Peeling and Cracking Fingertips, Fingertip Eczema, Mositurizer, Painful, Hospital Work

I got fingertip eczema sometime in September of 2013; I saw a skin specialist and started using steroid creams.  Large chunks of skin starting peeling off, and although it kept the blisters down, as soon as I quit using it, they came right back.  I found an antique book that recommended oil for raw wounds.  I started using the oil from Vitamin E tablets (punctured with a pin), and put extra virgin olive oil over that.  I covered it with Udder cream (I suppose it's like bag balm, and I also have the Cetaphil), and then used a bandaid.  Within two weeks the red spots disappeared.  I only use a bandaid during the day, and I treat my thumb at night and again in the morning.  When I stop, the red blisters appear within a day.  This might not work for everyone, but the numbness is gone from my thumb and my skin doesn't peel anymore.  My skin specialist told me that this was the result of stress...

Advanced healing Bandaids are great when they split.  

 

I have had the same symptom for about 7 years now. I also think it is caused by washing my hands with harsh chemicals and wearing latex gloves for extended period of time. I used to work with tissue/cell cultures, RNA/DNA/protein extractions, etc...

I use prescription ointment 0.05% Clobetasol Propionate. It helped in the beginning but it's not effective any more.

I buffer the thickened skin with pumice often and moisturize as much as I can.

I wish there were miracle cure for this annoying/unsightly condition.

My dermatologist said when I wash my hands to use a foam soap so it will glide off my hands faster.
I bought some Dial complete foam in the pump

It's incredible just how many people are suffering with this. In my case it started Nov 2012 and just three weeks ago I had an appointment with Dermatology at my local hospital. BTW I am based in the UK. I brought with an A4 sheet of paper with all the creams, lotions & potions I had been using over the last year both prescription & shop bought. The dermatologist examined my fingers for about 15 minutes and asked me some questions. In the end she said she was going to prescribe me with a steroid that is impregnated onto a sellotape type product. It does actually closely resemble Scotch 3M Magic Tape but is impregnated with Fludroxycortide. It's now 3 weeks later and my fingers are all nearly back to normal. Try and get hold of this tape, it's called Haelan tape, there's even a video on Youtube explaining how to put it on your fingers. Good Luck

Mine goes away in the summer. I take lots of vitamin d and go tanning to make more vitamin d in the winter months. Seems to help

Cannot ever remember this happening to anyone years ago. Seems just lately--within the last six years.  My husband began with fissures/cracks around five years ago.  Then, me.I am organic and gluten free by choice. I do not work near or have chemicals in my home.  I use clean organic healthy lotions - unrefiend coconut. Drink filtered water. Bathe in filtered water.  Juice. Raw veggies as snacks.  Fairly healthy, I believe.

It begins in late October or November with the first chill.  Even in warmer states???

 If it were a skin condition, why does it flare ONLY in winter? Whether one is in No Dakota or Florida?  Just seems odd to me.

Thumbs, forefingers are the worst! Just me and my husband. Adult kids - not yet. 

WHY???

I had your severe  symptoms, plus bleeding fingertips,  for five years.  None of the prescriptions gave relief.   I came across significant relief  by "accident"  while researching a natural remedy for terrible paralyzing arthritic  hip pain.  It not only made the hip pain disappear, but to my absolute amazement my fingers started to heal within a month!  If I don't protect my fingers by gloving up (doing dishes, showering, etc.), there's only a very slight return of the problem.   What helped?  It is BONE BROTH!   Possibly many of us with this agonizing condition need the numerous micro-minerals, collagen, etc.  that is derived from bones (grandma's remedy).  The Chinese say that bone broth could practically revive the dying...and some restaurants in China have perpetual bone broth on the stove!  I pressure cook the bones for an hour  (pigs feet, in my case, or any type of bones), and re-use the bones 3-4 times.  Many people use a slow cooker.  You can look on the websites for how to do it.  Very easy to make and store.  Good luck!

I've had this problem for years.  It comes and goes but never completely goes away.  I like curel lotion as it seems to soak in the best without being oily.  Hand washing dishes, or exporure to chemicals like paint thinner or gasoline will make it flare up.  I did discover that eating breakfast cereal with milk would also make it flare up.   If I ate cereal ever morning for a week it would get very painful and cracked.  I'm not sure if it's the milk or the cereal but I think it is the milk.  Also I am alergic to sulfa and I read that is one of the antibiotics that may be given to cows so maybe there are traces of it causing this for me.  I have also noticed that eating lots of salad/ green leafy vegetables helps alleviate it.   I haven't had luck with steroid creams.

I have had what you have since October of last year. Today I went to the sixth doc and she said to take Allegra since I have allergies and asthma and all three conditions are related. I hope it works! I have been suffering with this for a very long time and I was always a healthy person. It is painful, embarrassing and infuriating that no one can help me.

I had all of your symptoms but it is now under control. It lasted for about 2 painful embarrassing years until I removed all fragrance, scented soaps, and harsh shampoos from my life. My heels were cracking too from showering with scented soaps and shampoo. Low sudsing shampoo without sodium laurel sulfate seem to work for me. It literally was drying my skin out so much that it was cracking. I'm very careful now to wear gloves when handing cleaners. I occasionally get dry knuckles but no split fingers anymore.

I've got the fingertip splitting problem. Deep, painful crevices that last indefinitely. I can feel when they're starting, too...fingertips start tingling in the locations where my skin intends to split itself open, kind of like the sensation right before I get a cold sore. Dermatologist diagnosed as eczema and prescribed me clobetasol, and she also gave me a sample of Aveeno active naturals skin relief moisture repair cream. It's the kind that comes in the tub, not the tube or the pump. Bar code number is 381371150779 and if you search for it on Amazon it should pull up the right kind. The Aveeno cream ended up working far better than the clobetasol Rx. The Aveeno is what ultimately closed the crevices. I keep a little travel size tub of it in my pocket at all times, and immediately apply to fingertips as soon as I feel the tingle. I also keep Burt's Bees lemon butter cuticle cream in my pocket at all times, and layer it underneath the Aveeno (they work better together). Dermatologist told me it's the ceramide in the Aveeno cream that treats the eczema. I looked at the other Aveeno creams labeled as eczema therapy, but they don't contain the ceramides, for some reason. I've also tried several other creams containing ceramides (including other types of Aveeno creams), but for some reason, none of them works nearly as well as the Aveeno cream I described above. I have also tried other Burt's Bees creams/salves/lotions, but none of them works the same way as the lemon butter cuticle cream. I apply the Burt's Bees lemon butter cuticle cream and the Aveeno cream both as needed, and also apply after every single hand washing. Also, I use nitrile or vinyl gloves when handling any chemicals, even if I'm just handling rubbing alcohol or hydrogen peroxide, and also if I'm handling any heavy detergents (getting any laundry detergent on my skin is almost a guaranteed finger split in the making). If I do accidentally get any kind of trigger substance on my skin, I immediately wash hands with dish soap (i.e., regular Dawn) and hot water, so that whatever chemical has come in contact with my skin will wash out of my pores (skin is so dry that anything it touches will immediately get sucked in by pores, and so regular washing with hand soap and cool water will not be able to remove the chemicals which have already been absorbed into pores upon immediate contact with the chemicals). Hot water and dish soap is immediately followed by Burt's Bees lemon butter cuticle cream, rubbed in as much as possible, then a layer of the Aveeno on top. Timing is everything; I've got a "critical period" of about 10-15 seconds after washing and drying hands to apply the creams before the drying/cracking begins. this is why I always keep both creams in my pocket at all times. hope that info helps someone.

I have had peeling cracking fingertips for over one year maybe close to two years and have been seeking treatment and investigating on line what to do!  Also, I have had weak and peeling slpitting nails for almost three years.  My nails were amazing! and then they were paper.  I beleive this was due to changes in hormones and metabolism.   I turned 51 in October 2014 and around that time I came across some info on line that I tried and my fingers and nails are completely healed!  I started to take some supplements everyday and saw an immediate repair, I just painted my nails tonight and they look beautiful!  Zinc and biotin.  I am taking 50 mg of zinc and 10,000 mcg of biotin every morning.  I am also getting may compliments about my hair!  It just seems fuller and shinnier (is that a word?)!  Well healthy is!  I also elliminated use of my retinol / vit A facial cream.  If you are using a lotion or cream with Vit A - Stop.  As I stated, I just turned 51 and my fingers were in bad shape, they hurt so much it was hard to use the keyboard at work!  My doctors said, increase lotion use, keep hands out of water, wear gloves when using cleaning products...and I had an out of pocket Dr visit for $143 and a prescription for anti-fungal for $26, jsut days before I figure out about the zinc and biotin.  I hope this helps some of you.  I read hundreds of comments, blogs, medical web sites and it took a long time to be healed.  I know this is a real problem and embarrasing!   I am a caucasion female 51 years old with no health issues.  

After 3 years of dealing with this same issue, my fingertips are finally healed (without topical steroids). I attribute it primarily to using Biafine cream, which is an over the counter cream available in France, but there are a few extra things things I did which I believe contributed significantly. I'll detail everything here. This may seem a bit anal, but I'm so happy this issue is finally gone, I want to spread the word of exactly what I did. I truly believe it will work for most people.

First, get the Biafine Emulsion. I have no affiliation whatsoever with Biafine. My aunt by marriage, who grew up in France, recommended it to me. She said it's in everyone's medicine cabinet in France. They use it on sunburns, burns and burns from radiation treatments. It costs $39 for a large tube. You can order it. It takes 5 - 10 days to get it. The website has all the background on the product. Unlike the topical steroids my doctors prescribed, there aren't any significant side effects in my lay opinion.

Second, to jump start the healing, I bandaged my fingertips for 4 days. I saw this recommendation from an on-line dermatologist blog. I never followed through on this because it is so difficult to function in today's world with your fingertips bandaged; however, it's also hard to function with your fingertips cracked and bleeding. After 3 years, it was worth a try. It really helped, I have to say. I actually applied some Biafine first. Then I used a generic fingertip bandage, which you can get at any supermarket. (I stopped getting bandages at drug stores when I found out they're typically half the price at the grocery store.) Then I applied a regular size Band-Aid brand waterproof "tough strip" around the fingertip bandage. The tough strip keeps the fingertip bandage from falling off. I found these to be the thinnest and the best sticking bandages, giving me the decent dexterity when my fingers are bandaged. I would change these bandages once a day, or more, if they got wet, dirty or ripped. I gave myself some breaks from the bandages for an hour or two between dressings, but I would make sure to rub in a little Biafine to make sure my fingertips did not dry out at all. I was pretty religious about following this procedure for the 4 days. I do believe it was a very important step.

Third, after the 4-day bandage step, I would apply an ample amount of the Biafine cream on my fingertips at night and cover them with cotton gloves. It was annoying at first to sleep with gloves, but again I believe this was another important step in the healing process. Your body heals while you sleep, but with this eczema issue, your fingers will also dry out and crack while you sleep. It was worth the annoyance of wearing the gloves to get 8 hours of healing versus 8 hours of drying, cracking and splitting. Just using the cream without gloves wouldn't get me through the night at first.

Fourth, I wore vinyl exam gloves when cooking, washing dishes, or doing any routine chores that would get my fingers wet. You can get a box of 50 for 4-5 dollars. Worth keeping them in the house.

Fifth, I changed my soap. I use the unscented 72% olive oil french milled soap. I ordered that on Amazon. It comes in large cubes. It is also made in France, but that is purely coincidental to the Biafine. Neutrogena also has a french milled soap that does not dry out my fingertips, but I have only seen it in hotels. I couldn't find it in stores or on their website. It's great, though. Using a non-drying soap is very important in my opinion. I'm sure there are other brands out there.

Okay, that seems like a lot, but not really. After 4 days with Step 1 and about 2 weeks with the rest of the regimen, all of my fingers were pretty much healed. That was in September of 2014. It's now January 2015. I use the Biafine every day immediately after I shower, before bed and about 2-3 times during the day. You only need a little. I just started my third tube. My life has been back to normal ever since September. Whenever I get the slightest split on a finger, I go back to the bandage approach, but just for a day, maybe two. I occasionally sleep with with gloves if my fingertips seem to be drying out. Typically, I just apply the Biafine before bed with no gloves. Life is good again! I hope this helps. Like I said earlier, I truly believe this will work for most people with this ailment. I did for me, and probably like you, I tried just about everything with little to no success.

Best of luck!

Tom

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I have suffered from eczema since 2006, more severe this past 12 months and now on my feet. I have tried disposable gloves at bedtime as advised by my dermatologist. Recently i have changed jobs and we wear Nitrile gloves and i have noticed how my hands have looked better. This past week i have been wearing them all the time and the improvement is amazing. So glad i just read your post and found it has worked for you to