This happened to me once also, except the dry skin patches were on my face. I tried everything and nothing helped. It turned out I had a thyroid problem and once I was on medication it cleared up. I never knew dry skin could be caused by your thyroid. My dh's has developed a thyroid problem and now has really dry hands. They were always baby soft before despite working construction. If nothing else works you may want to get checked the next time you are at the dr. Good luck.

My daughter and I have flaky, itchy patches too. On her, we use a prescription cream called Elidel that clears it up in about 24 hours. For me, I've had good luck with AmLactin. It really helps with the itchy dryness.

Just wanted to report that I've been using Eucerin Calming Creme twice a day for about a week, and my skin is MUCH better. No idea if that's because the flare-up is over, or because of the lotion, but I'll keep using it until it doesn't work.

I chose the Eucerin because it was the easiest to find, and one of the cheapest, but if/when it stops working I'll definitely try out the other suggestions.

Thanks, everyone!

I very much second the suggestions of either coconut oil or extra virgin olive oil. I once had that same sort of extreme dry skin on my neck that turned out to be a nickel allergy to an accessory I was wearing.. and once I stopped wearing the accessory, the dry patch remained for months. I went to a dermatologist for a completely separate issue and asked about the issue with my neck and was prescribed a cream that would apparently get rid of the dry patch.. but also thin out the skin on my neck. No thanks.

So, instead, I religiously applied olive oil some days and coconut oil others. It worked beautifully and I've never had an issue since.