Help me sort my hands out!

[Goldstar88]

Posting for traffic. My hands have never been in such a terrible, dry state. Not even just dry but I have these deep cuts on my fingers/knuckles that are so painful when I do anything with my hands, often bleed etc. I’ve never had it like this before. I’m at a bit of a loss as to what’s causing it. I’ve always had dry hands in the winter but they’ve tended to just be general dry skin, fixed with moisturiser, never as bad as this.

Some context/what I’ve tried so I don’t drip feed!

• I’ve been to the GP, they suggested emollients (Dermol) which I use as soap every time I wash my hands.

• I’m 13 months pp and still breastfeeding - could that be a factor?

• I use rubber gloves every time I do any sort of washing up or cleaning.

• I either have hands in pockets or in gloves every time I’m out walking at the moment, unless doing something quickly with phone etc!

• I try to use gentle shower gels, face washes etc. I was using an acidic bonding shampoo but have switched to a Garnier Hair Food one in case it’s my shampoo, doesn’t seem to help.

• I put a thick emollient cream on every night before bed (although sometimes hands are too sore to bear it) but invariably if DC wakes up I end up having to wash my hands after a nappy change etc. so I guess it’s not always on for hours at a time.

What am I missing? I feel I’m going to have to change every shower product I own to see what it is? It must be something I’m using daily, surely? They’re currently feeling so dry, tight and sore and I’m at a loss.

Any words of wisdom??

I've had the same issue for the last couple of winters and also have a toddler who is still breastfeeding. I hadn't made the connection until reading your post just now but sounds like it could be related. I asked in the pharmacy about it and the pharmacist recommended Neutrogena Norwegian Formula. I was dubious as I was really after something over-the-counter. I thought it was just a normal moisturiser and I'd already tried loads, but it has made a real difference. I try and remember to apply it every night and also through the day if it's bothering me, but usually once a day is enough.

I’m sorry OP, it really is the pits. My best friend has the same issue, his poor hands are awful especially through winter. I hope you find something that works for you.

Just a note about Dermol - it’s definitely not a long term thing, and can ruin the balance of your natural skin flora if used for a long time. Just to keep that in mind :)

Sorry haven't read the full thread, but I have incessantly dry hands and here's my tips.

if your hands are sore / inflamed it could be eczema and some strong steroids cream / ointment might help calm them down in the first instance.

Carry hand cream with you, and any time you wash your hands during the day, make sure you dry them thoroughly, then put cream on straight after you've washed them.
Type of cream is totally individual as to what works, so I'd say rather than go for a specific brand, try a few or try different types. I like using colloidal stuff as it soothes my skin.

For very dry and cracked skin - use foot cream or heel balm!

You're doing the right things using rubber gloves, avoiding contact with water etc and also gloves outside to avoid the cold air making them sore.

Drink plenty water.
Eat plenty "good" fats as these are good for skin (nuts, avocado, nut butter, seeds, etc)

Dry skin can also be due to dietary intake, possible intolerances or sensitivities. For example my eczema is worse if I eat a lot of sugar or processed food, especially cheese or wine - it flares up. and improves if I eat well - so whole foods, home cooked, meat, fruit, veg.

You could try supplements for skin too, Google it and find something that supports healthy skin, try it!

Hope you find something that works, it's awful having sore hands. I often have to take my rings off, avoid hand washing too much and use all the creams until mine calm down.

I can also highly recommend this hemp hand cream. I have about a million but this is definitely one of the best ones. Husband uses it too and he does very manual work so also gets very dry hands.

I just came here to recommend the Body Shop Hemp Hand Cream too... my hands used to get like yours, and I highly recommend this. I've not suffered with it since!

It's amazing... not oily, and doesn't sting when the skin is broken like some others.

I also use the body cream on my feet when they get hard and cracked on occasions, and used it on my baby when his skin was bad when he was newborn (although the body shop wouldn't recommend it for him... it did work wonders).

Cannot rave about the hemp range highly enough x

My hands are terrible when stressed and run down, and having a baby will do that to you! The frequent handwashing definitely causes flares too. Are you taking a breastfeeding supplement at all? If not, you really need to look at getting your levels checked for any deficiencies and taking a god-quality breastfeeding supplement in the meantime.

My hands have been bad like this since Covid. Not having Covid mind you, but when we were all encouraged to use hand gel sanitizer, my skin was that bad, I used emollient from the pharmacy!

I now suffer every winter. I use soap at home, washing up gloves when doing pots and cleaning, wear fleece gloves outside. Use O'Keefes hand cream which is pricey but good.

I took my own unperfumed hand wash to work!

Come warmer weather, they heal up.

Buy yourself some cotton gloves, completely slather your hands in your chosen emollient (o’keefes is good, as is olive oil), put the gloves on top and leave on overnight. Do this for a fortnight and you won’t believe the difference. Mine looked a good 10 years younger. It has to be really thick, so you can’t see skin if it’s white cream.

I have this. I have several aggravating factors.

1. Sponge like cloths - if I touch them for more than as second I get cracked hands

1. Citric acid - eaten or in soap
2. All scented soap can only use simple soap

When it goes the only thing that works is bepathan the nappy cream. Slather it on before bed. BB

I had similar after my youngest was born. I realised I had a particularly bad reaction to blue coloured hand wash and washing up liquids. I was also diagnosed with a contact allergy to latex, so wearing rubber gloves to wash up was just perpetuating the problem and a suspected fungal infection as well as my usual eczema. Switching to non blue soaps, latex free gloves and daktarin sorted it out within about a week

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)

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/

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!

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 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.

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

@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. 😭

I didn’t know this, omg! Will have to find an alternative!

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.

I find aloe vera gel helps with most skin irritations.

Thanks so much for all the responses - so many things to try. I’m making sure I take my breastfeeding supplements from now on (vit d, omega 3 etc) to ensure it’s not also an internal issue!

Going to switch to bar soaps for washing hands and showering. Try and wash hands less (I hate anything on my hands in the kitchen etc so wash them so many times!!), I’ve ordered cotton gloves for overnight! Will slather on different creams to try - I think the emollient I’ve been using overnight actually makes them sting a bit. Going to try Okeefes first and also other gentle moisturisers recommended. Trial and error I think! Will try for a week or so and go back to GP if needed.

I wasn’t sure if steroids are an issue when breastfeeding?

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

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.

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.

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