Hey J.,
I almost couldn't believe what I was reading when I saw your request! Finally, I think I may be able to help someone in this situation! My best friend and I were a few days late with our conversation on molluscum that would have changed EVERYTHING for her and her son who has this! I was also too little-too late finding out how bad this really is!
SO, here it is! I have 4 kids, (my first 2 are 13 months apart-BTW!) and it was my 8 year old who had molluscum. I took him in for his 7 year old well check, and had noticed a few bumps on his arm, in the bend of his elbow. I asked the doc about them, he told me it was molluscum, and it was a childhood virus that kids just grow out of. Not to worry, leave it alone, basically. HE SAID NOTHING ABOUT THEM SPREADING on him or to my other kids. I just left it alone, and put it out of my mind, really. Then about 3 months later, I had him in the dermatologists office for his routine skin check and she noticed them. At this point they had spread all over his abdomen, where his arm brushes against his side. And by now he had many more on his arm, too. She told me we needed to schedule an appointment to have them "removed" because they were HIGHLY contagious, and would definately get much worse before they would just go away! I was upset that my pediatrition would have down played it so much because she was making it clear that it needed to be a top priority! I scheduled the appointment for asap. She used a cotton swab dipped in some type of acid and touched each bump and then covered each with a bandaid. He had about 40 by the time we did this. My instructions were...keep his hands off because the acid is strong and we dont want the acid to spread anywhere else, especially to the eyes, mouth, etc. Football practice would be fine, and bath as usual. Keep them covered by a bandaid only if he's more comfortable that way. So, I assumed everything would be just fine! Well, later that afternoon, we were at football, and he came over complaining about them. I lifted his jersey and all the bumps were now huge blisters and they were red, and torn open! I thought, WHAT are we doing at practice!!?? We went straight home, and he took a bath, he was miserable! I was pissed! Nobody even told me they would blister! It was awful for about 5 days. I called them back in the morning and they apologized for not being detailed enough, but really dismissed it as nothing to worry. They told me to clean them with a 50/50 mix of hydrogen peroxide and water...you can imagine how that went over! After about a week the sores were healing fine but his skin looked scarred. I was concerned about the scarring and once he was fully healed, the bumps had actually multiplied. He had now 100 or more! I wanted to change dermatologists. By this time, I had talked to a few other moms who had been through this, and they referred me to another derm who treated their kids. So th new derm tells me that they should never have used the acid. It is the least effective way to treat molluscum, and the most painful...in the long run. In office, its great becuase it doesn't hurt the child until they are at home and mom gets to deal with it! His approach is to numb the skin for an hour before the appointment by using lidocaine cream on the bumps and covering the cream with saran wrap until he's ready. Then he uses a tool like a tiny melon-baller to actually scrape them off the skin. By doing this he removes the whole root, or core or whatever so they are less likely to come back. Some do come back, so you go to an appointment every month until they are all gone. Putting on the cream is the worst part, and keeping the saran wrap over them is not easy! By the end of our appointments I was a pro...I used the press and seal wrap and cut it into 2x2 squares to press over the cream. You don't rub the cream in, and it's best to use a big dallop, just to be sure its good and numb! If you miss one and it is not numb, it is very painful for the kids, so do your best with the cream! Once they have felt one scraped that has not been numbed, their anxiety takes over! The healing with this is really not bad. They will put a bandaid on each one, some bleed more than others, and sometimes the blood starts to freak them out. Just keep their attention so they don't watch! It was quite a process, but if I had all the info I have now, I would have taken him in when I saw 3 bumps and it would have been OVER! I was shocked by the pediatritions ignorance and frustraded by my first derm. My poor friend just had the acid done on her son last week. Unbelievable that anyone is doing it that way. Call around and ask how different offices treat them, and make your decision. Just get in asap!!! I'm glad that you will go into it knowing what others have had to go through, and hope you don't have anything close to this experience! Good luck!
