So Miss T’s eczema has been pretty good for the last few months and she’s really been looking forward to wearing short sleeves and dresses this summer (a major achievement as any eczema sufferer will tell you). However after two bouts of impetigo needing both oral and topical antibiotics, we now have a new problem with her skin.
When a few little blister like spots started to appear at first I thought it was eczema. Then as they spread I wondered if she had chicken pox again. A quick Google search and I finally realised that these lesions were in fact the virus Molluscum contagiosum and that they often get mistaken for chicken pox as they are blister like and have an umbilicated centre.
So apparently this pesky virus is really common in children. Having chatted with some of my friends I know that their children have had them too. However they only had 3 or 4 spots which resolved pretty quickly, whereas miss T’s started on her arms and have now spread all over her body. She is covered in them, poor little thing. Arms, legs, tummy and just to upset her even further, they’ve now spread to her face too.
Patches of eczema have started to form around the spots so she’s incredibly itchy and frantically scratches the Molluscum. This spreads the virus and has led to some of them getting infected. It’s such a horrible cycle and she is so fed up with it. It nearly broke my heart when she asked me why her friends have such perfect skin but hers is so "horrible".
A trip to the doctor confirmed the diagnosis and we were told that there is NO treatment for Molluscum. We were just given an antibiotic cream for the ones that she has scratched and have become infected. We’ve also been told no swimming in public pools until the infected spots have calmed down (the sea is fine) and she should use her own set of towels at home after baths and showers. Unfortunately children with eczema tend to get lots more spots and they last much longer too. The spots commonly last 6-9 months before resolving but in some cases they have been known to last for years.
I would love to find a way to help clear up Miss T’s skin. There are of course lots of weird and wonderful things suggested online, but the one thing that seemed to get a lot of positive comments is using apple cider vinegar. Some of the advice says to put neat apple cider vinegar directly onto the lesions and then cover with a dressing for 24 hours. However I’m pretty sure Miss T would scream the house down if I tried that. So instead I’ve started adding 2 cupfuls of cider vinegar to a daily shallow bath. For the first week I really think this was helping as the lesions started to get crusty and dry up. But we were getting through a LOT of cider vinegar! So we stopped for a week and the Molluscum came back with a vengeance. So she's back in her eczema PJs to stop her scratching, and I'm off to buy shares in apple cider vinegar to see if we can get it under control. It's got to be worth a try. I’ll keep you posted!
Have you or your child suffered from Molluscum? Did you find anything that helped? Any ideas gratefully received!
