When you have itchy skin, you want to stop the itch as soon as possible. Sometimes, though, you have no anti-itch medications around, and you can’t get to a pharmacy. A home remedy is likely in your kitchen, though. Oatmeal baths can soothe skin that’s itching from any one of a number of causes, from poison ivy to pregnancy-related conditions.
Always use uncooked oatmeal. Oatmeal in baths should either be in powdered form, sometimes called colloidal oatmeal, or tied up in a porous container and allowed to soak. The University of Maryland Medical Center suggests tying up 1 cup of oatmeal in a sock. Unpowdered oats are heavy, so if you just dump them in the tub, they’ll probably fall to the bottom. This will also create a mess to clean up when you try to drain the tub.