How to Help Minimize Your Contact With Poison Ivy

Poison ivy doesn't require direct contact before you develop it.

Some people don’t necessarily need direct contact with a poison ivy plant itself to develop it.  My mother happens to be one of those people.  Once she was just tending her small garden, not among bushes or wild foliage when it later struck.  Apparently poison ivy’s resin managed to carry in the wind or weather to transfer itself to whatever she was touching among her plants.

Ever since that episode, we always made it a habit to immediately wash exposed skin with Fels-Napa, the laundry soap bar that you also can use to treat stains.  In addition, we also wash all gardening tools afterwards with a soap solution as an extra safety precaution.

Before throwing all your clothes to the laundry on your way to the shower, you also might want to take another preventive measure.  Try wiping yourself off with some rubbing alcohol first and then get your bath or shower. 

If you have a cat or dog that likes to roam or stays outdoors, then you might want to give them a bath. Though your pet won’t develop poison ivy due to their protective coats, they can carry that plant’s resin on themselves for you to pick up when you pet them.

Before you attempt giving your pet a bath, remember protecting yourself first by wearing gloves and a barrier cream with bentoquatum for the rest of your arms or legs that may be exposed.  After all, animals don’t particularly enjoy baths and will splash water that could contain that poison ivy’s urushiol oil on you.  

In case, you don’t have a barrier cream on hand, you want to try wearing long pants and longer sleeves while bathing your pet.  Sure, you will be soaked by the time that you finish, but it will provide better protection than nothing.

You can use your pet shampoo or even dish detergent that cuts grease like Dawn to lather them up.  Don’t neglect their collar and lease by cleaning those thoroughly since that urushiol could also be there as well. Rinse them several times to make sure that soap and remaining traces of oil are out of those coats.

If you have a cat, prepare for battle.  This is not a chore for one person so be sure to have an extra set of hands to help with the bath.

Despite everything, there is always a chance that you could still develop that poison ivy rash.  Besides a drying agent like calamine lotion, witch hazel or zinc oxide, you could wet Epsom salts and apply to the rash or aloe vera gel.  Hopefully, this will never happen.  Nonetheless, if it does then you'll probably have a less severe case since you got some of that poison ivy off.

Some Calming Relief for Sunburn You May Want to Keep Handy With These DIY Remedies!

Enjoying the sun is great, but you can't say the same thing of sunburn.  

Summer is when you should be having fun–-not suffering with sunburn.  Hopefully, you won’t find yourself in this predicament.  If you do, then  I wanted to share some additional home remedies that can help take your pain away.

Some time in the water does wonders to ease pain.  Therefore, you might want to try soaking in cool bath water with two cups of apple cider vinegar.  The vinegar can restore the skin’s pH level and help it heal.

Oatmeal can also come to your skin’s rescue for sunburn or relieving the itch of poison ivy.  In fact, you can use it in two ways.  Try adding one-half cup of oatmeal (not instant) to a tub of cool bath water and soaking. Skip drying off with a towel.  Instead, air drying is better for your body when you are in this condition. 

To save yourself from a messy tub, you could also take a thin material like gauze or muslin and cut a square large enough to accommodate  that one-half cup of oatmeal, securing it with a tie.  Let it float in the cool bath water about ten minutes first before you emerge and soak.  You can also use that oatmeal pouch to place very gently over the areas for further help in calming the skin.

Lavender essential oil is something else that you may have on hand or want to look into due to its antiseptic and anti-inflammatory properties.  This is one of the only essential oils that you can safely apply to your skin without the need of a carrier oil to dilute it.  Take a cool bath first and then try about three or four drops of the lavender essential oil on a wet cotton wash cloth.  Hold it tenderly over the afflicted areas helps cool as well as spur the healing process into action. 

Another sunburn remedy is derived from a comfrey root.  Of course, you are not going to feel like digging up something from your herb garden or do you want to. You only want to use this ingredient in a cream and not if your sunburn has blistered and is open. However, this ingredient may be in one of your current skin care creams so do check. Comfrey roots have allotonin that can aid the inflammation while also stimulating the wounded cells to regenerate.

Read my two earlier posts for more DIY sunburn remedies that also truly lessen the pain!  

Here's Some Useful Advice if You're Poison Ivy Susceptible

I happen to love being outdoors in the summer months as much as possible.  Usually I like to fiddle with my plants and work in the garden.  In the past, I was more prone to getting poison ivy regardless if I was near it or not.  However, I found some useful preventive measures to avoid it for the last few years or so with what I'm going to share with you here.

Even though it might be hot, I traded shorts and a sleeveless top or halter for jeans and T-shirt  and gardening gloves to protect more of me from possible exposure while working outside.

An important thing to do is to wash your tools with a soap solution once you finish.  This really helps just in case you accidentally contaminated those tools when working because the oil in poison ivy can attach to the handles, especially.

When you finish working outdoors and are ready for your shower, you need to take a few special precautions.  First, shower off with plain water before attempting to suds up to remove any possible poison ivy residue that you may have come in contact with.  If you attempt soaping up without rinsing off first, then you will spread that poison ivy over your body more for full coverage.

Also, I suggest picking up a bar of Fels-Naptha soap to use after working outdoors among the plants.  This may be considered a laundry soap, but this is a lifesaver if you're outdoors with  trees and plants as the last line of defense in the war against catching poison ivy.

However, if this advice comes to late and you now have poison ivy, you might also want to try some aloe vera gel from your aloe plant on the problem.   

Hopefully though, these few extra little tips will help for you to have a more enjoyable time outdoors!