Your Stories - Detergents

Brightening Detergent gave me Allergic Contact Dermatitis - Julie

I ended up with Allergic Contact Dermatitis after using a popular brightening detergent for colored clothes. Throw in a malfunctioning washer that didn't drain properly when trying to get the detergent out of everything I washed and you end up with 6 months of rashes apparently.  After all was said and done I ended up with a $500 ER bill  to get rid of the itching initially, a $600 bill  for a new front loading washer, and whatever expenses I gained  from buying lotion more frequently. It has been hell.  Ultimately I decided to stop trying to fight everything with cortisone creams and steroids because it always came back so much worse after I stopped using them. When I tried to work with my skin is when everything changed.  Here is a run down of what I did, it's not huge or life changing so probably anyone could give it a shot. I stopped using soap on the parts of my body with dermatitis for one. I went to the store and bought a big container of old fashioned oats and ground them up in a blender at home.  Every morning I would put some in a coffee mug with water and let it sit for a few minutes then I would gently rub it over the affected skin then rinse.  This felt gross and oats were all over my shower but it really helped A Lot. I started eating more fruits and vegetables, drinking more water, cutting out what little junk I had left in my diet.  I bought a fish oil, zinc, and b-vitamin complex from Whole Foods. I bought a tanning package and went 2 or 3 times a week for a month and definitely saw a difference. And last but not least I've been using the Shea Butter and Honey body butter from
Burt's Bees as well as the Coconut Foot Cream from Burt's Bees.  That Coconut Foot Cream is what really made a huge difference.  And importantly, don't use a sugar scrub...it will just irritate it as  I found out the hard way when I thought it was safe to exfoliate. I hope this helps and more importantly I hope no one has to go through what I did. (April 2009) Contact Julie

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