Help with Molluscum contagiosum - Page 2

[Crisstiana]

Originally Posted by Gitti

I am just asking a question so please don't flame me:

Could the varicella vaccine be the culprit for Molluscum contagiosum?

If your child did NOT have the varicella (chicken pox) vaccine and also was NOT in contact with anyone who's had it or who had shingles, but does have the Molluscum virus, then ok, I am wrong.

I am just curious. I've read that there might be a connection. ?

I don't see how molluscum and the varicella vaccine could be connected. They are in two separate families of viruses. Molluscum is a type of poxvirus, a family of viruses that also includes the agents that cause smallpox and cowpox. Varicella zostester is a member of the herpes virus family, which also includes herpes simplex-1 and -2, EBV, and CMV.

[supermuma]

I was in fact imagining my dd's bumps getting smaller...

There are a few more actually...and I feel so badly for her...keeping my fingers crossed that they start to go away soon......

[wantingagirl2b#4]

words of encouragement

It does in fact go away with apparently doing nothing because we have tried everything and nothing worked except I think the change in diet and boosting the immune system. We pushed raw fruits and vegtables. I think that was the answer for us or it appears it was anyway. All of them are finally gone after nearly a year. Good luck to all of you and I hope everyone get's better real soon.

[supermuma]

Thanks! We are getting a bit close to a year..well it will be around a year in July. I am hoping that it wont last much longer than that.

[Stefnmike]

Molluscum on 3 year old

Hello everyone....I am new to this forum, so please forgive me if I ask something that has already been answered somewhere that I have not yet read.

My 3 year old daughter has Mollusucm and has had it for a several months. I know that everyone has tried several differnt things to try and get rid of it. We are in the process of testing out pure tea tree oil. I have applied it for about 4 days now. Can anyone tell me what they look like when they are starting to heal and go away? Also, she has a very large one right on her eye lid. It looks like its in her vision. How do you try the "remedies" that everyone has tried if it is on her eye? Just let that one be? She actually has a couple of her eye and is starting to get one on her other eye. I am afraid they are going to take over her eyes like they have under her neck and stuff if I can't somehow get it under control.

Any suggestions? Any one found anything that has worked yet?

thank you
Stephanie

[supermuma]

We have not found anything yet. We are mostly doing nothing though...and dd has a fairly large one on her eye as well. They appear to have stopped spreading...but we are really on her about washing her hands constantly and not touching her face and then other parts of her body....not an easy task.. poor kid....and I am sure even harder with a 3 year old.

Maybe make sure that you wash her hands quite often, and areas she touches a lot to try and prevent the spreading.

We were using alcohol on them for a bit, the doctor said that it might help, and I could never figure out how to get to the ones on her eyes. We just left them alone.

At this point, we are just trying to curb the spreading....

I think that dd has had one heal up...but I am not really sure if it went away..since there are so many ...I can not keep track of them all. One seemed to get really dry and then (kind of like a pimple!) she picked it off. The doc said that is helpful..just make sure to wash hands EXTRA carefully after that..since it will spread the virus around easily after it has "popped"..

I hope some of this helps and that they go away REALLY fast!!

[wantingagirl2b#4]

words of encouragement

Originally Posted by wantingagirl2b#4

It does in fact go away with apparently doing nothing because we have tried everything and nothing worked except I think the change in diet and boosting the immune system. We pushed raw fruits and vegtables. I think that was the answer for us or it appears it was anyway. All of them are finally gone after nearly a year. Good luck to all of you and I hope everyone get's better real soon.

This is a repost above and I forgot to add that we did do the popping also! I think personally if that is the contagious part and you are careful to not let it touch other parts of the body (then your baby will get rid of it faster)! That's my Honest opinion and if he was to get it again I would not hesitate to sterilize another needle and carefully remove the waxy core and rid of it immediately! We did not do the popping because of all the reading of NOT to pop and then I just had enough and did it! So glad we did!!! All is gone now. Good luck :-)

[3boysmom]

We ended up having the dermatologist freeze them. My ds had 30-40 of them under his arm and down his side where they were constantly irritated and really starting to bother him. We have several friends who'd had them last 1.5 - 3 years and we were just not up for that. The freezing was painless (numbing cream ahead of time) and only took about 30 seconds total. We expected some discomfort when the numbing agent wore off afterward, but there was none. A few days later they started to just fade away and now (2 weeks later) they are completely gone, just a few light splotches, but those are fading quickly also.

[mdkarchner]

My oldest child, who had it the worst, is almost lesion free. I ended up using zymaderm. I do feel that it helped. I was not good at doing it twice a day as recommended. It just was time consuming to do this to all 4 of my children. However, when the oldest child was at her worst (at least 40 lesions), I became vigilant about it. I definitely feel that it helped.

My youngest child who is 2 and still breastfeeding, had the mildest version. He had 2 on his upper buttocks and didn't get anymore. I'm attributing his mild case to the breastfeeding.

My middle 2 children seem to be flaring up a bit again. I've started using the zymaderm on them today. We are going on about 10 months now of this virus!

[Gitti]

In meantime I have learned that it may have something to do with being exposed to someone who's had the small pox vaccine. People who are in the army get it.

The "small pox" vaccine is a live vaccine.

I put it in parenthesis because it actually does not contain any "small pox". As far as is known it contains a cow-horse-barnyard pox.

IMO it seems plausible that it could be the cause of this condition.

[supermuma]

Originally Posted by 3boysmom

We ended up having the dermatologist freeze them. My ds had 30-40 of them under his arm and down his side where they were constantly irritated and really starting to bother him. We have several friends who'd had them last 1.5 - 3 years and we were just not up for that. The freezing was painless (numbing cream ahead of time) and only took about 30 seconds total. We expected some discomfort when the numbing agent wore off afterward, but there was none. A few days later they started to just fade away and now (2 weeks later) they are completely gone, just a few light splotches, but those are fading quickly also.

I think I am going to look into this. My dd is really starting to have some social effects from them , poor girl..and I think she is just old enough that she is aware of them and her friends are aware of them..and kids can say mean things...I feel badly for her.

Did they leave any scars after? This was my concern before about this procedure because almost all of hers are on her face...she also has some on her neck.

Also, I wonder if this is something that insurance will cover...since they are supposedly not really a big deal medically and they go away on their own...eventually..any idea?

Thanks in advance for any help on this!

[stacyann21]

I had it a few years ago on my legs and back. After doing some research I decided to leave it alone. It took several months but it disappeared. During the time I had it DB did catch it from me and we both went through a few periods of having it and not having it but it is completely gone now. I would focus on strengthening his immune system and not messing with the actual lesions.

[onthemove]

digging up this thread because I have a new concern regarding MC... my 4 yr old has had MC for about 6 months now, it is on her tummy and inner thigh. She has developed an excema type rash around the spots and this is what is spreading all over her. She has never had any signs of excema before this and I have read that it can occur.

What is the best way to treat the rash and can anyone tell me if it will go away with the MC?

[supermuma]

I am really not sure about the rash! I wish I could help. My dd has never had a rash with hers.

We have gotten tired of waiting for it to go away (and it has now spread to her brother ). We are going to the dermatologist on May 17th. Hopefully we will be getting them frozen off so that we do not keep spreading it around our home..and to our friends.

I hope that someone else has some suggestions about the rash!

[Mamato3wild ponnie]

We are going through this too...ds 30 months has this and he's had them for over a year now...older ds had them 3 years ago on his belly and they got infected...awful site..swollen and pus like...took him to the ped and he tried to pop them...my ds about knocked out the doc...we have not been back to see that doc again...his finally went away on their own..however he has little scars where they were....my younger ds has them and i've tried everything...vinegar under a bandaid....TTO....breast milk....bm seemed to take the itch away....even popped several of them...he didn't like that a bit....i have heard somewhere to keep them moisturized..that if the skin becomes to dry they can spread easily? I also heard they were related to yeast? Any one heard of the yeast theory? I just wish we could get rid of them before heading off to the pool....i can only imagine what the other mama's will be thinking when they see ds belly..he has about 6 or 7 of them on his belly...

[supermuma]

I would be very interested in hearing any info on the yeast theory....I have never heard of that, biut I also do not know much about mollusscom...this is all relatively new to us.

My dd (who has had them the entire time and has them pretty badly) has had some yeast related stuff going on basically since birth. I had a stubborn yeast infection during my pregnancy with her (it did not go away until delivery --and we tried everything!)--then she got thrush pretty badly and then she seems to have had cradle cap since birth....nothing get rid of it..or I think it is gone and then realize it is still there...very annoying.

So---it could fit. .....I am going to do some googling.

[aolinsmama]

we got these years ago (oldest is 14) spread to younger brother, and younger sister, he got over it (immune boosting herbs, acidophilus, etc.) then the younger brother got rid of them, now baby sister has them. i have learned that eventually, yes they go away on their own. my dd has had a fairly severe case though, and calamine has helped with the accompanying rash which i see someone above has, also oatmeal baths have been so helpful. washing hands is probably the most important thing overall, so they aren't spread on the infected persons body and spread to someone else . we spray the tub with a vinegar/tea tree /gse solution *every* time she is done bathing. same w/the toilet seat, as she had one on her labia. her biggest issue is the scratching, which i think we have controlled (thankfully). they are now finally getting a bit better, but i know it will probably be a while, however i also know they also go away. boosting the immune system is huge. our ped says that some families can have them for years (like we have had) but it does go away. oh, one other thing, when children get overheated (like playing, etc.) it can make the rash worse, more irritated, so be sure to wear natural fibers, and lukewarm bathwater.
whew.
take care, all. this is one of the things i didn't know about being a parent LOL
oh btw, our ped actually doesn't recommend the scraping for molloscum for little ones-although she did paint something on one of the boys' bumps. the scraping thing is pretty harsh she said, and like popping pimples, can cause scarring.

[daniedb]

I'm convinced that Henry's yeast, eczema and MC were all related to the same issues. Still trying to find the root. However, I'll share with you what we did to get rid of the MC:

We tried Aldara, after I did a great deal of research on it. From what I've read, MC are not recognized by the child's body as a foreign invader, so there's no immune response to it. Aldara is a cream that you dab on just on the MC themselves, and it works almost like a signal, to alert the body's immune system to a foreign body, and serves to "turn it on" to attack the MC and kill them. Once they are gone, using the cream, they are supposed to not reappear except in unusual circumstances. We used the cream for about 2 months, and did see an improvement. It is a longer-term solution, and we weren't getting the relief we thought was worth the effort. It's a long, drawn-out process, and since I was PG at the time, I wore gloves and a q-tip to apply it so I couldn't touch it and absorb it through my skin. It's very strong stuff, and does have a risk of scarring. The generic name is Imiquimod, so if you want to do some googling, there you go.

My sister is a ped, and in her practice, there's a wonderful ped. dermatologist. We talked to him, she had a consult with him about it, and we, again, after a great deal of deliberation, decided to try curettage, where the doc gently scraps each MC lesion in order to release the contagious inner core.

Curettage. The viral material in the center of the bump is scraped out. A local or topical anesthetic can be used to numb the area. A small scraping instrument called a curette is used to quickly remove the bumps. This procedure is very effective and not too painful. It may cause scarring.

Henry was about 2 1/2 at the time, and it was a really difficult decision to make, but I can tell you now how relieved and glad I am we did it. It was very fast, and he had probably 150-200 lesions, and on our follow-up visit, there was not one left, and he has not had any since. It is quite an intense process as a mom, because it can be scary-looking. Each MC bleeds when the doc scrapes it, so there is quite a bit of blood. However, they immediately wrapped him in gauze, so he looked like a little mummy, and by the time we got him that evening, and got him in the bath, he already looked a zillion times better. That very night, I started slathering him with an eczema cream I made that is shea butter and lots of healing oils, and kept it up until the lesions were gone.

He doesn't have one scar, nor has he had a return of the MC. That's what worked for us, so I HTH, and feel free to PM or ask if you have any questions!

[zoebugsmom]

My DD had this this past year. We took her to the dermatologist and he gave us a lotion called Cerave and it worked. It's sold in most pharmacies and it has helped with her other skin issues too.

For those wondering about a possible CP vax link, she hasn't been vaxxed for it or had CP yet.

[tommom]

new to forum and molluscum

My 2 year old son was just diagnosed a week ago. I didn't know what they were so I think he had them almost six weeks before they traveled further down his trunk and inner arms and I brought him to the dr. Tea tree oil seems to be working slowly but hurts and I ordered the zymaderm which is tea tree + thuja + iodine. What does anyone think of the magic of sun and salt water for this condition? My instincts tell me they would be helpful. Any thoughts? :