skin peeling off my fingertips

I had this problem develop about 5 years ago. it started with ridges and grooves in my nails then my fingers began peeling. Mostly my thumb and index,but often it will occur on other fingers as well. I went to the dermatologist and they gave me steriod gel to put on after the peeling started. Then I heard someone say that it can occur because of a dairy "allergy" I have never had allergies, but thought I would try to eliminate dairy. It worked! The peeling stopped. Once I started eating dairy... the peeling started again. Even the smallest amount cause the peeling to begin on my thumbs. I don't really know what the process it that causes the peeling but the elimination of dairy eliminated the problem.
Hope this helps.

I had eczema palms of hands only. At one md visit I had two legal-size pages of what I had tried with no luck. After a naturopath, an md, allergist and two dermatologists, I went to an herbalist. She concluded I had excess yeast, candida albicans. I didn't think that was it at the time, but had nothing else to work with. I went on a very restrictive diet and took the products she recommended. I got much improvement. But a great improvement by drinking violet leaf infusion and using the infused leaves as a poultice. I also made an infused oil, but the fresh poultice on the skin was more effective. After over a year of the eczema being "under control", I am dealing with the cracked, peeling fingertips. Now that it is summertime, I can find the violet leaves in my hard and I am drinking the infusion and using the infused leaves with some infusion as a soak. I learned about the violet and how to make infusions from herbalist Susun Weed's book, Healing Wise. You can find her at Susun . Another good resource is Wiseways for an eczema salve.
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oops! I found the violet leaves in my yard not my hard.
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I have this condition where I just can't seem to keep the skin on my fingertips around for very long...It starts to peel and die if I let my hands get really wet/pruny often, or do physical activities which put a lot of stress on the area...such as playing catch with a baseball or football, lifting weights, and the worst was working as a cashier in a grcoery store and scanning groceries all day. Also using cleaning products, especially with bleach, will make the skin die after one touch. First it forms little air bubbles underneath the skin then they pop and sensitive underskin is exposed. I lived with it for months and months and years. I have however figured out a solution, at least for people who are just suffering from the skin deteriorating...it's not really painful at all, just disgusting looking and annoying. the secret to fixing it is simple:

I use an ointment called

Aquaphor Healing Ointment: ADVANCED THERAPY For dry, cracked, or irritated skin - Manufactured by Eucerin and sold in all safeway owned grocery stores. If you can't find the exact brand I doubt it matters but the active ingredient is Petrolatum (41%) and it is a very thick ointment. Immediately you're fingertips will feel better. Ireccomend buying a small tube so that you can carry it around with you throughout the day. It will protect the fingertips and prevent further damage.

That is what needs to be done during the day, but the key to regenerating the skin, is to apply the ointment heavily before bed, and wear a pair of gardening gloves to sleep. I know it sounds stupid but I had heard somewhere that wearing gloves to sleep was good for your skin on your hands, so I tried it. Immediately when I woke up the morning after the first night of using them I could tell that my fingertips had finally had exactly what they needed, adequate time to heal themselves slightly. Without rubbing on the sheets and comforter all night in conjunction with the ointment they had really healed a little.

I reccomend that during the day at home, if you're just watching tv or reading, to wear gloves with ointment applied to your skin. I recomend wearing the gloves as much as possible at first and most definitely at night. Apply ointment to your fingertips all day to prevent reversing the healing taking place at night.

After a week or so I found my fingertips had more or less completely regenerated and I was able to stop wearing the gloves and using the ointment. It's one of those things where you just have to bite the bullet and do something annoying for a few days in order to help out in the long run.

Hope this helps!!

I bet every one of you touched some wall to wall carpets, even if just for a second to help you get up from the floor, and did not wash your hand immideately. I does not go a way for weeks or monthst and if you make the mistake touching the wall to wall carpet again, new or old, it starts again. So, avoid touching any wall to wall carpets. Working with sheet rock does not help either. By the way, hand made oriental or machine made belgian area rugs are OK. Good luck.

I have had this condition for 15 years and the only thing that works for me is 1cc of depomedrol with 1cc of kenalog given in two shots over 2 weeks. Can keep it at bay for 3months of even 18 months. Doctors are reluctant to give these shots and any type of cortisone cream does not work. Ive tried diprolene but doesn't work

I'm CURED!!!! About two weeks ago I was giving my dogs a bath and noticed what looked to be an old blister on the tip of my right index finger, it was no larger than a pea. I didn't give it any thought until my skin kept peeling until it took up half of the tip of my finger, it spread to my thumb and and eventually the index finger of my left hand. I showed it to my sister who has a masters degree in sports medicine. She said it looked alot like a fungal infection. "Go get some Lotrimin athlete's foot cream and apply it a couple times per day, should work."

And it DID!!!! Stopped it dead in its tracks. I've been at it for a little over a day and a half and the peeling/flaking stopped!

LOTRIMIN is the key!!

I thought I was the only person with this freakish condition. I have it on my thumbs, forefingers, middle and ring fingers. It starts with a hard skin, then, cracks, bleeds, peels, bleeds, and I also end up looking like I have no fingerprints. I am going to try the Black currant oil and all the other suggestions, because it hurts as I type today. Will also give up on the "Dawn" detergent. Get something else. Thanks for all the information. XD

Try drinking water for a change. I found that when I drink soda pop or other beverages besides water the skin on my fingers around my nails and edge of my thumb become hard callus like. It is irritating so i try to peel it off and it pulls the top layers off exposing the tender moist tissue underneath. After drinking only water every day it goes away in about a week. Then when I start drinking soda it returns a week later. If your'e really concerned then you should see a doctor, they will take all sorts of tests then tell you they have no idea like they did with me. Just try drinking only water, i like mine cold with lots of ice, then see if it clears up in a week or so. I believe it will.

Since posting about the violet leaf etc, I have tried a skin cream from one of the custom dosing pharmacies. The cream contains urea which the pharmacist said would help my dry/peeling fingertips. I used it at night with gloves on then daily numerous applications for several weeks. Now two-three months later, I use it occasionally to keep the good progress I made. I also read labels better and do not use soap or shampoo with sodium laurel sulfate. I am so much better than two years ago.

OMG, I have been dealing with this problem for a few years and wear bandaids on almost every fingertip. My cracking is like papercuts that are very deep and the skin around it peels and becomes calloused. This occurs on the skin right above the fingernail and all over on my thumb. Steriod creams help short term but then it comes back even worse. Cleaning, dishes and laundry aggravate it. Mine never goes away completely. It's very debilitating and depressing. I will try the oil but won't hold out too much hope.

I suggest you go for the skin cream containing urea. I battled "eczema" with steroid cream until finding the violet oil and the other stuff I did. I also noticed how the eczema then the fingertip issue would come back worse once I didn't use the steroid cream, but over time, I found this to be sort of a temporary surge. I think the cracked & peeling fingertips is different than the eczema I had because of limited success using steroid cream on it. When I realized I might have something other than recurring eczema, it helped me to see other options. If the urea cream had not worked, the next thing on my list would have been to experiment with anti-fungal treatments such as black walnut. I have a castor oil-based green soap I use to wash my hands. It doesn't suds at all. Try also staying completely away from shampoo with SLS (or wear hypoallergenic gloves) to wash your hair. Always use dish gloves for washing dishes, cleaning, etc. Put a good glob of the urea cream on then white cotton gloves to do your other cleaning, at night or just anytime to help your fingertips heal. Do not give up hope. Our bodies do want to be healthy. Unfortunately many times we have pursued these issues through our medical community without long term success. I also suggest you visit some sort of natural health consultant, herbalist, naturopath to learn how you might enhance your overall health (resulting in better skin health) through nutrition, or some mineral (I think I read about zinc and this condition) or something.

I clicked on this post because for the past six years i have had horrible pain in the pads of my thumb, pointer, and middle finger when the seasons change from summer to fall. It last the duration of winter and doesn't stop until spring comes. Any ideas on what this could be?

So I know that this post is from over 3 years ago, but when I type in searches on google this is one of the top ones that come up, so maybe people still read it? Hopefully I can help. My fingers recently started peeling on about 3 or 4 of them from under my nail. So I would peel this off because it was dead, and it would just grow back like that. Then they started peeling all down my ring and middle finger to where I would always want to wear something over it because of how bad it looked. I would peel off the dead skin and it would grow back yellow, dead and peel off again.

I was first put on a steroid cream called: Triamcinolone Acetonide Cream. I was put on this at first because my hand was swollen and red, this did make that go away, but did nothing for the peeling.

I went back to the doctor and he prescribed me a stronger cream called: Clotrimazole and Betamethasone Dipropionate Cream. and also pills called: Sulfameth/Trimethoprim. (Because I read someone saying she had a problem with it being a bacterial infection)
So I have been using both for the past 3 days, today is the 4th day. The skin has stopped peeling underneath my nails and my middle finger is almost all the way healed. The skin is growing back normal and really fast, I can't say how relieved I am to have fixed it.

I would recommend going to talk to your doctor about getting one of those, because I had it going on for a few weeks and the cycle would just repeat itself, but now that I have medication it's healing, so it is a problem that can be fixed.

hope this helped! :-)

Hey guys, Ive had the same problems as you guys but i went to the doctor and he subscribed me to a cream called FLUOCINONIDE cream, USP 0.05%. It seems to be healing. Hope that helps