Please help my poor red raw cracked hands :(

[DitaVonCheese]

Not particularly stylish or beautiful but my hands dry out and crack every winter and this year seems to be particularly bad. Even my beloved Crabtree & Evelyn hand cream isn't touching the sides. Any suggestions for (cheap) miracle cures?

Have a toddler and a newborn so have to wash my hands fairly often, though have now bought rubber gloves for the washing up. Can't really do the sleeping in gloves thing as still feeding DS at night (though suppose I could always just take them off in the small hours).

Wondering if Waitrose Bottom Butter would be any cop?!

Please help, I have the hands of an ancient crone

Tesco Nipple Cream or Lansinoh or my fave - Vaseline

Your skin can get addicted to aqueous cream and if they're chapped already, will probably sting and make it worse.

Aqueous cream should only be used as an alternative to soap - not as a moisturiser as it has a detergent in it. It was only ever designed as such but it's a cheap way fro GP's to prescribe moisturisers. The excema society (?) website recommends NOT using it.

Lotil from boots

Thanks all. Raided my nappy cream stash last night (!) but seem to have chucked most of it during the nesting stage when pg with DS. Ended up using a sample pack of Avent Magic Cream with a smear of Sudocrem on my knuckles for good measure and they already seem much better :)

Have used Neutrogena in the past and been underwhelmed but may revisit. Body Shop stuff is out due to cocking Nestle. at jazz hands. Have lost my lovely leather gloves

Going to try soaking in warm oil during Misfits, though will prob be sweet almond rather than olive - hoping that doesn't make a difference.

Slightly tickled that this has been my most successful thread ever :)

When my skin is feeling really dry on my hands I slather on OMega Wonder-Full Rescue Balm before bed, it really makes a difference and I LOVE the smell:
www.mamamio.com/uk/omega-wonder-full-rescue-balm.html :)

Haven't read all of thread, but I got a big improvement when I switched from liquid hand soap (including posh brands) to simple imperial leather soap.

Katy

I second the bar soap suggestion, my hands are 100 times better since switching from liquid soap. I just use 'simple' or the supermarket versions of it (basically the fewer ingredients the better).

I agree with the bar soap suggestions above. Liquid soaps (even the smart, expensive brands) usually have SLS / SLES in them (I think it's the ingredient that makes them foam up). This is very harsh, my hands dry out and crack very quickly if I use it.

An unperfumed plain bar is a good idea. Rinse your hands very thoroughly because soap residue left on the skin is also an irritant.

Aveeno extra strength - the blue one.

Considering trying the udder cream though!

I have similar problems' Lidl night face cream works really well, and is cheap..

I use Glycerin and rosewater from Boots on my hands when they are bad and it works better than cream.

Aveeno is good.
Kiehl's Ultimate Hand salve is amazing and would sort out your hands very quickly but £14.
Hemp is £5 at the mo for a big tube but I find it greasy and smelly.

Also, I noticed significant improvement when I put bar soap in the bathroom/loo/kitchen after a couple of weeks (Waitrose bog standard). This is from someone who used to have to file their hands at intervals they were so rough whilst avoiding the bleeding knuckles!

I find the Burts Bees handcream works really well (and the almond smells divine! ) but it is quite greasy and takes a while to soak in... fine at bedtime, rubbish when you have stuff to do!

homeaway made a good point about wearing cotton gloves under marigolds when working outside.Otherwise you can find your hands sweat in the gloves to the point they become wet inside,thus defeating the object........

Burt's Bees a bit greasy for me but they do smell amazingly good esp the banana.
Ponds cocoa butter one smells great and is a good price for what it does.

I have this really badly to the point where my knuckles crack and bleed and have been to the doctor more than once. Advised to use aqueous cream instead of soap, it doesn't lather but is meant to be ok to use in place of soap. It's dirt cheap and you can also use as a moisturiser.

Also a chemist has given me hydrocortisone cream to use SPARINGLY, not sure if this is a good idea if breastfeeding or handling baby though, best to check. I think you should always check with a dr or pharmacist before using hydrocortisone as it's strong anyway. Then a cream to use more liberally I think called eumovate?

Recently I have found applying lots of body shop mango body butter before bed has really helped - dh said my hands looked the best he's ever seen them.

Sorry just realised aqueous cream has already been discussed and body shop too

I wouldn't resort to Hydrocortisone yet as I have seen mine improve with other things.
Used it in my teens liberally without really taking notice of the side effects and my skin splits very easily now (thinning skin is a side-effect of prolonged use).

I didn't know that about hydrocortisone. Maybe why the skin on my knuckles cracks and bleeds? What a vicious circle

body shop hemp hand cream is ace! often half price too. hth :)

Avenno cream
Kamillisan
Soap and glory hand cream
Norweigian intensive moisture

Any of the above which are close to hand.

Try avoiding sodium lauryl sulphate- it's in most toothpastes, shampoos and liquid soaps.
Since making an effort to use non SLS products ( most supermarkets stock a range) especially hand-wash, my hands have been much better.
I also use simple Derma cream on my hands 3-4 times a day.