What is the best way to get rid of the poison ivy on yourself?

Urine.

Once the allergic reaction has appeared (little blisters), all you can do is alleviate the itch. Traditional method was to dab calamine Lotion on. Google for other, newer options. Try not to scratch.

Ooh, look I found.

I forgot. If you can get to a hot soapy shower or sponge bath within ten minutes of brushing against or wading throught the stuff, you have a chance of washing off the oil that causes the rash.

Make a thick paste of baking soda and water. Apply liberally and leave on about half an hour, several times a day.

I would hit up the doctor. I had poison Ivy or Oak when I was young (I don’t remember which). I had it on my testicles and one morning I woke up and I couldn’t open my eyes. The doctor gave me a Prednisone Taper and it cleared me up pretty fast.

We tried everything including baking soda. None of it really helped. Get your ass to the doctor. You are probably going through unnecessary pain.

@johnpowell You’re not telling us that your testicles had become so big that they pressed against your eye-lids, he?

@rebbel :: I was six or seven.. I don’t remember if my balls had even dropped. But I remember my mom putting socks on my hands so I wouldn’t scratch. It was torture.

@johnpowell That sounds awful, to be honoust.

@johnpowell is correct. IF it is really bad, then oral steroids will help alleviate the inflammatory reaction. On the other hand, if it is relatively mild, then I would just use symptomatic treatments like calamine lotion as has been suggested, and wait it out. Steroids have their own side effects, so it is prudent to let a doctor decide for you.

Once you have reacted, you need to let it heal.

@Marina Yes, but in serious cases (like covering a lot of skin surface area, or the face), steroids can minimize the inflammation and speed healing.

<—Bowing to the doc, who knows best!. @shilolo Sorry if my answer was a bit shorthand. I assumed the poster would take some of the advice above about treatment. I was more responding to the idea of “getting it off,” which is not a possibility.

If you don’t have a SERIOUS case (meaning covering large parts of your face/body) I have found that using “brown soap” (like Fels Naphtha) really does help shorten the time you’re affected.

I always agree with the doc and will add that there is a soap called Tecnu that really works RIGHT AFTER your exposure. It is kind of expensive, but I get several bad cases of PI every year and this does the trick. Here is their website: http://www.technuextreme.com/

I swear by this stuff over all other PI remedies (except, of course, steroids).

@Kayak8 I’ve always thought that any soap will work. Most of the time however, people don’t know they were exposed, don’t shower/wash the affected area in time, and oila, contact dermatitis.

Two of my kids had poison ivy this summer, but luckily they didn’t react too badly to it. I used calamine lotion, threw them into the tub with some Aveeno oatmeal powder mixed in, and let them have some extra swimming time in the chlorinated pool.

My daughter came down with the rash first, and since none of us had ever had it, I googled it. There are websites devoted to all kinds of home remedies, but the scariest I saw involved rubbing straight bleach on the rash. Apparently it burns like crazy but helps…but at a cost. There were also stories of people who did that with bleach and ended up with even worse health problems. I wouldn’t suggest you do that at all, but if you have access to a chlorinated swimming pool, take a dip. If not, you could try adding a small amount of chlorine bleach to your bathwater—like, half a cup.

Out of all those treatments, my daughter said the Aveeno bath helped most with the itching.

I don’t understand the idea of using bleach or chlorine on the skin. Once the rash has set in, the rash itself is a reaction of the body to the toxin. Bleach will only do more damage to an already inflamed area. Bad idea, imho.

@shilolo I think the diluted chlorine, as in a swimming pool, has a drying effect on the rash. When I was pregnant and suffering through a nasty pupp rash, my doctor said I should spend some time in the pool every day. It also seemed to help my kids feel better when they had poison ivy. Putting straight bleach on your body for any reason seems completely insane to me.

This site has “remedies” submitted by people who swear by them, including the use of bleach. I cringed when I read what some people do to themselves to get rid of poison ivy. Someone following their advice could suffer from serious problems.