A Skin Condition - Molluscum Contagiosum

My daughter has this on her knee. Just a few spots. The Doc said that after some time - a month or so? - it isn't contagious any more - it's just there. She picked it up at summer camp. How lovely!
It's been almost 2 years now... We're still waiting for it to go away. As long as the skin doesn't get broken, it doesn't spread.
She had 2 on her eyelid when she was much younger and we had those taken off with liquid nitrogen at the dermatologist's office. I'm thinking of trying the wart remover recommended by another mom if it's not gone by the time she goes to camp this year.
YMMV
LBC

Victoria
My 6 yo daughter has it. It is also called "water wart" (I know, eeewww). It is harmless, just not particularly pleasant to look at. My daughter was fortunate enough to have a few bumps on her chin for about two or three years. I took her to the doctor in the beginning but chose not to use the treatments because the doc warned it would likely scar her face. The treatment is basically using a chemical to burn it off or actually shaving off the bump with a special scalpel (ouch!). The chin breakout has finally gone away, but she still has one on her arm and another on her leg. My guess is they will go away eventually, too, but there is always a chance one will pop up somewhere else on her.
C.

Hi Victoria, My 5yo son and his neighborhood friends all had it. The other kids went away. My son's got worse. I took him to a dermatoligist and he put a dab of something on it and it was all gone in 4 days. He said it would have gone away on it's own after time but since his was spreading up and down the back of his leg he treated it. It basically burned( for lack of a better word but not as bad as it sounds)each pimple off, they scabbed, and then they were gone. It wasn't at all painfull. About 2 hours after my son itched for maybe 10 minutes and that was it.

Our youngest has/had them. He is now two and has one left on his arm. I was also told they would go away on their own and some of them did. However when he started picking at them (spreading them), we dicided to have them treated. They can only treat somewhat big ones. With smaller ones, the medicine they put on them can irritate the skin. The stuff is made from some type of beetle. If u have other children, they say not to bath them together. However I did. With husband works nights and try to give two toddlers seperate baths in nearly impossible. Our other son did get one on his side, but i have done nothing to treat it, for it doesn't bother him. We will just wait it out. If they are irriating your son or spreading, I'd have them treated, or if they are big ones, too. I did not read the other response so sorry if I repeated some information, but this is what I went through. Good luck with your little one.

My son got this too, and now both my boys have it. I recommend bathing them alone until you can get rid of it. Also if you rinse them with fresh water when they are getting out that will help remove any of the loose cells that came out in the warm bath.
My doctor told me the same that yours did and that the treatment was worse than the infection. I've tried two things that have worked on the breakouts but it keeps popping up because it's in their systems. It can take a few years for the body to get rid of it. Anyways, tea tree oil is a great thing to get rid of it. I wouldn't put it near the eyes or mouth but it's great everywhere else. Just dab it on with a qtip several times a day and let it dry. Another thing I tried by fluke was desitin. Pure original desitin. Zinc is a great skin healer and it worked great when my little one broke out along his leg where his diaper rubbed. Kept it from spreading and it was gone in less than a week. Use the one with the highest zinc level and slather it on before you put tight pj's on.
It doesn't seem to bother the kids and will go away on it's own. Just keep talking with your pediatrician especially if he gets a rather large area. Good luck and hang in there.

When we joined a local pool my 3 daughters picked this up. We had no idea what it was at first as they were just innocent looking bumps. Several months down the road, they weren't going away and actually were spreading so we took them to the Dr. and found out it was M.C. which is actually a virus. What worked for us: Do not bathe them together! Showers are even better if possible for your 2 yr old. Do not share towels and and wash their towels after each use. We found a product on the internet called "Silver Cure" and we bought some of the ointment and the shampoos. At the same time we also started recognizing that the bumps develop a tiny white tip almost like a pimple right before they are ready to "erupt" This is how the virus spreads. We would "pop" them when they got to this point before they had a chance to spread, carefully squeeze out the white part which carries the virus (sounds gross I know but if you ever popped a zit, it's about the same thing)and wipe it with a tissue and throw it away. We would cover the area with the silver cure ointment or neosporin and put a bandaid on it and keep it covered for a few days to make sure it couldn't spread. It took us about 3 months to get rid of all the warts off all the girls but we were able to avoid all the chemicals and scarring and that was worth the extra time to me. I am not sure how much of our success was due to our diligence in "popping" the ones ready to erupt and keeping them covered and how much was due to the silver cure.. so don't take this as an advertisement for the stuff ;} One thing I ask is that you respect other families and not take your kids swimming while they have M.C. Its not fair to other kids at the pool to get stuck with this nasty condition. While doctors still don't understand much about M.C. it seems that areas with water - pools, tubs, locker rooms at pools etc are a prime site for picking it up. Good luck and heres wishing you a very quick clearing up of their sweet baby skin!

I have way to much experience with this skin condition. My at the time 8 year old daughter was hospitalized for two weeks when she was mis- diagnosed. She had molluscum contiagiosum. Her immune system took over and created Hugh red sores on her legs, at times as big as a soft ball. They were hot to the touch and nothing would seep from the sores. After seeing several doc's,pediatricians, infectious diese,surgeons, we finally went to a pediatric dermatologist, Dr Hazel Vernon, she told us what it was in 2 minutes. You can have treatment and have spots removed and some other types of things. Basically, its very contagious and kids will eventually grow out of it. we see the doc every month to have spots removed. My daughter had a case like no one had ever seen but I would recommend seeing Dr.Vernon...she is listed...Good Luck

Hello,

When I was 7, in 1983, I had four little wart-like appearing bumps on my knee. My pediatrician diagnosed them as m.c., and told my mom that they will go away by themself. Two years later, I had 32 of them on my body, and had to have them removed by liquid nitrogen at the dermatologist, who told us that she had wished we would have seen her at the onset of the m.c.

Good luck,

C.
Work from home mom to a 2 yr. old boy and an 8 month old girl

Hi Victoria,
My daughter had it for almost 2 years, under her arm. At first they said it would go away, then when it didn't, the pediatrician recommended using an over the counter wart medication such as Dr. Scholl's or Compound W. We did that for a while and it got rid of most of it but not all of it. Then the wart medicine started to irritate my daughter's skin (from using it for too long) so she stopped and the remaining "warts" just stayed. So I took her back to the doc and in the office they applied an ointment they had there, and the rest of it went away and never came back. So...try the wart medicine first and go from there. That method DID get rid of most of it. Good luck--A.

Hi, Victoria - My daughter's friend had it for a few years! Of course, everywhere she went the other moms would be pointing and saying oh my gosh, I hope my child doesn't get that from her! We all wondered why the mom didn't get it treated! If it is called contagiosum, it's obviously contagious! Just my two cents...good luck!