Many people develop a dry and itchy patch of skin sometime throughout their life. The patch can be red, thicker than unaffected tissue, and may swell and weep clear fluid. This condition is usually diagnosed as eczema and usually looks like a rash that seems to come and go. A flare up of eczema can have rest periods which last months or years but can become dormant for an extended period. The condition usually starts during infancy or childhood, but in rare cases appears in adulthood and can vary in the types of symptoms present.Symptoms of eczema can be mild to severe and can vary between flare ups. The most common symptoms that occur in eczema are rashes, dryness, flakiness, bumps, fissures and itching somewhere on the body. When mild, symptoms can be tolerable and many people may even go without noticing symptoms, especially if the affected spots are in areas of the body that are out of view. When the symptoms are severe, or become worse from irritation the affected spots may become intolerable and cause those with the condition to scratch uncontrollably, often causing bleeding and longer healing times in these spots.
