Cream to heal irritated, picked-at skin

[justwondering72]

I know that 8yr old boys are not the usual S&B target audience, but you are such a knowledgable bunch. My 8 yr old DS is prone to keratosis piloris 'chicken skin' on his arms and his cheeks. He tends to pick at the bumps, making them bleed - then he scratches the scabs and they take ages to heal and leave marks. Other than making him wear mittens (!) can anyone recommend any gentle creams to help heal the irritated skin quickly ? Thanks.

You could try using calamine in aqueous cream as a bog standard moisturiser. The calamine soothes the itch and the aqueous moisturises. I used it for mine when they had chicken pox and still sometimes for DS2s eczema. It's cheap too, couple of quid for a pot.

La roche posay cicaplast baume b5. Fantastic stuff.

I got the most itchy shins after shaving, have spent the last 3 months scratching them raw pharmacist suggested eurax cream and also gave me a menthol aqueous cream.. cant think of the name of it atm

I second the idea of an antihistamine, piriton will help at night.

Good old fashioned sudocreme. Dd1 picks herself rotten, her legs are covered in scars. A dose of piriton at night stops her scratching in her sleep and sudocreme twice a day really speeds up the healing.

Thanks all. I don't think it's itchy, more that when he's absorbed in doing something (reading, watching tv) and his attention is elsewhere, his hand wanders up to his cheeks looking for something to pick (he used to bite his nails too). I don't think he even realises he's doing it! So I was looking for something to try and heal the scabby bits more quickly so there's less to pick at, and help to reduce the marks.

TIA

Another vote for calamine aqueous cream, you can buy it over the counter at a pharmacy.

I agree with silver LRP Cicaplast is a great skin healer, but try Flexitol or Ameliorate to prevent the KP in the first place

Avene Cicalfate is an amazing cream for using on scars - takes away redness and stops the horrible crustiness forming on scabs. Think its mildly antibacterial as well.

justwondering oh I was the same with spots, picked them without knowing I was doing it. When my spots cleared up after having dd1 I moved onto picking my dry lips. Shes 7 now and I still do it, between scrolling/reading im picking away. I cant explain why, I just need to be doing something!! Have you got a l'occitaine close by? I used to use their lavender oil stuff on my spots, was brill at drying them out!

For the KP on arms, the palmers lotion is great, it's called smoothing/anti ageing or something (trapped under cat and can't check) as it has fruit acids in and helps. Also soap and glory clean on me shower gel (same acids) helps a lot
For the irritation, moo goo cream

A very effective preventative for this condition is flexitol for legs, or any moisturiser that contains minimum 10% urea. I promise you, it works. I used it daily to begin with on my upper arms after having this for 30 odd years, and the spots and bumps stopped appearing within a week. Now I use it every 2 or 3 days and it has never come back. There is nothing to pick at anymore!

Try Aveeno Skin Relief lotion - I have very dry skin & recently had a period of allergic excema & found this better than anything my dr prescribed. Apparently you can get it on prescription as well.

Cream with urea in it like Flexitol as mentioned above - gets rid of the KP and gets rid of all the ends of skin that are so tempting to pick at.

and might be obvious but keep his nails super short at all times, so he simply cannot pick his face. My son had a similar problem, had a scab on his face that just would not heal, despite all creams I tried. Cut his nails pretty much every evening and it was gone.