Skin help?

It could be anything from eczema to heat rash. My recommendation is to pick up some Curel. I have very bad eczema, and Curel works miracles for me. It soothes the skin, reduces inflammation, and in many cases arrests attacks even after they’ve started for me. My mother’s dermatologist recommended it to her, and she passed on the recommendation to me. It costs about three times as much as every other moisturizer on the market, but trust me that it works wonderfully and is well worth the cost.

@SmashTheState Thanks, I’ll give it a try. I don’t think it’s heat rash, because it happens a lot, randomly, under a lot of different circumstances. Maybe it is eczema. Gonna have to get it checked out, definitely.

Elbows are notoriously dry so I agree Curel or Eucerin for now, but a dermatology appointment is a good idea.

The bumps come and go? If not it could be viral. If so, probably the lotion will help at least a little. Although, dryness usually has some other symptoms.

@DrasticDreamer Good idea to have it looked at by a professional. This past winter was bad, and I didn’t spend much time outside. I started getting patchy dry skin. My doctor looked at it and said it was lack of sun and/or low vitamin D. Elbows are always one problem spot, but come Spring time it went away.

How often do you wash your elbows? All those creases make it a gathering spot for dirt. Wash them regularly and then put on a moisturizing cream.

If it is just hard bumps and not itchy or sensitive, take a loofah or some sort of exfoliating brush to the area. The skin over the triceps often gets a build up of dead skin, especially men, and the pores scale up. I call it dragon skin.

I didn’t even think about hard bumps. I get little ones on my forehead once in a while, and I also get skin tags on various parts of my body. The little bumps on my forehead I had lasered off.

Use Cetaphil cleanser instead of soap and water on the area. It will be hard not to get soap or water on your elbow if you like to shower but you can use it after the shower. At least change your soap to dove unscented. It really isn’t a soap. Afterwards use the Cetaphil cleanser to get rid of anything left over from the water.
Water really sucks if you have eczema. It has to many chemicals that aren’t skin friendly. Also don’t take hot showers. Make the water tepid or cool. Hot showers dry your skin. Don’t put any lotions that have perfume or alcohol in it. If you use another kind of cleanser or soap, make sure it doesn’t have aloe.
Plenty of people are allergic to aloe and don’t realize it because they use it in skin aid products and think that means it is safe to use.

Oh, btw, I recently had bumps like you describe and was able to get rid of them by using vicks rub on my arm for 3 nights. I know it sounds weird but it really worked for me. Of course, I do not know if what you have is the same thing I had. I was getting the bumps before but after 2 days in the pool, they became really bad. Like dry sand paper. After one night with vicks it got 50 percent better. By the 3rd day my arm was about 90 percent better. I only know it isn’t 100 percent because it isn’t like my other arm. But I stopped after 3 days to see if it will come back if I do nothing. It has been 2 weeks at least and it is slowly getting back on par with my other arm. I’ve been avoiding the strong afternoon sun and I only apply cetaphil cream now.

@DrasticDreamer Somebody mentioned Bag Balm on another question. That stuff was really good.

Thanks, guys. And yeah, they start as skin colored itchy bumps, and then turn slightly red. My elbows aren’t dry, but these, whatever they are, do get at least a little dry after they’ve been there for a couple of days. They don’t get very large, thankfully (usually about the size of a dime), but they can take up to a week or more to fully disappear. For moisturizer, I use Salcura Zeoderm for my face (otherwise I get flakes from what I assume is seborrheic dermatitis) and I am in love with it for that reason. It also says that it’s good for eczema and psoriasis, so I put some on the bumps last night and it definitely took the itch out.

Right now, the soap I use is Vanicream, which is specifically designed for sensitive skin, as far as I know. I also don’t know if it’s relevant or not, but there’s a slightly red patch on my face that never goes away and the skin is definitely a different texture when I don’t moisturize with the Zeoderm. Upon really close inspection when not using the Zeoderm, there are weird little “spikes”, for lack of a better term. You can’t see them without looking really close or anything, but again, it’s always slightly red there no matter what. So maybe it’s related?

Dunno, but definitely time to see a dermatologist. Thanks for all of your comments.

Oh. They are dime sized? That wasn’t what I thought of at all. Don’t use a loofah or scrub at them. See a dermatologist. It sounds like you are using good gentle products. Don’t use the Dove soap.