X-man has Molluscum Contagiosum. He picked it up last November during swim lessons at the Urbana Aquatic Center. At least we're pretty sure it was there because it was the last time he was shirtless in the last 12 months. It started to spread a little by his 5 year appointment in March, so we asked our pediatrician about it. She recommended leaving it be because it should go away in 2 years or so. She also said to keep it covered when he was swimming (because it can be contagious), but other than that it was nothing to keep away from people. Medicating it would be difficult and burning the bumps off of a five year old didn't sound like fun to anyone.
But I noticed there were more and more of them this summer, so I consulted a dermatologist. It took a while to find the right solution for X-man (he has kind of sensitive skin), but now we've got something that we put on the bumps around five or six every other night. We leave it on for 60 minutes under some protective tape and then we clean it off. It doesn't look too effective after the hour, but 24 hours later, it's clear that the stuff has burned through the growth and is (hopefully) killing off whatever is below it so the virus doesn't spread. In between the applications, we apply Neosporin and let X-man pick out a band-aid if he's afraid he'll fuss with it. (My son is the boy who tears apart socks at school every day, after all).
At this point, looking at his belly, it looks like I've been throwing some kind of acid on him. He says they don't hurt, so that's good. But at the same time he's littered with little tiny welts. We're keeping an eye on them. Just because we've tried two meds that were too drying and caused some really dry, chapped skin and one that didn't seem to do anything at all. But I really like the dermatologist, and X-man enjoys seeing him (and all the pictures of animals outside his office). So that's a win/win.
Now, if only I could find someone that could solve the sock picking issue.
2 comments:
We battled this with Joc since last March as well. We used an acne med at first but then she was so recalcitrant at the derm- we just did a blister treatment- the blisters were so big she had to be on her tummy for three days! And it was painful- we will not do that again. And it did not clear it up completely. We tried the acne treatment for the last few spots- but that seemed to spread it like wildfire.
In Aug or so- we just let it be- and it seems to finally be gone (knocking head).
We thought just being hot over the summer seemed to flair it up- once she started wearing pants it cleared right up.
Good Luck!
Sheila
We are still fighting with this on MF. We have been seeing the derm monthly for almost a year and she gets the "bug juice" each time. We thought they were all gone the last time and then found a couple more that had to be treated. But, we are down from 75 or 80 to one or two, so, progress. Between visits, we treat any up croppings with RX Retin A, which has helped a lot!
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