Painful contact dermatitis on fingers

[Crunchymum]

I have recurrent and painful dermatitis on my fingers. It seems every week I'm flaring... starts with the itching, then I have open cracked skin [painful enough to waken me!] Then gets a bit better only to start again.

I've seen GP who have given me a mild steroid for when its really bad. I am under a dermatologist as I also have Psoriatic Arthritis (see her for the Psoriasis) and she was very dismissive. Told me its "all about handcare" and to moisturise as much as possible. No actual help or support.

I'm dreading winter as it's been bad over the summer and winter is worse.

Any tips? Any home remedies? Any ideas?

I use a little steroid when it's open, I use Eurax for the itching and I use nipple cream as a barrier cream. I also use a hand moisturiser before bed.

I have 3 little ones, hand washing is paramount (baby was tube fed for her first year so I really was always washing my hands).

I moisturise before bed, use a Body Shop cream

When you say hand washing is paramount, how often are you doing it? Because frequent hand washing will be the absolute worst for your skin.

Current active dermatitis.

My DD has eczema on her hands where her skin cracks open. Awful. Her consultant gave her Elocon ointment. She uses it for a week or two if it flares up and weekend treatment when her skin is good. So Friday and Saturday evenings. Then not for the week. Keeps it at bay. Her consultant said it's ok for this type of use on hands. Hydrocortisone etc didn't work.

Re: handwashing. Just the "usual"

• after loo
• after nappy changes
• before food prep
• when coming in from outside

When baby was younger (for a year!) Dhe ) she

Sorry the ads on this fucking website are making it very hard to post.

Baby had a feeding tube for a year do there was lots of extra hand washing when feeding her (up to 8 feeds a day to begin with )

Plus the excessive scrubbing when she was in neonatal !

Really you need to find out what's causing it, but if the dermatologist won't do patch testing that's hard. Things that help mine are avoiding liquid soaps (or only using very mild ones, Aveeno Baby is my favourite), wearing gloves outside in winter, rubber gloves for all cleaning. I had patch testing when mine got really bad and found I had a nickel allergy, I had taken to wearing an old "silver" ring which was a major culprit, as soon asI stopped wearing it things improved. I still get it mildly, probably from handling coins and keys but much better than it was.

I'll ask the dermatologist when I am back (not until January!). No rings or anything like that.

I use rubber gloves for washing up / cleaning already.

Will try Aveeno as a handwash. Currently use Dermol 500.

I suffered really badly with this, I know how painful it is, sympathies.

The only way mine stays away is washing with Body Shop Hemp soap and using the Hemp handcream.

A doctor gave me this tip ,when I had to find a walk in clinic on holiday, as hands had cracked again.
Good luck.

I suspect your early experiences with your daughter have left you washing your hands more than necessary - coming in from outside?

So my top tips would be:

1. wash your hands less often
2. moisturise after every wash if you must wash
3. the neutrogena Norwegian formula cream has really helped DH.

I suffer badly with this too.
My doctor has given me a strong steroid which has been amazing but I hate using it too much.
I use aveeno to moisturise all of the time.
Avoid washing up liquid and hand soap as much as possible.
And I found taking a vitamin D supplement helped.

Dhs was so bad he once used superglue to stick a particularly large crack together (don't ask)

He uses an excema type cream to wash his hands and then O'Keefes hand cream from boots which he swears by.

Oh and he wears thin gloves a lot with plenty of hand cream underneath

For cracks I use a dab of Lansinoh nipple cream under a plaster overnight. It's miraculous.

If you can find a SLS free handwash then that had improved mine and my dad's contact dermatitis. Done of the carex ones were but you have to check. The child's farm shower/body wash also are (but again, check!) And that had made a difference.

I totally swear by coconut oil - has cleared up even the most persistent of cracks / sore patches on my hands!

www.superdrug.com/Gloves-in-a-Bottle/Gloves-in-a-Bottle-Shielding-Lotion-60ml/p/744857?gclsrc=aw.ds&&gclid=Cj0KCQjwn_LrBRD4ARIsAFEQFKtgQQr4DqUlkpgQSNz7T4wMLwgKfpTL_NkDQDVtuKaFqinIH6hWFpUaAqmcEALw_wcB

Review - Brilliant
I repeatly buy this product. I really couldn't live without it. I suffer horrendous contact dermatitis and have hypersensitive hands. This offers great protection. Would highly recommend.

Thanks.

I already use Lansinoh (but not overnight, so will try that!)

I wash hands when coming in as I've been on Tube / holding hands with a grubby 4yo etc..

Bigger size
5star reviews

www.superdrug.com/Gloves-in-a-Bottle/Gloves-in-a-Bottle-Shielding-Lotion-240ml/p/744858

Someone above mentioned SLS free handwash, I would agree. My hands were in bits when my kids were small. I switched to sls free everything & it all resolved. I have no dermatitis or eczema now. I generally get hand & body wash in TKMAXX, they usually have some based on olive oil (there is generally a reference to Provence/Marseille on the label.

Make sure you're drying your hands properly after washing and don't use any perfumed soaps. I moisturise with Diprobase at every opportunity, literally every time I walk past the pot!
When I get bad break outs, at night I put the steroid cream on and wrap the area in clingfilm (it works, honestly!) You can use the clingfilm method for 5 days at at time then have a 7 day break.
When I get dry cracked skin in the winter (not necessarily dermatitis break outs) I use Snowfire. It's fantastic stuff but quite hard to find! Usually get it from smaller chemists...

It's tricky - even water makes my hands sore. If there are any situations where you could use gloves to remove the need to wash, do that. My contact dermatitis tends to get infected and the only thing that helps is Fucibet cream. But I don't need to wash hands as freq. as you OP and I get why you do. I find aveeno is the only cream that gets through to my skin. Is it too far gone to use sanitiser? I know it'd sting!

Do you use Anti Bacterial hand soap? I had the same problem as you and tried every cream under the sun, then I read about the ingredients in anti bac soap and stopped using it and my hands are completely transformed.

I get this periodically, less now that the children are older however could not shift an outbreak this year and it spread up my wrist (although didn't get to the drs ). What helped was continually putting cream on for a few hours, I used aveeno. I had a quiet afternoon so just sat and put the cream on continually as soon as it soaked in. That really kickstarted an improvement and I used it more regularly than normal until it cleared.

Also I think possibly blue comfort fabric conditioner caused it, it was the only thing I'd changed and the dermatitis was on the hand and wrist where I was pulling the wet washing out of the machine.

Use hand cream between washes, as well as after washing. Use it before you are doing a job that makes your hands dirty- when you wash, the dirt comes off with the hand cream so you don't need to scrub- you'll feel the difference.

Are you sure you aren't reacting to the rubber gloves? I do.

I got some Snowfire in an independent pharmacy not that long ago, it didn't work at all for me, I can't do cling film or gloves overnight either (or socks on dry feet) as it makes them so hot I can't sleep.

Mine is mild now, not gone away entirely, I avoid SLS in handwash but not shampoo as that's only a couple of times a week. It's a trade-off - I tried SLS free shampoos but my hair was awful.