Anywhere there's shade or trees on our property - which is a lot of it - you can find poison ivy. It's growing around our garden beds, throughout the entire forest playground, along the trails, everywhere.
The very first year we moved here, we had terrible rashes. Nick has always been VERY sensitive to poison ivy, and had terrible breakouts. I had originally thought I simply wasn't allergic to it! But with this much exposure, I ended up having a giant breakout, as well. It was miserable.
Determined to not have to live with this problem indefinitely, and to keep our kids from suffering from it, we knew we had TWO different missions:
Find the best way to treat and recover from an existing poison ivy rash
Eliminate or control the amount of poison ivy growing on the property
Treating the Rash
When I had my first big rash, I was pregnant with Gus and steroids were NOT an option: though I would have done it otherwise.
Nick had been dealing with his rash for far longer, and his routine was taking long cold showers and scrubbing Dawn Dish Soap into his skin. For him, it was the only thing that slightly relieved the pain and itching, seemed to slow the spread, but. . . it wasn't healing it or preventing it. When I tried the same routine on my rash, I wasn't impressed. It definitely helped the itching temporarily, but I wanted something to make the rash GO AWAY - so we kept researching for better solutions.
What we ended up finding were two different treatments that, when used together, helped stop the spread of a rash early on AND helped with symptoms.
Now, anytime we feel a rash coming on-- which in the summertime is often, here's what we do:
1. SCRUB WITH TECHNU
This stuff DOES what it claims to do! If we've been in contact with the oils, we scrub this on the affected spot & it absolutely keeps it from spreading. For me, I always have poison ivy on my ankles because I wear sandals and shorts daily. For Nick, he gets it on his hands from working and picking up logs. We use it where we need it, and the rash doesn't spread when it otherwise would.
The TECHNU Scrub ointment itself has natural micro-beads that help exfoliate the area and it feels SO good when you're itching. Can't recommend this stuff enough! Even if you don't live in a forest full of poison ivy, you should have this stuff on-hand if you run into it while camping or hiking. We will never not have this in our cabinet.
2. Follow with Jewelweed Salve
After using TECHNU Scrub to stop the oils from spreading & ease the itch temporarily, we follow-up with a jewelweed salve. To my knowledge, you can't find these at any big box/chain stores, as it's mostly a holistic remedy. BUT BOY IT WORKS. There are sellers on Etsy and other small websites, but we've been getting ours from a farm called Silly Goat Company. I have no idea how we found them & have no affiliate connections, but their price and shipping speed has been great & we have no complaints! You can find the salve here.
Jewelweed helps relieve the itch in a major way, soothes the skin, and counteracts the urushiol in poison ivy. For us it works perfectly when used in conjunction with the TECHNU, and I highly recommend keeping both on-hand!
PREVENTING THE RASH
You've heard all of the classic ways of preventing poison ivy rash: wear long clothing to cover your skin, wash it as soon as you get inside, etc. For me, none of that was helpful because most days it's way too hot for pants and long socks, PLUS we are in and out multiple times a day. I wasn't willing to change clothes that many times, nevertheless do that for the kids.
Over the course of the last 2 years, though, we've discovered some important things regarding prevention that can't be ignored.
You might have noticed that I haven't even mentioned the kids getting rashes: because they hardly ever do. Why? They're in it way more than we are. I've seen Hudson grab it with his bare hands & never get a rash. Nick and I both also get rashes only certain times a year, and always together/at the same time, despite having daily and constant interaction with the plant.
The common denominator here is STRESS & our immune systems.
If we're in a particularly stressful time: whether it's finances, a pregnancy, or a big project, we see the rash appear around that same time. For me, this realization has been a big eye-opener as to how our health truly works - and it supports terrain theory. . . big time.
Our health is more dependent on the innerworkings of our mind/body than anything attacking it from the outside. With a strong terrain: low stress, great nutrition. exercise, sleep. . . our bodies can fight off external attacks with ease.
Our kids don't get the rash because, well, they're not stressed & they get like 12 hours of sleep every night!
I won't go too much into terrain theory here, but I want to bring it up for consideration & link you to an interesting article about it here.
REMOVING POISON IVY FROM THE PROPERTY
We have NOT removed the poison ivy from our property - and at the time of this writing, it's absolutely thriving here. One of the main ways to remove it would be to spray chemicals on it, which we're absolutely not willing to do. Any poison that kills a lifeform is not just poisonous to that lifeform, but to all lifeforms: including us and our kids.
Introducing a chemical poison to our property would have longterm effects on our health, any vegetables/fruit/crops we are growing, our animals, etc.
The 2nd option, which also isn't really an option, would be to burn it. But, it's not safe to burn poison ivy because the smoke can get into your lungs & cause an internal reaction.
Our upcoming plan is to cover the entire forest playground in an untreated wood mulch, so as to starve our the poison ivy plants & help with erosion at the same time.
After that, we will probably be done! We can survive having a little poison ivy on the edges of the property, but getting it taken care of at the playground & highly trafficked spots are the only true priority.
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I hope this article helps you if you're struggling with poison ivy rashes or plants in your life! And if you find a more surefire way to remove plants without poison/burning, let us know!
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