The Eczema Community Sounds Off On Wet Wrap Therapy

We asked our community about their experience with wet wrap therapy. Here’s what they said:

My daughter just takes them off because she wants to scratch so bad.

I use them on my son during extreme flares. I wrap him up like a mummy. He asks for a wet wrap when he is feeling particularly dry and flared. He is 12 years old.

We use wet wraps aka “Wet Jammies” with wet socks on hands and feet over a covered body of triamcinolone ointment. We then put on Dry Jammies and socks over her hands and feet. I have had to use Wet Gauze on her head and neck also. She is 4 and a half years old and determined to scratch; however the moisturizing effect that happens right away does help the itch go away. Every time, whether it is overnight or a 4 to 6 hour time frame on the weekend or after school, it works. Her skin is so much calmer and not as raised and red, dry and itchy. Yes, it is a hassle or an EVENT to even get her in the bathtub as the water hurts her skin. Let me tell you all, it is so worth it in the end. Try it at least once. You can use Vaseline instead of a steroid ointment or cream. You can do it every night for 4 nights and you will see a huge difference in the skin and your child. We are lucky to do it once/twice and not again for a week or two until the next major flare-up.

Wet wraps? Bleach bath? Tried them both on myself and they made me itch and burn even more.

Wet wraps will feel like the eczema worse at first because you get so itchy. Keep at it. Even if you rub the top of the suit because it itches so badly, that is ok; it will subside. I know, this sounds all terribly inconvenient, and it is, but it works. Change it out once or twice a day to wash it/re-wet it/put a new round of medication on. Do it with socks and gloves if your hands/feet are also affected. It works with ointment-based medications only, not cream. I have total body eczema since birth and 8 years of constant flare/staph infection/MRSA under my belt. I have been flare-free for almost a year now even despite being a MRSA carrier. It takes a combination of things to get better; it’s a whole regime of maintenance you and your health professional need to come up with. If this worked for me it will work for you and yours. Finally, this will take a long time, so do not start saying “oh it’s not working” and stop halfway through treatment just because you aren’t getting the results you want.