The hardest part of having red, itchy skin, hives, or swollen spots on your skin is trying to concentrate on making your day as normal as possible while avoiding scratching the itchy parts.

Sometimes you have to concentrate so much on that that you sort of forget what's the reason behind the itching, which would really be the thing you should focus your attention on, so that it won't happen again.

Allergies are most often the cause of skin rashes and such, and some of them are quite common.

An allergist can test if you're allergic to substances or if your skin reacts to different possible allergens by conducting a skin test. In a multiple-test method, the allergist will prick your skin to introduce various media in microscopic amounts, to see which pricks elicit a reaction from your skin.

The material type that your skin reacts on can be retested using different methods to confirm if the material in question is indeed your allergen. The allergist can also check to see how severe the reaction to your allergen is, and can range from mild to life threatening, using increasing concentrations of the allergen to measure reaction times.

Different forms of skin allergy reactions can be found in people. Occurring most often in small children, eczema, specifically known as Atopic Dermatitis, appears in the form of a red rash, and blistering of the skin is quite common. The skin can break from being scratched aggressively, and will usually cause scarring.

Treatment usually consists of applying a topical solution on the site of the rashes to ease the itching, and your doctor will be able to prescribe treatment that is calibrated in strength to match your rashes.

Another common manifestation of skin allergies is the raised, red-colored bumps on the skin known as hives. While it is quite aesthetically disturbing to some, hives are not so itchy that you'll break the skin by scratching really hard. Hives are common enough that people of all ages are affected by it at one point or another.

A third form of allergic reaction is called contact dermatitis, and this is a common reaction to a substance which will cause a similar reaction to a rash when you come into contact with it.

The symptoms have more in common with Atopic Dermatitis, but the usual areas that the rash manifests itself are only where you've touched or come into contact with the substance. A good example of this is when you've touched poison ivy, and there are even common cases of people getting rashes because of their jewelry.

Once a rash breaks out on your skin, as much as possible, try not to scratch it, since scratching could break the skin and introduce dirt and bacteria to below the skin level and you'll have more trouble if it gets infected.

A common solution to allergic rashes would be to apply an allergy cream to soothe the inflammation and to remove the itchiness. But the most important thing is that in the first occurrence, you'd be better off consulting your doctor on what to do just to make sure.

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