Take this Winter Hand Eczema Quiz!
Red, itchy unsightly hands are often develop during cold, drying air of the winter season.
There are other triggers or things that worsen your hand eczema in the winter that you may not think of!
Take a look at this list to see if your are aggravating your hand eczema.
- Do you use hand sanitizers to try to keep your hands free of bacteria and viruses?
- Do you use antibacterial soap in your kitchen and bathrooms?
- Are you using chlorox wipes to clean counters and bathrooms?
- Do you use moisturizers with fragrance and lanolin in them?
- Do you go without gloves when you are in the cold?
- Are you using over the counter neosporin (neomycin) or bacitracin on your cracked hands?
- Do you put bandaids on your fingers to protect the cracked fingertips?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may be innocently contributing to your hand eczema.
Here is what you can do to actively prevent and treat your hand eczema and help restore your skin to soft, less red and avoid cracked skin.
- Avoid all hand sanitizers. They are alcohol based and irritate already dry skin.
- Use lanolin and fragrance free moisturizers. Ideally, something like vanicream which is fragrance, paraben and preservative free. There is also a gentle cleanser in their product line.
- Use gloves when you are doing any kind of work with chemicals or cleaning. Make sure they are latex free gloves and are vinyl.
- Use vaniply or aquaphor to moisturize severely cracked skin not neosporin. Many people already have a neosporin or topical antibiotic allergy.
- Use ” crazy glue “ or permanent glue available at the drugstore to literally glue the deep cracked, fissures together and they will heal faster.
- Protect your hands from the cold and windburn by wearing moisturizer and then gloves before going into the cold.
- Consider visiting your dermatologist for a topical steroid prescription and possibly treatment with an antibiotic since it is common to get staph infection in your cracked hands which keeps this condition going.
If you develop dry, itchy, red hands and you suspect it’s eczema, visit a board certified dermatologist at Fair Oaks Skin Care Center or visit DermUtopia.com for an online skin consultation with a board certified dermatologist.
For more tips visit the Eczema foundation website.