red and sore skin on hands

[LilacBump]

i have these red patches of dry skin, mostly in between my fingers. it stings and hurts a bit. DP says it might be dermatitis. what would be the best thing to put on it? vaseline? e45? savlon?

I had very dry, flaky, red skin on my hands and the dr prescribed a great bit pot of diprobase. I think any moisturising cream you use should do the trick - e45 say - but you just have to use it every time you wash your hands etc., so just keep applying it a million times a day and you should see a difference

Try to get a soap without sodium laureth suphate in it too (the stuff that makes it frothy) - it makes it sooo much better.

Ds suffers from this, we keep in in tow with Jason soap and 'chickweed' cream. Both from the local healthshop. You could try washing your hands with Aquous (sp) cream (huge pot, only a couple of quid from boots) for now until it calms down.

thank you for the suggestions, i will try with aqueous cream and e45 first as i have those in the house anyway.

I get this too all I can say is moisturise, moisturise, moisturise. You may find a salt scrub helps too - and don't forget to wear your gloves outside!

oh yes i have been wearing my gloves, too cold to be without atm!

This sounds really weird but my dh has the same problem and the only thing that sorts him out is nipple cream. I had a tube left over from when I was breast feeding and in desperation he tried it, and it works a treat.

thanks wwb, i will keep that in mind

thanks for all the advice. i put e45 on it all this week and it is now pretty much gone.

Wear rubber gloves when working in water.
Cut out/lessen the wheat and dairy in your diet for a bit.

Your immune system is pushing something out through the skin.

This sounds really weird but works. My dh has eczema on his hands that flairs up when he's under stress and/or it is really cold. He's suffered from it for years and has tried all sorts of creams and NOTHING has worked. For the latest flair up (change of job and weather at the same time) they got really itchy and I suggested cannestan (apparently eczema is a form of thrush) and it worked a treat. He also had a particularly nasty split in the joint of one of his fingers and Kamillosan got rid of it in a couple of hours. Not very medical but helped him...