Hi my lovelies
You may remember my blog post I did the other day on the importance of water when it comes to eczema, if you missed it then I will link it (Here). In that post I discussed how drinking water was important, but in this Part 2 I will cover all the other aspects of water and eczema. Remember I am not a doctor or any kind of skin specialist, i'm just speaking from 23 years of eczema experience and what i've learnt and found out along the way.
Glass of water by the window
I bet you've read that little header and thought what an earth is she talking about? Well don't worry I thought it mad too at first. I can't remember if someone told me about this or I read/heard it somewhere, but basically the idea is to keep a glass of water on your window sill and over time it will evaporate and create more moisture in the air. It's a very clever little trick that some people may not know about, so it's worth giving that a try. Since hearing this a few years ago I have done this and i'm not entirely sure if it actually works or does make any difference, but I like to think it does, especially when you've got the central heating on in the colder months, which just sucks all the moisture out of the room.
Sea Water
Anyone with eczema who has been in sea water is probably wincing at this right now, I know your pain guys! Getting salty sea water on your eczema is horrendous, it stings like there's no tomorrow! But it is good for you. No one is quite sure why it is though, i've looked it up and all I can see is that it just seems to keep the inflammation at bay a bit and is just a natural cleansing ingredient so it could be that. So its worth going through the stinging sensation for a while to eventually get good results with your eczema. No pain no gain as it were.
Swimming Pool Water
Going swimming in your local swimming pool may help or hinder your eczema. For me it doesn't really affect my eczema at all, but I have heard the chlorine could potentially dry out your skin so that is just something to take note of. Just remember to take your moisturiser with you if you do go swimming, I always forget.
Baths or showers?
This used to be one of the most annoying things about eczema when I was growing up. I could not take baths at all, no matter what I used my eczema hated it! So i've been a shower girl my whole life, and only now in the last few years has my eczema been slowly improving enough that I can take a bath and use bath products! Oh the heaven! So from my point of view I think, unless you have a bath with no products (so just basically warm water) or you use products like Oilatum (which I did use a lot as a child) then it is not worth the hastle, and have showers instead.
This leads me on to
Hot or Cold water?
I was thinking about this question and I don't think cold water affects my skin all that much, well let's face it you don't want to be using cold water on yourself or leaving your hands in cold water for too long do you? so i'm not sure about the cold side. But I know from experience that hot water can be bad for your eczema, I get bad flare ups if I use hot water on myself (hence the whole bath problem). So stick to warm water if I were you.
Washing eczema hands
This is such a frustrating eczema to have, if you have eczema on your hands it's a real pain ... literally. The more you wash your hands in either just warm water, or with soap too, it will dry out your hands and make your eczema worse! Oh it's a nightmare! So use good natural soap and use a good hand cream afterwards if you feel your eczema on your hands starting to becoming irritated.
So there's just some hints and ideas for you there guys, hope any of it was helpful.
As usual if you have any questions/comments please leave in the comments.
Love
Amy
xxx
***DISCLAIMER***
All views/opinions are my own, not a trained skin specialist
i'm just going by my own 23 years experience with eczema.
