The first time Ms Yeo Wan Ting 'stole' a taste of chocolate, she was 13 years old.

Ms Yeo, now 25, has been living with eczema for as long as she could remember. When she was around three years old, she was diagnosed with eczema, or atopic dermatitis, by her father, a general practitioner. There is a history of eczema in her mother's family.

Chocolate was among the childhood treats she was told to avoid.

Ms Yeo Wan Ting says her eczema condition has greatly improved in the last few years, due partly to her scrupulous avoidance of factors likely to aggravate her skin and her meticulous skincare regimen.

In addition to eczema, Ms Yeo, who works as an operations analyst in a bank, has multiple allergies that can trigger a rash and aggravate her eczema.

As a child, she had to keep herself fastidiously clean and resist the temptation to play in the mud or roll in the grass - activities that caused her eczema symptoms to flare up. Vigorous play was also out as perspiration can bring on agonising skin problems.

Matters were not much safer indoors. Sitting on the carpet in her kindergarten classroom would cause rashes to break out on her legs. So, as a child, Ms Yeo wore trousers to school while all the other girls and boys wore shorts.

Her food intolerance included cow's milk and all seafood.

'When my lips touch a prawn - however briefly - they will instantly swell,' she said.

As a young child, she often found her dry skin so itchy she would scratch even though she knew it would exacerbate the problem.

'It was especially hard to refrain from scratching at night. In my sleep or in a drowsy state, I'd scratch and scratch,' she said, laughing at the memory of her childhood folly.

The price she paid was that she would wake up to find her skin cracked, swollen and bloody. It was not uncommon for her to scratch her ears until they broke out in pus.

'When I was a child, I'd frequently wake up in the morning to find that I had bloody nails and blood-stained bed linen,' she said.

Life brought happy discoveries too - like that first taste of chocolate at 13. Until then, due to her allergy to cow's milk, she never tried even a nibble.

That rash act did not trigger a rash and she has since been able to indulge in all sorts of chocolate confections.

She said her eczema condition vastly improved a couple of years ago. She attributes this partly to her scrupulous avoidance of factors likely to aggravate her skin and her meticulous skincare regimen to keep her skin hydrated.

After she washes her hand, she always applies thick moisturising cream and she bathes with Pinetarsol Bath Oil, which contains pine tar to help alleviate redness and itchy skin. Regular soap is too drying for her.

She considers herself lucky as she is surrounded by caring family members and understanding friends. She has never had to face taunting or discrimination because of her skin condition.

Her advice to young people with eczema is to have a positive outlook and to live life with confidence. 'There's really no need to be self-conscious. Just be yourself.'

This article was first published in The Straits Times on Sep 25, 2008.