If the rash doesn’t improve after 7 days, contact your healthcare provider. It can be applied to the affected area three to four times daily. Hydrocortisone 1% cream is a low-dose, topical steroid that can help your poison ivy rash by lowering skin inflammation and easing some of the itchiness. But talk to your healthcare provider before giving this medication to your child. You can try taking diphenhydramine at bedtime to see if it helps you sleep. If your poison ivy rash is itchy and keeps you up at night, a first-generation antihistamine like diphenhydramine may help. These include cetirizine (Zyrtec), loratadine (Claritin), and fexofenadine (Allegra). Newer antihistamines - which include second and third-generation antihistamines - don’t make you as drowsy. Older, first-generation antihistamines like diphenhydramine (Benadryl) have a known side effect of making you tired. Antihistamines are classified into two groups depending on how old they are. These medications work by blocking histamine - a natural chemical your body makes when you have an allergic reaction. Oral antihistaminesĪntihistamines are a group of medications that treat many allergic conditions. The following OTC products might be helpful. This will help remove urushiol and may help prevent further spread.Įven if you do your best to avoid poison ivy, you may still end up with a poison ivy rash. Any surfaces that have been exposed can be washed with soap and water or rubbing alcohol. As soon as you realize you have been exposed to poison ivy, you should wash your skin with soap and water. It’s important to clean your skin before using any OTC treatments for poison ivy. What OTC medications treat poison ivy rash? If you feel like your rash is spreading, it’s likely because some parts of your body absorbed urushiol more quickly than others, causing the rash to appear in some places before it appears in others. This means that scratching the rash won’t make it spread (though it can cause your rash to get infected). Make sure to wash any items that might have urushiol on them with rubbing alcohol (isopropanol or isopropyl alcohol), or soap and water.Įven though it may feel like it’s spreading, poison ivy rashes don’t spread to parts of the body that urushiol didn’t touch. In fact, urushiol can stay on surfaces for up to five years. It's possible to get a rash from urushiol that’s stuck under your fingernails, on clothing, or even on your pets. But the oil might be in places you don’t expect. The rash occurs only when urushiol touches the skin, so it can't be spread through person-to-person contact. But, if your rash is severe, covers a large area of skin, or you're not positive you got it from poison ivy, you should contact your healthcare provider. If you have a mild rash, you may be able to treat it at home with OTC medications. Can poison ivy be treated with OTC medications? Here, we'll cover everything you need to know about OTC poison ivy treatments. If you've ever developed a poison ivy rash, you know how uncomfortable it can be. Your rash can be mild or severe depending on how sensitive you are to urushiol. The result might be a blistering rash (tiny bubbles of skin filled with fluid). When the oil touches your skin, it can cause redness, swelling, and itchiness. Urushiol is also found in poison oak and sumac plants. This oil - known as urushiol - is in every part of the plant, including the leaves and stem. A poison ivy rash is caused by an allergic reaction to an oil on the poison ivy plant. Unfortunately, it also means a higher risk of poison ivy rash. Spring has sprung all over the U.S., and that usually means more time spent outdoors.
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