My 9 year old had some bumps on her knee and the NP said it was molluscum contagiosum, a virus that is commonly spread in elementary school. She said that since it's a virus, to just let it run its course, which could be 6 months to a year. If they spread, I can take her to the dermatologist and have them removed, but that would mainly be for cosmetic reasons since they don't really affect her health.
My 2 older kids never got it. She has 3 bumps, 1 is about the size of a small pimple and the other 2 are barely noticeable.
I read that if you want to get rid of them, you can treat them like warts and use salicylic acid wart remover products.
Has anyone else ever experienced this before? If so, what did you do?
L.:
My 8 year old has this on the back of his legs. It's SLOWLY going away.
We have been treating it with tea oil - the acid one is painful and didn't want to subject my son to that - as it doesn't make the virus go away.
The skin will peel and look funky.....it's been 14 months if not a little longer....
We also keep the large (the HUGE ones) band aid on them as well so he doesn't scratch them.
My daughter had them last year, and you really do need to leave them alone. The salicylic acid burns and my daughter hated it when I tried it. Since the area is on her knee and can easily be covered up since it's winter, leave them be fore now. They are only contagious on direct contact.
This is very common in children and contagious. You and your older children may already have an immunity to it, but just in case, take normal precautions such as careful handwashing, don't share towels, if your child is scratching them cover them with bandaids during the day as they can spread on her body and it takes so long for it to run its course. I would not try to treat myself - it will resolve on it own. But if you see more, or if she is scratching, I would go ahead and see a dermatologist. A dermatologist is much more likely to want to freeze or burn them off which might not be necessary at this point if she is not bothered by it but there is a risk of self- spreading so if its itchy for her, go ahead and see the derm.
Updated
This is very common in children and contagious. You and your older children may already have an immunity to it, but just in case, take normal precautions such as careful handwashing, don't share towels, if your child is scratching them cover them with bandaids during the day as they can spread on her body and it takes so long for it to run its course. I would not try to treat myself - it will resolve on it own. But if you see more, or if she is scratching, I would go ahead and see a dermatologist. A dermatologist is much more likely to want to freeze or burn them off which might not be necessary at this point if she is not bothered by it but there is a risk of self- spreading so if its itchy for her, go ahead and see the derm.
Most peds say "leave 'em alone.".
But in truth they can take 2 yrs to run their course and you never know when an isolated bump can turn into an outbreak. And if they do get bad they can leave scars. And when you have them, you are spreading them to others. Your ped is right...They say that 80% kids today have had the virus (whether you know it or not) by the time the enter kindergarten).
BUT...! The problem is this, until the virus has tired itself out, the bumps can and will come back. Meaning, you can go to the dermatologist tomorrow and get the three removed...Only to have a few more appear somewhere else a month later.
No at home treatment. Don't use that Silver Cure stuff. The dermatologist we went to used something she called a "2,000 year old cure." It's key ingredient was goo from the Blister Beetle...I think it is called Cantharidin. Very effective and not painful.
My 5 year old has had this now for about 9 months. Took her to ped. He said to just leave it alone. Will go away after a while. BIG mistake. I wish I would have taken her when I felt I should have. They did spread, luckily not as bad as they could have gotten. Check out some pics on Internet how bad they could get. Took her to dermotologist. First they tried a prescribed ointment. Didn't seem to be doing the trick. They the derm put a cream on her, when left the office for about 2 hours, came back. They put her under a light which -- long story short -- seems to have done it. After doing two treatments that way, they FINALLY seem to be drying up and I haven't noticed any new ones. Big pain in the booty. I should have done something before they multiplied and became more "stubborn" to remove. No pain involved in treatment. I do have two other young children. I am hoping they don't pick it up because this was a long process. My advise, see a dermotologist now!!! Get rid of them before they spread and get harder to removed.
My daughter got them on her eyelid and eyebrow. We had the one on her eyelid removed and left the the other two to heal on their own. She ended up with a few on her knee, but eventually they just went away.
You must NOT scratch them or they'll spread. We covered the ones on her knee with bandaids if she was going to be running or roughhousing. Other than that, we left them alone.
YMMV
LBC
My son had this too when he was two or three...they were mostly on his chest, but they were bothering him. Our pediatrician used what Ellis was talking about from the beetle...Cantharidin. It is a very strong compound you let it dry and then wash it off. We first tried leaving it on for only an hour or so, but when that didn't do it the doctor had us keep it on longer before we washed it off. We did have to have it done a few times, but it worked and I would do it again if it ever happened on any of my other children.
My 2 year old daughter had these on the back of her leg and we ordered the Molluscum No More from Forces of Nature on the Internet. It worked great! It took a few weeks, but hers had also spread quite a bit down the back of her leg. You just need to keep bandaides on them while you are treating them. Good Luck!
My sons both have had them. My older son gave them to our younger son. I found that tea tree oil was helpful and keeping them lotioned. When their skin was drier they seemed to break open and spread much faster. One son had them localized on his arm. My younger son ended up getting them all over his body. My husband then ended up with some on his arm too. They are contagious and adults can get them too. My youngest son took a year to get rid on round one. the next winter he had them again - they lasted about 6 months. My older son took 9 month before they were gone.
Good luck!
-J.
My two boys had them at ages 4 and 1. We left them alone although the pediatrician basically just dug out one of the bigger ones on my 4-year-old (quick but not pleasant). This was 11 years ago and I wasn't aware of any home remedies and wasn't referred to a dermatologist. It took well over 6 months and maybe even over a year for them to run their course and disappear. My kids had too many for burning off or wart remover acid and in places that might have been unpleasant (diaper area), but I might have tried a cream from a dermatologist had I known about something like that back then.
Both my sons had them, we went to the dermatologist, he prescribed Differin cream and after a few weeks of applying it daily, it got rid of it completely!
When my son got them, they would not do anything for him. A friend recommended Molluscum no more. It is a liquid bought on the internet that is all natural. I believe it has tea tree oil in it, but not sure. It only takes a little bit and the bottle lasts a long time. When we used it, it took about three days to a week for them to fester and be gone. Since using it, my son has not had any come back. My daughter thankfully so far has not gotten any. I highly recommend this as it is a cheap, pain free, and easy way to get rid of this pesky virus.
My daughter had this when she was about 2. We did nothing to treat them. They spread somewhat over her body but each bump was very small. She didn't scratch or pick them - we picked a couple of them before we knew what they were, which left little scars. I would be afraid that using acid on them would cause irritation and leave scars.
In our case, they did not spread to anyone else in our family, or anyone else in her daycare, even though we did nothing to limit contact (how do you not touch a 2 year-old?).
They did take a looooong time to go away, well over a year. But they caused no problem in the meantime, so again, we left them alone and they went away.
