So, um, it turns out that my daughter has a highly contagious skin virus called Molloscum Contagiosum. She did not appreciate the various jokes I cracked, asking her when she’d become a marine invertebrate, so I switched to shouting “MOLLOSCUM CONTAGIOSUM!” at her with a flourish of my invisible wand, and then asking her why she had failed to levitate.
For some reason, Chickadee spent a lot of time rolling her eyes at me, yesterday. I cannot IMAGINE why.
But I had to make light, you know, because otherwise I would’ve had to cry. Molloscum isn’t serious—she’s not sick or anything, and although she’s itchy we’ve now got a good cream to use—but it’s extremely contagious.
EXTREMELY contagious. But it’s a poxvirus, so it has a long incubation period. It could be up to 6 weeks before we know if anyone else has caught it from her.
So, um, our apologies to everyone who swam in the city pool in her grandmother’s home town last week.
And to everyone who swam in our pool THIS week.
And to everyone at VBS yesterday (oops).
And, um, to my handsome and wonderful and patient and FORGIVING husband, because the first night the kids were home when he was not, I let Miss Chickie sleep on his side of our bed because she was so miserable.
I’d just washed the sheets, you know. Nice, clean sheets… which I then allowed my wart-covered daughter to roll around on.
(We washed the sheets again yesterday. I pointed out that we were probably already contaminated but whatever.)
I took her to the doctor, which is always an adventure because no matter when we go or what we’re there for, we have to wait an hour. It is MADDENING. Especially because our doctor’s office is tiny and is never busy. I strongly suspect him of having a House-esque addiction to soap operas, or something, and that we’re merely waiting for him to finish watching “his stories” before coming in to see us.
So we waited and waited and the nurse finally took us back and weighed Chickadee and measured her and took her temperature (lord knows you cannot diagnose an outbreak of warts without a proper blood pressure reading) and then we sat there some more, waiting for the doctor.
The doctor came in and looked at her and then turned to his computer. And surfed over to the Mayo Clinic site and started looking things up.
“Ummmm… you know, I could’ve stayed at home and saved myself $15 by just consulting Dr. Google, if that’s all you’re gonna do!” I joked.
He didn’t laugh.
He found the page on Molloscum and instructed the nurse to print it out for us. (We’ll take one serving of grody warts and several dead trees, to go.) He said that the itching and redness is actually a secondary infection, not uncommon, but that the warts themselves are ugly but harmless. Then he started explaining to me what it is and how it’s very contagious and how she can’t go swimming for at least a month but maybe as long as six months and—
“Wait wait wait! Back up. She can’t go swimming? For a MONTH??”
“Right. She’s contagious. No swimming.”
No swimming, for a month. In the summer. In Georgia. When we have a pool out back.
In one moment Molloscum was upgraded from a minor unsightly annoyance to a complete and utter bitch.
To her credit, Chickadee handled it better than I did, I think. I was (am) really upset about it; everything I’ve read indicates that there’s no strong science to support spread through chlorinated water, but “standard protocol” is to stay out of the pool. I also read that the lesions need to be covered with clothing or “water-tight bandages” to prevent spread when out and around other people, so I attempted to bandage her up this morning before VBS.
Know where she has the biggest outbreak? On her elbows.
Know how easy it is to put any sort of conventional bandage on an elbow? About as easy as putting an octopus into a string bag.
By the time I was done she looked like she’d been in a horrible accident, and five minutes later all of the tape (put over the bandages in an attempt to keep them on) was starting to uncurl and fall off, making her look like a bargain-basement mummy.
But I’m sure there’s nothing more comfortable than having to wear long pants and having your elbows bandaged in Georgia in June when you can’t go swimming! Right? Right! Yay!
So, um, this afternoon we’re planning an action-packed trip to the library. Yes, summer is truly turning out to be a magical time for my children. All that’s left is for Monkey to break a bone! I am not saying anything else. Nope. The end.
Ugh, why this?! I can’t fathom having to restrict one of my children from the pool during a hot summer. Best of luck to you – I’m sure she won’t be able to keep up the great attitude about it for long (mine wouldn’t). Here’s hoping none of the other Mir-clan members get it.
Bless her heart. And yours.
Grody warts. That made me laugh. Hey, you gotta laugh, right?
I understand the no swimming thing, I guess. But really, don’t you think the chlorine in the pool would kill it? I’m betting it does.
Oh, poor Chickadee.
did they freeze the wart like things off? my kids had this a few years ago (thankfully, in the winter) and they froze the warts off – they did this at the dermatologist office. They told me it was contagious, that it was something that a lot of kids get, but they never told me they couldn’t go in the pool – but then again it was winter in Georgia.
I feel for you – I think it is suppose to be in the 90’s this week!
If you guys are already exposed, can’t she go in your own, personal pool?
No swimming? Even in your own pool? I mean, y’all are all gonna get it anyway right? Poor lil’ thing.
Poor baby. Injury AND insult. Totally unfair. However, if you’re going to have an unsightly disease (and could there be an uglier word than wart?) at least have one with a fantastic name. Sounds like it should come with a super power of some kind doesn’t it? Then the mummy thing could be her secret identity… or something…
My son had molluscum several years ago. Try Neem Lotion and Soap from the health food store. The Neem seemed to help clear them up!
Oh… I was afraid that’s what it was when you mentioned it yesterday. It can last a long time. One of my kids has had a mild case for… ok, well, I won’t say how long. I have heard tea tree oil helps clear up the bumps. We tried it, but my bionic-nosed son couldn’t stand the smell of it.
I hope no one else catches it. (Or maybe if you ALL catch it, you could all swim together in your pool? *ducking*)
Just a suggestion for bandaging (with 4 boys I rock at bandaging) try gauze pads and the stuff they use to wrap horses’ legs. It comes in all colors, is cheap and works wonderfully – especially for elbows and knees. (this is where I get it: http://tinyurl.com/5x9s3f )
Ack! The link is completely messed up. So sorry about that. Go to Tractorsupply.com and look for Vetrap Horse Bandaging Tape.
A couple of sensitive-skinned kids over here send their best wishes out to your Chickadee (and I do, too)….
“Bargain basement mummy” had me snorting. Poor Chickie, poor you. But really, how could she not laugh at the levitation joke?
My son caught this at our YMCA pool a while back. He had a bad case and the Dr. told us it might take a YEAR or MORE to go away. After he suffered for two months I consulted the internet and took a chance on this Silvercure stuff:
http://www.molluscum.com/?gclid=CJzX2LqkjZQCFQRgswodm2delg
A lot of people will tell you that collodial silver is quackery, but it worked a charm for my kid. Even though it cost a bundle for that little pot of cream, it lasts a long time AND IT WORKED. That’s the only important thing, right? I even used some on a conventional wart that I somehow caught and it disappeared in a week.
Good luck with weathering the wart storm…
I like All Adither’s suggestion, above. Go buy Chickie an inflatable pool that’s just for her. Then at least she can get into some water without having to worry about infecting anyone else. It seems unlikely that chlorine wouldn’t kill it, but why risk it?
Poor Chickie. I see a *LOT* of ice cream in her future.
Hmm, I was going to diagnose on your last post but didn’t want to be one of “those” people. My son had it and now my daughter does. Weird thing is, my doc said it’s contagious but only on themselves, meaning it can spread around their own body but not to worry about others. We’ve been swimming with it for years now (not in Georgia!) because the doc said we didn’t have to do anything special for it, except watch for when it gets close to any orifaces. Now I’m wondering if our pediatrician is a quack!
Maybe you can use the bandages they use at the blood donation place on her elbows? They come in awesome colors! She’ll be the envy of the ‘hood.
Poor Chickie – I agree with the inflatable pool suggestion, at least she’ll get to cool off in the midst of the heat. I feel for her, though – no pool parties with friends for her, this summer.
You might need to invest in some attention-distractors this summer; some activities she has maybe been asking for that would keep her mind (and hands) off her itchy skin (any kind of craft activity would be good – maybe jewelry-making, scrapbooking, or a fiber craft, or maybe learning how to make paper or turn wood). Or perhaps a visit to the local bookstore/library to refresh her reading materials. Whatever she’s interested in, it would be a special treat for her to be able to dive into it this summer (for our own Bunker Monkey, it would be any outdoor physical activity, so this summer his dad’s installing a zip line).
Good luck!
Get one of those really big wading pools for her personal use, poor thing. That’s awful.
My daughter has a skin condition called “somatic ichthyosis.” They can form the “Aqua pals” club.
See if you can find sheets of Tegaderm through your pharmacy. I had a mole cut out and biopsied off my shoulder a few summers ago and it’s breathable and makes a hermetic seal over the skin so I could still shower and all without compromising the healing! It’s about as stiff as saran wrap so it should work around the elbow.
Good luck!
Both my girls have had it (my 9 year old has had it twice) both times they have gotten it after swimming lessons at the Rec Center. It’s ugly and a royal pain in the rear but it will go away eventually. Make sure to keep your kids skin in tip top shape (I highly recommend shea butter) especially if they have senstive skin (both my girls have trouble with eczema and the places where they get it are usually the places where the molluscum shows up first) so that Monkey is less susceptible.
Poor kid. That really stinks.
And for some reason I am TOTALLY itchy all over right now.
cdc says swimming okay, sharing towels is not: http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/molluscum/swimming/swimming_recommendations.htm
Vet-Wrap is called Kling if you buy it for people and is about 3 times more expensive when you buy it for people. Totally infuriating, because the product is identical. Also, there’s a self-cooling form of Vet Wrap – I think it’s called Cold Flex – more expensive, but feels great.
Will your doctor write you a prescription for silvadene? generic is silver sulfadiazine. it’s a burn cream, but – way less expensive than colloidal silver and really effective.
My son had that a year or two ago as well. It did take ages to clear up but our pediatrician said the same as Tonja’s. Contagious only to themselves & a problem only when the area gets irritated and broken. (Eucerin for sensitive skin
will help with that.)
I trust our Dr. (Ivy League University based prectice – and more important – he belongs to the same pool/tennis club and swims in the same water!)
You might want to get a 2nd opinion before summer gets any worse! Good luck!
Several of the kids (mine included) in our subdivision had it one summer – I renamed our neighborhood Molluscum Manor!
But seriously, it went away eventually, they all kept swimming, and I understood from our doctor that it spread through skin-to-skin contact.
Oh the poor girl. Georgia summer and no swimming? I remember having a cast on my arm for the first 4 weeks of summer when I was about her age and it seriously sucked. Do you have sprinkler that she can run through? It’s no pool but it’s at least something.
Mir – This is straight from Wikipedia…
Sounds like no pool… We had some kids at the daycare that has this last year… I am sorry for all of you. I do know that they were able to keep it from spreading to the rest of the family.. Good Luck!
(How about a slip-n-slide or bringing the whole playing in the sprinkler thing back into style… better than nothing… (right??)
Prevent spreading
To prevent molluscum contagiosum from spreading:
* Try not to scratch. Put a piece of tape or a bandage over any bumps.
* Avoid contact sports, swimming pools, and shared baths and articles of clothing (towels.)
* If bumps are on the face, avoid shaving.
* If bumps are on the genital area, avoid sexual activity.
Poor Chickie! I’d say screw the doc (dude, he was on the Mayo website – he’s a damn genius I’d say) and let her go swimming. Chances are that the three of you will get it anyway, and as long as you keep her out of any public pools, she should be able to keep cool.
Oh the memories. I was 15 yrs old and getting ready to start driving school when I broke out with ringworm all over my arms and my legs!! So there I am, in the west Texas summer heat, with jeans and long sleeve shirts, riding around in stifling hot cars, trying to keep both hands on the steering wheel instead of scratching.
Have to reply….I just got our dd over molluscum this spring. I have lots of info to share….! First of all, the bumps are only contagous when they are inflamed and about to pop. There is a little whitish core in the middle of each bump, but you can’t see it unless it is about to burst. That core is what spreads them. When the bumps are not red or inflamed and usually indented, like a tiny donut, they are not contagous. So bah, on the no swimming thing, especially in your own pool. If you see red bumps that look inflamed, you can pop them yourself and very carefully remove the core without touching it to anyone or anything. Then that bump is no longer contagous.
A friend told me about this website. She had great success with the ointment, so I bought some too. If Chickies bumps are all sort of reddish and small, they would probably respond really well to this treatment system. Teg’s bumps were well-established, flesh-colored, and fairly large. I treated religiously with the creams and it didn’t seem to help much. I finially got assertive and just squeezed every single bump until they were all gone, whether they were inflamed or not. It was pretty barbaric to essentially pinch and squeeze them all really hard until the cores popped out. I used a lot of tissues to keep from spreading the cores anywhere. Oh, and they bleed a lot when the core comes out. Like for 10 minutes. Then I covered each one with a bandaid with the silver cream (from the website) on it for a day or so. They also have a nail-polish-like thing that you paint on that has the silver in it and works great on hard to cover areas. I like that it’s a non-toxic treatment…made from silver (a natural antibiotic) and tree tea oil. They healed up and were gone quickly. I know that sounds brutal….Happy Easter honey! Lie down so I can dig at your bumps! but it was such a huge relief to have it all gone. She kept getting more and more, and they were all over her stomach and thighs, and some on her arms. Once she started to get tiny ones on her face I had a cow, and resorted to desperate measures. Oh, and the ones that got inflamed and popped by themselves (before I knew about the process), left scars. She has little pits, like from chicken pox. The ones I popped, didn’t leave pits.
So, now that I’ve written a book about this gross disease, here’s a link to the website. Feel free to email if you want more help or a shoulder to sob on. It’s terrible to have a disgusting wart-like thing all over these beautiful little kids! http://www.molluscum.com/?gad=CJDFiJ4EEgg7xiEMvwSeQxictcD_AyCgjeRA&OVRAW=silver-cure&OVKEY=silver%20cure&OVMTC=standard&OVADID=21775347011&OVKWID=167152430511
Well, let’s hope Chickadee won’t be concerned about not being able to shave or having to abstain from sexual activity.
My LLB has had those on her knee for over 2 years now. They don’t go away… They never told us no pool – although, I’m sure that’s where she got it.
We keep putting hand gel on them… I don’t know if it does anything, but it makes us feel like we are keeping it clean.
Best of luck to you.
LBC
It’s not really all that contagious, just like everyone else has said, despite the ominous-sounding name.
Also, ditto on all the tea tree oil recommendations. Works like a charm, although it’s time consuming to put it on all the little bumps. (If it irritates her skin, you can cut it with olive oil 50:50. I put it full-strength on athlete’s foot, even if the skin is (slightly) broken, and have no problems, but maybe that’s just me.)
Hi there,
I would suggest to use a product called OPC3, it is a supplement and after a few weeks of taking it, she (and you should notice a difference).
OPC3 is an anti oxidant that helps the immune system, and can relieve about any infections inside or out.
It is in powder form, and taken with water.
Please check my website and look into it.
Thank you,
Gia
I have no advice, although it sounds like you’ve already got great advice from people who’ve dealt with it first hand. But I do have plenty of sympathy. Poor Chickie. I know what it’s like to be itchy and miserable (thanks to allergies to everything known to man that manifest in hives all over my body). And to be denied the pool on top of that…I don’t think I’d have handled it as well as she did. I hope she feels better soon, and I’m crossing my fingers that the posters above are right about her being able to swim at least at home.
Hi. My youngest daughter finally finally got over these nasty little bumps (she’s had them for the past year). My kids bathe together, sleep together, etc. No one else in the family has contracted a single wart. So I’m thinking these warts are not as contagious as the “experts” make them out to be (tho the baby did get them from somewhere). I also read a study that Tagamet does wonders to rid people of these bumps. But Tagamet tastes horrid. Crushed up Tagamet in chocolate pudding tastes horrid. And running after a four-year-old to shove Tagamet laced pudding in her mouth is horrid. Therefore we elected benign neglet and the nasty buggers finally disappeared. Best of luck to you!
It’s not the same disease, but you have to Google “tree man.” Try bandaging THAT!
Hi Mir,
We have had to deal with the unsightly mollescum now for two summers. Last summer the Dr’s told us there was nothing to do about it. Finally after three months we were prescribed a medication that was basically a wart remover. It seemed to work, but was also painful for our youngest. He seemed to have picked up the mollescum again just a few weeks after swimming lessons. This time I went the natural organic route and purchased Dr Wheatgrass Skin recovery spray and the skin recovery cream. It has only been a week and this stuff has actually gotten rid of those annoying bumps.
http://www.drwheatgrass.com/conditions/molluscum/Default.htm
Hope you all can and will enjoy the rest of your summer!
Anna, dude. You are a sick individual. I like you. Mir must feel better now – Chickadee couldn’t be that bad. She hasn’t got roots yet, does she?
I’m with everyone who would let her swim in your own pool anyway. When my kids were small (18 mos apart), I would try to keep their pacifiers seperate. Oh please. They were going to spread things back and forth anyway. Save yourself the trouble and Chickie the angst. Let her swim. If its THAT contagious, you’ll all get it anyway and if it isn’t, there was no reason to keep her out anyway. Bonus, any neighborhood self inviters will have to stay home – its for their own good.
And tell Chickadee – no more kissing frogs. They hardly ever turn into a prince and all you are left with is warty elbows. Good advice for all of us actually ;-)
Oh, Mir! Poor Chickadee!
I don’t have any clever advice or anything, just a heartfelt THIS SUCKS!
Hugs to all of you!
OMG. That is just terrible. I can’t imagine having a pool and not being able to use it! What if she’s in a wet suit? Or a dry suit? Good luck. I think you’re going to need it!
I knew it. I didn’t want to email you and be all “your kid has a disease that will make you cringe every time you say the name” if I turned out to be wrong, but the second you started talking about those bumps, I knew.
I knew because Em had molluscum when she was younger. Although, I must say, we got VERY different advice. What they told us was that you had to come into physical contact with the ‘warts’ in order to get them, and that it had to be pretty serious contact. Now, because she was a preschooler at the time and constantly rough-and-tumbled with the other kids, this was a concern. So we had to either put long pants and sleeves on her for a while, or tell her no touching the other kids. But aside from that…NOBODY told us to stay out of the pool. And they ALSO told us that they could stick around for as long as FIVE YEARS. (They didn’t, but they lasted a long, long time.) You just can’t worry about the whole world for the next five years!
Wow Mir, have fun wading through all of the suggestions. I can’t say any more than has already been said, just offer my condolances to you & Chickadee!
hey mir, my daughter too was not a shellfish two months ago. we tried the cream the doctor prescribed (starts with an “a”) didn’t work so i then ordered zymaderm online. it was brilliant- bumps disappeared within 2 weeks and it is homeopathic medication. good luck!
Mir,
I have no advice. I do have, however, a suggestion: you should run to the closest liquor store for your favorite bottle of wine. Heck, buy half a dozen. Drink nightly. Share with Otto too.
No no… this one’s on me. No charge at all because I’m nice that way.
We have been dealing with molluscum for the better part of two years. It started with my daughter and has since spread to my other children and me. My daughter has serious eczema, so her case was definitely the worst. You wouldn’t believe what her skin looked like. In desperation, I did some research online and came across ZymaDerm. You can find tons of positive reviews for it on Amazon. It’s homeopathic and contains echinacea, tea tree oil and iodine. The iodine helps prevent the bumps from getting infected. Once I started using this on my daughter, her skin finally started to clear. It was an absolute lifesaver and worth every single penny.
With regard to the swimming, my doctor has always said that it’s fine to swim with it. It’s mostly transmitted (they think) from skin to skin contact. I would second the recommendation that it’s okay to swim as long as the bumps aren’t irritated and it’s in your own pool. Because, unfortunately, it probably will spread throughout your immediate family. I tried to prevent it from spreading (kept it covered, etc., etc.), all to no avail.
See, NOW is when it’s time to go visit Dad for a few weeks. They went too soon.
Total bummer.
I concur with everyone else – if it’s that contagious you guys are all doomed anyway and keeping her out of the pool isn’t going to help, so, go pool!
I would totally let her swim in your pool, just don’t have any friends over. You’ve all been exposed. For pete’s sake I don’t see how a chlorinated pool could be more of an incubator than your bed. Poor Chickie. I hope she recovers soon and no one else in the family gets it.
Hmmm. Does this mean that she can’t be enclosed in a small space with a recirculating air system and lots of unsuspecting people? Like a plane? Bound for New England? For six months? Tough break.
Mir:
We are living parallel lives. My 3year old daughter was just diagnosed with this also. We were told she could swim in the pool (we live in Atlanta) but not to bathe with her siblings (not an issue for us). So, I thought chlorine was ok. Our doctor did say it could take up to 18 months or more to go away but that it was more annoying than harmful. She said if we wanted to go to a Dermatologist they could do something or give us stuff to get rid of them. We do have bactriban to apply when they get infected from scratching or irritation. Hope that helps! After reading all the suggestions and comments, I made a call to the Dermatologist! :)
It can last for ever, it is contagious, BUT, our dermatologist is a top-rated dermatologist, Dr. Mosser, affiliated with children’s hospital of columbus ohio. She told me not to worry about the contagious factor. She sait it’s really not that big of a deal–lots of kids get it anyway, and that when her kids got it, she didn’t bother trying to keep them away from each other. That being said, I followed her advice, and my kids shared their baths, same as always, including washcloths and puffs. No one else ever got it, just my then-3 year old. So, I really wouldn’t panic about it. Good luck. PS–It’s all gone, and has been for a long time. It will go away, eventually!
We had it in our house too. I was told to pick the tops off of the bumps. They cleared up after that. They do bleed alot.
The kids could go swimming thank goodness!
Good LUck
Poor Chickadee :-( I hope you get it sorted out asap.
Aw, poor thing! Our kids would die if they couldn’t swim I think. Hopefully you guys can escape it! Hope she feels better soon. :)
I’m a big fan of Dr. Google, myself. I bet Dr. Google wouldn’t have told you to stay out of the pool for a month.
Love the House reference. Life would be totally unfair if doctors really do have time to watch soap operas, while SAHMs don’t even have time to visit the bathroom by themselves.
Wait–I forgot–life is unfair.
Poor Chickadee! Good luck getting it cleared up.
You might use Ace bandages (stretchy flesh colored strips used for sprains and such) to bandage her elbow.
Criminy! That just sucks like a Dyson.
All 3 of my kids passed this around a few times. My middle child had his frozen off. I think they are gone now. Since we don’t want them again we won’t be coming to visit you. Sorry :(
i say let her swim…..
My 4 year old has had them behind her knees for a little over a year now. And the 2 year old has 4 bumps…..My oldest daughter had them for about 2 months but they went away really quickly and my 10 year old never got a bump!
So far neither has myself or their father.
They are really awful though, and steroids make them worse (by weakening the immune system).
Aldara never worked here either and i dont have the heart to pick at them. I am going to try a few suggestions here though.
You all have already been exposed, might as well enjoy summer :)
ugh. I googled the tree man. I couldn’t help myself.
Mmphh, laughing here, because as soon as I read “Molloscum Contagiosum” I thought it sounded like a Harry Potter spell…then you started running around yelling it and I can TOTALLY relate to that. Poor Chickie – I say let her swim.
First, LMAO at the Harry Potter spell.
Second: Dude. It’s your own pool. It’s summer. Put some duct tape on it (serious)
hmmm… Kind of a different explanation than both my kids got. It is a virus. One of my kids had it around age 3, then my daughter had it around age 3. They were born 5 years apart. We know of no one else who has it. I don’t think it’s so much contagious as certain people are more susceptible to it. And the younger they are, the more susceptible. They will go away on their own. They can be fun to pop, but make sure to clean it out right away. The stuff in the middle is the carrier. Blech.
Yucko… Poor Chickie! I’m sure she’s miserable and the no-swimming-curse has made it all the worse. :(
This virus must be something more prevalent in the south or the SE or I dunno where; this is the first time I’ve ever heard of it (I live in the NW). I remember getting Chicken Pox as a kid, but that sounds like a walk in the park compared with this virus!!
I vote to buy her a pony. :D
My daughter had this last year. I didn’t take her to the doctor as it didn’t get infected and she had no other symptoms like fever nausea etc. I did treat it with colloidal silver, like I do most mystery rashes, and it disappeared very quickly except for one or two spots that lingered over the course of a month.
No one else in our family got it. By the time I finally figured out what it was, she was over it.
I’m in the let her swim camp, but I do have to ask if the water makes it worse? If that’s the case it might not be that hard to keep her out of the pool.
I’m hoping a pediatrician or dermatologist reads your blog, Mir. I have NEVER heard of not allowing swimming for 4-6 weeks. NEVER. IT’s not a dangerous disease. It’s a pain but COME ON – it goes away. Tons of kids in the pool already have it and YOUR supposed to keep your kid out? Chickadee can try to cover her Molluscum (where is it?). And don’t share towels or clothes.
My daughter also came down with this when she was about four years old. The first dermatologist diagnosed it correctly, said it was very common (especially among high school wrestlers due to their skin to skin contact – and the mat they wrestle on), and gave us an ointment that did nothing. We were referred to another specialist, who gave us something that looked like clear nail polish to paint on the offending spots. The warts all fell off within a week. Nobody else in the family ever got infected, and we were never told not to swim, bathe the kids together, cover up the warts, etc. I really thought it was a big deal. I say let Chickie swim!
Oops – I meant to say that I thought it was NO big deal. Guess I should proofread before hitting Submit…
My Little Guy had these when he was about 4. They kept bursting and bleeding. The first time they bled, I thought he was going to die. Ruined a lot of clothes. I finally read about duct tape (see Sue above) and tried it. It worked! Getting the residue off for the next month? Not so fun. Of course, he only had three or four. I can’t imagine ducting a wide spread case. Good luck, pretty Mir.
Seriously, I don’t know why you even go to the pediatrician. Dr. Comments Section has it covered. :)
(But for real, it sounds like there might be a less dire prognosis for Chickie out there, so maybe there’s that?)
(And also, if you do want VetWrap, for heaven’s sake email me because I have a metric sh*t-ton of the stuff and you can HAVE it. It’s in pretty colors, too.)
It sounds like more Dr Google or a second opinion might be worthwhile.
One of the interesting things about “standard protocol” is that it can be driven by excessive caution, not scientific fact. For example, you know how pregnant women are warned “absolutely do not sleep on your back because your baby will crush the cord or your veins and both of you will die?”
Um. NO scientific basis for that recommendation. It makes theoretical sense, but there is no evidence of it happening in reality.
When I read that, this pregnancy, I happily gave up torturing myself at night and now sleep however I’m comfortable. Or comfortable-ish.
I have absolutely no knowledge of this condition, but I’ve had my fair share of battling warts on myself, younger brother, and boyfriend. We used duct tape when the topical wart removers didn’t work. Apparently the duct tape “starves” the wart of something necessary for it’s existence on skin. I wonder if putting tee tree oil or silvadene on the lesions, then putting gauze over it, and finally covering it all in duct tape would fix it. Or just psychologically scar her for life? Just a thought I had if you want to experiment on poor chickie.
I HAVE A SOLUTION!!!
My son had these gross things all over his poor little body and we could not get them to go away. We tried the cream mentioned above, didn’t work. I wiped his entire body with betadine every night, didn’t work.We scratched the tops off and let them bleed, but we could never do enough at once to get them not to spread.
Go to a dermatologist and have him treat them with the “blister beetle stuff” (not the technical term I’m sure but he’ll know what you’re talking about). It doesn’t hurt and it will make them each blister up (again doesn’t hurt) and the little crusty things in them will come out and then they will all go away. She will look like she has a very horrible disease for a couple of days, but then they will all go away and she can swim again.
They also make a very big deal out how contagious this stuff is but my son had it for months and my daughter didn’t get it. . . besides that, I ran out of patience with being careful about towels and stuff after about 2 weeks.
email me if you need more advice – I’m full of it
I am so sorry for her. I mean the warts and all are bad, but no swimming that has to be the worse. I hope no one else catching it and that she feels better soon.
I say a pony and all the candy she can eat is in order for this summer. Poor baby.
BAH. Thanks a bunch, Mir. I just sent my kid off to camp for a week with one of these, healing from a freeze-away application last week! CRAP!!!
I had this as a kid… and no one else got it in the house. So I bet that you’ll remain un… um, warted.
I see a few people have already recommended duct tape and I need to wholeheartedly agree! Doctors are actually now recommending using duct tape over freezing (at least here in Canada) because Hello? It’s painless! And it really works!!! We’ve tried it several times and it always works. It’s just a matter of patience and consistency. I’m actually really kind of weirdly passionate about telling people about the duct tape cure because no one seems to know about it. It can take several weeks or even longer than a month and you just have to consistently replace it every time it starts to come off. Now, if your daughter has the warts on her elbow she may not be thrilled to wear a honking piece of gray tape on there, but if she is willing, it works!
Feeling a little amazed that I just wrote that much about duct tape? I wrote a whole blog post about it this week! :)
See, now Dr Jen was going to say it was MC! My daughter, then 3, saw a new pediatrician when we moved house, and she was a tad grumpy that day and he said “ooh you’d better be in a better mood next time”, and sent her off to the dermatologist to have her Molloscums removed. They got scraped off her back one by one…. and the next day it became evident she actually had chicken pox!! Can you BELIEVE it? They’d been scraping off pustules not little fatty warts. I never went back to the guy. Hope Chicky feels better soon. (oh, by the way, DD did have the odd MC, but they went away by themselves, luckily).
My 7yo has a few of these – originally misdiagnosed as a staph infection.
We’ve been using the Zyma-Derm, and it gets rid of anything that looks like it might be a new bump appearing, but it’s done nothing for the original three she had at diagnosis.
I’m trying to hold myself back from popping the one, but after reading the comments I’m thinking I’ll go pin my daughter to the floor and have at it!
We are keeping them covered with Nexcare Waterproof clear bandages – once on, they stick great and are difficult to remove, but you have to be careful because they’re more wiley than a piece of saran wrap. The bandaids began irritating her skin though, so now we only do bandaids during the day, and she wears long pj bottoms with a tight ankle cuff for bed. I’ve resurrected the Lansinoh for the irritation left by the bandaids.
Originally, we were only using the Zymaderm once a day, and then we were doing Zymaderm in the morning and Tea Tree oil at bedtime. Just this week we stepped it up to Zymaderm twice a day.
We’ve been dealing with it since early April. While I’m glad she’s not getting any new spots, I’m looking forward to them all going away!
OK this will sound loopy and crazy and ridiculous but here goes. We tried everything for my son who had the SAME THING. The operative word was EVERYTHING. Painful, horrible, smelly, disgusting treatments for the warts. Know what worked? DUCT TAPE. I kid you not. Stick it on (in whatever color she would prefer it doesn’t matter) and leave it on until it falls off on it’s own. Then wash/scrub the warts with a pumice stone, let dry and re-apply a new set of duct tape. Keep doing it until they are gone. It works. I promise. It has been written up in medical journals, seriously. The kind, saintly nurse at our clinic took me aside and got me the “in” to avoiding painful and expensive treatments. I owe her everything. Good luck!
K.
No great advice, except this tidbit for any googlers out there: My friend’s kids had these, but she referred to them as “water warts”. I guess that’s a “common name” in some parts. And her kids gave them to each other. (Three out of five.)
just wanted to add that duct tape comes in several shiny, pretty colors…