Here's the deal. I'll kick down the knowledge for you all right here. Oatmeal baths are great for relieving itch caused by chicken pox and poison oak. I've taken many many oatmeal baths using Alveeno Collodial Oatmeal Bath Treatment. Basically the oatmeal is in a fine powder form in a small packet that you tear and dump in the bath as it is filling. The bath doesn't turn thick like a bowl of breakfast cereal, there are no raisins, m'kay. You don't rinse off when you get out of the bath, it drys the skin, and reduces the poison oak oils from oozing. I used it for poison oak many times, m'kay.