Update on DD's skin condition in post #24

[DrSally]

Deleted........

[Melbel]

Both DD1 and DS have had molloscum. DD1's bumps were around her wrist and on/near her knee and took about 1.5 years to finally go away. DS had a bad case in and around an armpit, but they went away after a few months following a bacterial skin infection. DD1's were more of a flesh color, DS's bumps were more reddish in color. There were no dimples on the pimple looking bumps that I saw on either one. Our pediatrician was able to immediately diagnose molloscum. If you do pictures at a place that can do retouching, it would be an easy fix.

[jd11365]

Yes! It was an absolute nightmare. After nearly a year, yes 10 months, we finally found the only treatment by a pediatric dermatologist over an hour away. It's called "beetle juice" which is an acid. Please, please, please, get this done as soon as possible. It spreads like wildfire. Had we not juiced them, it would have been longer.

Worse, it stressed her immune system and caused a later secondary issue, that had I just juiced them as early as possible and was rid of them, wouldn't have happened.

Don't pop them yourself. It's very painful, and spreads too easily. The acid in the juice pops them, but also kills the inside part that spreads.
Don't cover them, the contained moisture seems to make it worse.
No more baths. It spreads in water.
Do not reuse towels, the stuff inside the "pimple" is what will spread it, and if one rubs off on a towel and that gets on you or someone else, you've got it too. Often siblings get it at the same time because of this.
Don't reuse pajamas.
If the straps of the carseat lay on the affected area, don't let others use the carseat.
Swimming in a pool with others might not be a good idea as it travels through water. I believe Kayla got it at our local swimming pool.
Don't be surprised if you tell people IRL and they freak out.
Also don't be surprised if you tell people and you learn of a million other kids who have it or have had it. You just don't hear about it because many mothers don't want to share that information and freak other mothers out, kwim?
They can't keep your kid out of school because of it.

I've tried every possible home remedy. Some really helped like tea tree oil, but it didn't make them go away. Zymaderm worked, but I learned it was tea tree oil with a $30 price tag, so bought a huge bottle of TTO at Walmart for $8.
BUT, this just kept them somewhat at bay...for 10 long months, until we finally zapped them with the beetle juice.

Don't let anyone freak you out about the juice. They put a tiny dot on each one, and the next day it bubbles and pops. We did two treatments and were finally rid of them. She had them all over her neck and chest, some have even scarred (NONE scarred from the juice, the ones that scarred were from getting so big and bursting).

Seriously, do not wait for this. The peds say to wait it out, there's nothing you can do. Don't wait. I did and Kayla and I both suffered for way too long with this.

HTH!

[DrSally]

Deleted........

[DrSally]

Deleted........

[AngelaS]

My best friend's son had them all over his fingers and legs. She finally had them burned off.

One of mine seems to have a clump of them on her upper belly. I'm kinda just watching them for now...

[jd11365]

If it's it, I'd bet he got it from bathing with your nephew, or other contact like at school or even the waterpark. It's HIGHLY contagious, and bath tubs and swimming pools are culprits. There are yahoo groups about it...I swear it's a pandemic of it's own!

Kayla had a very unique situation, however yes, it caused a secondary skin issue related to the stress on her immune system. Again, very unique due to her severe circumstance, but it happened none the less.

I highly encourage anyone who is diagnosed early enough to have them "juiced" off and not wait and see.

The only way for them to go away is for them swell up and burst. The TTO helps encourage this, but it's a super-slow process and more keep coming and it's still a never ending cycle. Once burst, the "head" in the middle of the "pimple" (my words), comes out, like in the middle of the night when sleeping, rubbing against clothes, other children, etc., and with any contact, it spreads. They become very blistered and painful as they begin to burst. It's miserable if you are full blown.
Trust my (Kayla's) long awful story and go get rid of them asap. Really.

[nov04]

thanks for posting this. I'll be keeping the info handy if we ever have to deal with.

[Jen841]

J had them in his waistband area for 6 or so months. Spread a bit. E never got them and they share baths. Could not have had his hernia surgery if they were in the area, but they were on the opposite side. One day they were just gone.

Friend's son has them really bad. Went to the Dermotolgist and they gave her an Rx to try or they would have to burn them. 1-2 weeks later they were gone after about a year. No Rx, just gone. Her older son had them too for a period, but their outbreaks did not overlap and they bathe together too.

Time is the remedy. We did not get them through the house at all, and I confess to not being super careful about it. 1 child of a family of 6 got them, and their Dr downplayed it too and they went away.

3 different Drs in 3 areas all downplayed it and they went away themselves over time.

[graciebellesmomma]

My daughter had them when we lived in Hawaii about 1.5 years ago. We are sure she got it from our friend's son via the swimming pool, they swam every day!

We had the first one burned off and it hurt like hell! She cried and begged for them to stop, so we said we'd come back later. I started doing research and found that the "juice" they use is just salicylic acid in a STRONG form.

I went to Target and got these Noxema pads.
http://www.drugstore.com/qxp16560_333181_sespider/noxzema/triple_clean_anti_blemish_pads.htm

I followed all the rules,. No baths, new jammies every night, never use same towel. etc.
No hot water, it makes them spread. We did the pads every night before bed and in the am. I used them carefully. Never using a used portion on a new bump, i rotated the pad so it was always a clean section. I wiped and rubbed each bump. The bumps started drying up and going away. They do get big and red and itchy for about a day and then just dry up and leave. Once they start doing that, they stop developing new ones. Ive heard that once you get rid of it, it won't come back.

It took about 2-3 weeks for hers to stop coming in and to be completely gone, but it's been about 6 months and we haven;t seen any new ones.

You can do the doctor route, but we went the gentler route and it worked!

[DrSally]

Deleted........

[lcarlson90]

DS had molloscum on his upper chest/arm and also on his legs. We took him to a pediatric dermatologist about 6 months ago and they said that they could either burn them off or give us a prescription for a cream that may/may not work.

We had her burn the bumps on his chest off because she said that we would have to use the cream for at least a month and it would continue to irritate him the entire time we used the cream. We figured burning them off would be painful but in few days he would be totally fine. He actually didn't complain too much about the process but he cried when we took the band-aids off because they used the really sticky ones. We decided to just do the chest first to see how bad it was and then decide on the legs.

His legs are getting really bad and the bumps are red and he complains about them. I think we are going to take him back and have them do his legs too. His pediatrician had told us not to worry about them and that they would eventually go away but the dermatologist said that they should definitely be removed since they are contagious.

FWIW both my kids take baths together and DS has not given it to his little brother. They are a pain because they seem to multiply really quickly.

[Melbel]

FWIW, with DS and DD1, the bumps did not pop, but just got smaller over time. Our pediatrician advised us to wait it out.

[Puddy73]

DD has them on her back. We tried one treatment of the "beetle juice" with absolutely no results. Ped said that we could just wait for them to go away as long as they weren't really bothering her. After 8 months, most of them are gone. She takes baths with DS, but he never got them.

[AngelaS]

I did some reading. According to the CDC website--there's no proof that the virus is passed in water. Yes, on towels but not in water. :)

[jd11365]

Ok, not gonna argue with other mamas, just letting you know my experience. Clearly there are varied levels of outbreaks, and for those of you whose kids didn't have heavy outbreaks, consider yourself very lucky.

Perhaps because it was on a more visible area, her neck and chest...and then her lower chin, creeping up to her face, lasting until 2 months shy of the start of Kindergarten, I was more than overly concerned. And perhaps because she ended up with a secondary issue, on top of it all, ending up with an even more traumatic skin biopsy, it was that much more concerning.

That said, and I say this with all due respect, for those of you letting your kids bathe together, IMHO, you are playing with fire. Putting my DS through what my DD experienced would be the last thing I would ever want to do. The CDC can say what they want. Any parent I know who has suffered through the Molluscom nightmare (as I would call it), watching their child cry every night from painful blistering sores that keep multiplying, will tell you not to risk it. I am near confident my daughter got it at the city pool.

Our pediatric dermatologist came from St. Jude's Hospital before this practice. He used a toothpick to apply the juice. A teeny tiny dot, then covered with a tiny piece of flesh tape. We had no problems. We went back and he wasn't there and the other doctor did it being less careful and it blistered bigger. Application is important and whoever does it needs to know what they're doing.

I waited too long. My pediatric dermatologist told me I waited too long. He told me he gets so frustrated with general pediatricians who tell parents to wait it out, because in the end, he sees the kids at their worst, covered in bumps. No one goes to the pediatric dermatologist first, they go to the ped, yk?

I promise I'm just trying to be helpful. I don't post often, but with this, I would hate for another child to suffer, yk?

[DrSally]

Deleted........

[jd11365]

Interesting. I'm fairly sure this is what it is. about 1 month ago, I was helping my sister with a garage sale and slathered my nephew with sunscreen, noticing a hard, red bump on his knee. I then went on to slather DS and DD's faces with it. I later asked my sister what the bump was and she said Molluscum.

About the bath. Tonight I gave separate baths and it was a pain. I did DD first and she kept wanting to get in and play when I was doing DS. I didn't sanitize the tub in between, so I thought what good does doing separate baths do? I always use separate towels, so maybe I will start doing baths together again. I did notice a few spots on DS's face that may be molluscum as well. Such a bummer.

I called the peds office and they said that if that is it, they would advise just waiting for it to go away. Interesting that pp's ped and dermatologist had different points of view on it. Not sure how a baby would react to burning off though. At this point, she only had 5-7 bumps on her forehead (prob b/c her hair makes it moist and warm there). I would hate for it to spread to a lot more. It seems doing something now would prevent that.

On the other hand, if it stays at just these spots on her forehead and they go away on their own then that would be great.

Maybe I should just make an appt. with a ped dermatologist and see what they say.

If it was on my kid's knee, I could maybe see the idea to wait, though with my life lesson learned, I wouldn't no matter where it was. On the face, I'd be at the ped derm pronto. Kayla has "pitting" from where some of the bumps were. For that alone, I'd do it. I hope your problem is resolved quickly. The good news is clearly some people have had milder cases, and that could be you. I don't mean to completely scare you, just telling you what happened to us, so maybe it can be helpful in your decision making. Good luck.

[DrSally]

Deleted........

[DrSally]

deleted..............

[AngelaS]

My dd has them and I'm fairly certain I know who she got them from. Hers haven't spread and neither of her sisters have them---she and her big sis bathe together daily and sleep together. I'm not really worried.

My best friend's kids had them and her youngest got a LOT of them and he had a systemic infection when one of them got infected--it was nasty. His hands, face and feet swelled way up. But--she has 4 other kids and about two of them each got one or two spots and that was it. His brother that he's closest too--never got a one.

[tsem]

I had to post as I feel like an expert on mollescum. My 3 children have it right now. They are 7,5, and 2 years old. They caught it from their older brother (9) who had been treated and no longer has mollescum. He had it about 2 years ago and then slowly it spread down the line! We have tried all the treatments. The "Beetle Juice" from the dermatologist works the best. My 2 yr old has it on her bum and the last time she was treated at the dermatologist the PA treated her and she blistered horribly all over her butt. She couldn't even sit down. I can't do that to her again. I purchased the Zyaderm and it seem to contain the mullescum but they haven't gone away. The cream (Alvera?) did nothing.

Some things I have learned from the dermatologist over the years:
1. Once you catch it and it goes away you are immune from it and won't catch it again.
2. Some kids get it and some don't. I asked about staying out of the neighborhood pool and she told me I didn't have to have them do that.
3. Eventually with time all mollescum will go away even with no treatment. The body eventually fights the mollescum and it will go away on it's own if not treated. It was explained to me that all the treatments force the body to recognize the mollescum as a sore and then try to heal it.
4. Adults don't usually get mollescum. Highly unusual.

The pediatric dermatologist we go to told me there isn't a whole lot I can do to prevent other children from catching it. Either they will or they won't b/c their immune system will fight it. It is a virus from the same family as the pox virus. Mollescum however is not harmful but cosmetically does not look "good".

Hope this info helps someone.

Traci

[DrSally]

Deleted........

[DrSally]

Deleted........