I'm posting this while it is in my head to do it. This fall my son's ball rolled into my parent's neighbor's poison ivy. He got the ball and ran in to tell us the ball rolled into it, and it was one of those big huge balls. I freaked out slightly and made him wash his hands immediately as I know you want to get those oils off you asap. We have never dealt with it before, I have never had it, nor my kids. Anyway, a couple days past and he mentioned his forearms being itchy, there were red and a little bumpy a little welty. I should've taken a pic. All I saw was a little rash on his arms, and I didn't think much of it. Till bath time came it was all up his arms, underneath his upper arms, welts bumps, his neck back of legs and behind, belly and back. The smart thing would've been to shower the kid and change his clothes and wash them in hot water. Duh. I am thinking, oh crap, we are in for a fight, the google results of poison ivy pics were HORRID, but I did come across only a few that looked like him so he seemed to have a mild case, even though he was itchy and it was widespread. Something he did on his own that night that I read actually does help, was, he took a really hot bath. You would think it would irritate and inflame, but I read online that it helps the rash feel better. Which is funny that naturally, he did this for himself. Check out this out from modernsurvivalblog.
Then in my flustered freakout frenzy,I gave him some Zyrtec ( which I only use if someone is getting a full body rash) and I had put some cortisone cream on his wrists, but didn't like the idea of putting it all over him as even topical steroids can weaken the immune system. I then got out my food grade aloe vera gel, just a little, maybe 3 tablespoons or so, and added a few drops each of essential oils of peppermint, eucalyptus, and rosemary and I put that everywhere the rash was. If you can believe it, as I still can't, the next morning, his rash was nearly all gone, I could only see a little left on his wrists. I put more on him that morning and that night and he was fine. I thought I would need to keep him home from school but no need. A strange fluke, I don't know, but I DO know it could only have been poison ivy, a mild case perhaps, but this is what worked for us, for what it is worth.
source for picture: www.modernsurvivalblog.com
