subject: Curing Eczema Naturally – Ch.2 : Who gets Eczema? [print this page] Who gets eczema? The answer to the question is, anyone can suffer from eczema. While it most commonly starts when someone is a baby or child, it can strike men and women, young and the old, so it is not confined to those who are still in the first few years of life. Although the condition appears differently from person to person, eczema is generally characterized by dry, red patches on the skin that are extremely itchy. Unfortunately, as the natural tendency is to scratch any itch no matter how much you understand that you shouldnt, eczema is sometimes known as an itch that can cause rashes because more often than not, when someone scratches an itch, it generates a rash. In babies and children, eczema generally appears as dry red patches on the cheeks, forehead, scalp, neck, forearms and legs. Fortunately for most children, their eczema will gradually ease as they grow, so that many children who have suffered from eczema as a baby or toddler will have no problems whatsoever when they become adults. However, there are many factors that can trigger an outbreak of eczema even in adults who have been clear of the condition for many years. When this happens to adults, the dry red skin will commonly be found on the inside of the elbows, knees and less normally on the ankles. At the same time however, the condition can flare up to show many of the characteristics common in childhood eczema. Being a chronic condition, there is no known cure for eczema although the condition is generally not dangerous. In addition, there are plenty of different ways of treating it. However, because the main group of sufferers are children who find it very difficult not to scratch, it is not uncommon for youngsters who suffer from eczema to break the skin, making them far more susceptible to infections and other conditions that attack broken skin such as warts.
