wrote:
You probably should consult your doctor - this could be a form of
exzema. My middle child, a 12 year old boy, gets this on his hands and
feet terribly in the winter - and its NOT from being in soapy water.
Because his skin is so sensitive, he only takes one or two baths a week
in the winter - and you should see his poor feet - they are peeling all
the time, big dry cracks in the skin etc.

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear about your son: I guess my problem is
nothing to what some people have to put up with. I'm not sure if it's
eczema, simply because this is the first time it has happened like this
and it's so localised - it's just at the sides of my fingernails at the
top, mostly on my thumbs. It's the part of your thumb that gets put
under pressure a lot when you're doing everyday things like opening
bottles, doing up zips, etc, and I'm thinking that it's just that my
skin's inelastic because it's dry and so it's just cracking when it's
put under pressure.

What works is greasing up his feet at night and making him wear socks,
plus with the doctor's support, the occasional application of steroid
cream (sometimes you can moisturize all you want if its gotten bad and
you can't get it to clear up, but a couple of days with the cortisone
will knock it right back and it will stay gone for months).

Yes, that's my problem, I think - the moisturiser is all very well
*before* the skin cracks but once that happens, it doesn't really help
it to heal. I'm not sure if psoriasis is related to eczema (although my
dad also used to use cortisone on his psoriasis) but I'm also wondering
if there's an underlying cause between this happening on my hands and
the other flare ups elsewhere (mostly on my scalp but I'm now getting
little patches on my arms and back.) The psoriasis isn't sore at all,
though, it's just red and rough to the touch.

You might want to start wearing gloves to clean and wash dishes, and
try moisturizing and wearing cotton gloves to bed to see if it helps.

Yes, I do make a point of wearing rubber gloves to wash up (and
hopefully I'll get my dishwasher back in commission soon, yay!) but I
think I will try the gloves overnight thing, as a few people have
suggested and if it doesn't heal up soon I'll take myself off to the
doctor to see what she can suggest.

Thanks to everyone for taking the time to reply!

Cheers

Helen