Has Anyone Ever Had to Deal with Molluscum Contagiosum? Any Advice?

My 1 yr old had it pretty bad all over her left arm and left side of her trunk. My doctor also told me to just leave it, and now, about 4 months later, it has seemed to pretty much disappear. A few bumps here and there....but it's definitely gotten a LOT better.

Two of my sons had it. My one son only had a few and they went away on their own. My other son had tons of them. My doctor suggested freezing them off. So we went with his advice. He has little white scars all over his body where they froze them. I wish I had been told this was an option because I would have just let nature take it's course. Good luck with it all.

Actually, my sister and I both had it as kids. It's was so itchy and painful!

Couple of thoughts (this was a long time ago & it may be treated differently now)...
- Don't let your kids bath together b/c the little scabs come off and that's how it spreads
- Thoroughly dry off after bathing and make sure the areas are completely covered with the cream (ours was in a little nail polish-like bottle)
- Follow the doctor's instructions EXACTLY!

Mine cleared-up fairly quickly, but my sister had to have the "active" scabs removed by the dermatologist.

There isn't much you can do to make it go faster, but make sure you follow the directions EXACTLY or it will take twice as long!

Here's what my doctor said about my daughter's: the body WILL fight them off itself, but it's rather low down on the priority list so it can take months or longer. Scratching/popping them sort of awakens the body to their presence, so the immune system starts to clear them out. There is a medical treatment, I'm fairly sure it was antibiotic pills of some sort, but it wasn't covered and cost upwards of $300. Hard to justify for a mostly cosmetic thing that will go away at some point. So I didn't get the pills, and they are gone. My son has them now, but they are starting to fade too.

Two of my daughters had it and it will take a while to heal..(months) Like krista said don't let your little ones take bath together, try not to let them pick at or scratch it.. If they do have them wash their hands right away and wash the area affected. My one daughter has some slight scarring from scratching at it - kind of like a chicken pox scar..

It's actually very common. My daughter had a few. Hers was not a 'bad' case... I have heard of some who get upwards of a hundred of those little warty bumps on them. My daughter had about 3 or 4. One on a leg, one on her neck, one in her hair/scalp. My son had 3, but we didn't know that's what they were until my daughter got them. He had his for several years (one on a finger, one at his waist, one on his back).

Dermatologist used the canthadarin stuff (beetle juice) and wart stuff combo. They went away completely in a few weeks. But, she had had them for probably a year by then. My son's ended up going away shortly after that without "treatment". He scraped the one on his back and the one at his waist on accident (scratched it when changing clothes). I think he had already caught the one on his finger on something and it had gone away (we thought it was a wart at the time). They can scar depending on the method of "treatment" you use. But yes, they are contagious. Do NOT allow her to share towels/washcloths in the bath or after swimming.

So many differing experiences listed so far! Must be confusing to you, I'm so sorry. Well, here's another one. My son had it when he was about a year and a half and they were on his legs and the trunk of his body. Not a whole lot but scattered. We followed dr's orders and just left them alone. They went away, no scars, nothing. I would follow your dr's advice since it is something that is contagious and you don't want her to have scars.

I had it, and mine weren't particularly itchy or painful. For me, I found that if I popped them (or they popped on their own,) then that particular bump would go away. I never treated with a dermatologist for it, so I'm sorry that I don't know what the conventional treatments are for it. I just wanted to mention that in my experience, popping them made them go away. They contain a whitish 'head' of sorts, that if you squeeze/pop it, and get that white head out, then they go away. Be aware, though, that they may bleed when you do this. Some of mine bled quite a bit when I popped them, but I don't remember that being particularly painful... but it has been a while, so I can't exactly remember... But I also know you may not have that option being that it's your daughter. I don't think I could pop them on my child. It's different if it's on your own body...

I'd suggest going to see a dermatologist, if you haven't already. But my only personal experience advice is that when they pop and the contents come out, they will disappear at that point.

Actually I had it just a few years ago. I had it for probably 3 years, I know that is not what you want to hear, but the "normal" range can be anywhere from 1-4 years. Mine wasn't itchy really but it just bothered me in terms of looks. It sounds strange, but actually my dermatologist told me to pop them. He said to squeeze it like a zit and then clean it immediately with a tissue, wipe, damp cloth, whatever. He said that they spread really easily anyway so this wasn't necessarily making them spread faster, just the opposite. He said if you actively pop a lot of them your body will start to realize that they need to go away and you will have fewer pop up. I will say it hurt a little bit to pop some of them b/c they are so close to the skin and I don't know how old your girls are of if they'd even let you do such a thing to them ;), but it's worth a try!

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According to our pediatric dermatologist approximately 25-40% of kids will have them at some point. Approximately 7% of the lesions them will scar. The immune system will clear them but kids without treatment have them on average 2-4 years. There are multiple medications - Cantharadin (increased local inflammation and immune response) for a few lesion, Condolox (also increases local inflammation but is used for more extensive lesions - not sure why), retinoids (yup, same as RetinA) for facial lesions - I think this just increases epithelial turnover and freezing (liquid nitrogen) if there are just a very few lesions. The Retinoin was cheap (our regular copay). The Condolox was $119 (our co-pay) for a tiny tube - I'm guessing it will last 4-6 weeks). After 2 weeks I would say approximately 1/2 the lesions are gone but the area is inflamed and peeling. We go back at 6 weeks - if there are just a few left, she will freeze them off.

My son had them and all the research I did said that burning them off does not provide any significant benefit. The dermatologist did burn a couple of them off to "kick start the immune system" as he said, in fighting this off. He also gave us Differin cream to apply to the areas 2x/day. It worked like a charm.