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Do you have super sensitive skin with horribly itchy rashes? I had it bad, even scratching till it bled. Here is my story and how I got it all under control. Everyone is different, but this really worked for me so I decided if I can help one person, it's worth sharing. It started with my with my first pregnancy. The rashes were so terrible I couldn't sleep! I was miserable and they couldn’t figure it out. The doctor said I had chicken pox, but I had chicken pox as a child so that seemed unlikely to me. The itching was terrible and because I was pregnant I couldn't take any medication. The only thing that gave me relief was Benadryl cream. It’s thick and doesn’t spread easily and I needed to cover a lot of skin, so I got the most gentle, hypoallergenic lotion I could find to mix with it. I would just put a large blob of Benadryl on my hand, add a blob of lotion and mix it up in my hands. Then I would apply it everywhere. Of course now that you’ve just touched all the itchy spots they go crazy, so you have to brace yourself or distract yourself for a few minutes while you wait for the lotion to work. Finally the doctors gave me some kind of steroid cream. The stuff I have now for occasional flare-ups is Clobetasol Propionate Ointment USP .05%. It was prescribed by a skin doctor.
The rash did start to fade after I gave birth, but I was left with extremely sensitive skin which I never had before. I still had rashes on my arms. Finally, with experimenting I discovered that I was allergic to jojoba oil. Now I was never allergic to jojoba before, I’d used jojoba shampoo for years. And here’s the weird thing. I used straight jojoba oil while I was pregnant to prevent stretch marks on my belly (didn’t work by the way), but I never got a rash on my belly. I had it everywhere else! I didn’t suspect the jojoba because it didn’t appear to affect my skin where I was applying it. The other thing that I realized is that after I stopped using the jojoba, my skin stayed freaked out for 2 weeks. So if I was still bad after a few days I would think “well, I guess that wasn’t the problem” and give up. So give it time, and suspect everything, especially shampoo. “Natural” shampoos from the health food store usually have a lot of fancy herbs and oils in them so be careful of those too.
Here I am 13 years after that first pregnancy and I still can’t use anything with jojoba in it. My hands and arms will start to bump up within minutes. Finally, I discovered that anything with sodium lauryl sulfate will also mess up my skin. It takes a little longer, but I’ll rash up again. For some reason the sodium laureth sulfate is okay. Sodium Lauryl Sulfate is in everything that is soap, and if you google it you’ll find that it’s a common irritant.
So after my long story here’s what I would do if I were you.
1. Switch to a shampoo with no sodium lauryl sulfate, and no fancy herbs or oils. You have to read the labels, it’s hard to find but there are a few at your local Stuff-Mart. I use Trivani Shampoo and Conditioner.
2. Don’t use any kind of bar soap unless it's Trivani's Shower Bar. They're calling it the "Un-Soap" because it cleans without using soap. Or use shampoo to wash in the shower, and the clear Softsoap brand liquid hand soap at the sink.
3. Don’t let any kind of dish soap touch you anywhere! I use Softsoap (it has no sodium lauryl sulfate) even on the dishes.
4. Use laundry soap that says “no perfumes or dyes” or set your washer to give everything a 2nd rinse. I’m using Costco’s Kirtland Free and Clear laundry soap and one rinse.
5. Throw away any lotion you have that’s older than 2 months. I never did figure out which drug store lotion is okay, I use Neutragena, but no matter what I use, if it starts to get old the rash comes back.
Again, I use Trivani where I can. They don’t use any irritant causing ingredients in their products. And know this, just because a product says “safe for baby” doesn’t mean it’s gentle. There are toxic and irritating ingredients even in baby products! Baby wipes don't seem to bother me.
Once you’re using all super mild products, you can start to figure out what’s messing you up. This is where I can't help you. You'll just have to experiment with adding items back into your life, one at a time. Make sure you write everything down! Make sure you give each item plenty of time before you add another product. I would give it two weeks minimum. If something messes you up, it can take another week or two to clear up. And remember you might not get the rash where you expect. If I use jojoba cream on my face, my face won't get a rash but my hands will. One thing I didn't try, which might help, is to see an allergist. She can do a really cool skin test that will identify what kinds of things you're allergic to.
The good news is that once you get it figured out, if your case is anything like mine, it will be very MINOR. I do a lot of careful things, but it’s really no big deal anymore. When I say I get a flare-up I’m talking about a few bumps on my hands, wrists, or backs of my knees, that go away pretty quickly. There is hope.
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