cracks need air to heal so don’t wear gloves constantly.

I’d suggest taking photos when they are bad. Otherwise it will be typical that you manage to get to the gp and on that day they won’t be so bad! So maybe some images of them at their worst just so you have the evidence.

I have had this worse than ever this winter, my mother suggested okeefe's working hands so I picked some up from the chemist. Applied it multiple times throughout the day and it really helped clear it up. Stopped using it for a couple of weeks and my hands are sore again with deep cracks, agony when handwashing 😰

Do you have Pompholyx (dyshidrotic eczema)?

Oh you can also get moisturising socks for your feet if your feet are suffering. You need to give your skin some pampering!

The mirena coil did this to my hands - weird side effect! I had it fitted after I had my babies so like you thought it was maybe wipes allergy, more handwashing etc etc… as soon as the coil was removed they cleared up.

Did you have a coil fitted?

Get these gloves, then at bedtime slather your hands with a non scented cream and put the gloves on. It will help.

Operative word: SLATHER!

www.amazon.co.uk/cotton-gloves-dry-hands/s?k=cotton+gloves+for+dry+hands

Mine turned out to be a lanolin allergy. Stuff I'd used for years caused splits & bleeding (so much so there was blood on my steering wheel).
The thick emolient prescribed (before I knew it was lanolin) made it worse as it contained lanolin. I ended up doing my own process of elimination.
Now use Neutrogena Norwegian Formula. And check ingredients before using anything.

After having my baby I switched to an unscented hand wash (think the brand is Simple) and also use the Milton bottle cleaner (not steriliser) which seems more gentle on skin than dish soap and that helped a lot as I was washing bottles etc regularly and personally absolutely don’t like to not use some kind of soap.

Also I use an alternative to steroid cream that the GP prescribed - protopic

After suffering with sore dry hands a few times, and other skin irritations over the years I now only use simple unscented bar soap, and all my moisturiser is unscented too. I'm convinced it's the perfumes that cause the problem. I second Aveeno also.