Dry and itchy skin in the winter

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Does anyone else get that dry and annoyingly itchy skin in the winter? My tummy and my boob have been so itchy and scaly lately and scratching doesn't help. Tonight while I was watching TV in bed, I decided to massage some hydrocortisone cream all over my itchy tummy instead of scratching it. The massage was nice at first and the cream gave a cooling sensation, but after about 5 minutes, my tummy started to itch again along with my back. Does this happen to anyone during the winter? I'm looking for ideas on home remedies because it's not healthy to be endlessly scratching my tummy and my back while I watch TV every night. Asking a family member doesn't work because my tummy is very sensitive to touch and last time I had my back scratched, my mom was too gentle. I kept telling her to go harder, but she didn't want to hurt me with her nails, so she kept lightly scratching. All that did was tickle me and spread out my itches to different places on my back.

I have a form of skin eczema called Atopic Dermititis that causes my skin to be more itchy in winter partly due to the heating supposedly drying out the air & wearing more & heavier cloths. Where I itch the most is usually the back of my knees & back lower legs, & sometimes my hands &/or outer elbows. I tried various creams & lotions but haven't found any that really help but I have skin sensitivities that they aggravate so having that stuff on actually makes me itch more. I also have an allergy to CeraVe which tends to be highly recommended by docs for dry skin but it makes me break out in a rash. I heard lots of times that using a humidifier can help but my body has a low tolerance to humidity & higher humidity causes me to feel hot, heavy, & drained. Sometimes docs suggest antihistamines for itchy skin & I've been taking some for a long time for skin & nasal allergies but haven't noticed much relief taking them. I've had severe skin issues since I was little so I'm a more severe case but perhaps these ideas would help you.

Thanks for the info. I've been taking generic brand allegra for my nose, eyes, and cough. For whatever reason, it doesn't help the itching. I don't think my itching is hives, but I wonder if allegra hives would be helpful. Also, I wonder if I could take both pills each day or not. Tonight the side of my tummy towards my hip is really itchy. In order to avoid endlessly scratching, I've resorted to gentle massage over my pajamas and heated blanket which seems to help soothe the itching. As soon as I stop massaging though, it slowly starts bothering me again. Plus, unfortunately I can't just massage it 24/7. Sometimes my back gets multiple itchy spots at once, just out of my reach and boy does my hairbrush come in handy! However, I can only use it at home if it acts up. During the day if it itches, I either try to rub it on the back of a chair or I just take a deep breath and try to ignore it. Summer is better because I tend to itch significantly less.

Benedryl gel .....Mucinex come in a blue and white tablet , for nights, orange and white for daytime, strong allergy meds, otc. type.. after many misdiagnosis by varios allergy doc and GPs..finally found ,Infectious disease doc.. whom explained to me about MAST cell syndrome. basically over reactive skin cells.. Good Luck was misdiagnosed for over 50 years. MAST cell is still a recently realized condition..

I get super dry skin in the winter, but as annoying as it can be putting lotion on after a shower seems to help keep it from gettting so bad its just when I get out of the shower I want to be done with it, but putting in the 5 minutes of extra time to apply lotion does help prevent the bone dry winter skin I get.

I have what appears to be atopic dermatitis in several spots (mostly the stomach and back of the legs), but I can't tell that they are any worse in the winter than any other time of the year. If it is because of low humidity, that makes sense since we have low humidity nearly every day of the year.

I hate getting an itchy back me because I've got a tumour (benign) the size of a golf ball just to the right of my spine and I hate touching it. It sticks out like a bone and it's always there when I'm itching

But anyway my back does tend to itch more in the winter but if I exfoliate as much as I can then that helps a bit

I've also got burns on my arms and the scar tissue does itch like mad and it's way more in the winter time. Cocoa butter helps

I noticed sometimes after a hot shower at night, the bottoms of one or both of my feet get a burning itch. I'm not sure if it's from the hot water making my skin dry or just wearing heels all day, but I don't like to scratch because it usually makes the itching worse. Instead I pat my feet dry and put on thick, soft socks with my pajamas. Sometimes I give myself a little foot massage with my socks on if needed. For whatever reason, the warmth and softness of the socks along with the gentle massage helps soothe the itching. If I need to walk around, I also put on soft slippers that help cushion the itchiness. I also think just putting my feet up and relaxing them helps too.

Yes electrical heating is notorious for drying out the air. We had humidity levels of 16% and lower when the weather was really cold. It made my skin itch worse than it usually does.

I don't know what my itching is called. My back has always itched a bit since I was a young teenager, and then some time in the late 1990s the calves of my legs started itching like mad. The doctor was as useful as a chocolate teapot. I tried the local pharmacist who said that whatever it was, it wasn't infectious, and that I should talk to the doctor if it got any worse. But as the doc was useless, I didn't. One or two other areas of my body also sometimes get itchy, but mostly it's the calves and the back.

I'm wary of antihistamines because of the eye health risks associated with them, and I don't much trust any strong pharmaceuticals, so I tried scrubbing the affected areas with water and a fairly stiff brush. That certainly helps, but on bad nights it wasn't enough.

Somehow I found out that Deep Heat cream (equivalent of Thera-gesic cream in the USA, and sold as a muscle pain relief ointment) fixed it pretty well, so I started using a combination of scrubbing and the ointment. Then while I was in the USA, Thera-gesic went out of production. I tried a few similar things - the ingredient that does the trick is menthol - but I didn't like the prices, and like Thera-gesic and Deep Heat they also contain ibuprofen or aspirin, which these days might interfere with my heart medications, so I dissolved some menthol crystals in olive oil to a concentration of about 28% and that's what I'm currently using. It works fairly well and it's not expensive.

Apparently eczema (I presume that's what itchy skin is called) is hard to find a working cure for, so I doubt if I'll bother to try get professional medical help for it any more. But like I say, scrubbing and menthol works pretty well for me, and they're safe. I only use it when the itching gets bad - e.g. when I'm trying to sleep. I don't notice it when it's not too bad, because I'm always hyperfocussing on whatever I'm doing - I get bored if I'm not busy doing something I can focus strongly on, and hyperfocus is also a good way to mitigate several relatively mild aches and pains that I tend to get.

I get this in winter, it seems to vary in terms of severity and where people get it. Its most persistent on my legs. Doesn't affect my arms or face and is mild on my torso.

I agree that the heat is drying out our skin. I've been lucky today to not be as itchy as I usually am in the winter. I noticed that if I get a thorough back scratch, it helps with my itching for the rest of the night. Yesterday I had my back scratched all over for about half an hour with short breaks in between and it really helped. Not only was my itching gone, but my body was so much more relaxed and when I put on my PJ's after, I was ready to fall asleep. I know it might not be easy for you to get someone to scratch your back for that long, but just 20 to 30 minutes every few days works miracles! It also helps me manage my stress and I feel like I'm in heaven.

I could probably coerce Mrs. ToughDiamond into scratching my back, and I'm just about able to scratch my own, but for some odd reason a brush does a better job. Dad went through a phase when he was itching like mad, and he noticed the same thing. Currently I'm using a dish brush from Walmart because the ones they sell for bathtime skin scrubbing are usually too soft. And strangely, the calves of my legs itch even more if I scratch them with my fingernails. It's like that monster from Greek mythology with snakes for hair, and every time you chop a snake off, two more immediately grow in its place. I wish I knew more about itchology, but my empirically-found solutions are currently doing quite a good job.

A dish brush sounds like a good idea. Tonight I used a hairbrush with plastic bristles. While it doesn't really "dig in there" the way I like, it's good enough for a quick scratch when my back is begging for some relief of the multiple itches I sometimes get. I just find that using a brush makes my arm tired and sore from trying to twist it around in order to scratch my entire back. That's why I prefer getting my back scratched when I can. The sharp nails are better on my itches and my arm never gets sore. All I have to do is lift up my pajama top and gently arch my back left and right or up and down to feel instant relief! Once in awhile some moaning when the magic spot is being scratched helps too.