Eczema Skin Symptoms

Managing eczema skin symptoms or atopic dermatitis requires a two step, natural organic skin care approach. There are inner components—dietary requirements that must be met and, almost always, gut imbalances that must be corrected—as well as an outer factor, topical applications to soothe and heal damaged tissue.

What Does Eczema Look Like?

The dry, flaky and often reddened patches or weepy and blistering areas that are the answer to "What does eczema look like?" can appear almost anywhere on the body but in adults are most commonly found in skin folds such as eyelids, inner elbows, behind the ears and knees, in neck folds and on hands, wrists or ankles.

While children too get dermatitis in these areas, with youngsters it is more often found on cheeks, chins, backs, the stomach and arms. At times, depending upon season (i.e. dry, cold), environmental context (i.e. harsh soaps or chemicals) and degree of symptom severity, skin can also begin to crack and bleed. Regardless of location and degree of eczema symptoms, however, there is one major similarity with adult, teen, toddler and infant eczema—itchiness!

Types of Eczema

Eczema is a broad term that covers several eczema types. These inflammatory and irritated skin conditions include atopic dermatitis, seborrheic eczema and contact dermatitis.

Atopic dermatitis is one of the more common types of eczema and is diagnosed by healthcare practitioner when there are not only eczema skin symptoms of an allergic rash, but also a genetic propensity to other conditions such as asthma or hay fever.

Seborrheic eczema occurs most often on the scalp or inside the ear. I usually appears as a very severe form of dandruff with flaky white or yellowish scales, often on an oily scalp base. In children, seborrheic eczema is generally called cradle cap.

Recent studies seem to indicate, however, that the most prevalent form of eczema is likely contact dermatitis. In other words, though eczema skin symptoms in some people can be described as an immune or allergic response, in general, eczema is most often characterized as a reaction to substances by unhealthy skin—thin skin or skin with an improperly balanced pH or skin not fulfilling an effective barrier role.

Recognizing eczema skin symptoms and types of eczema is a great beginning point to natural "cures" for eczema. Following through on diet, lifestyle and supplemental support is the next important step.