Molluscum??

[muddlingmyway]

DS (17 mo) is having an absolute nightmare with this rash, Gp seems to think it is molluscum, although didn’t seem too sure - admittedly it doesn’t look much like pics from Google. It is incredibly itchy for him and it’s so hard to stop him scratching. He also suffers from awful eczema so that probably doesn’t help. Just wonder if anyone has had experience of molluscum looking like this / any advice on how to make him more comfortable, particularly as there are so few things that can be used on a child this young. TIA

I had it as an adult and it didn’t look quite like that. It tends to grow in more warm crevices (armpits/groin etc) and has a sort of yellow centre that you can’t squeeze out...

Are you sure it's not chicken pox? That is going round at the mo. If it is molluscum they look infected? Possibly due to the extra scratching from the eczema. I would ask to see the skin specialist at your GP practice for some more targeted advice.

It also wasn’t itchy or scabby. It was like a red wart/skin tag type bump - a bit shiny rather than scabby

Thanks both. I also am not totally convinced. I did think chicken pox initially but it’s been probably three weeks now so I’m assuming it would have got better by now. I’ll call the GP again tomorrow!

If the chicken pox got scratched they could last longer... could your child have caught this from another child that you know of?

Some of them do look a bit like they have a yellow core, if your child really really scratched them I guess they could get scabby but mine weren’t itchy at all. Also they were very distinct and the third picture looks like there are minor lumps and bumps...

@Incrediblytired I don’t think he has been in contact with anyone with chicken pox but he does go to child care so it’s not impossible. He did have a runny nose about the same time as the spots appeared but hard to know if it was a coincidence or not. Although they are very itchy, we have kept them covered as much as we can so he hasn’t been able to scratch them that much. And they were always looking a bit red and scabby, didn’t start massively different, just less of them... this was a week or so ago. So hard to know!

My DS had rash just like this and GP said molluscum. Was very sore and needed antibiotics at one point.
Went away when we stopped using soap and switched to a gentle shower gel.

@QueenVictoria11 oh that’s interesting, thank you! Dare I ask how long it hung around for? We already don’t use much in the way of soaps because of his eczema, just a bath emollient additive.

Doesn't look like the molluscum my two had. There's was much smaller and wart like.

Was hanging around for quite a while. was horrible. about 3 months. tried lots of other things before switching soaps.

Maybe check with daycare if another child has recently been off with chicken pox or if another child has molluscum...might help to narrow it down.

I just put molluscum into google and the images are textbook what I experienced, very distinct lumps. Whereas on you third picture, towards the right of his back are 3 spots in a triangle with a rash in between. That rash doesn’t seem to fit with molluscum.

That last picture doesn’t look quite right either as you’d expect to see something more like a wart.

I’d def do a bit of detective work at child care and ask for a second opinion. Your poor bubs.

Doesnt look anything like molluscum. It looks more like skin tags and aren't usually red and scabby like that.

Looks more like infected chicken pox

No all three of mine had molluscum and they were raised cream coloured warts with a pinprick centre.

These are on dd's lower back.
I thought these were molloscum but now I've seen your photos I'm not so sure!

My daughters molluscum looked like this and she has eczema. My sons molluscum (!) looked much more typical not so red and scabby until they were about to go away. If it helps, I was absolutely terrified of my daughter getting it (my son had it first) due to her eczema and the horror stories I had read, but they actually lasted about the same amount of time (about 4 months?) they just looked different - you could literally see my sons going through the cycle of clear to scabby to gone, whereas my DD’s looked angry all the time.
What helped was putting hydrocortisone directly on them, piriton and actually sudocrem. Just when I was giving up all hope they were ever going to go, they all went at once. She still has dark red marks where the spots were (went about a month ago) but they are completely smooth.

@mushforbrain that’s really interesting thank you. Maybe it affects children with eczema differently then!! We have given him piriton tonight already, will try hydrocortisone and sudocrem too. Might also give GP a call tomorrow too, just to be sure. They did say to call back if it got worse, but I hate to bother them!! Really helpful comments from everyone, thank you very much

Ooh I don't know mine have had molluscum it really didn't look like that

But they both had chicken pox at a much older age 7/9 yrs
And it looked similar and hung around for ages 3 weeks at least until they scabbed over.... it's worse when they are older

But also could be something else

My DS had molluscum, they started off small and cream coloured, and stayed like that for ages, then they got infected and looked like your photos, he had some antibiotics and not long after that they started to clear up. He did have them for months in total though.

Just in case anyone reads this later etc, saw a different GP who agreed that it didn’t look much like classic molluscum, and instead suggested it may be pityriasis rosea. We don’t recall him having the classic “herald patch” but with his eczema it’s possible he did and we missed it. Would tie in with him having a runny nose / cold symptoms too. We have been using fucibet for a couple of days that has made him much more comfortable so far, fingers crossed it doesn’t last too long!

Ah, I just popped back. Glad you got a second opinion. I find half the term its trial and error, then by the time it’s all figured out the problem has resolved itself and you are on to the next parenting challenge 😂