Molluscum?

Q: What is the most effective way to treat molluscum and why does it take so long to clear up?

A: What we recommend the most for molluscum is watchful waiting. You can freeze them off like you’d freeze a wart, and they actually are relatively easy to freeze off. But oftentimes in very young children with many lesions, it’s not easy to freeze them off because freezing hurts. When there are many, many lesions, sometimes we might even think about using a systemic agent like cimetidine, which is an H2 blocker for stomach ulcers. It may sound like a completely odd thing to use, but in patients with eczema it seems like it may work a little bit better than in patients without. So there are a variety of treatments but if it’s acceptable socially for the child, the family, and for others it’s best to just let them run their course. That’s probably the best thing you can do.

Excerpted from the Ask-the-Experts Session, 2010 NEA Conference