sumac, poison ivy / oak

As a kid, I got poison ivy easy-----but my dad and grandma could pick it and rub it between their hands and never get the rash.

Once I got into herbs, today I rarely get poison ivy at all......but the kids, can get it and get it bad like I use to. So I keep plenty of stuff around in the summer months just in case.



I only ever got sumac poisoning 1 time as a child and then I learned to never walk through a patch of that stuff ever again.........recently some kids road their little dirt bikes through a patch of sumac------------yikes did they get it bad........Sumac can end up in huge blisters full of fluids and become a mess real fast......if you take a warm shower with the blisters, they may break open and just continue to drip fluid...


Drying Up blisters is the goal if you failed to prevent them. these kids even took showers after playing in the wooded area, but that did not stop the rash and blisters and suggest that if they had not showered, they may have ended up in the hospital. Sumac is considered America's most poisonous tree/bush as far as skin contact goes.

Putting a thick layer of BF&C herbal powder on the rash/blisters and wrapping properly with pads, etc. as though your wrapping a very bad greatly helps. Making a thick paste out of baking soda and covering the same helps, BUT After 1 day it can start to itch if you use anymore of it---so BF&C powder seems the best by far for trying to dry up fluids coming out of the skin.


WHAT you must have is a large supply of wrap, gauze, pads and you need it day 1-----not wait and order on line. JUST LIKE BURNS. It takes allot of supplies, because the rash can cover all parts of the body.


After searching the internet, I seen something of interest-----white shoe polish that has been around since the late 1800's that nurses use to keep their white hospital shoes white-----apparently some nurse long ago must have tried it on her poison ivy rash and discovered it works..it says NON TOXIC and looks like white out. She says cover your blisters and rash like white paint and she claims nothing works better and drys up the blisters as well----says walmart sales it...I looked locally and they do not---I looked on amazon and they do not---but ebay does.

With the internet you have a 50/50 chance something is true or false in my opinion...when it comes to treating ivy/rash and anything health wise----I can still be a sucker and give it a try----this lady seemed convincing enough, so I ordered 10 bottles and eventually some day will give it a try and see if she was correct.


The internet is the IDEAL method to share info world wide----only bad people/authors can lie and even worse---cause you to poison your self----if anything, 50+% of everything on the internet about human health is a lie/toxic....and 99% of all commercial/medical websites sale fake/trash products in small bottles to suckers.