When you have eczema, you need to pay extra attention to ensuring that your skin remains moist. For a person who does not have eczema, it may be alright for them to not treat their dry skin. Their bodies may be able to help them with this. However, when you have eczema your body is not assisting you in the way it should. This means that you will have to assist your body in keeping your dry skin moist.

Will drinking water help?

If you drink your necessary 64 plus ounces of fluid every day you should be well hydrated. Drinking more water than this is unlikely to help you significantly. The problem is better treated using different means.

Direct sunlight

When correcting dry skin you need to avoid coming into contact with direct sunlight. Sun burn will further dry out and damage your skin.

If you have a darker complexion it is even that much more important that you avoid getting sunburned.

Scratching is not helpful

Do not scratch dry skin. Scratching leads to itching, and broken skin. When the skin is broken, it can become infected more readily.

Moisturizers are necessary

When choosing a moisturizer, choose a heavier one that contains no lanolin. Lanolin is a major skin irritant.

You should also choose a heavier moisturizer rather than a light one. You will want to use a heavier moisturizer so that you will have to apply it less frequently. More frequent administrations of moisturizer will have the effect of thinning out the skin.

Short showers

To help overcome the dry skin that accompanies eczema it is a good preventative treatment to make baths and showers short. Unless you are taking a bath treatment for the purpose of rejuvenating your skin you should keep your bath time to less than 5 minutes.
When you are using an eczema treatment in the form of a bath, the bath should not last longer than 18 - 20 minutes.

Vitamins

Vitamins A, B-complex, and E are the vitamins that you will need to make sure that you have no deficiencies of.

Vitamin E may even be used as an emollient on the rougher places of the body such as the knees, elbows and feet.

Steroids

Steroids are effective at relieving dryness, but they can also cause skin thinning when used incorrectly. When used according to instruction steroids can be safe for use, but incorrect use causes problems.

In most cases it has been shown that incorrect use has been caused by people being fearful of using too much of the medicine. They use too little, and it takes too long for the body to respond.

Phototherapy

Phototherapy should be used as a last resort as a dry skin treatment. It should only be used when all other treatments have failed.

Phototherapy involves the process of exposing the skin to ultra violet light rays. It is a treatment that is loaded with the possibilities of complications and side effects.