Our daughter was 18 months old when we noticed two little pimple like bumps on her arm where the arm bends (the crease). I had tried to squeeze them and had made one of them worse, red and swollen.
We went to her pediatrician, who told us that it was molluscum and to just let them go. They told us that they'd go away and that if they didn't, they could be removed there at the office. So we waited and waited and slowly the "dots" began to spread all over her forearm and up above the crease of the arm as well. The mulluscum very quickly began to spread to her torso, her side and her chest and even down on her legs eventually.
We took her back to the pediatrician, who had planned on cutting them off. He intended to numb her arm first, which is supposed to be more of an ordeal than the actual removal of the dots. A couple of weeks before our appointment we did some research and decided against the cutting because we had hope that a homeopathic medicine would help. We started using a topical solution, which we purchased after having seen a guarantee that it would work. We used two bottles of this solution, but it didn't work at all for our daughter. We did receive our full refund for the two bottles. The dots still kept spreading and were very red and began to itch and were more infected looking. We were very worried because there were some on our daughter's legs and we were afraid that they could spread all over her body. We also have an infant and we were worried that she might catch them.
We took our daughter to a dermatologist, who cut about 25 of the dots off our daughter's chest. It was horrible. Our daughter is pretty tough and takes a tumble without hardly a tear. She screamed and cried as we held her down and the doctor cut her. It was one of the worst days of my life. The doctor did not cut any off her arm or legs. She had screamed so loudly that we think he gave up. But we were left with her wounds all over her torso and more molluscum on her arms and legs. We were sick with worry and felt helpless. She had had these spots now for six months.
We waited for her wounds on her torso to heal and more molluscum came up around the area where the dermatologist had cut. She had many new lesions and many old infected looking lesions. It was impossible to keep her from picking at them. She was obsessed with them by this time and was very self conscious. Family and friends inquired constantly about why she was wearing long sleeves or bandages. We couldn't let her go swimming with other kids or go anywhere where she would be too hot. It was summer time and she was dressed for winter, long sleeves and pants. Some well meaning friends tried to roll her sleeves and pants up for us, wondering why in the world we would dress her like that in 100 degree weather and 90% humidity. We just made excuses and kept our mouths shut because we were so afraid of her being shunned and of people thinking that their children would be infected from playing with our little girl. We tried not to talk about it because we were afraid to upset her. We prayed and searched and searched for an answer.
Finally, we came upon some advice on line. We found a new idea and we decided to just try it. It is very simple. Our beautiful answer. IT WORKED for us!
Apple Cider Vinegar.
We got little round band aids, q-tips and Apple Cider Vinegar.
We applied the Apple Cider Vinegar like this:
1. Big drop of Apple Cider Vinegar on the lesion
2. Moisten the band aid cloth with Apple Cider Vinegar
3. Put band aid on and leave it on for up to 24 hours.
4. Take off band aid next night before bed.
5. Wait
6. When the lesion looks "normal" again...not red at all and is healing up repeat the process.
7. Stop the process when the bump is flat, there is not more of the "white head" in the lesion.
We treated the spots as they appeared and we watched for them daily, like molluscum police. If new ones appeared, we treated them right away and kept on them as they appeared to heal up, applying another Apple Cider Vinegar treatment. We kept our daughter's finger nails short and watched carefully that she did not touch the lesions. We kept the more tempting of the lesions under a band aid to discourage her from picking at or touching them. We washed her hands religiously and tried to explain to her that the "dots" would go away if we ignored them, not touch them or scratch them at all. It was hard to curb her curiosity but she was as sick of them as we were and wanted them gone in the end.
We had our daughter in long sleeves and long pants when she was in contact with other children or toys with which other children would play. We kept her in short sleeves and shorts around the house and when we were not in close contact. Humidity and heat seem to make the molluscum spread, from what we understand. We did have her wear long sleeves every night while she had the virus.
We made a HUGE MISTAKE at first by using water proof, super crazy sticky band aids. They were so difficult to get off our daughter that we had to take them off one at a time over the period of a day. She screamed and cried the entire time and she was left with welts all over her body from our plucking and prodding. She was afraid of band aids for a few days but got over it and let us continue to treat her.
Our daughter's lesions sometimes went red or did nothing at all. It depended on what stage the lesion was in. We just waited until the dot looked healed up a bit and we'd reapply the vinegar. It ranged from 2-7 days of waiting time. Slowly but surely we treated all of her molluscum. There were well over 50 when we started. Over time they began to disappear and the words our daughter had repeated so many times finally rang true and brought us joy instead of sorrow, fear and worry, "My dots are going away!" Those beautiful words became her reality and our story we are happy to share with you today!
We do not know if this is a researched method or a totally safe method. We can not really advise anyone to do what we did because we can not promise that it will work for everyone. We just want to share our story because it was such a traumatic experience and because we believe knowledge is power. This worked for us and we are very happy that we gave it a try. We don't know if this would have worked from the get-go or not. What we can tell you is that our infant (6 months old) had one lesion show up and that we have treated her with Apple Cider Vinegar three times over the course of three weeks and that her lesion appears to be gone. She only had one, which we believe is unusual. We were told that infants do not get molluscum but we are 98% certain it was a molluscum lesion, since it looked the same and went through a similar process of breaking down and healing that our oldest daughter's spots went through.
We know that horrible sinking feeling in the stomach when another one shows up and we just want to put this out there, in hopes that we can help in some way to make this experience less painful and perhaps shorter for another child. The social ramifications of this kind of virus are potentially so difficult. It was far more traumatic for our daughter than I would have ever imagined it having been.
Good luck to you if are reading this and please feel free to ask questions. We will do our best to answer any questions you might have. Please share this information with others if it is helpful to you. We do not know how best to help but we are hoping this is a start.
Best Regards and Best of Luck!!!
From Our Family to Yours.
