An Overview of Eczema Symptoms and Diagnoses

Eczema can often be a severely troublesome illness,disorder. The skin of people with eczema has a
but early initiation of treatment will, in many cases,defect that prevents the skin from staying moist. It
result in good control of the illness. The conditioncan be diagnosed by an allergist, pediatrician,
mostly will resolve itself spontaneously -- 80% ofimmunologist, dermatologist or your primary care
sufferers being free of the disease by the age of 18.provider. Since most people with eczema also suffer
It can be very painful and difficult to deal with (thatfrom other allergies, your doctor may perform allergy
is, not to scratch it) and the available medications cantests to determine possible irritants or triggers.
greatly help this rather extreme discomfort. AlthoughEczema can be isolated to one area or be present in
for others, it can be hard to treat properly.many different areas on your body. Scratching or
Eczema usually results in red, blistering, oozing, scaly,rubbing the affected areas often irritates the
brownish, or thickened and often itches. A specialcondition, and can even make it itch more.
type is called atopic dermatitis or atopic eczema. ItIt can be as embarrassing as it is painful -- the
can be very painful and embarrassing. It can also be aleather-like scales that often develop are not great
difficult condition to handle in a classroomfor a person's self-esteem and are difficult to cover
environment. Any children with eczema might haveup. Therefore, if you know which foods your trigger
periods of severe itching and scratching which mayeczema symptoms, you can change your diet so
break their concentration.that the symptoms will appear less and less.
Eczema can be thought of as a very sensitive skin