My husband has extremely dry skin and he has been using Cetaphil cream and says it is the best he has ever used and, believe me, he has tried dozens of products. He uses the dry, sensitive skin formula in a white and green jar, available at drugstores and possibly at the discount stores. I sometimes have cracked heels and the Cetaphil is good for that, also. I also really like L'Occitane Shea Butter cream which is wonderful.
Hope this helps.
Ev
If you keep petroleum jelly on them, inside a pair of socks ALL the time for a couple weeks, it should go away. Use a humidifier in your home. Don't soak your feet. If your feet sweat a lot, this can cause cracked feet. Avoid socks that keep your feet from breathing such as nylons. After you clear it up, try using a powder in your shoes that absorbs sweat.
This may sound crazy, but I just read about this in a beauty magazine and am thinking about trying it. Before going to bed, lather your feet with Vaseline and wrap loosely with plastic wrap, then put on socks. Remove all when you get up and it says your feet will be smooth. It's worth a try!
My husband is diabetic,& his feet were severely cracked but I got him some Moisture Therapy cream from AVON,It worked wonders.No more cracked feet.....This was 3 years ago.....
I had severly cracked heels a few monts ago, so much that they looked like fissures. I could literally carve out a piece of dead skin about 1 -2 mm thick. I don't have any problems anymore. It took me two treatments and semi regular follow ups every couple of weeks. I haven't followed up in over a month as heels are still fine.
The petroleum jelly treatment is good but I think you should do that after you have resovled the cracked skin problem as on going maintenance of your heels.
What I think you should do is first soak your feet in hot water and some epsom salts. Make sure your feet are really soaked in. Take a bath if necessary. Sit in a whirlpool. But you must get your skin very, very soft. Then get a foot file and start "sanding" it off. Don't use the metal files, but the files that look like sandpaper glued to a plastic stick. Get as much off as possible. You have to be very vigourous with the file. Don't overdo it the first time.
Repeat this after a couple of days.
My heals have not had any dry skin outbreaks ever since. I haven't touched them for over a month and still okay. I normally have dry skin and have prescription medication for exczema on my torso area.
I also have severly cracked heels. I have tried the vaseline in wool socks, nada. I pumice in the shower every single day. It works for that day, but in the morning, it's back. I own a foot spa with a spinning pumice stone. I use freeman's peppermint foot scrub and lotion, nothing. I have given up. All the foot doc does is scrape it off. It returns. Anyone have anymore ideas?
I know this may sound funny but l used to have severe cracked heels also. But when the Doctor suggested using a different kind of shoe for another foot problem, my cracked heels went away!
I swear changing shoes really helped me! I went from just an ordinary shoe to a certain brand of walking tennis shoe and it cleared up!!
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An American living in Northern lreland
Well it will return, it's sort of like taking a shower, you have to keep doing it to maintain... or going to the dentist. There's no "one time" method or treatment.
I have cracked heels too, but they're way better than they ever used to be. They used to bleed, crack very deeply, and I'd especially suffer when swimming and pushing off the wall in the pool when the chlorine would seep into the fissures and hurt terribly bad.
I've heard using VICKS helps. I opt for Vaseline. I had great success with occlusive seals, - I used to wear baggies to bed, taping them close against my skin. I had to do this with my hands and my feet, so I"d baggy my hands and feet up, wrap my wrists and ankles with tape, and wear gloves and socks to bed. True when I woke up I had the softest most wonderful skin - and true it never lasted. As soon as the air hit it, it started drying up. So I learned that when I took the plastic off to immediately apply the vaseline again.
I used to occasionally wear baggies under my socks too if I had a really bad episode.
As I said, over time it got better. I found diet had a lot to do with it, and so did stress, not just foot care.
Cracked Heels 
