Molluscum treatment

[BooCanary]

Anyone got any success stories of different treatments?

We have tried silver spray and elderberry over the past few weeks, with no discernable improvement, and I'm really confused as to how to proceed. DS has 50+ spots now

Nope sorry - everything I found said nothing treats them.
DD (5) was diagnosed last September. The numbers went up and down - more if she scratched them - big lines on the back of her legs. But I started putting plasters on the big ones and imploring her not to scratch.

We worked out she could slap them to take the sting out of the itch and this worked for a bit but her teacher called me in to ask why she was smacking herself and had forbidden it

I had to explain it was to stop her scratching and spreading the blasted things. We came to a compromise of a wet hand towel held over them.
That was June.
In Septemer we noticed they had gone. It took a year. That seems normal.

Sorry. But everything I read said the same. It's grot and you feel like your child has the mange or something but it DOES go ... eventually. And hte scars are fading - the Dr assured me they wil fade completely unlike chicken pox.

Thanks Bonzo. I've read a few oil threads where so many different potential treatments have been discussed, its hard to know what to do ( or not do!).

Have already spent a bit on the silver spray and supplements, with no success and just don't know how to proceed now we are running low - order more, give up or try something else.

Old not oil!

colloidal silver and zymaderm made no difference to dd's. They went by themselves after a long time (over a year I think). DS only had a few and they only lasted a few months

Our GP prescribed us Piriton to deal with the itchiness...

But it is a very annoying and unsightly health thing to deal with...

Well, we got rid of DD's by simply making an appointment to have them removed but then again maybe that was coincidence .

DS's were a nightmare - after 18 months of spreading lumps the doctor removed most of them by applying local anaesthetic and literally pulling them out . Three remained after the treatment and grew to the size of peas but went when DS got an infected cut - it was very strange.

There is no scarring at all btw.

DD lived on piriton to ease the itch but nothing ever helped to ease her spots, she was completely covered and looked dreadful as well as feeling out of sorts for months.

They cleared up last month started big school covered in spots

Hmmmm, so maybe I should save my money and wait it out. Feels better to be DOING something though iyswim.

It does - you feel so helpless but it really is a waiting game.
The best thing you can do is stop him scratching them as that is how they spread.
If they can all heal up without being scratched onto new skin they should go quicker. But my DD would scratch them. But they DO go eventually... They do.

I am watching this thread with interest. My five year old has one on face and one on neck. GP said there was not much to be done for them. She scratches the one on her face bloody.

I suspect a lot of these treatments "work" because molluscum always goes away on its own eventually, so for the most part it's coincidence.

Ds's lasted about 8 months iirc. Luckily he wasn't too bothered by it so I didn't really try any remedies. They just kind of flared up one day and then disappeared over the next week or so.

Poxiderm worked for 1 of my dc, but not so much for another,. With dc3 they reduced and went within 1 week. With dc1, they are hanging around, but not spreading or growing as quick

I still shudder at the memory of squeezing the first one that appeared on my son, having read on here that if the first one was properly destroyed no more would appear. A sickening and endless amount of disgusting blood tinged cream cheese stuff emerged and my poor boy burst into tears of pain. Terrible guilt. And it didn't work. Loads more appeared and stayed for well over a year. That was about 7 years ago!

do not squeeze

I have permanently scarred DD (she's 11, they're not going to fade, you can just tell) and I feel soooooo bad about it.

Thuja homeopathic treatment. Worked on both mine, at different times and different ages. Gone in a fortnight.

cq, have they reoccurs at all?

Errr..reoccurred..

All three of mine have them ATM

We've virtually cleared the elder two by using tea tree, it dries them out I think and maybe eases the inflammation. We also bathe them seperately and use fresh pj's every night and fresh top every day. Lots of laundry! I clocked the youngest one's very quickly and am applying tea tree cream which seems to be helping - there's still only two and they seem to be getting smaller so fingers crossed.

Middle dc has only one left but now has a fungal infection centred around it. Minging.....

Bedtime takes blooming forever as I'm applying so many creams and drops (dodgy ears too

Brand, you have my sympathies! Tea tree oil has a strong scent, does it not? DD has sensory integration issues and tends to be adverse to odours..

cq - the homeopathic crap wouldn't have fixed the molluscum - it would have gone on its own. Maybe you had the timing right and had a nice coincidence - but putting a sugar solution on a viral infection hasn't ever proved to be effective. If it was then the value of icing sugar would go through the roof.

And I wouldn't put tea tree oil directly onto a child's skin. Or any essential oil. Mix it with a base oil if you need to.

cynner if they are scratching then I would try and get some antihistamine cream or piraton medicine to ease the itching and maybe a plaster on the spot. The virus gets into their fingernails and is then spread as they scratch and break their skin. You really need to limit the scratching.

Bonzo, I will the piraton a try. She does not like the feel of plasters, but I might try finding some in colours or with Hello Kitty and see if that wil entice her..

We got rid this way:

Our Disinfect and Cover-up Routine.

Figure out which is the ' mothership' in any cluster. The big, ripe brute usually stands our from the others.

When mothership is big enough you can see a dark spot or core to it. Squeeze this core out if it. This is painful and disgusting and feels all wrong.

Exploded mothership looked a dreadful mess afterwards.

Douse the exploded mothership with Tcp / antisceptic cream / tea tree and cover with a plaster or bandage.

Keep exploded mothership topped up with antiseptic and fresh bandage/ plaster every day until it is gone. For us this took about week to 10 days.

The clusters around mothership can be treated with antiseptic cream / tea tree. Hopefully they will recede without also ripening into motherships.

The molluscus spreads where infected skin is in contact with fresh skin so keep fresh skin away from diseased skin. Keep bedsheets diease-free.

For example, use plasters / elasticated bandage tubes / long pjamas / anything to keep infected flesh away from bedsheets and fresh flesh.

Do all this paying scrupulous attention to your own sterility and promptly discarding used plasters and bandages. Use fresh cotton wool with each application of antiseptic.

Dry antiseptic spray and spray-on plaster were also useful depending on location and ripeness of a particular cluster.

It felt wrong, very wrong but it cleared up v v quickly afterwards.

This is what worked for us. I doubt your doctor would endorse our method however!

Good luck.

Mothership! Exactly! Great big horrible red and inflamed bastard of a spot! I squeezed one and had all that crappy stuff come out and it did heal up. (And I was very careful about not cross contaminating)
I checked DD's legs tonight and those little purple scars are still there - boo - I hope they fade.

I live in France and my GP put a load anaesthetic cream on each spot (about 50 of them) and then scraped them off. DS1 (3yrs) was pretty brave, I don't think it hurt that much just quite gory, lots of bleeding but it meant it was all over and none have come back. This happened in the spring and it meant that he could go swimming, in France they won't let you into a public pool if you have molluscum. And luckily it doesn't seem to have scarred even the big mothership ones!