Lip Eczema
What Causes Lip Eczema And How To Treat It
If your lips are dried, cracked, and swollen you may have lip eczema. Eczema may be triggered by a weakened immune system. Eczema usually begins in childhood, and about 20% of the human population has it. Those with allergies or asthma have it more often that those without.
Some controllable causes of this condition are sun exposure and lip and other products with drying ingredients such as BHA, ammonia, parabins, and petroleum, and especially fragrance. Regular soap can cause or exacerbate this condition as well. Do not use any lotions, soaps or treatments with fragrance if you eczema on your lips or elsewhere.
Emollient products are an important part of treatment of eczema. You can use emollient soap substitutes (ex. Aqueous), shower gels and ointments (such as Aquaphor and Diprobase), or creams (E45). Dermatologists recommend these and many other brands. You may need to ask a doctor or pharmacist to identify effective emollients. It is advised to clean the lips with warm water only if you don’t have an emollient soap. After cleaning the lips, if your eczema is still painful severe, apply emollient cream or ointment (ointment is best but is quite messy) onto your lips, and wait 15 minutes for it to be absorbed.
After ointment or cream is absorbed, apply 1% hydrocortisone on your lips. Use the emollient and hydrocortisone 1 to 2 times daily, until symptoms clear up.
It is advised to use a SPF 30 lip product to protect from more damage. Lip eczema can benefit by greater hydration, and one way to get this is to close doors and windows in your bathroom and take a shower. The humidity in the room will rise and soften dried skin. After bathing, use a soft warm and moist towel to gently rub the lips, removing loose skin. Then use a fragrance free moisturizer such as Lubriderm if your symptoms are mild. If more severe, use ointment as noted above.
For additional hydration you should be drinking about 6 eight ounce glasses of water a day. You can also get pain relief and protect from infection with Neosporin topical, or a generic equivalent. Be sure to get the type that has an added in ingredient for pain relief. It usually says “plus pain relief” on the package.
Another treatment that can help is over the counter Benadryl pills, recommended by dermatologists. It relieves itching, which can cause bacteria growth and infection. It can be taken before bedtime to assure you are not awake at night from itching lips.
Some people swear by switching to a gluten free diet to control this uncomfortable condition. Others suggest using a body cleanse to remove toxins from the body. However, there does not appear to be medical consensus on these treatments’ effectiveness for lip eczema.
And finally, there are oatmeal bath powders, which are fragrance free - the only ingredient should be oatmeal. You can make a paste of this in warm water and pres onto lips for soothing, as well as using it in the bath and washing face and lips with it.
If you don’t want to buy it just grind up regular, plain oatmeal - 2 cups per bath - in a coffee bean grinder or other kitchen grinder.
Although there is no cure for eczema, the advice given here will fully control it so you should experience little or no discomfort.