When I first contracted severe contact dermatitis, I was prescribed oral steroids for it. The ugly rashes went away but it left me looking fat, feeling bloated and with a hideous moon facie. Despite the cured allergies, I was annoyed at how I looked like. That's when I knew I had to come up with a better treatment to my frequent case of contact dermatitis.
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| Cetaphil + prednisone combo for my contact dermatitis |
You'll need
- a tablet of Prednisone, 5mg (available at Mercury Drug, ~P5/tablet)
- kitchen pestle
- small cosmetic jar
- spatula
- your favorite moisturizer, I use Cetaphil moisturizing lotion
Procedure for the DIY Treatment
1. Pulvurize the Prednisone tablet using a kitchen pestle. Make sure the tablet is still sealed inside its packet.
2. Transfer pulvurized content into an empty cosmetic pot.
3. Since Cetaphil moisturizing lotion has a pump, I use 1 pump for 1 tablet of Prednisone used. If you are using other moisturizers, just make sure you come up with a 2:1 ratio of the moisturizer and powdered prednisone.
4. Mix powdered steroid until most of the powders are dissolved into the moisturizer. This takes time. After this, you now have a cheap, topical alternative to using oral steroids for your skin allergies!
Dosage
Slather a thin film of mixture onto the areas affected 3x daily until the rashes resolve. If you have a small span of allergy, the whole pot can last you 2 full weeks. For bigger areas, this mixture is good for approx 3 days.
Storage
Room temperature. Be ready with your spatula every once in a while just to make sure that the prednisone particles that settle are dissolved back to the moisturizer.
Efficacy
In my case, I have observed that my allergies tend to calm down the following day (less redness, less inflamed-looking, less dry and less itchy). Full recovery of my skin happens within a week if it's a small patch of contact dermatitis.
I kept googling related literature on the efficacy of prednisone tablets used as topicals but have not found any. This DIY skin allergy treatment may be lacking in scientific evidence as to its efficiency but basing on the photos above, you can tell that it works amazing on my skin.
i have to keep this in medicine in my drawer na. i had hives before & the sad thing is i didn't know that i am allergic to something!
i look horrible at that time & it's so hard not to scratch kahit gustong gusto ko!
thanks for this,girl!
you're a lifesaver!
now i know what i could do if ever it will happen again.
Thiamere, i discourage storing the pot of DIY treatment for a long time. It's better to prepare a good amount to last you till your hives flatten out.
Storing for months dries up the mixture. :)
Hmm...my brother sometimes gets a rash that looks similar to yours. I like the idea of a topical solution versus using oral steroids. So glad you've found a solution for yourself! =)
(They are good but I wouldn't say every mask in the line is. The ones I like are Sake Yeast, Bird's Nest, Platinum Hydra, White-Tea Peony, and Whitening Truffle =)
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http://wonderwomanrises.blogspot.com
super nice tip!!! will keep this in mind! na rarashes din ako lagi!
hope your skin gets better soon.
hi! it's good that you found a way that works for you. oral steroids are evil.
anyway, i'm concerned bout using steroids all in all because i've been one loyal steroid cream user and i realize it just made my eczema worse in the long run, not to mention the side effects. i hope you find out what you're allergic to, and avoid contact with it at all.. alternatively if you can't evade it, try anti histamines. they block out the allergic pathway and doesn't have side effects of topical steroids.
feel free to contact me! sugarcrusted@gmail.com
wow! this is really helpful! I will definitely keep a prednisone and cetaphil in my stash since I'm prone to skin rashes.
i don't usually have allergies but may try this if i do have one. good to know it works for you! steriods are also expensive compared to this so thumbs up on coming up with this! am curious though: have you tried it on your face allergy?
@WonderWoman
guess you've already received my message to you :D
@ Nikki
i hope this becomes as helpful to you too
@ ShopNChomp, cushy, Shen and karman
Thanks lovely girls!
@MereMakeupManiac
I haven't tried it on my face yet. I've barely had allergies after going through my derma's skincare treatment.
but if ever i do, i'll tell you how my DIY topical fares. ;)
I will definitely try this because I've been getting allergies a lot lately. Thanks for the helpful tip! :)
Thank you for this tip. My husband suffers atopic dermatitis too! He's into Medrol 4mg tabs now. Working well for him but we are on the tapering stage now. As soon as done, I will definitely check this out.
hey dear, i just started reading your blog and saw this post. i have the same thing going on for me when i eat garlic or get exposed to the sun so much (with the addition of icky watery substance from the little thingies). there's this cream i use which dries it out after 2 applications (i use it 2x a day). It's triderm cream which i get from mercury drugs. there is an ointment version but it's not as fast as the cream (takes around 3-4 days for the ointment)
Hello, I am glad you found something that works for you. I have been doing this same exact treatment for over 15 years (as needed) and it works VERY well to treat my Psoriasis. I have had Crohn's Disease since the age of 15 (35 now) so I had a huge amount of unused Prednisone pills (refused to take them due to the terrible side effects). Nothing my dermatologist gave me worked so I decided to crush my Prednisone pills into powdered form and then mix it with my Aveeno lotion until completely dissolved. I applied it every night before going to bed and made sure to have all the areas covered with cotton clothing. My Psoriasis was the worst on my arms and hands so I used a thin long sleeve undershirt and thin cotton gloves. Keeping the area covered overnight allows the mixture to work better and I would litterslly see a huge improvement just in one overnight application. This definitely works and have also used it on my face from time to time with no side effects as well. I highly encourage anyone reading to give this a try! Best of luck with your skin condition!
Oh....I also forgot to mention that this also works well on Psoriasis of the nails. In less than a week it would make a huge improvement and now only use it every now and then as preventative care and my nails have never looked better!! Once again, best of luck!