Make Your Own Oatmeal Bath

An oatmeal bath may provide relief for itching and discomfort associated with dry skin, chicken pox, shingles, poison ivy, poison oak, and sumac, eczema, insect bites, diaper rash, anal itching, windburn, and sunburn. You can buy a packet of oatmeal bath for around $6, but it's much less expensive to make yourself, plus it's very easy. Here's how to make an oatmeal bath:

Ingredients

• 1 cup of oatmeal (about 1/3 cup per bath for babies)
  
• blender, food processor, or coffee grinder

You can use any unflavored oatmeal, including instant oatmeal, slow-cooking oats, or quick oats. Blend the oats at the highest setting of your appliance until they are powdered. You can tell you have processed the oats long enough if you stir a little of the powder into a glass of warm water and the results are milky, with a silky feel.


Make an Oatmeal Bath

Sprinkle the oatmeal powder into a tub of running water. Stir the water with your hand to mix it. Break up any clumps you may feel on the bottom of the tub.

Use care getting into and out of the tub. The oats may cause the bottom of the tub to be more slippery than usual. Soak in the tub for 15-20 minutes, then pat yourself dry with a towel. An oatmeal bath may be used once or twice or day, or more often under the advice of your medical practitioner.


Uses for Oatmeal Baths

• chicken pox
  
• shingles
  
• poison ivy, oak or sumac
  
• nettles
  
• dry skin
  
• insect bites or stings
  
• eczema
  
• diaper rash
  
• anal itching
  
• sunburn
  
• windburn