To ask how you wash your hands?

[BinkyBam]

Genuine question. So my hands get infected, I have no cuticles (skin disease).

My hands are painful to wash, so I wash them as much as I see fit, but I also have a strange thing about bacteria which I suppose means I was them more than average.

I have a skin disease which means I have no cuticles which causes the infections as there is nothing to protect the nail bed. I clean my hands more than 'Normal' due to this but I also hold of doing general things which would mean I would need to wash my hands (e.g. I will stop myself going to the toilet etc just because my hands are sore which just makes it unhealthy in other ways!!).

Hand sanitisers so not help and in fact make it much much worse.

A friend of mine suggested that I should just not clean my hands so often, this isn't a great one as I cook and prepare a lot of food and also have a 1 year old so not really something I can commit to!

Aibu to ask if any of you can tell me ways of cleaning your hands without water/soap/sanitiser?!

Thanks!

Gloves?

I use gloves when preparing food when it's planned but on a general day to day basis, carrying gloves around is just something I forget about.

Genuinely tried to do it for a while but it just didn't happen so well for me!

Appreciate the suggestion though!

Ah well I’m slovenly compared to most of MN but I was my hands when I wash me, after I’ve been to the loo, when they are noticeably dirty, or when I have touched raw meat. That’s it.

And I, and everyone I cook for, have come in contact with is healthy and happy!

I work in healthcare and some staff have issues with their hands especially in winter cracking and find the amount of washing and gel required makes it worse so occupational health provided some extra sensitive gel which has gone down well. We use ecolab sensitive gel, I think you might be able to buy it from their website individually but there may be other brand available. Gel is actually better and kindest for skin than washing so we are told

I have eczema and my hands can start to crack and bleed, especially in winter. It was a nightmare when the children were little as you need to wash your hands about a million times per day!

I used to use gloves at home and wash hands with an emollient (eg aquaeous cream) rather than soap, also religiously apply hand cream after every hand wash.

Following guidelines for people with eczema should help.

Once every 2 weeks. Only if I've had an especially large bowel movement, though.

Can you keep latex or nonlatex gloves in your house bathroom and put them on when using the facilities and wash them after as you would your hands, and hang them over the sink or whatever to dry or dry on the towel? Continually washing hands is drying for then but we do need to be hygienic!

When you say that hand sanitisers don't work does that include the foam ones?

@lljkk wtf

I have eczema on hands.
mostly under control, but cold or cleaning products can make it break out.
I use warm water & bar soap at home. no soap when out and about.

gloves when out in the cold, rubber gloves with cotton gloves under for cleaning.

double moisturising mornings and evenings - a simple body lotion followed by a thick moisturiser (nivea blue pot)

Do you use liquid soaps?
The SLS (sodium lauryl sulphate) in shampoo and liquid soap cause my friends hands to crack horrifically. She now uses bar soap as much as possible, and an SLS free shampoo.

Also have you tried an emollient? Your doctor should be able to prescribe one.

Hey OP I have severe eczema on my hands since childhood and I am a nurse so frequent handwashing. I use dermol cream or lotion to wash my hands with which you can get through your GP. It is antimicrobial and antibacterial and my eczema has been significantly better since using it. It is approved by infection control at my hospital. I hope this helps.

I use E45 wash cream. You can get it from Boots, it comes in a pump bottle. I have dried split skin on my hands to avoid soap as far as I can.

Burner I'll take a look into that thank you!

Some great suggestions here and will take a look into them all! Just so tired of having such sore hands all the time.

I actually think I have some Dermol lotion too so will use that to wash and see if that makes a difference.