Anyone who has suffered from the poison ivy rash or the blisters understands just how painful it can be. It is incredibly itchy and it is all you can do to not sit there and scratch it for hours on end in the hopes that it will provide some type of relief. But scratching it will only make it worse.
The best way to take care of any symptoms that you will experience is to know how to treat poison ivy. The best time to do this is within ten minutes of the time that you have been exposed to it. Unfortunately this is not always possible when we or our children do not realize that we have touched it or come even close to it.
Treatment For Poison Ivy
- Clean the infected skin or exposed area thoroughly with rubbing alcohol.
- Use lukewarm water to clean off the area. Do not use any soap because this will move the urushiol oil around and onto different areas infecting other parts of the body.
- Take a shower with warm water and soap. It is more effective to use a special poison ivy soap – which will help to completely remove the urushiol oil and soothe the itching and burning rash.
- Put on some thick rubber gloves and wipe down everything that you had on and were holding. You can wash your clothes with detergent – but anything else you had needs to be cleaned in rubbing alcohol and water.
When you do this process within ten minutes of being exposed to the plant you will have more chance of preventing the rash from breaking out on your skin or at least to reduce the severity of it. After this time the most you will be doing is removing the excess urushiol oil to prevent other areas from being affected and to help soothe the area.
Other treatments that you can use when learning how to treat poison ivy include special poison ivy medicines. These are more often used for people with extremely sensitive skin and will have a severe reaction. For your children you can purchase poison ivy kits that have a bottle of rubbing alcohol, water, and soap. This is especially helpful to have with you when you are camping.