How do you get rid of poison ivy? 

Once infected one needs to:

1. Calm the itching and any inflamation
2. Keep it from spreading.

For the second one – that can be difficult. Poison ivy is an oil and gets on everything and spreads. If you have it on parts of your body and have a bath for example it can spread to other parts of your body.

Any clothing or bedding that you were in before you realized you got the poison ivy – make sure that you launder that immediately. You can also use baking soda on hiking boots or shoes to try and neutralize any acid of the poison ivy that may be on them. The stuff will sit there for days weeks and months so it is wise to make sure that any item that may have come in contact is neutralized. The oils can hang around a very long time if they are not taken care of.

For the first there are numerous balms and salves and creams (Thentix being a good one) that can help relieve the itching and lessen the inflammation.

An excellent product that will help get rid of poison ivy is Technu and can be purchased in most pharmacies.

Thentix helps with almost all aspects of poison ivy; it calms the itching and if you are not scratching, you will be less likely to spread it. With it’s anti-bacterial and healing qualities poison ivy can heal much more quickly. Other ingredients like aloe vera and avacado oil help soothe the skin and and help the skin repair itself more quickly.

As poison ivy is more likely to be found east of the Missippi or at least generally in eastern half of the USA.

If you’ve already contracted poison oak, whatever you do, don’t take a warm bath or shower right away. This will in all likelyhood spread the toxins. They are very oily and will sit on the skin. If you are careful to not let the poison ivy inflammation spread, it usually starts to go away within 5-7 days. Calamine lotion can also be used to keep it dry.

There are also some great videos online that can show you how to get it off if you know or suspect you have encounter the it.  Get it off before it reacts to your skin.  Apparently, you do have a few hours before this happens.