Talk to me about Molluscum

[PrettyCandles]

Because I think dd may have it.

I've read the official NHS guidelines on it for medics, but want to know what it's like from parents. What can I expect, and is there anything I can do about it, other than wait for 2 years for it to spread around the family before it burns itself out?

DS's have it a the moment.
MAnaging to keep it under control by using separate flannels and towels which I wash after each use and clean pj's.
Have also been using a hemp seed oil cream called Eicosanoil which i got from the health food shop. www.swissherbalremedies.com

my daughter had it and the homeopath got rid of it after 3 weeks. She'd had it for 6 weeks prior to this. The homeopathy made it much worse for one week but then they all rubbed off within about 5 days. My son had it for 1 year - he tried homeopathy got rid of it in about 1 month. Honest; it does work!

Dd, 17 mo, has had it for about 6 months so far on the backs of both knees - doesn't really cause her too much aggro, except when her excema flares up and they go a bit red.

GP advised nothing but to sit it out and they'll disappear on their own over the next year or so. Interestingly, it is more common in children with excema as the cortisone cream used on the excema can reduce the skins immunity to infection, and therefore make getting molloscum more likely. Only advice I can offer is not to apply the cortisone cream directly on to the lumps and this can aggrevate them.

My 3 kids that i look after have had it in various parts of their bodies and they had them sliced off at the doctors but they have come back so we go again.

mine has had twice first lot from about 18 months lasted about year or more all over her face and neck horrible things unsightly impossible to squeeze or puncture for them - they all got a bit inflamed and finally disappeared overnight - she has lots very tiny pock markes esp under her chin but not particularly noticeable mainly to me I suspect.....now has second lot few on belly arms and legs but not nearly as bad as first lot just leaving them alone - I think squeezing them sometimes spread the virus worse bloody hated them she is realy pretty little girl and they were very unsightly for ages even on eyelids (she had loads 100's??) and you can see them in some old photos...

My DS has had them for over two years. Must be a record. They don't bother him and DD has never caught them even though they bath together and share the same tales. He only shows people them with a 'Do you want to see something scary, look I'm an alien', which gets a bit embarassing at times.

They are extremely contagious in water. So if you don't want them to spread to other young members of your family then sharing baths and towels is out really!

My dd caught them in the bath from ds.

Both my ds's had it. Ds2 had it for abot 9 months. ds1 for longer. Ds2 seems to have better immunity and has a better diet, probably why his went first. We left it alone.

my dd has had one on her knoee for well over 3 years... can you put wart stuff on them becasue it is starting to bother her a bit

Aaargh - they can be such a nuisance. All my 3DCs caught them. DS1 had them for 12mths all over chest & under/down one arm. Fucidin helped when they became red & angry looking (as opposed to their normal bulbous & cream cheese look!) As DS1's started to clear DD developed a small red bump which after 3 mths turned into a vast batch of them all over trunk & back. She still has pock-mark scarring even tho' we didn't squeeze. 12 mths later they started to clear, then DS2 developed small red bump which after 3 mths turned into smaller batch of them on arm & chest. They are infectious and are likely to spread betw siblings if bathing & sharing towels together, but like most things some seem more prone & some seem immune. They can also apparently be caught from swimming pools as they are related to wart virus.(GP didn't verify this so could be an urban myth.)I also got a small crop of about 6 on my inner arm crease after all DC's had cleared but was told I was only 2nd adult my GP had ever seen with them. Apparently they skipped a generation so weren't around when we were little. They were in our family for about 5 years altogether.

Some websites (US I think) sell skin products with silver in which claim to clear them but most medical sites seem to recommend just letting them run their course. Try Googling them. Exposure to warm sunshine seemed to help dry them up & they then cleared but that could have been a coincidence with their life cycle. Only danger of squeezing seems to be extreme pain, scarring and possible infection if then scratched.

tea tree oil is the best thing for it cures them quickly and painlessly

spogs - do you just apply the neat tea tree oil to the skin? How often?

Elizabeth Arden 8 hour cream worked for my ds - he had them on his lower arms and bottom. They all popped/scabbed over within 2 weeks.

Both my dd had it and gp said nothing could be done. My health visitor however suggested I tried the homeopathic chemists at the advice of other mums. I did and it honestly cleared up within 10 days on my eldest. She went from having very unsightly sores down both sides to virtually nothing. Youngest didn't need it as looked like it was on its way out. I'm sure it doesn't work for all but it is definitely worth trying in my book. Chemist was very confident and said take tablets for 2 weeks if not gone was to go back for 2nd stage of treatment.

ds1 had them for yonks, but bizarrely they went once he caught chicken pox!

DO NOT POP THEM!!! I caught them from Dd1 and it was excruciatingly painful when I tried to pop them and I have a very high pain threshold

My dd had them, and the first few left behind big scars which she still has. We sent off for something called Virucide (now called ZymaDerm) which sounds dreadful but was a tea-tree based non-drug remedy, and it totally sorted it out. I would recommend it to anyone.

My DT2 had a crop of these on her arm and 3 on her face, which are gradually going down now, after about 4 weeks, but DT1 now has them in almost exactly the same place on the same arm and one in the middle of her forehead! For anyone who has used homeopathic remedies successfully, what was the name of the treatment and was it in tablet or cream form? Would love to do something about these rather than let them run their course.

I am posting and bringing this up again because there has been an outbreak in our very small community and mums are worried they will be 'the one' to infect the others so are taking the child to have the first ones frozen off in the logic that it will prevent more from coming - does it?

Personally I can't subject dd to this type of painful treatment if she gets them, so I will probably try a homeopathic remedy (if available here) and wait it out, but I may become a pariah amongst my new friends! I need to be armed with info!! So does freezing them off early prevent more from coming?

if they get infected then the body realised that the virus is there and gets ready of it. My dd probably caught it from her best friend who was covered in it, my dd has excema so it was itchy, she scratched it and it went - she had it 6 weeks in total. So my advice would be to scratch it.

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So cpox gets rid of molluscum? How funny! If dd has had chicken pox does that mean she is less likely to get molluscum? I have been exposing ds1 (4) to cpox for years but he never gets it...

And is freezing them off when they appear 'infecting' them? I suspect not..??

Tea tree oil made my dd's molluscum a lot worse.