Controlling Your Eczema (Atopic Dermatitis)

Welcome

Eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, can’t be cured, but it can be treated.

This tool helps you have a conversation with your allergist or health care provider to decide what treatments are best for you.

It's easy:

1. Read about different treatment options.
2. Respond to a few simple statements based on your lifestyle and preferences.
3. Print out your answers and bring them to your next appointment.

About Eczema

The best treatment for eczema depends on how severe your symptoms are and how they affect your life. Other things you should think about are cost and whether the treatment will be easy for you to use. Most people with eczema use more than one treatment to control their symptoms.

Your skin is like a coat for your body. It holds water in and keeps irritating substances out. When you have eczema, your skin doesn’t do that as it should, and your skin can get inflamed – dry, red, scaly and itchy.

Eczema affects people differently

For people with mild eczema, warm baths, moisturizer and avoiding triggers should control their symptoms. Common triggers include:

• Dust mites
• Pollen
• Animal dander
• Foods (While food may be a trigger for some people, you should only avoid foods if instructed to do so by your allergist)
• Irritants such as wool clothing, sweat

If those steps don’t help, you and your allergist or health care provider might decide it’s time to try topical treatments. Topical means you put them on your skin, just like moisturizers, but these treatments do more than moisturize.

Your Turn

The next step is to talk about these treatments with your allergist or health care provider. To help you figure out what might work best for you, answer the following statements, choosing Yes or No.

All done!

Print out your answers and bring them to your next appointment with your allergist or health care provider.