9 Natural Poison Ivy Remedies

To David from Grapeland: Hi David, Just wanted to tell you that the toxic substance on the rhus (poison ivy) is alkaline and that ACV, being acid, will titrate it, so that you won't get the itchy rash if you use it shortly after exposure to poison ivy/oak.m Just thoroughly wipe all exposed areas off with full strength ACV. After it breaks out, the best thing I have found to stop the itching and start drying it up is a product put out by "Fruit of the Earth" called Vitamin E with Naturals (Those naturals are burdock, calendula, chamomile, comfrey, golden seal and honey). I use the yellow gel form that I find in the lotion department of our local Dollar Tree stores. Using this it is gone in 3-4 days. You might also want to look into Beelith tablets (ask the pharmacists for them, nonprescription but I have never found them out on the counter) for those kidney stone problems. They are magnesium oxide and B6 vitamins. I'll share a funny one about kidney stones with you. Early one morning I got a excited call for help for an employee in the basement who was doubled over with abdominal pain. I asked if they could bring him up of if I needed to come down and get him. They brought up immediately. After getting a few things done, including interview, I asked the fellow if he'd had any history of kidney stones. Although his reply was negative, I told him that I was sure that was going to be the cause of his pain. My fellow nurse said, "Yeah, now you know what it feels like to have a baby". Realizing from the confused look on his face, that he did not understand what she meant, I said "They equate the pain of kidney stones to that of having a baby". After mulling this over a few minutes, our patient sounding very sincere, said: "The first thing I am going to do when I get out of here is call my ex-wife and apologize". Both of his nurses cracked up with laughter.

I am a firm beliver in burdock. Drink it daily as a tea to help my (no longer!!! ) severe crohn's. I have a 7 yr old who got into something out in the yard and has a rash on the back of her leg. We live in the country and I believe its poison ivy or oak. Here in Kentucky, Burdock grows in my yard like crazy. My question is would it help dry this up if I put a wet leaf on her leg? Thank you for any help. u'r responce would be greatly appreciated a.s.a.p.

Hi! I love Burdock Root, too. I have used to treat neuropathy (cured it) with success. I think Burdock Root for your daugther's poison ivy. I make a salve for my children for poison ivy that has Burdock Root, Plantain and Comfrey in it. I would recommend scalding and cooling the leaft first and cutting out any large stem part in the leaf as it will irritate tender skin. (This I learned form reading about using Burdock Leaves to treat burns.)

Pour boiling water over the leaf. When it has wilted in a few seconds, rinse in cold water and apply. At least, that is what I would do. You could also have your daughter drink the burdock tea. I have found treating PI internally and externally to be very effective. Please let us know if your treatment works so we can all benefit from what you try!

Be sure to wash all clothes and bedding that may have come in contact with the oil to keep from getting it everywhere.

~Mama to Many~

Sorry, my last post was written when I was tired and may have lacked clarity. I used Burdock Root for my neuropathy. You would be using the leaf for poison ivy. It is very appropriate for skin issues and is used sucessfully by the Amish to use as a dressing for burns. Anyway, like I said, scald the leaf in water until limp and cool it. Apply to skin and wrap with plastic wrap or cohesive bandage or whatever. I would change the dressing 2-3 times a day and trim out the stem of the leaf.

I mentioned washing everything that had the oil on it to keep from reinfecting. I meant the oil of poison ivy. :)

Let us know if it works!
~Mama to Many~

This was the only thing that helped dry out my poison ivy. It wasn't instant but I could see the improvement each day. If there was any itching, baking soda mixed with the ACV seemed to help but I feel that ACV on it's own is most effective.

I have used baking soda and water and made a paste. It really works I and I could imagine how effective it would be with vinegar added. The biggest thing for me anyways is the relief from the itching especially at night. I found it tolerable at least with no itch. Great advice

Baking Soda and White Vinegar.... What a great blog find.

I am not a blogger, this is my first one, so try and bear with me. I got some kind of Poison Something, the doctor was not sure. Anyway I had been in my back woods clearing some brush for a new shed. I got this rash over my arms, stomach, and legs, a small but a bit within 24-48 hours (the doc tells me later it can be up to 10 days before it reacts or appears). I used some Calimine lotion, cortisone creams, oatmeal baths, and some other over colidar oatmeal remedy from over he counter stuff, but within 8 days, I knew I was in trouble. I had not slept much in 4 days. The night before I only got one hour of sleep due to the pain and itching, I wanted to rip the skin off it was so bad, but was being super consious not to scratch. I ended up getting up and putting ice packs over about 10% of my body and that gave about 50% of relief. I am a pretty tough broad, having three children natural child birth, but this was kicking my butt, and I started crying. It was over a long holiday weekend and so I went to urgent care on saturday as I knew due to the holiday I could not get help past today without going to the hospital Sunday or the Holiday and we all know how the waiting goes there. So I went to an urgent care clinic for the first time in my life. The doctor said some parts were infected and put me on antibiotics and prednosone 3 tabs 2 X a day as he said it was really bad, and I was way past any over the counter help. The doc said I was in for a rough ride for the next 24-48 hours while the prednesone started to work, as there was no creams he could give to help and I am allergic to benedryl. I got home still itching so bad I could not take it.

That is where your blog came in... Desperate, I did a search online for natural remedies and yours came up along with one other hot water as hot as I could stand it and (Black tea bath, we will get into later). I quickly procured the baking soda and venegar and got in the shower. I put the water as hot as I could and it burned and itched like crazy on my rash, still I was desperate, but I did it any way. Then I took the baking soda and vinegar and did as described mixed, rubbed on (this burned like crazy too), waited for it to dry, showered off. Then I took the plain vinegar and rubbed it all over the rash. That burned again like crazy. While going through it I thought to myself I hope this was worth it.

Guess what? The itching was almost completely gone, and I mean big gone, I was able to get 6 hours straight sleep, then got up wiped on some more vinegar and went back to bed for two more hours. When I woke in the morning, my itching was bearable for the first time in 9 days.

After getting up, I used a very hot black tea bath which after the initial 10 seconds of burning really helped, followed by the baking soda and vinegar regimine again. I can now at least feel somewhat normal and the rash is drying up and is getting lighter. Also I think the vinegar was partly responsible for the couple of infected parts starting to heal. In a nut shell, number one, don't wait so long to get started on this regimine, it may keep you from the docs office and two, if you can stand the burning, you got the only cure I could find that actually worked.

Thank God for you taking the time to post this blog. It is so appreciated. You saved me from going insane. I hope my first online post will convince someone else to help themselves.

Thank you for the baking soda and vinegar advice for poison ivy... I was so desperate, buying everything OTC and no relief. Almost instantaneously, the paste worked. Thank you!!!

The combo of vinegar and baking soda helped a lot!!!! It was worth the amount of pain I experienced!!!

After supposedly being immune to poison ivy all my life, I am a bit late to the game (due to sheer denial! ) in battling a large poison ivy rash on my left forearm that has spread a bit to other areas. Thank you for this post, esp the recommendation to try honey. I did this--applied a thin amount over the affected area and covering with paper towel--and, as you said, instant relief! I also put it on the small areas where it had spread to my right wrist and my shin, then covered them overnight with bandaids, and the rash was reduced to almost nothing by the morning. Hot water to rinse it off has also seemed to keep the itch away for hours.

I am going thru chemo. On my good days, I like to work outside. Got a good case of poison ivy/oak. Will try the natural remedies. The inside of a banana skin, the fels napta soap, the lemon peel. But I think the hot water would open up pores and cause the infection to spread.

Hello Rosie, with all due respect to the medical field and Wikipedia, I disagree that it can't spread from the fluid in the blisters. Anyone who has ever had a good case of it will probably side with us. When you haven't been outside or petted the pets who have, and the stuff is still spreading a week or more later, it has to be from the rhus in the blisters that got inside the skin to cause the blisters to begin with. I also remember a roofer say that after initially breaking out with poison ivy one night, that after working on a roof throughout the next day and sweating up a storm, he found the poson ivy was gone after that. So apparently you can sweat it out, the same way it entered the skin to begin with. Now for the best thing I have found for this infernal itchy poison ivy, if you have a Dollar Tree or Deal's store go look in the hand lotion, shampoo section for a product put out by Fruit of the Earth called E or Vitamin E with Naturals. It comes in several different ones, but the yellow gel one is the one that I find stops the infernal itching and starts drying it up after the third time of applying it. You can probably find it in health food stores but probably not as cheap as at the above stores. It makes no claims at being anything other than a lotion or gel, but boy do I love this stuff. Just put it on the rash and reapply each time it starts itching again. The naturals in it are like chamomile, comfrey, burdock, etc. If you recognize the plant and know when you have come in contact with it, that's even better. If you go in, wash off, then get good old Apple Cider Vinegar & wet a wash cloth in it and thoroughly wipe everywhere that you think touched it. The acid of the vinegar titrates the alkali of the rhus and you don't break out (I think you probably have to do this within an hour or two of exposure though).

Hi Deirdre, There are some people who do not break out when they contact it. Could your friend be one of them. My daughter used to be. One day while working in the yard, we found poison ivy climbing a pear tree. My son who was less reactive than I, and I, were trying to figure out how to get it off the tree without the miserable itchy rash developing. My daughter walked up and listened for a few minutes, then saying "I don't know what you'all are scared of" reached over and pulled the poison ivy off the tree, broke it off at the ground and walked away. She proceeded to break out with the miserable blisters the next day - her first time ever to react to it. I am so sensitive to it that I almost break out just by looking at it. But I have also had a couple of severe bouts of it. The last one in my upper 20's. One eye was swollen completely shut, the other one I could barely crack open enough to see straight ahead, and my poor nose was swollen so that it was pushed toward the worst eye side of my face. At that point I went to the ER and was given Prednisone injection, tablets and pills. About the only relief I found was lying on the bed with a fan blowing over me, and I darned sure did not go outside to get in any more of it. A week later the darned stuff was still spreading over parts of my body that hadn't had any rash on it initially. I have talked to many others who said they had the same problem with it. Are you sure this friend wasn't naturally immune to it? However I still considered myself lucky because I remember our teacher standing someone up in front of our class and asking if we knew who she was. None of us recognized the kid who looked like a total body scab. It was our class mate who had been out of school a couple of weeks already and was on her way home from visiting her doctor again. Ending with a little humor here, a co-worker (about 30 years ago) told me about escorting her sister to her church's country toilet. When her sister found no toilet paper she requested her to bring her some leaves. She didn't know the leaves she gave her was poison ivy leaves. She said her poor sister couldn't walk for 6 weeks afterward. I'll bet her sister didn't find any humor in her distress.

The reason this might work is because in the process it turns into DMSO. For those of you who don't know, DMSO is derived from wood pulp!

It works because oak bark is high in tannins. No DMSO is produced by making a tea from bark.

I was hoping that someone would have some responded to my first post. Most people that don't get poison Ivy are not going to read about it. The theory that I have read is if you eat a lot of honey you don't get poison ivy. I am not going to test this by intentionally exposing myself to poison ivy cause I think I still get poison ivy but it is not the systemic kind that spreads uncontrollably. I think I am more or less in the state that I had in the seventies when the poison ivy immunity vials were available. They made it possible for me to get rid of poison Ivy without doing something every two hour to relieve the unbearable itching. That is how I found the ibuprofen relief.

Usually ibuprofen will give me two hours of itching reduction. then most any topical treatment will give me another two hours of relief. At which time I can take another Ibuprofen without exceeding the recommend daily dosage of Ibuprofen. The ibuprofen, washes, and topicals prevent the inflammation from erupting and damaging the skin which then lengthens the recovery time beyond a month. I am confident enough in this ibuprofen relief that I would recommend any one that is exposed to poison ivy take ibuprofen if severe itching and inflammation start. The problem with ibuprofen is no doctor will give prednisone if they don't see evidence of suffering (Inflamation).

I thought that the way to generate some responses might be to ask a few people that are are suffering from a severe poison ivy reaction post whether they eat much honey regularly. I really think that there is something about Honey and Bee pollen that if ingested at adequate levels significantly reduces the severity of Poison Ivy outbreaks.

It has been 5 years since I have had any severe poison Ivy outbreaks. This year my vigilance and practices have lessened. I need some kind of reinforcement that the honey and bee pollen I do take are the reason I am not getting Poison Ivy. It is no real hardship to use honey and occasionally bee pollen but my motivation is noticeably dropping. If these things do help I would like for others that suffer severe poison ivy outbreaks share them.

To soyjim,

Well do I have news for you!! You may have just answered my question - My husband and four children all went into the woods and were exposed to poison ivy. All of them but 1 now have an outbreak, and I couldn't figure out why this one didn't get it. Well... I think now I know... This child eats lots of RAW HONEY every day! She loves it, she eats it right out of the jar, and she doesn't have an outbreak like the rest of them. It baffled me until I read your post. That has to be it. But I do think the KIND of honey will make a big difference. She eats honey that is taken straight from the hive to the jar with honey comb in it and propolis as well as some raw bee pollen in it. It has been said to be miraculous with curing allergies.

I also used this same honey to cure chicken pox before they ever popped open - they just shrunk in a few days.

Very interesting!!

It works every time.