Ever Heard of Mulluscum Contagiosum?

Oh yes, how could I forget those bumps! I had 4 of them at age 7 (back in 1983), and my mother was told to leave them be, that they would go away by themselves. Two years later, I had all 38 of them frozen off. I remember the pain of that until this day. Afterwards, they never came back.

My daughter had that for almost two years, although not to that extent--the bumps were mainly under her arm. But they never went away like the doctor said. So finally they told us to use a wart medication like Compound W or Dr Scholls on it. That worked for most of it, but before they were all gone, the wart medication started to irritate my daughter's skin. So finally we went to the pediatrician again and they have an ointment that they apply there in the office that gets rid of them. That seemed to work (they just did it this fall). We go to Capital Area Pediatrics in Herndon, VA. Good luck!

Hi K.,

My daughter is 28 months old, she had a bunch of them on her back, they slowly went away on their own, maybe took about 4 to 8 months or so. Each little bump would get red and inflammed looking then go away. I didn't have them treated at all b/c our ped said he usually doesn't treat them unless 'they in a cosmetically' sensitive place. Have you taken her back to the doc with this new breakout of them? Maybe her body is reacting to the treatment?

Good luck!
S.

Hi K.! My nephew who is 3 has molluscum contagiosum. I myself am in the healthcare field. This is a virus and really there is no treatment for it except for what you have already tried. Treat it like a wart, it will spread if it's open and oozing like a blister. In that case, cover it, and don't let her scratch them, because they can be itchy. That's how the virus spreads. It will go away on its own, she is a little older than usual. It normally happens during their toddler years. I hope this helps.

Hi K.,
My name is W.. My son was born without much of an immune system, so he contracted all sorts of exotic things.The first, and longest lived, was Mollescum. In a healthy body, it will eventually go away. My son ended up getting a heart transplant, which further whammied his immune system, and for a long time, he was like a walking mollescum. We use Cidofovir, but that is for immune supressed persons. Some things to try, simple hydrocortisone, and a change in some simple habits. One thing, change shampoos. Go to something all natural. We use Burts bee's baby bee. Sulfates irritate the mollescum. Some suggest using a bar of soap, at night, to drag the childs finger nails across, so, when they scratch, and they will, the soap keeps the bacteria at bay. Warm baths,
slather down with aquaphore, and cover up with jammies. I went through that beetle juice stuff. It is awful, and barbaric. You are burning your child. My son ended up with some huge blisters around his diaper top and one leg area.
Do seek out another derm specialist. They will tell youit takes about 1-3 years to outgrow it. You just have to help her avoid scratching, as that will spread it. They are related to warts.We used retin A and bactraban, which was very sucessful. I would recommend using it only every other day to start, to watch her reaction.Also, vari the area of treatment, like, left leg and arm on Monday, right on tuesday, tummy on th enext day, and so on. I also would break off the fluffy top of a q-tip, and use the stick to apply medication. It helps to keep you from being heavy handed with the applications. My son has had this for forever, and he still breaks out occasionally. But, your daughter should get over it fairly quick. Worst case in a healthy child is 5 years. Best of luck to you! I know it is hard to deal with, and unattractive and you will have to tell people about it. It is contagious, but, no one in our house has ever picked it up except my son. We have all bathed and showered together, used the same beach towels, etc. Swimming pools are the biggest culprits. Dragging themselves out of the pool, a person leaves behind the disease on the side of th epool. Your child happens by that same spot, drags herself out of th epool, and there you have it! My son contracted it at the doctors office. You just never know!
W.

Are you sure that it is definitely the molluscum that has spread everywhere?
My 3 year old son had the same thing. It started as a couple of bumps on his back- at the beginning of summer. They gradually got bigger and multiplied- he had a patch of them that was about the size of a closed fist on his back. Of course, I was concerned...not to mention that it was a tad unsightly! I also took him to a dermatologist and they recommend leaving it alone...that they would go away on their own~ taking anywhere between 3 months and a year. We took there advice and eventually they did go away after about 18 months!!
Because this has spread to your daughter's entire body, I would probably go back to the dermatologist for advice! Good Luck!

Both my boys had molluscum and I am actually still battling it with my youngest. Interestingly enough I have found that desitin seems to keep it at bay. My youngest is in diapers and broke out in the creases of his legs where his diaper rubs. I took him to the pediatrician afraid it would spread and be a nightmare. He confirmed the diagnosis but told me to leave it alone. Well being the mom's that we are we feel we need to do something. So I put desitin on it several times a day and it went away in less than 2 weeks. He still has one pop up now and then but I just put desitin on it and it shrinks and goes away. They say the virus itself can take up to 2 years to go away but at least the outbreaks are limited. I've been using the regular desitin as the "creamy" doesn't seem to do anything. I've also heard that tea tree oil can help as well, I just found this easier. There's nothing proven and I've done this on my own, but it's working for me. Worth a try if you want. Definitely make sure it's not something else being that it's so wide spread. Good luck!

Yes, I have heard of them. My son had them 8 years ago but they were treated differently than yours. I was told they were highly contagious and would spread if not treated. My Dr. told me they were treatable at home. He had me take a toothpick and squeeze the head of it out like a pimple (not the pointed part, just the side of the toothpick combined with your nail on the other side. It's a hard center that you are removing. They will slightly bleed and the squeezing may hurt, but they are gone. My son's never returned.

My daughter had the same thing. We think she picked it up at a public swimming pool. They are benign, but very contagious and spread easily. They WILL go away, and when they finally do, her body should have built up enough immunity so that she will probably not get them again!

You can wait until they go away BUT you may be waiting a very long time! If you get frustrated, there are faster ways to get rid of them for good. Sorry, but "beetle juice" whatever that is, will not do the job. If it was a dark brown liquid, it may have been podophylin (PO-DA-FILL-IN), which starves the blood supply of the wart (yes it is a type of wart) and makes it die and fall off. If that does not work, they can be frozen off and that usually does the trick. Don't worry. They may be unsightly, but they are not dangerous in any way. The worst thing that could happen is that the bigger ones may leave a faint scar which will fade in time.

Best of luck!

my son has the same issue, unfortunantly it is where is has excema to, so it ends up spreading due to his itching. He also has one on his face. my doctor told me they have a six month time frame and that the treatments usually leave some scarring, so i am currently waiting and seeing. i guess the best thing is to follow the making sure its covered if oozing so not to spread it advice. I am glad to know its fairly common, I had never heard of it before.

Yikes! Are you sure its still Mulluscum? Both of my kids have this right now and I've gotten them treated with the "juice" that makes them into a huge red blister before they go away. I was told at my last visit that its not necessary to treat them. I was also told that if there are too many (supposedly spread by touching existing ones or scratching existing bumps), they need to be treated internally with antibiotics. Good Luck.

Yes, my son had it when he was about 2yrs old. He started with a few on his chest then I think he would scratch them at night and so they spread more on his chest. The Dr said leave alone and they will go away but can take up to 3 yrs. I was worried they wouls spread to his face so researched online. Found a product that was invented by a doctor for his grandaughter. Silver Cure was the name of it. We used it twice a day and they were gone in about 2 months and never returned. I have never heard of it returning like that all at once. You might want to make sure it is not something else. The silver cure was about 30-40 dollars for a small bottle but it was plenty. Good Luck.

My son had this and they did indeed go away on their own. They itched alot, so we put alot of Hydrocortizone cream on him. They took a LONG time to go away, but they really did go away on their own. Just give it time and keep them covered in hydrocortizone cream so that your daughter doesn't scratch them open (as my son did when we forgot!! :o)

Are you sure it is Molluscum she has? All 4 of my kids have had this, while it spread more on one dd than it did on the other three I have never seen it "break out" as you describe here. It ususally starts with 2 or 3 bumps and slowly spreads over days and weeks. I would double check and make sure she doesnt have a rash or hives or is allergic to something. That said, All 4 of my daughters picked this up the year we joined our neighborhood pool. I too had no clue what it was and finally asked about it several months later at a routine check up. Despite the Dr.s advice to leave it be, we could not do that as it was starting to spread on all of them. First thing, do not share towels and wash your daughter's towel in hot water after every use as the molluscum can be transfered to other spots on her body thru her towel. We did research on the web and decided to buy some stuff called Silver Cure. In about 3 weeks everything was gone. I must be honest though and tell you I am not sure how much of it was the silver cure stuff and how much of it was us being diligent so I would try diligence first and save spending the $$ as a last resort wink. We "popped" all the warts by squeezing them to remove the white core which contains the virus and then kept them covered in silvercure or neosporin ointment and bandaids until they were healed to prevent spreading. It is a nasty and time consuming thing to deal with.

well i had this disease as well when i was young i guess about 4 or 5 maybe.. i actually just had it mostly on my bum. mine , my mother treated with iodine. though not sure why or what that did..mine actually went and came back several times and i battled with it for almost 5 yrs. it was horrible let alone embarrassing especially when bathing suit season approached...anyway...rather then build on what these other moms have said i just want to strongly emphasize the sterilization of all linens and things of that sort. do NOT share clothes/towels or anything that could possibly spread the disease. i think if you did a real good thorough job on that and kept up with it while having your child retreated..it would go away if not help immensely. my favorite ways to sterilize are by boiling or bleaching or lysoling. but bleach is the best way in my opinion..especially for things you can stick in a huge pot. but if its colored blankets and things like that there is the color safe kind which kills as well.

Hello K.,

When my son was younger (around 7) he had mulloscum in a few different spots. We took him to a pediatric dermatologist who also advised leaving it alone. We followed that advice and after a long time (about a year!) it went away. At the same time, I ended up with a case of mulluscum- hence the contagiousum part of the name. I went to a dermatologist who put on a blistering agent. It kept coming back and he kept reapplying this blistering agent. It was horrible. My advice is NOT to do that because it didn't work and it was like torture.

In your case, I would go back to the dermatologist and see what your options are as it has spread, however skip the blistering agent.

Good luck.

I found a really good article on this: http://www.forces-of-nature.net/topics/molluscum/Children...

I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I didn't read any other responses you got ... Our 18mo old son has them. We had first just let them do thier thing, but they started getting bigger and we had them treated. He still has some small ones, but we are putting differin on them that the doc. gave us. It's suppose to help the body recognize they are there. It has worked, slowly but surely, has kept them under control. If they scratch them, or play with them and then touch somewhere else, they can spread it. They may not show up right away, but they will. Our son has a single one just above his wee wee. I am told they will grow out of it eventually. You try and see if the doc can give you some differin to help out the situation. Good Luck.

K.,

First, make sure it really is molluscum contangiosum, I haven't heard of an outbreak that severe and all over the body. The lesion of molluscum contangiosum is very characteristic..it has an indentation in the middle, ("umbilicated"}

If it is indeed molluscum contangiosum that broke out this time, it is probably an adverse reaction to the treatment MAYBE the virus got agitated and became more aggressive. Given the area infected, I advise you to confirm the diagnosis. That way if it is something else the proper management can be done.

Molluscum contangiosum is a virus, it is self limited, no treatment necessary, although it may take weeks or even months for it to clear up. It usually does not scar, but there are rare cases that do.