Chapstick for finger cracks

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Don't know if anyone else gets these, but expecially during the dry winter months, or when I am doing a lot of gardening, even with gloves, I get very sore cracks at the corners of my thumbs. Someone long ago told me to use Chapstick (lip balm). Just apply it a couple times, and the pain is gone, and the cracks heal fairly quickly. I was doing this one day while I was still working at an Oncology clinic, and a patient came up to make his next appointment and saw me putting chapstick on my finger. He asked what I was doing and I told him. He came back the next time and told me that was the only thing he had found that would help the cracks in his fingers he got from taking chemotherapy. Before that he was unable to even unbotton or button his shirts. The doctor had prescribed several creams and ointments which had not worked, and were expensive, even with his insurance. Just thought I would pass it along in case anyone else gets these. Doesn't work with lip gloss or anything else as well as plain chapstick. Jan

-- Jan Bullock (Janice12@aol.com), April 15, 2000

Answers

Have you tried Corn Husker lotion. Nasty stuff, but pretty potent. Few things mess yup your hands like working with corn. I'm fortunate enough not to have any problems in this area, but I'll keep chapstick in mind.

-- Chris Stogdill (cstogdill@rmci.net), April 15, 2000.

Thanks for the tip, Jan. I for one will have to give it a try. I have used bag balm, corn huskers, vaseline, honeycomb, you name it. My hands always look so trashed, and I get those cracks on the corners of my thumbs, too. Ouch! But I wash my hands a LOT and never seem to get the moisture back to them.

-- sheepish (rborgo@gte.net), April 15, 2000.

A really nice treatment for dry hands is to take some sugar and put it in the palm of your hand. Pour on some vegetable based oil. Rub your hands together firmly for a few minutes. Make sure to get in between your fingers and around your nails. Now get some liquid soap and rub that all over your hands for a few minutes. Rinse and dry. Apply hand lotion. Your hands will feel better than they have in a long time. Jafra used to do this to sell their expensive products but this is the homestead version. It really helps when you've been working in the drying dirt all day.

Little Bit Farm

-- Little bit Farm (littlebit@calinet.com), April 15, 2000.


Oooooh, don't those cracked fingers hurt! Postal workers are sufferers of cracked and bleeding hands, as handling the mail tends to pull all of the natural moisterizers out of the skin like a wick. Chapstick helped a little, but mainly just sealed out the air to prevent the hurt. Cornhuskers just didn't do much of anything for me as a sufferer. Vaseline with cotton gloves on overnight helped some. Bag Balm, nope. Several other lotions were too painful on the broken skin. Vaseline Intensive Care lotion was fair, but the lotion that helped the most while keeping pain to a minimum was St.Ives Swiss Formula, billed on the bottle as instant relief with collagen elastin. For temporary relief from broken skin try "New Skin Liquid Bandage." It is much like clear fingernail polish and shuts out the air to prevent the hurt. I found another very helpful product, and that is "Original Formula Krazy Glue." Just press the broken skin closed as much as possible and glue it shut. I was told only to use the Original Formula as the other might cause health problems. Yea right, like they all might not. Still, it did provide relief for this old letter carrier.

-- greenbeanman (greenbeanman@ourtownusa.net), April 15, 2000.

Some good ideas! Greenbeanman, my father in law was the one who told me about this, and he was also a mail carrier. So was my dad. Anytime you handle a lot of paper like that, it does dry out your hands. Nothing else works for me like the chapstick on the cracks. Any other remedies out there? Jan

-- Jan B (Janice12@aol.com), April 15, 2000.


Dry skin has haunted me for years. The vegetable based oil is the best I've found for severe cracking. I would smear on a good bit of Crisco and then cover up my hands with white cotton gloves. It seemed to absorb into the skin better than vaseline. My latest find has been working now for two years and that is Udder Cream (found at Walmart cheapest). I've never tried Bag Balm, but it might be similar. That's my next item to try when this one quits. The chapstick sound great though, especially for cuticles! Thanks for the tips.

-- Jennifer (jkmills@freewwweb.com), April 15, 2000.

I love those handy hints! Gee Greenbeanman. I thought I was the only one who super glued cuts together! For sore hands I put on a thick coat of vicks medicated rub then slip on a pair of those thin rubber gloves. Remove in an hour or so. Aaaaaaa.....Kirk

-- Kirk Davis (kirkay@yahoo.com), April 15, 2000.

I've been using Chapstick for years on my nose when I get a cold. You know how red & sore it gets well, just put on the Chapstick & it feels great right away in a few hours the reddness is gone to. Then use it for prevention untill the colds gone. I always tear the black label off the one I'm using on my nose.

-- Sherrie Holcomb (ester@communitygate.net), April 16, 2000.

The greatest thing that I have found is comfrey! It is like a magic cure for cracked fingers. Boil a 1 1/2 cup of water, remove from heat, add a fistful of chopped comfrey leaves and let it steep for 5 minutes. You simply soak your fingers in the tea for a while every day or several times a day. Keep the left over tea in the refrigerator. You can also dry the leaves and grind to a powder and mix with lanolin / beeswax or vitamin E gel. Or all three and smear on hands, put on gloves and go to sleep. You can buy dry comfrey at health food stores. I also add mullien and calendula petals to mine, but, plain comfrey works great all by itself. It is wonderful!! I also use this on my goats udders and the "hot" spots on my shepherds legs. ;

-- sissy sylvester (jerreleene@hotmail.com), April 16, 2000.

A second vote for comfrey! And I solved alot of the problems I was having when I figured out through my mom that I was allergic to Palmolive Dishwashing soap. I had it out at the dairy barn and in my kitchen, and when I switched, instant relief! Vicki

-- Vicki McGaugh (vickilonesomedoe@hotmail.com), April 16, 2000.


O.K. this isn't for chapped skin but is for cuts and slashes .I once super glued a dogs ear that had a slash in in shut .Then I added a toilet paper roll to the inside for support , then tape .A vet couldn't have done a better job ! You can't even find a scar.

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), April 16, 2000.

Cook up a serving or two of oatmeal, a bit on the runny side, chop in about a cup of comfrey and a cup of calendula blossoms, and add 1/2 cup almond oil. Cool it enough to be comfortable, and soak your hands in it for about 30 minutes. You can reuse this the next day if you refrigerate it, and rewarm with a little added water. You can also feed it to your critters if you use olive oil instead. It will work almost as well plain, if you can't get the herbs.

-- Connie (connie@lunehaven.com), April 16, 2000.

I use the bag balm in the winter-my hands get so chapped and cracked that they just burn with pain,all those little cracks bleed.I put a thick layer of bag balm on at night just before going to bed, if you are worried about getting the bedding gooey, I haven't had that problem, but you can put a really thick coat on and then put on clean cotton gloves.In the morning,my hands are fine,and a daily thin coat of bag balm keeps them feeling fine, especially if you put it on after doing the dishes.

-- Rebekah (daniel1@transport.com), April 17, 2000.

I am going to try some of your ideas! I get really dry, rashy patches of skin and the cracking fingers, too. Burt's Bees lemon butter cuticle cream healed this up very quickly (expensive, I got some for Christmas!). Mentholatum ointment is very soothing and numbs the hurt - good for chapped lips & sore noses from colds, and those hurting, cracked fingers.

-- Jean (schiszik@tbcnet.com), April 17, 2000.

My whole family gets terribly cracked skin in the winter, so I make my own hand and body cream. All you need is a blender and 1 tsp. lanolin, 2 tsp. cocoa butter, 1/2 ounce grated beeswax, 2/3 cup of vegetable oil (sweet almond, jojobo, macademia, olive, avocado, grapeseed, or any type of quality vegetable oil--don't use refined oils from the supermarket as they have traces of solvents), 3/4 cup distilled water, 2 tsp. aloe vera gel, and a few drops of essential oils of your choice if you desire aroma (e.g, Rose, Frankincense, Lavender, Geranium). First, heat the vegetable oils, beeswax, lanolin, and cocoa butter in a double boiler. Don't scorch the oils. Stir until the beeswax is completely melted. Remove from heat and allow oil mixture to cool down. Then pour 3/4 cup distilled water and aloe vera in a blender, start blender and very slowly pour in oil mixture--they key is to do this slowly. Add a few drops of essential oils. What you'll get is a thick, white cream. Stop blending when the blender coughs and spits. The key is to get this just right so that the oil and water don't separate. If they do separate, just pour out the water and try again. Scoup into clean jars. You can store it in the fridge, give some away, whatever. It's so rich and works really well. Best thing is it is free of chemicals and junk and doesn't cost much to make. Amy

-- Amy C. (acook@in4web.com), December 11, 2000.


All wonderful suggestions for healing!!

My only contribution would be that we are dealing with the effect, not the cause?

Dry skin is probably connected to lack of lubrication in ones system; is your intake of vit e sufficient? WE need lots of essential fatty acids , especially in the winter to keep us greased! If you're not gettin enough fat from animal protein for whatever reason, try flaxseed oil,evening primrose, or Vit E supplements...

-- Earthmama (earthmama48@yahoo.com), December 11, 2000.


I found that Chapstick works great for stopping cold sores too. When i feel the tingel and the bump I immediately fetch the chapstick.. works great but if you wait too long it doesn't.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), December 11, 2000.

Cracked fingers will get relief with an antibiotic product ('triple anti-b' generic version) and a bandaid overnight. You can remove the bandage during the day. Usually I get relief in one night. I also use my homemade salve for prevention.

-- Anne (HT@HM.com), December 11, 2000.

This is not for cracked hands and fingers but it is a good thing to try. When I get chapped lips instead of using chapstick that never worked for me I tried Vicks Salve,it does wonders! The next day my chappped lips are healed. This also works for little burns and scrapes. And the cisco on the hands at night with cotton gloves does make your hands soft and smooth the nextday.

-- Kim Luther (jellybean@dixie-net.com), February 14, 2001.

BAG BALM. Works great.

-- Skip Walton (sundaycreek@gnrac.net), February 14, 2001.

I use Moisturin, which is a cheaper generic in our area for Eucerin. It works very well. Another product which works is Lotil, which is also somewhat expensive. I don't know who carries it any more. Caswell-Massey, or The Vermont Country Store? You might want to wear socks. The main thing is to try to avoid any product with alcohol--it stings!

GT

-- GT (randomnotznospam@yahoo.com), June 27, 2001.


You might also want to use an immersion (stick) blender for making creams. Get a good one with a steel (not plastic) blade. Run them in some hot soapy water, rinse, and it's clean.

-- GT (randomnotznospam@yahoo.com), June 27, 2001.

Another good use for Vicks is to use it on animals too. I Read on one of the goat lists i was on that to use it for sweeling, udder congestion and sparains, etc on goats. Works great i tried it on a doe recently.

-- Bernice (geminigoats@yahoo.com), June 27, 2001.

Had to chuckle at all these comments on cracked fingers. I think I have tried everything....the superglue is a favorite, among bag balm, corn huskers lotion, vaseline with gloves (the hands get way too hot in those gloves...drives me nuts), Doc Tarter cream (for nipples when nursing)(works pretty good but my youngest is 10 now, so I have run out!)...bandages on every finger...you name it...but I just can't shake off those painful little bleeding cracks! There is one thing I don't understand...whenever there is a very big split on any certain finger, for some reason, never fails, THAT is the finger that gets jammed and rammed or bumped into every misjudgement of movement that day or days. People just don't understand when I gasp and cuss when I merely bump my finger...the pain is way worse than a person would suspect looking at a little bloody crack in a finger. Sorry..rambling here..anyway...I have to say I have not tried the chapstick approach. I will..tonight....and if it works...I will love you forever Jan....!!! Jo-Hanna

-- Jo-Hanna Wienert (hannerjo@aol.com), January 29, 2002.

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