Advice on dry skin and poor sleep (30 weeks)

[kickingking]

Can anyone advise on some of my many pregnancy niggles?

My skin has been dry, flaky and itchy since I got pregnant. I am Moisturising all over with Palmers cocoa butter but I am so itchy on my arms, legs and back! If I wear a black top, when I take it off, I can see the back is covered in flakes of skin. I have scratched my shins so much while asleep they are a mess of scabs and scrapes. Is there a better moisturiser I can use? And the problem with my back is that I can't reach most if it myself and don't have a daily helper for that - what can I do?

And I can't sleep, I wake up in the early hours every morning and can't get back to sleep. I'm so tired. Any tips for sleeping? I have a pregnancy pillow, I don't think it's a comfort issue.

I have always had dry skin and I swear by body shop's body butters. They are expensive (12-15 pounds) but worth it. Go for the shea butter one for very dry skin.

Me too! As well as body butter I have discovered Soap n Glory thermal scrub, which gets rid of the flakes pre-shower. HTH.

Try an unperfumed moisturiser like aqeous cream. I have super sensitive skin and if it's very dry the perfumed stuff just makes everything worse!

Aloe Vera can help as well - the Body Shop do a baby body butter with aloe vera that I use on myself. It really helps my dry skin. I wish I had some advice about how to moisturise your back, but I do just get my partner to do it, sorry.

I have the same problem. My legs are a complete raw mess at the moment. I an using Eucerin With 10% urea twice aday. It is really helping. I am also using Eucerin shower therapy with 20% omega oils. You can get both from boots, about 10 pounds each.

Go and see your GP, they can prescribe you something that will calm your skin. I had the same thing and nothing cosmetic helped. You should also have bloods done to confirm that you are clear of obstetric cholestasis,

Hi there

I get eczema which always gets worse when I'm pregnant - and this time of year is bad for dry skin too. So, not a happy combination!

Body shop have lots of body butters on special offer at the mo, and they're one of the few non eczema creams I can tolerate - but second going to your doctor, it will save you a fortune and give you something that shouldn't react. I'd also ask for some oilatum or balneum (also available in chemists if you can't wait for an appointment) - they're bath oils but have an anti-itch ingredient - a good soak in that really lasts and sorts out those hard-to-reach areas (tip for your back though is to put cream on the back of your hand and put it on that way - can manage to cover most of my back between that and the conventional way). Only thing to be aware of with the oils though is that they make your bath pretty slippy afterwards, so just be a bit careful.

Hope you feel better soon.