In childhood, the most common type of eczema/dermatitis is atopic dermatitis, which occurs in up to 25% of children world-wide. However, the diagnosis may sometimes be challenging and atopic dermatitis may resemble other types of dermatitis as well as other skin diseases such as psoriasis, infections, infestations and malignancies as well as metabolic, genetic and autoimmune disorders. This review will focus on how to recognize the most common types of dermatitis in children and adolescents and how to separate them from the most common differential diagnoses clinically and histologically.