About 30 days ago, we installed a salt based water softner because of the iron content in our water. It smelled and was turning our hair orange. About 3 weeks ago my husband started itching. No rash, just itching. He thinks it could be related to the salt in the water softner. Ever heard of this before??
Q: Allergy to salt based water softner?
Answers (7)
12/15/08 11:08pm
We installed a salt based water softner 4 weeks ago and I have itching around my neck and rash, itching on my forehead, forearm, and itching on my legs. My face around my eyes are swollen mostly my eye-lids, this is already 3 weeks. First I was looking for a food allergent? but I cannot find anything. I called Culligan -company who installed the water softener - thay do not know about any allergy people can have - but I really thing this is the water.
If anybody have the same problem-please, please answer.
I did not do yet any allergy test. Maybe we should just disconect the water softener ?? Please help recognize the problem.
Barbara S.
1/ 5/11 12:11am
same thing happened to me when I visited my sister in Fla. I have been back in Jersey for 2 days and am still getting hives! I don't get it?
5/18/10 11:14pm
The same thing happens to me. I recently visited my parents who have installed a water softener in their home... I was so itchy I stopped showering. It drove me nuts... Myparents thought I was just being a freak, but now I am surfing the web to see if there is any one else who feels the same allergic reaction to the water softener???? Its just salt right???
6/27/11 9:10am
I
6/11/10 5:43pm
In a our water softener, Sears, the water circulates through a bed of resin beads. Maybe it's the resin beads you are allergic to.
7/ 5/10 2:10am
My daughter has the same problem with a Culligan water softener. She never had this problem before when we lived in Wa state, but when we visited my inlaws who have a Culligan filter, she broke out in a red rash and I gave her Benadryl thinking she was having an allergic reaction to a food she had newly tried. We then moved to Vegas and lived with my SIL and my daughter never really had a problem with taking baths besides the occasional dry skin in the winter...my SIL did not have a softener. Now that we have our own home with a Culligan softener my daugther cant take baths anymore. The water burns her skin so much she becomes itchy and screams as she is scratching. I give her quick showers now and the second she comes out i used baby lotiono on her skin. She says it still itches, but at least she isn't screaming anymore. I hope you find a solution to this, or at least a softener that works without doing this to our families. IT is just so sad that my daughter now hates hates hates simply taking a bath and has to endure the itching, but that without the softener we will ruin our pipes.
9/21/10 10:12pm
Hi
As I read your text concerning your daughter I could not beleave that you prefere keeping your pipes clean instead of keeping your daughter healthy and happy.
You could live very well without the water softener and your daugther would have a much more beaudiful life without taking a shower and knowing your not doing any thing to care for her. So take out this water softener instead of only looking and hearing how bad it is for your daughter.
In my countray we do not soften the water and the pipes still are good for more then 10 years (so there should be no need for any water softener)!!!
All the best for your daughter. I hope you care more for her then the pipes!!
9/21/10 10:14pm
Hi
As I read your text concerning your daughter I could not beleave that you prefere keeping your pipes clean instead of keeping your daughter healthy and happy.
You could live very well without the water softener and your daugther would have a much more beaudiful life without taking a shower and knowing your not doing any thing to care for her. So take out this water softener instead of only looking and hearing how bad it is for your daughter.
In my countray we do not soften the water and the pipes still are good for more then 10 years (so there should be no need for any water softener)!!!
All the best for your daughter. I hope you care more for her then the pipes!!
9/23/10 1:48am
How DARE you say that I care less about my daughter and more about my pipes!You dont know anything about me. Dont they have that saying in your "country" that if you do not have anything nice or helpful to say then you should keep your mouth shut. My daughter's problem is under the control as of speaking with her doctor and trial and error. Maybe your country isn't in THE MIDDLE of the DESERT and the water condition here is a result of the minerals caused by the ecosystem of the area. It is a way of life here and DOES effect the house which in a very costly way, so if a little lotion is the cure than thats what has to be done. My daughter has a very good life and isn't missing her baths anymore. She's a big girl who should be taking showers at this point and im proud to be her mother!
10/ 7/10 6:25pm
FYI. There are other options that protect your pipes besides softening. Filter systems, reverse osmosis, etc.
10/ 8/10 3:11am
Thank you for you positive input and advice. We will look into those options.
3/20/11 8:48pm
Please look at the easy water type softener it uses no salt but they claim it keeps the pipes clean and you will use less soap , my daughter yesterday started having problems when she showered and just used water no soap and I fear the disacant in ther tank has depleted I will look at easy water or another simullar product they use a field of electricity at a low voltage and it lines up all the impurities and lets them slide right down the drain they even say it will clean the pipe over time, check it out I am going to myself
10/ 7/10 6:20pm
Softened water gives me hives. If I turn the softener off I don't get hives it I turn it back on I get hives. I also get hives from ocean water and my lip swells when I eat sea salt. I wonder if it is connected somehow...
1/ 5/11 12:07am
I just came back from my sisters in Fla. I wasn't there but a day when my palms started itching,then my belly,and my head and neck and I have been home for 2 days now and I am still getting welts[hives when I shower and am still itchy. They also have a water softener because of a high iron content. I can't figure it out!
6/27/11 9:36am
It took me better than 8 years, many allery dr's visits, food allergy tests and then a complete upper torso front and back breakout rash, that itched unbearably after a wonder full hot shower before it dawned on me that the soft water unit i had installed some years earlier in my new house might be the cause. dr's do not know everything. bypassed the soft water unit and have seen noticeable relief and reduction of rash/itching. but still have not gotten the problem completely solved yet. i believe that when my unit was in operation, and flowed through my hot water unit, there has been an accumulation of salt buildup within the hot water unit due to heating process. as stated i bypassed the watersoftener unit and have drained the hot water unit several times, and seem to be gaining on the problem. let fresh water refill the hot water unit and drain it again, through the drain spout on the heater about a dozen times to disolve the heat bakeded salt that has accumulated coating the inner walls of the hot water unit. i think you will start to see a gradual, but noticeable differance in the body rash. but remember the salt buildup is still mixed with the hard chemicals that have been flowing through your waterpipes, and will take some time to dis-solve and breakdown, as clean saltwater flows through them. please this is my own theory of the problem. it seems to be working for me. my theory is as i have explained, because i have had thesame set of circumstances with water softener units, i installed both here , in my newer home and one that i owned in alaska. both had soft water units i had installed. finally 16 years of rashes and itching, now very significant changes. just know that your water heater when heating your water, has baked the salt to the inner walls of the heater, and the salt has leached itself to the insides of the water pipes as it flowed through. all this must now disolve as new clean water flowes through unit and pipes. itching and rash will show noticeable chance fairly quickly, but still lingers...quick showers.....just stepping in to wet hair and body.....soap up....then wash and rinse quickly, but thoroughly will bring noticeabe relief.....GOOD LUCK ALL YOU SALT ALERGY SUFFERS OUT THERE......ONE THING TO REMEMBER YOUR BODY NEEDS SALT, SO DO NOT GO OVER BOARD, BY CHANGING YOUR DIETARY SALT INTAKE. SALT IS VERY NECESSARY FOR YOUR BODY'S HEALTH.
12/30/11 1:47pm
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my daughter seems to be having an allergy to softener-rash under arm pit, swollen glands and stomach issues> we turned off for 5 months because it was leaking and turned back on and couple days after all her symptoms came back