Infantile Allergic Dermatitis

Abstract

Divergent views and little agreement characterize the subject of “infantile eezema” or “infantile atopic dermatitis,” which I take to be synonymous for the title of this talk. This disorder is variously looked upon as (1) a disturbance of the sweat mechanism, with flexural retention of sweat, (2) a non-atopic disease which occurs most often in atopic individuals, (3) an auto-sensitivity disorder in which there is sensitivity to human skin, (4) a disease which usually has a dominating allergic etiology, (5) a psychosomatic disorder dominated by habit-scratching or emotional scratching, and (6) an inborn error of cutaneous norepinephrine metabolism, with increased affinity for binding norepinephrine in the skin.