A life time of eczema (atopic dermatitis) I am an expert in itching. I is now classified as an auto immune disease. I lowered my immunity & am free for the 1st time in 104 years. Lol. Use a clean soft hair brush to scratch but don't scratch blisters. Cool bathes with oat meal as a wash. I liked Dr. Bonners peppermint soap also. Find a moisturizer that is non irritating. Mosquito bites I pinch the circumference . It seems to cut off the venom access to nerve endings. Of course ice numbs the receptors.
For things like stings or mosquito bites ice works but it is only temporary. The best way is hot water. Start warm and increase until it becomes too hot. At one point it feels as good as (you can imagine). Supposedly, the hot water negates the poison.
I stumbled across something that works to soothe mosquito bites for me. Using a cotton pad, I dab distilled white vinegar on the bite and the itch goes away and the redness disappears. Not sure if it works for everyone and all kinds of bugs, but it works for me.
I work fairly often at a waterfall that sometimes has a lot of mosquitoes, just tiny ones, so before I drive fully away from there, I get out my container of presoaked cotton pads with vinegar, and it's instant relief! Then if still a bit itchy, when I get home I rinse off with hot water and apply vinegar again for good measure. My life has been much better since I discovered this quick remedy.
Ice baby, ice! That's what I use to stop the itching, preventing the urge to scratch. I suffer from brachioradial pruritus, which drives me crazy and ice is the only way I can soothe it.
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I empathize.
@Mooolah After self diagnosis and learning some possible causes, I am actually pretty good at managing it with shielding my arms from the sun and avoiding stress.
When I brought it up to my doctors, they agreed my diagnosis is correct and if what I'm doing to reduce the symptoms is working, to just continue.
Before figuring out the cause and the remedy, I'd scratch myself bloody, unable to sleep at night and the only way I could keep my mind off the itching was to concentrate on practicing hula, even if at 4am until the urge to scratch went away. I tried everything, but ended up concluding that ice works best for me.