Symptoms of Poison Ivy
Poison ivy is an allergic contact dermatitis, or skin rash, caused by exposure to urushiol, an oil found in the three-leaved poison ivy plant. Urushiol is so potent that it only takes a billionth of a gram to cause a reaction. Symptoms usually develop in 1 to 2 days and are often treated at home.

After exposure to the leaves, stems, or roots of a poison ivy plant, children develop symptoms of poison ivy within 8 hours to a week or so, including:

Step 1

Watch for swelling and redness, red streaks or red lines that can appear within 8 to 48 hours after contact with poison ivy. Itching may appear at the same time or shortly after your recognize the appearance of redness.

Recognize additional symptoms, such as blisters and hives. View photos of the poison ivy rash at the Poison Ivy, Oak & Sumac Center website (see Resources below).

Be prepared for the rash to spread to every area that came into contact with the plant. Your rash will be more severe depending upon the amount of urushiol you touched.

Be aware that it is normal for the blisters to leak and then become scaly within a few days.

Expect symptoms to linger for about 10 days. The affected areas may be particularly vulnerable to poison ivy reactions for months.

Watch for swelling and check to see if there is heat around the affected area.

Step 7
Call your doctor if you develop a fever or if the rash does not improve with a few days.
Keep in mind that children exposed to poison sumac and poison oak, other members of the genus Rhus or Toxicodendron, can get these same symptoms that are generically referred to as poison ivy symptoms above.

(Using medical terminology, these children develop rhus dermatitis or allergic contact dermatitis, an intensely pruritic, linear, erythematous, papulovesicular rash after exposure to the urushiol oil in poison ivy.)

Other characteristic signs and symptoms of poison ivy are that the rash will worsen over days or weeks without treatment with steroids, the rash may not go away for up to three weeks without treatment, many children will have worsening symptoms with each exposure, and that some areas of a child's skin that had less exposure to the poison ivy plant will get the rash later than others.

Avoid Poison Ivy Symptoms

Be cautious around any object that may have come into contact with urushiol. It can live for years on a dead plant or object, and may be carried on clothing or fur.

Step 2
Wear gloves when you wash clothes or objects that may have come into contact with poison ivy.

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