My friend suffers from awful eczema, mostly on her hands, probably because she's always washing up /cleaning/ etc (a bit of a germ freak!) Anyway her skin is cracked and bleeding and makes life pretty tricky for her. We were out the other day with our kids and she had trouble tying a shoelace because of the pain 
I do nag her to see doctor again but she only ever seems to get steroid cream, which she doesn't like using because it's steroid. I think the eczema is re-infecting itself over again and not healing. But I am not a medic! Anyone got any alternative remedies I can suggest to her? She isn't terribly good at taking care of stuff like this (eg terrible cracked heels in summer and laughs when I suggest filing and moisturising), she's girly in lots of ways but doesn't think mere skin is important! I would love to see her hands back to looking nice again 