We just went through this, after discovering that the "cool" new vine that sprouted up along our back yard fence was poison ivy.

Here's a culling from the best information I could find. It worked:

1. Wash the area with Fels Naptha soap. This breaks down the plant oils that carry the irritant (urushiol). Also wash everything you were wearing, or touched. You may need to use carpet shampoo on furniture. If you went to bed before you discovered you had poison ivy, make sure you wash your sheets, and even your towels.

2. Just for good measure: make sure the oils are dissolved by using a sterile pad soaked with rubbing alcohol across the affected area.

3. Now that's it's no longer going to be able to spread, you need to treat the redness and swelling. The very best way I know to do this is to soak a washcloth in milk, and then apply the washcloth as a compress to the rashed area. You will probably have to keep doing this for over half an hour, but it will be worth it. I don't know if it matters or not, but we used fresh, unpasteurized milk for this.

Here's an anecdote as to how this worked for us:

My 4-year-old loves plants, so she was the first one to discover the poison ivy. Over the course of a day, she went from looking slightly pink-cheeked to having definite swelling. It looked for all the world like she'd been slapped. There is "slapped cheek virus", in which one cheek will turn red, so I thought it might be that.

But the next morning when she woke up, her face was so swollen on that side she couldn't even open her eye, and I saw that the rash had spread to one of her arms where she had a mosquito bite she was scratching. That's when I thought to check the new vine to see what it was.

After a bunch of internet searches, I found the advice to break down the oil and the advice about the milk.

The milk was just amazing. Within about 5 minutes, she could open her eye a slit. After 10 minutes, she could open it halfway. And after 45 minutes, most of the swelling and redness was gone.

The rest of the redness slowly faded over the next couple of days. We even took her to the E.R. for it after treating it with the milk, and they sort of shrugged "Why are you even here?" Well, because everything I read said to go to the E.R. if the rash was near the eye! But it didn't affect her eye, just the lid.
Source(s):
http://www.mothernature.com/Library/Bookshelf/Books/19/180.cfm -- quotes the chief of Dermatology at New York City's St. Vincent Hospital as highly recommending the milk treatment, as well as thorough washing of self, clothing and touched objects

http://poisonivy.aesir.com/view/cleaning.html Lots of different options.


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