ABSTRACT
Dermatology is about reading the skin. This skill needs to be sharper when treating very young children, as they cannot give a history. Being conversant with the primary and secondary cutaneous lesions of the skin is paramount for diagnosis. Reading dark skin is a different art. Ancillary noninvasive aids like Wood‧s lamp and a dermoscope enhance diagnostic efficiency greatly.
The diagnosis of a dermatological condition hinges first upon a carefully sought history elicited from the parents of the child. In children, where the history may be sketchy, a lot hinges on the power of observation and how you read the skin. To this end, understanding lesionology is important to diagnose a cutaneous disorder. Categorizing the lesions properly, especially in cases with unusual presentations, hints toward a set of limited diseases. The correct diagnosis can then be achieved by the process of exclusion. Morphology and distribution of the lesions help to arrive at the diagnosis.
Nowadays, there is a lot of reliance on investigations. In children, invasive investigations are preferably kept to a minimum. Even when histopathology is available, it is often inadequate without a clinical correlation.
