ManiCure

Treat your nails well, and they will treat you well.

What I mean by that is simply, that the better treated your nails are, the less harm your scratching will do. So what's an atopic's maniCure? Short and sweet.

Keep your nails cut super-short. File them if you need to, make sure there are no jagged edges to break the skin's surface.

Oh, and especially disregard the conventional wisdom about cutting your nails straight to avoid ingrowing nails. That may be true for normal people but you have atopic, dammit! In my humble opinion, you should cut your nails as round as they can be. You should be cutting them so often, anyways, that you'll avoid ingrowing nails because they won't manage to grow that far.

So if you scratched so hard that it's bleeding, treat your skin; but also, treat your nails.

This was another post brought to you by "An Ounce of Prevention is worth a Pound of Cure". Despite its misleading name, maniCure is prevention, not cure.