Poison ivy - Baby touched a bad, bad thing

by Angie Felton (Subscribe to Angie Felton's posts) Aug 18th 2008 8:00AM

Categories: Teens & tweens, Health & Safety, Home Remedies

My teenager asked me to look at some bug bites on his back the other morning. The Cross Country team had been taking long runs through the woods and he thought something had chewed him up while he ran the trails.

A half hour later, we were sitting at the doctor's office. The itching and burning was actually poison ivy and it was spreading rapidly. My son was given a predisone shot, oral medications, and a cream to be applied twice a day. However, that left many itchy hours in between.

After conferring with friends, researching on the internet, and talking to local homeopaths, here's what we ended up trying:

Rhus Toxicodendron (known as "rhus tox") is a homeopathic pill that my son says relieves the itch almost immediately after it dissolves under the tongue
Soaking in a bath of tepid water and apple cider vinegar or baking soda 2 or 3xs a day
Vitamin C to promote healing of the skin
Black Walnut capsules which are supposed to help the body fight the poison ivy toxins
Burt's Bees poison ivy soap

Of course, if your child found leaves of three and didn't let them be, check with your doctor before trying any of these treatments out. Good luck!

Comments (10)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

LS 8-18-2008 @ 8:26AM

I work as a volunteer interpreter at our local forest preserve, and this is how we teach kids (and adults) how to recognize poison ivy:

With fingers closed but flat, look at your hands, palms up. This is what the side leaves look like - oval-ish, tips that come to a point, with little "thumb"-like tips on the outside edge of the side leaves.

Now place your hands on top of each other... with the back of one hand resting on the palm of the other - still with closed fingers, and palm-up. This represents the middle leaf - still rounded edges, with a pointed tip, but this time with one "thumb" on each side of the leaf.

We then say the following:

"Leaves of three - let it be;
Berries white - stay out of sight"

Remember that Poison Ivy is a crafty fellow... hiding himself in many forms. Early spring, it's often a reddish color, and the leaves very "waxy" - thick and shiny. In high-summer, it's green, sometimes with a red dot where the leaves come together, or even with a little yellowish tint. Some may still have that "waxy" texture to the leaves, but others have lost it. It appears as a plant, growing on the ground, a vine, crawling up trees, and sometimes even appears bush-like, sometimes with woody vines, when it crawls up trees and gets very thick.

Remember that in late summer - around now - the plant produces clumps of white berries. This is something that I find many people do not know, and they often think "Oh, this has berries... it must be ok". It's not, which is why we keep the berry part of the little rhyme.

Virginia Creeper is often mistaken for Poison Ivy... but it is completely harmless. You can easily distinguish between them because Creeper has five leaves, Poison Ivy has three. But they look and act remarkably alike. Nature's Camouflage is fascinating.

When exposed to Poison Ivy, wash with COLD water and soap, not hot. Hot water causes your pores to open, and therefore, the 'poison' can get deeper into your skin. Cold water, while it seems counter-intuitive, actually closes those pores, and can help immensely. Of course, this is assuming that you wash almost immediately.

I am no expert on Poison Ivy - I am one of the fortunate people who is immune... but it's good to have this knowledge beforehand, and I've gathered it through trial and error throughout my life.

If you wish to find out more, I found an awesome site, complete with disgusting photos of rashes, and really good, educational posters, here: http://www.poison-ivy.org.

Angie Felton 8-18-2008 @ 8:43AM

Thanks for the tips, LS! I've always had a hard time identifying poison ivy and I obviously passed that on to my kids!

Heather 8-18-2008 @ 5:26PM

OMG! I just checked out the pics on the site you put up! BLECK!! The size of some of those blisters! I am not immune to poison ivy, but I hope I never get anything that nasty!

LS 8-18-2008 @ 5:30PM

Told you they were disgusting!!! Worse is seeing that stuff up close and personal - my husband is massively allergic, and ended up with a nasty case. Seriously glad that I don't have that particular problem... but I generally steer clear of the stuff anyway. And I'm taking the advice of others on this site and getting some of that Tecnu for our first aid kit.

Uly 8-18-2008 @ 9:33PM

The third line to that poem, of course, runs "Hairy vine - no friend of mine".

LS 8-19-2008 @ 9:14AM

THANK YOU!!!! We've been racking our brains trying to remember that line at the Center. Now I can go in there and be all smug. :)

kevin 8-18-2008 @ 9:22AM

I haven't had a chance to try it out, but I know plenty of mountain bikers that swear by Tecnu. They wash down with it after every session and never come back with poison ivy; they also add a little bit of the liquid to their laundry to get the oil out of clothing.

Terry 8-18-2008 @ 9:33AM

We have poison ivy growing around our house and all my kids know what it looks like. But we keep Technu in the house at all times. It works great and my husband whenever he weed eats just so he won't get it. I too am immune and have ever gotten it.

Uly 8-18-2008 @ 9:33PM

Be careful, Terry - your immunity can wear off at any time.

Serena 8-19-2008 @ 1:36AM

When we head out for a fun filled day of Geocaching in an area where we've been warned of Poison ivy, the kids each have a dose of Arius before heading out. I don't know if it prevents the rash or if we've just been extremely fortunate but we've been rash free all summer.

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