verucca question from the Warty family

[Enid]

OK, so we are now officially the wartiest family in the land.

Dd1 has a verucca on the ball of her foot. She's had it for ages, but it was tiny and not bothering her so I just left it. Now it is bigger and really hurting her. She WILL not let me rub it with an emery board (shes only 3.5). In fact she has a real medicine phobia, she wont let me put a plaster on or even look at it. At the moment I am sneaking in at night and putting a plaster soaked in tea tree on it while she sleeps. Any bright ideas? Bazuka gel is out of the question as there is NO WAY she would let me pare the skin off.

Can a doctor/chiropodist burn it off and would that be really painful?

Enid - an EMERY BOARD!!? I'd run a mile too. They are very painful so I don't think that'll do any good.

You used to be able to get a treatment that you painted on like nail varnish..... although I can't remember the name (I'll find out though). You could do that while she slept then pop the plaster on. It worked on mine within a couple of weeks.

you are supposed to file down the verucca every week when you paint Bazuka on - its not a weird old wives thing, promise

Hello Enid,

when my dd had a verucca the doctor told us to leave it alone but try not to let her infect anyone else. She explained that if we let it go away of its own accord it would clear but that if we treated it in any way dd would keep getting them. Sounds bizarre but seems to have worked.

addle

but shes had it for at least 6 months and now its got bigger

My Dr said that the best thing to do with a verucca was soak it, use an emeryboard on it it get off the dead skin on top, and then get it burnt off. (Although actually he suggested using sandpaper, not an emery board!) However, I don't see how you are going to do that with an uncooperative child - and yes, having them burnt off DOES hurt.

Two suggestions - someone told me that they stuck a plaster to their son's verucca and left it on there for a week (presumably the sticky bit was on the verucca. Apparently when they pulled off the plaster, the verucca came with it. But if she won't keep the plaster on, that won't work.

The other suggestion is to try laser therapy - they use a laser to do something to the verucca, which apparently is supposed to kick start the body's natural immunity to them. I think it can only be done privately, costs about £15? a go, and needs several treatments to work. But it IS painless. I can't vouch for how well it works, though. Although my GP did suggest it to me. Again, you would need a small amount of cooperation though.

Cool! Lasers!

Poor thing! I never really had verrucas but my sister did - she reckons afer years of observation (!) that they hang around for ages not bothering anyone, but as soon as they really grow larger etc they are about to die and go away. So maybe that is why the sticking plaster eventually taking the thing off with it works. Anyway she used to do all the bazouka, burning off, picking them out etc, and she said it was just bloody painful and left her with holes in her feet - she then decided to just ignore them (and use corn plasters around them if they were getting big and uncomfortable) and they all eventually disappeared of their own accord and didnt come back.

Don't know if this helps, but for what its worth... good luck!

I had a whole crop of verruccas for years (and I mean YEARS!) on the ball of one foot. They never hurt me, so I wasn't particularly bothered. However, they started spreading again and reached the side of my foot, where they started hurting (without the pressure of the ball of foot to make them grow inward, they were becoming half verrica, half wart) so I decided to start treating them.

I used the salycilic acid plus a hard skin "buffer" (forgotten the proper word). It was agony, as I was dealing with such a large area, it was as if a whole layer of hard skin on my foot was coming off. I stoppped just before we went skiing, so that my foot had a chance to recover.

Interestingly, although my verrucas were still there, I had managed to get rid of most of the samll ones and the "mummy" and "daddy" ones (ie the original two) were much smaller.

A while later I noticed that even those ones were disappearing - it was as if I had dealt with the problem enough that my own body then managed to do what it should have done in the first place and "fight off" the infection - verracas are supposed to be self limiting and should eventually go away of their own accord (only I'd had mine for over 10 years).

I've had none now for over 10 years.

I suppose what I'm saying is that your softly softly apporach may well work - you're just helping your dd's body with a little bit of extra encouragement with the tea tree oil.

When I was about 12, my dad had "frozen" a verruca out for me with liquid nitrogen - maybe that's why they came back, and why this time, when my own body finished off the work, they haven't.

This is all really interesting (am i sad?), especially the idea that if you leave them to go away naturally you are less likely to get a recurrence.

I was going to take dd to the docs this afternoon, but I think I might persevere with the tea-tree on plaster trick for a week and see if it makes any difference.

Only trouble is she's staying at MIL's this weekend and I know I'll get into trouble for not taking her to the doctors (shes an antibiotics for everything kind of woman - maybe I could lie and say I've taken her and they said leave it - oooh, naughty me )

The other thing that's interesting is that dd has been very poorly recently and really run down - wonder if that sparked off the verucca growth?

He's an info page .

I know shes unco-operative but what are the chances of you being able to rub a banana skin on it.

It also says here that eventually they will disappear on their own.

Intersting. According to them, when I got my first verucca (at 19) it should have disappeared within 2 years. Shame that 10 years later it is still with me (although within the last 3 weeks has started to shrink - so I am hopeful that it and all it's siblings will not be with me for much longer!)

Furball - that second link very much describes my experience - and also explains why my dad always told me not to be bothered about them being infectious.

Oakmaiden - I had my "crop" from the age of about 19 to 30. It was only after I started (and stopped!) treating them that they finally went away - my assumption of why they did finally disappear is supported by Furball's second link.

Enid - you can get a liquid nitrogen thing from chemists - I have bought one recently from Superdrug. It only takes one application (maybe you could do this when she is asleep) and it should disappear in about two weeks. I have only used it on ds as he swims with the school and they are not allowed in the pool without their foot covered if they have one. It worked although it took nearly three weeks to disappear. It cost about £7.
Interesting about them not reappearing if you leave them though.

can you really? I am off to superdrug first thing tomorrow, thank you so much jaybee.