How I treated Poison Ivy

Well, my son Colton got into poison ivy for the first time and he really went all out. The rash started on his face around his right eye and only worsened from there. Spreading to his whole face, ears, neck, chest eventually down the torso and groin.

This was my first time dealing with poison ivy for myself to treat as well as treating it as a mama. I remembered a little from my nursing background but not much, we usually gave patients a steroid in the ER and sent them on their way.

So this time was very different for me.

I do know that you need to immediately wash everything the oil came in contact with, in cool water, so he received a head-to-toe bath, bedding, clothes, 4-wheeler helmet etc. were all washed.

The sooner the better, unfortunately for him, he got into it later at night and went straight to bed so we didn’t notice it until the next morning.

I used a charcoal body soap on him every day, twice a day until it cleared up.

We did bentonite clay and apple cider vinegar masks twice a day until it cleared as well.

After his mask and washing with the charcoal soap, I would apply a topical tincture of Jewelweed to the affected area using gauze.

I also gave him homeopathy specific to his symptoms and kept a close journal for my records on how he reacted to the homeopathy medication. I followed this blog post and protocol;

Once the poison ivy rash was mostly gone and we were at the dried up “scab” phase, I then stopped the medication, continued with the charcoal wash and then applied tamanu salve on the areas and within 2 weeks you couldn’t tell he just had the worst case of poison ivy all over his face.