getting rid of my molluscum contagiosum

Skin, nail and hair health
1

hi all, i am a 19 year old male in the u.s. who has had molluscum contagiosum for a couple of years. i have not sought treatment because like many of you, doctors had told me that they would go away soon... (not to mention they didnt even tell me what the bumps were or that they were contagious) they haven't gone away on their own and today i decided to take matters into my own hands

from what i found on the web it seems that putting some apple cider vinegar on the skin will help, as this is the easiest and cheapest treatment i am going to give this a try and keep you updated on whether or not this works.

anyway if you had any experience with using apple cider vinegar please let me know of any pointers and helpful tips.

i am looking forward to finally getting rid of this molluscum contagiosum!

2

To the 19 year old asking about Apple Cider Vinegar. It does work. Try it on one or two first. Clean the area you are going to treat with undiluted apple cider vinegar for about 15 mins. The soak a cotton wool pad in vinegar and squeeze - make sure the pad is moist then place over the MC - then seal with a plaster for 18 hours - make sure you seal it right as it the pad needs to still be damp when you take it off - over the next couple of days the MC will go red or black then the head falls off and it eventually disappears. You could also buy Zimaderm - that does remove them but takes longer if used on large MC. If you use it on any small new ones it takes them away within a couple of days. I put Zimaderm on all the MCs I'm not treating with vinegar and it seems to stop them spreading. Good luck!!

3

thanks for the advice!

the apple cider vinegar seems to be working, however, i have not let it soak on the infected area (i just apply it and let it be). so far i have managed to get rid of one of the larger ones by opening it up and then applying the apple cider vinegar to it. it does burn but it seemed to kill off the mc within a day and a half

4

Glad its working - if you just soak to MC overnight then it doesn't burn - be careful if you're opening the MC up before you put the vinegar on as that's when it's most infectious. We're down to 2 large ones - the rest have either died off or are half way there. They've definately stopped spreading using the Zimaderm - worth every penny!!! Going to be spending a lot of time at the beach over the next 2 weeks so hoping the salt water will help - I'll let you know.

Let me know how you're getting on - and good luck!!!

5

another update:

so i had opened up a few of the mc's and after reading your post and applying some apple cider vinegar on them i decided to let them heal so as to not let them spread. unfortunately some new ones did pop up but nothing large.

i have tried putting the acv on a cotton ball and leaving it on over the night and it seems to make the mc softer, right now it has a pearl/white color.

i am wondering if i should continue to apply the acv every night until they disappear or should i pick out the white core? im guessing that picking them out might leave some small scars but at this point i just want them gone.

hoping they will be gone soon!

6

Hi Max P

How's the MC. I've now managed to get rid of my son's main cluster (they were very big) using ACV and I think the salt water when swimming on his hols helped. Now about 10-15 new MCs have come up but I'm keeping them away with Zymaderm. This is definately stopping them growing and most of them seem to just go after a few days of using it. It's not cheap but worth every penny. Hope you're doing okay!

Auds

7

unfortunately i have not had any luck with the apple cider vinegar method, if i apply the acv and cover with a cotton ball all it does is damage the skin around the mc without doing anything to the mc. i have recently tried using a product with salicylic acid, but again not much luck.

i think i will try tea tree oil next... we'll see what happens

anyway thanks for the advice and support!

8

Hi Max Shame the ACV didn't work - my son's original MCs are gone - we are now down to 6 - the Zymaderm is keeping them small and they either disappear after a few days or on some they seem to go red then hard and after a couple of weeks disappear - I know this is one of the more expenisve treatments but it definately stops them spreading into clusters and helps the new ones right away. Good luck with the tea tree oil - didn't work for us but I know it has for others.

9

My 10 year old got molluscum from a friend we tried all the stuff apple cider vinegar, tretinoin, tea tree but what worked for my kid was imiquimod (expensive but almost all of it covered by medical) we only used it a few times and the spots shrivelled up and blackened we didn't even put it on all the spots but a few on the tummy and arms... Molluscum is something you really can't fight from the outside its an immunity thing so we started upping the vitamins and minerals antioxidants and got rid of the refined sugars...They were shrinking within a week and pretty much gone within the month...  I looked and combed through blogs and articles when I found the imiquimod... http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15379366 ; our family doctor looked it up and said well it's for kids 12 and up so se it sparingly it could possibly burn the area but we put it directly on the tip of the spot with the cut end of a q tip just before bed... And only 2 times a week to 3 or 4 spots it is supposed to wake up your immune system...

i hope this helps others out there

10

Hi, everyone my daughter is turning 11 we have had MC for two years , we have tried steroid cream, but doesn't kill them , tree tea oil burned so that's out the window , I'm going to try the acv , I try to write back on how it works , never heard of zymaderm but I ll try that too , so we went to the beach hoping the salt water would help but the mc didn't change , we also jumped the the pool for the past 2 wks now the mc looks even worse , I can't keep her out of the pool so I really hope the acv works , thanks for all ur help , good luck to all !!

11

It's very unfortunate to hear that you have been going through this and yes you do have to take it into your own hands and start treating them!  We were impacted by Molluscum while living overseas for a year. My 2 children 6 and 9 both had it.  It started off on my younger child who had them under her armpit but I was told by they Dr that is was no big deal and to let them be and they will dissapear over time. In the meantime the girls shared baths together, we were squeezing what we thought were mosquito bites on her legs and spreading them.  After going to a skin specialist who confirmed it was molluscum we were told it could take a few years, but they will go away. With more appearing I started to research and got very worried.  

Now I tried everything.  I started with ACV, then switched to tea tree, then ACV again, then Colloidial silver along with ACV...you name it. Although ACV was cheap it ended up being very costly for us as I was buying individual bandaids (round dot) to cover each little spot. I found tea tree oil would shrink the Molluscum but wouldn't remove it, so it appeared to be working, but infact is wasn't.

Now my process started as a 1.5hr ordeal every morning for my kids and then I would repeat the same process every evening.  In the morning I would examine their skin under good lighting (has to be good to see everyspot...laying on a bed with the sun shining on the skin is always very useful too). Then I would take a small tip of cotton wall off a cotton bud (has to be small as the ACV can irritate the surrounding skin) and soak it in ACV and place it on each spot and cover with a bandaid. The spot bandaids don't work under the armpits as when they get sweaty they come off so the spot bandaids were usefull on the arms and legs. I tried every single baidaid out there as their skin was getting very sensitive and in some cases started to bleed from the repetitive removal of bandaids.  I found a Sensitive skin bandaid that you cut off to the size you need, but only used the sticky part of the bandaid to place over the soaked cotton ACV (more to hold the soaked vinegar in place...make sure the cotton is about the size of the spot)

Every evening the children had to take a shower, then skin examination, then treat.

I did this everyday for 6 months.  What I noticed is that the ACV did bring them to a head and that is the key to keep the spot moist (that's why I treated it 2x day). Some where more stubbon and would last for weeks not coming to a head on the legs especially)  But once the head was out and you were left with an indendation in the skin you knew it was good.   To prevent scarring after the head was out I would use a cotton bud to spread some Lucas Papaw ointment (from Australia) and it really helped the skin to recover.  I think this is vital, especially as you have young skin you need to protect it after.

Over time my 1.5 hr skin treatments in the morning and evening got down to 1 hr then 30mins and so on until I noticed them gone.

We had alot of tears, frustration and it ruined my childrens summer. Children constantly asked what all the bandaids were for, but it was worth it!  I did not let them do any swimming, only swimming in the sea!

Plus I never let them wear the same clothes more than once, towels everything was washed every night.  It is ALOT OF WORK!!!!

Good luck, I really hope this has been of some us, let me know if you need any more help.