Bleach Baths

Diluted bleach baths, or what some prefer to call "swimming pool baths," have been shown to help children with eczema and they may help adults, too. Most instructions suggest mixing a quarter cup of bleach in a bathtub full of water and soaking for 5 to 10 minutes twice a week. Of course, check with your dermatologist before treating yourself.

Eczema suffers have more staph on their skin than other people. For severe cases, the staph can cause skin infections, such as folliculitis. The diluted bleach baths kill the bacteria, reducing infections. Staph can exacerbate the eczema, so killing it off can improve rashes and itching. Doctors also prefer to try and use bleach baths as a first line of defense since there is growing concern about the increasing incidence of antibiotic resistant staph.

I recently tried bleach baths and found them to be helpful. Having previously had a staph infection on my skin requiring oral antibiotics, I was in no mood for a repeat experience. When I started experiencing what appeared to be symptoms, I went to my dermatologist immediately. She suggested the bleach baths as a first step to see if it would clear up the infection before it got so bad it required antibiotics. Sure enough, it worked! I was concerned the bleach might actually inflame my sensitive skin, but it is so dilute that it does not. Thinking of it as akin to a swimming pool is helpful. You smell mildly like a pool when you get out of the bath, even after rinsing off, but the smell quickly fades. Just remember to put on lots of lotion when you get out because the baths can be quite drying, which can make eczema worse.