Molloscum contagiosum - leave it or treat it?

[Billynomates71]

My two ds's age 6&7 have both come down with it. Ds1 has it in his armpit and a couple of spots on his tummy now, ds2 came down with it first, has quite a few spots on his back, spreading to his legs.

Dr Google reveals that you should pop them and clean blood / pus / fluid with rubbing alcohol. Or that you should leave them entirely alone and they will clear up on their own. Fabulously unhelpful. Don't think my boys will appreciate the former, but don't feel like I am doing the best for them by doing nothing.

What's the consensus then... Treat or leave?

Thanks!

Well I took DS (then aged 2) to a homeopath on the advice of some posters on here.
I was massively skeptical but she said she had very good results treating MC and he was too little to cope with any squeezing / popping so we decided to give it a try.

And I swear to god it worked. After a long consultation, she gave us two types of remedy for him to give that night. The next day all the spots (of differing levels of maturity) came up red and inflamed and then they just gradually disappeared over the next week.

No scarring and no pain.

I honestly didn't expect it would work but it genuinely appears to and I would definitely recommend it if you can afford an appt. it cost us £45 for a 90min appt and the remedies.

My baby has just been diagnosed with this and my gp prescribed hydrocortisone cream for it and after a week of using twice a day they have popped by themselves and have now gone from horrible looking lumps to smaller lumps with a bit of dry skin (the popped site) maybe try the cream I think manually popping them would hurt

Oh and I was also told that popping them causes scarring and thy could become infected

itook ds1 to a homeopath too on advice from a friend, and he had a consultation like the poster above, and the molloscum cleared up over a couple of days.

Dd (3 next month) has mc in the backs of both knees. saw GP this week, who said just to leave it and it will clear up on its own in I months to come.

Bikerunski that's what our GP said too, but reading up I think there is more to be done.

Interesting comments on homeopathy - thank you all. Hugely sceptical re homeopathic treatments, but hard to deny so many people swear by them.

Hydrocortisone treatment could work.

Is there a recent increase in molluscum infections? I've never come across it before, have also got two big teenagers and not a problem when they were little?

DS had this and we were told to leave it alone by the GP.

Mumsnet wisdom told me that if you spot the large 'host' bump looking inflamed, if you pop out the 'pearl' then the rest will clear up.

That was the case for us and touch wood he's looking great! Apparently the condition is so low level that the body doesn't realise it's there, but by popping the 'queen' or 'host' the body realises its there and fights it?

Tea tree oil dilute in baths, do a dab test first to see if can tolerate .

I tried a few things like apple cider vinegar and salt in the bath but then we had a chicken pox attack so I ended just giving up and leaving it. Just made sure to wash towels after each use and no sharing.

My DD had this all over one side of her torso and nothing worked until the GP prescribed Fucidin H as he thought some of the spots had eczema inflammation. Everything had completely gone within ten days.
Does make me wonder if it was ever molluscum in the first place, but she was diagnosed by three different GPs.

I NEVER heard of it before I had my own children. Now it seems as if almost every child has it/has had it...

I think I'm going to try homeopathy on DS (2). I popped them on DD (4) but I think it was really summer sun and sand that cleared them. No way will DS2 tolerate popping when he won't even have his nails cut...

DS2 had it for a few months. It cleared up on its own.

Lemon myrtle oil got rid of DDs. The added advantage is that it smells better than tea tree.

You can buy Molludab from pharmacies, it's the only official treatment. Popping/squeezing not recommended because of risk of causing scars.

DS1 has it under his arm and down his side, i was advised to leave it, he does scratch it though, probably as a result of his exzema (poor child!) so i put rosehip oil on it, which helps his exzema, it only flares up once in a while and now is the time!

It looks awful though!

Dd had this, loads of them. Dr told us they would go in 6 months and they did, no marks at all (unlike her chicken pox).

I wouldn't leave it, I would definitely treat it.

I have been dealing with this in our house now for over 3 years and am utterly sick of it. DS got it and had over 100+ spots. I left alone (as told by the GP) but they carried on spreading at an alarming rate. When he had about 20 on his forehead I thought - enough! I must be able to do something. What worked straight away was him taking thuja 30c twice daily and also ant crud 30c twice daily (prescribed by homeopathic GP). I also put drops of lemon myrtle oil in his bath and made up a mixture of 10 drops olive oil to 1 drop lemon myrtle oil which I would dab on each spot with a cotton bud every day. I didn't burst any of his. He does have scars on his chest - tiny tiny skin coloured pock marks.

When DD was born I tried to not spread it from him to her but it was impossible and she got her first spot about 6 months old. She is now 2.5yrs and has one spot left (please please no more!!) Hers have been much harder to treat. Although she hasn't had anywhere near the number DS has had hers didn't respond to the same treatment and I have admittedly burst a few of hers (they were huge and weeping the contagious stuff out which I didn't want spreading). Unfortunately the ones I did burst have left small purple scars which will hopefully fade.

What worked with DD was totally different. The homeopathic tablets I used with DS didn't do a thing so I eventually paid to see a homepath who after a very lengthy session said she needed carb calc - this worked. In addition I added 5 drops of tea tree, lavender oil and lemon myrtle oil to her bath. I also cut right back on the number of baths she was having. I also added dead sea salts / Epsom salts to her bath as she had lots on her genitals (these were a nightmare). This made a HUGE difference. I also put high strength manuka honey on them before covering with sudocream and a plaster (although couldn't put a plaster on her genital ones).

So, I had started this increased attack on the mollescum in August and we now have one left. Whether or not it was just their time to go - who knows?!!! But after the number that DS had I wasn't going to take the chance. DD did get a few on her face - one has scarred.

Hope this helps

I think there is a line of thinking that if you leave these things alone.....verrucas too......it allows your body to create an immunity to them and that's why they go on their own. If you blitz them before they are 'ready' to leave, there might be more chance of them coming back??

Please for the love of god, do not pop them.

I turned to Dr Google 7 yrs ago when my DS1 had MC. Did loads of research, followed advice, was insanely clean and careful and now he is a very scarred 10 yr old. Pock-mark scarring on his body under one arm going down to almost his waist.

DS2 had it and I didn't treat it at all. It just disappeared eventually.

Tobago I didn't pop any of DS's but he still has tiny skin coloured pock marks where they were :(

My DD has these a few years ago. The doctor told me to leave it, however it was causing eczema which was quite sore, so he did prescribe hydrocortisone for that.
The spots were just not clearing up, just kept spreading over her torso, armpits and legs, and she was quite embarrassed about them when getting changed for PE etc.
Anyway we were due to go on holiday the following summer so I wanted to clear it up, so I experimentally did pop a couple of the largest ones. I was very clean, used wet-wipes to get the pus out, which were immediately thrown away, and then put sudocrem on the spots (they bled a lot) and once they had stopped bleeding put tea-tree oil oil on them. I kept putting sudocrem/tea-tree on until they had healed.

We also switched from baths to showers for a while (didn't want it to spread to her siblings) and washed towels/bedding/PJs regularly.

However I should say DD did not like me doing it! But she also really wanted the spots to go - she was worried about being on the beach in her swimming costume..
Anyway those two spots cleared up really well so a week later I did a couple more. And they cleared up too.
Because DD didn't like me doing it, we had a rule I would only ever do 2 spots at a time. She would read a book or watch tv and I got quite a good technique of popping them with my thumbnail (with a wet wipe on) so it was very quick. However I was able to reason with her, I think with a younger child this wouldn't work, and they would probably scream blue murder.

Anyway within a couple of months they had all gone and now she doesn't have any scars at all.

But as Tobago says her son did have scarring, so maybe it depends on your skin?

We did go on a sunny holiday that summer, and sunshine is really good for healing up skin, so I wonder if that helped?

So I found the popping worked, but it might not work for everyone, I wouldn't want to recommend it and then you find you have scarring.