Do you or your child suffer from eczema?
This chronic condition is characterized by dry, cracked, and red skin accompanied by a maddening itch. What’s worse, it’s an itch that you have to try not to scratch because any further irritation can lead to an infection.
Whether you struggle with the condition yourself or you’re a parent tortured by watching your child suffer, thankfully there are a few ways to minimize skin irritation and heal eczema in record time!
Tips to Manage, Treat, and Prevent Eczema
1) Use a Humidifier at Night
Does your skin get red and irritated, especially in the winter? The thing that really makes eczema worse in the wintertime is the lack of moisture in the air. Dry skin can result from very low humidity, and if you suffer from eczema, you absolutely want to prevent dry skin. You can start by controlling the humidity in your bedroom. By having a good humidifier in the bedroom, you can increase the moisture in the air and help your skin heal through the night.
In addition to using a humidifier in your bedroom, consider options for your place of work and other areas of your home. Small humidifiers are now readily available, such as those designed to diffuse essential oils. The great thing about these small humidifiers is that they’re quite portable, making them perfect for taking with you to work or setting up before you sit down to watch television.
There are other great benefits of using a humidifier. If you suffer from dry nasal passages or wake up with sore throats during the wintertime, you might be surprised to find that once you start to use a humidifier, those symptoms simply vanish.
The trick about using a humidifier is that you must keep it clean. No exceptions, no questions. Without regular cleaning, minerals can build up in the humidifier, preventing it from working properly. Not only that but mould or mildew can also develop. All of these issues can easily be avoided with a weekly to semi-weekly cleaning. Check the manufacturer instructions for your model of humidifier and follow them precisely.
2) Moisturize Your Skin and Lock It In
In recent years, a new eczema treatment technique has been developed that’s greatly improved the quality of life for sufferers, especially children. It’s called “wet wrap therapy”. Here’s how it works:
- Before bed, take a nice soak in a lukewarm bath for about 10 to 15 minutes to hydrate the skin.
- Get out and pat yourself dry with a towel.
- Moisturize the eczema areas using an eczema-safe, natural ointment or emollient. Unrefined and cold-pressed Shea Butter is ideal.
- After applying the Shea Butter, use slightly dampened cotton wraps to bind the area.
- Put on a layer of clothing overtop of the wrap. Do not remove the wrapping until morning.
That’s it! The damp cotton will keep the moisture of the Shea Butter locked in overnight, nourishing your skin and giving it a chance to heal and recover. Even better, the wrapping will reduce the chances of scratching the eczema in your sleep.
Wet wrap therapy has improved a lot of lives, and it’s entirely based on the very simple principle of locking moisture into the skin.
When you’re looking for the best moisturizers for wet wrap therapy, make sure that you’re using a product that’s all-natural and unscented. Artificial smells and chemical irritants are prevalent in many moisturizers and can actually damage the skin rather than help it. Our Shea Butter comes from the Vitellaria Nilotica tree and is unrefined, 100% pure, certified organic. Keep it natural and eczema-safe!
3) Ask Your Doctor
If you or your child suffers from extreme eczema, it’s a good idea to consult with a doctor. We aren’t giant fans of the idea of extensively using steroidal creams to help control your eczema, but there are extreme times when Western medicine prevails you might not have a choice.
If you must use medicated steroid creams, we want to warn you not to use them too much because they can quite literally become addictive. Yes, the steroid will calm your skin and stop the inflammation, but if you use them too often, your skin will become dependent on the steroids and will start to need the cream to regulate normal levels of inflammation. That means that if you stop using the cream, your skin can become red and painful. It’s called Red Skin Syndrome, or RSS, and it can take weeks for your skin to adjust back to normal.
Please be careful with steroidal creams. In small doses they can be a lifesaver but, like with any kind of medicine, overusing it can make things wors
4) Find Your Triggers
Although eczema can be worsened by cold, frigid weather, your environment doesn’t cause the condition. There isn’t a specific known cause for why people get eczema. We do know that there’s a genetic component, so it can run in the family. Also, if you suffer from asthma or hay fever, you’re also more likely to have eczema, but there are still many mysteries associated with the condition.
When you suffer from eczema, it’s important that you get to know your triggers. Not unlike allergies, coming in contact with an eczema trigger can cause a flare up. An eczema trigger can really be anything. If you discover that you develop flare ups when you’re working too hard, then stress might be one of your eczema triggers. If you occasionally treat yourself to a seafood dinner and discover that you have a flare up the next day, you might have a food-related eczema trigger. Pets, detergents, dust, sweat, fabrics, cosmetics… Just about anything can be an eczema trigger.
To help track down your triggers, keep a log and record your flare ups. Look for relationships between your activities and the time that the flare up occurs. It can be a pain, especially if you have to cut foods out of your diet, but figuring out what causes your eczema can greatly improve your life.
5) Keep it Natural
Speaking about eczema triggers, the most common culprits are usually chemicals. You can often see this with people who work with their hands. Janitors and Maintenance Engineers, for example, might suffer from eczema on their hands because they work with caustic chemicals.
What’s kind of scary is just how many skin products claim to be healthy and natural but could actually be eczema triggers in waiting. So many moisturizing skin creams have strong, artificial scents and unpronounceable ingredients that can either exacerbate or cause eczema flare ups.
When you’re looking for the best moisturizer for eczema, psoriasis, or other skin conditions, choose a product that’s all-natural and guaranteed to be safe for your skin. Moyaa Shea Butter is unrefined, cold-pressed, and loaded with all-natural antioxidants and vitamins A and D. The Olein in the Shea Butter is incredibly therapeutic for the skin, and can help to keep it hydrated and healthy throughout the dry winter months and all year round. Learn more about the benefits of Shea Butter here.
Living with a skin condition like eczema is tough, but with the use of smart, all-natural moisturizers like our Moyaa Shea Butter, you can nourish and heal your skin. Shea Butter will also help prevent eczema flares by keeping your skin moist and supple to eliminate possible irritation.