Combating Mollescum Contagiosum

It started with 3 innocent white head looking spots on his chin. I thought it was because we've been bringing him to Raju too often and all the free papadams were too oily for him. So I said... no more papadams! .... but they didn't go away. I tried using steroid cream.. but we felt we shouldn't be using steroid cream so liberally, seeing that we didn't even know what it was. Baby websites says that it could be a viral infection. Viral infection! That sounds scary!

Our paediatrician didn't know what it was, but said it could be viral infection. He said we didn't have to worry because it's not something dangerous, but recommended a skin specialist for a 2nd opinion anyway.

The skin specialist confirmed that it was viral infection and recommended scrapping each mollescum out with a curette to stop the virus from spreading. It's quite a painful procedure. By then Sean's mollescum had spread itself all over the body, congregating most on his chin, face, neck, chest,waist and thigh. So the specialist said he would give Sean something to make him sleepy while he does the procedure. He's still going to be awake and will struggle. Knowing Sean, it's impossible. He had more than a hundred mollescum all over his body. I think this would really traumatize him. He would scream bloody murder when we put him on the paediatrician bed to measure his height. I can't imagine how we would be able to stand his screams while he struggles as the doctor cuts away his mollescum. Shudder....

The other option was to put him under general anesthetic while the specialist cut away his mollescum. He hinted that he doesn't recommend this to his caucasian patients and muttered something about trauma. So anyway, he told us to think about it and get back to him.

Upon arriving home, we decided to do some research, now that we know what those spots are. It seems very common, and it can cover whole section of the body if not treated properly (looks awful!). It also last from a few weeks to years!!!! But one thing we learn that cutting them off doesn't mean that they won't come back and may leave scars on the skin. So at least we could rule it out because putting Sean under g.a. just didn't sit well on us.

Sam found several medicine online that promotes themselves as being pain-free ways to get rid of mollescum. We searched but they're not available in Malaysia, in fact, even in the States, parents are wondering why their doctors don't know about these. We ordered Zymaderm from Amazon.com. My.... it's an expensive thing for something so little. It's the express delivery cost that inflated the price, of course. =P

Mollescum usually gets spread through water. We still don't know how Sean got it, but we did these to counter mollescum:
1) Dry all Sean's clothes inside out in the sun to kill any virus on his clothes.
2) Wash his towels everyday
3) Change bedsheets often
4) Tried cutting his mollescum ourselves while he was asleep, but caused it to spread more! So we stopped that.
5) Wiping the affected area with alcohol swabs
6) Put Baby Buds First Aid lotion which contain Manuka & Tea Tree oil.
These didn't seem to work much, so in the end, we just

7) Put Calamine lotion to stop him from scratching
8) Put steroid & antiseptic cream to stop it from spreading.
9) Give him cod liver oil to boost his immune system.
while we waited for the Zymaderm to arrive.

Finally the Zymaderm arrived and we dutifully put it when he sleeps. After a week, the mollescum became very red ( which was expected) and Sean looked terrible! By then we've already started playgroup. I didn't bring Sean that week fearing that the other mothers might object me bringing Sean while he had a viral infection. Unfortunately, I didn't know how long it would take for the mollescum to go away, even with Zymaderm.

In the end, I asked the Playgroup coordinator for advice and she said it's ok to bring Sean. She said her daughter also has them and she hoped they would go away after she's 4 years old! What a relief. I really didn't want Sean to miss out the playgroup, now that we manage to get a place in it. But 4 years old is still a long way to go for Sean. I prayed for it to go away sooner than that.

Over the next few weeks, the mollescum slowly disappeared. Zymaderm really works! The chin area has been very stubborn because it's often wet from his saliva. But now we just need to wait for the dried spots go disappear. It has been very troublesome, but we are just very glad that we've found a pain-free solution to mollescum.

If you're going through Mollescum too, check Wikipedia.