In the not so distant past, in the United States contact dermatitis was considered to be a condition that affected mainly adults. The diagnosis was certainly less often rendered in pediatrics, mainly because it was believed that a child's immune system was immature and that children were generally exposed to fewer allergens. With this in mind, we can attribute the low prevalence formerly reported for this disease partly to the fact that most affected children were not (and are still not) evaluated using appropriate skin tests. Patch testing in children requires certain modifications, but the international literature of the last decade and US data published in the past year indicate that contact dermatitis is a common condition in the pediatric population and that the prevalence is similar in children and adults.
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