How was your kid’s Molluscum treated?

[Anonymous]

Used retin-A and bandaids. Seemed to work. Helpful if you can identify the “mother” wart and focus on that one. Once the bump is irritated from the medication, it sends message to the body that there’s a foreign substance to attack. Once the body starts attacking them, they ooze and are contagious. This cover with bandaids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:About a year and a half ago my older DS got it on his torso. He scratched at it and it spread all over his torso, leading to bout 15 or so warts. He spread it to his younger brother who also had about 8 or so warts on his torso and butt. We definitely did not want to wait it out as they seemed to keep spreading and getting worse. Our per have us a referral to a derm, who did a total of two beetle juice treatments, one per month. They fell offf over the course of these months.got

Then, about five months ago, older DS got another wart, this time in his left palm. Since we're in NYC and were staying at home due to COVID, we thought we would wait for it to resolve on its own. It became very painful, so much so that WE stopped using that hand. So our ped, via a televisit, gave us a referral to a derm, who froze the wart off. It took two treatments, one per month.

Warts and Molluscum are two different things...

I'm the PP. The dermatologist said it was Molluscum. I call it a wart because I am a lay person and that's what it looked like.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Nothing helped but time, really. Took about 18 months to really be gone. Sorry!

. Same with my kid’s. It was behind his knee and mostly stayed there, with 2 on his chest. When they get angry, they’re about to pop!

[Anonymous]

Time did work for us as well - kid had them behind the knee from age 3-5. We changed his towel after every use. We used a lot of lotion (for eczema) but did not rub the lotion behind the knee so as not to spread it via the lotion.

[Anonymous]

My kids got it at the same time, and I got it from them shortly thereafter. We left it alone and kept them covered as per the doctor's advice but I got really tired of them. This is exactly what the doctors do not recommend, but what I did for myself is scratch them off individually in the shower. Once I removed one, I soaped and rinsed the site, and put a bandage over it. That worked quickly with no scarring for me, and they didn't return. I am sure it wasn't doctor approved but it worked very well.

[Anonymous]

My 5 year old developed them in March. He calls them his dots. He has about 5 on his belly. We let it linger during the beginning of the pandemic and then went to Dr. Curtin in AA Dermatology in Rockville in June. He was lovely and prescribed what is essentially Retina A. The medication hasn't helped though. We've been applying it diligently, but they're still there, but do seem slightly smaller than before. I have been putting Aquafor on and that does seem to help a bit because the cream irritates his skin. Dr. Curtin basically said they will eventually go away on their own because the body will recognize they're a foreign body and will attack the virus, but it takes time. He did say you can freeze them off, but he wouldn't recommend it if it's not severe case of them.

[Anonymous]

That is funny that someone else mentioned Dr. Lily in McLean. We went to her too as a last resort (she is my dermatologist).

We literally dealt with this for an entire year and it was becoming a huge issue as they were all over my daughter's face and she felt horrible. People kept asking her what was wrong with her, etc. Ped said to let it go, we ultimately went back after 3 months and asked if we could take other measures. They sent us to a pediatric dermatologist in Vienna who prescribed two separate rounds of some kind of ointment that didn't work.

I then tried a number of random internet rememdies. Nothing.

I ended up making an appt with Dr Lily just to see if there was anything else she could suggest. At this point my daughter was coming home crying every day about them. It was really bad. Dr. Lily basically cut each one of them out. She put numbing cream on and used a needle-like-thing to cut the top of each one and then squeeze out the core.

I would highly recommend going to see her as this was such a lifesaver, but if I had to do it again I would have been prepared better. I would have brought candy or something as a treat, and honestly depending on the age of your child you may want to bring another adult for backup. I was not prepared for how much blood there would be and I wished I'd brought my husband. My daughter was so hysterical I could not take her back to school.

[Anonymous]

I'm having PTSD from these posts.

And OP, I'm SO VERY SORRY for you and for your DC. Molluscum was HELL and I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. And yet at the same time, I had to keep reminding myself that this WILL go away eventually (it did!) and it is not fatal or even harmful! It just sucks because it feels endless and esp with girls, when it spreads to a place that is visible, it feels to them like it's the end of the world! We tried literally EVERY SINGLE REMEDY including dermatologist. TIME is what healed it. They just eventually stopped spreading, became fewer and lighter and went away. between 14-18 months. Not fun and you have my sympathies.

[Anonymous]

Have had 2 kids with it. One on the legs and one on the chin/face. For the one with it on the legs, it took about a year to go away. I tried all sorts of natural remedies. None of them worked. For the second kid, I just let it go and didn't do anything. It resolved itself in about 6 months. That was quick.

[Anonymous]

Be sure that’s really what it is. My DD has them for years. 100s of them. All over her leg hip etc. she felt a lot of shame and pain. They just wouldn’t leave. Went to a better dermatologist: it was a birth defect. Corrected by cutting them all off.

[Anonymous]

BTW (above) he used anesthetic before doing all that cutting. Healed just fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Honestly, I popped the head off and then neosporin and bandaid. Healed fine and didn’t spread.

That’s what my ped did. Took one look at it, popped it with his fingers before I knew it and covered it with ointment and a bandaid. Not sure I would recommend trying at home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kids got it at the same time, and I got it from them shortly thereafter. We left it alone and kept them covered as per the doctor's advice but I got really tired of them. This is exactly what the doctors do not recommend, but what I did for myself is scratch them off individually in the shower. Once I removed one, I soaped and rinsed the site, and put a bandage over it. That worked quickly with no scarring for me, and they didn't return. I am sure it wasn't doctor approved but it worked very well.

PP here. I forgot to add that when I scratched them off, what I mean is that I sort of scratched the top then removed the core. It's almost like the root ball. It has to come out.

[Anonymous]

We went to U.S. Dermatology Partners Fairfax, who has a dermatologist on staff who works with kids. Long story short, he was willing to treat my two (especially my oldest, who has probably 75 all over her legs), but wouldn't treat them because they were squirming -- so if your kids are squirmers, don't bother.

Instead, he told us to use Zymaderm. It's definitely been triggering an immune response, but it's not overnight by any means. But we've been dealing with this for at least 6 months, so anything that seems to be doing something gives me some amount of hope.

For others -- how did you avoid having them spread to yourself? I wash my hands a lot, but as I do laundry and apply Zymaderm and antibiotics, just wondering if there's any other precautions I should be taking lest I end up with them too.

[Anonymous]

We left it alone. My youngest had it everywhere on one side of his torso but one got irritated. He scratched it and it became very inflamed. Then they all went away right as my 8 year old got them. He scratched and picked at one of his until it became an ugly blister. That one healed but the others did not and also spread to his groin. They really are harmless, and even ones that we did nothing to scarred as they healed.