UPDATE Treatment for Plantar Wart on Child's Foot

[summerrluvv]

My son has what appears to be a plantars wart on the bottom of his big toe. The nurse from school called me today, as he was complaining that it hurt and she said that's what it look likes. It looks pretty gross and when I touch it he cries. I've read online that there is medicine that you can buy OTC to treat it. Anyone have experience with this? Is there one type of medicine that's better than another? TIA

**update, so I bought some Compound W wart remover and have been soaking his foot and applying it each night. Well tonight when I took the bandaid off, the wart came off! Yay! BUT, now there is a bit of a hole in his skin where the wart was. Should I put something on it? Ointment or something? I have it covered with a band aid and he said it hurts, but I don't want it to get infected or anything.

 

[MOMTOMOOTOO]

I would take him to a podiatrist and get it removed. I had one and it was really quite painful.

 

[stevenpensacola]

A few years back I had several of these on one of my feet. I went to my primary doctor, who sent me either to a dermatologist or a foot doctor (not sure if I ever knew which he was). These type of warts can be very painful.

The doctor used some sort of knife/razor thing to trim the wart (which actually felt really good...only way I could describe it was like relieving "pressure" caused by the wart. He then daubed some sort of substance on the warts and applied a bandage. Took about three treatments and they were gone.

I was worried that they would try and freeze them off (which can be very painful), but whatever it was he did with the razor really lessened the pain I
was experiencing.

I'd check with a doctor first if the wart is pretty large or is really causing them pain.

Hope this helps.

 

[luvdiz2]

I like to think I am very experienced with this. I spent a year trying to remove them from my son. Started with one on a toe, treated it, spread to the next toe, both thumbs, bottom of his foot. The doctor counted about 40 when he froze his toes and thumbs and burned them off...... The first time. This is EXTREMELY painful. My son is now terrified of needles. Tried the kids bandaids, the gel, the liquid, you name it, we tried it.

We finally went to a health food store, asked their advice and they suggested oregeno oil. They were gone (with no pain or blood) within three weeks. This was the end of the summer and the doctor has passed this on to others. You soak the foot with warm water, dry it lightly, drop on the liquid, let it dry for a couple of minutes and voila. Done. PM me if you would like more info than this.

 

[geetey]

My dd had plantar warts and we did go see a podiatrist. She had her wart "scraped" and then he told us to purchase a wart treatment that is kept behind the counter (but still OTC). I had to apply a drop of this 'acid' and then cover the area with a piece of duct tape after each bath. The dr. said she was too young for surgery.

This wart treatment is no longer available because they have increased the % of the acid in those wart pads. Using the wart pads, like Dr. Scholl's, is a long process so if you are willing to do a long treatment, I suggest seeing a podiatrist.

Good luck! They caused my dd terrible pain when she walked.

 

[eeyore45]

I'm going to chime in. My friends have always gone to the podiatrist. DS got one on his elbow and tried the "duct tape route" which didnt work. (myth busters confirmed this myth also as not working!) We did an otc topical for that location... and I'll bet he picked at it (he was 17 at the time, and at camp...)

My other son got one on the bottom of his foot, and was painful, we had some kinda insurance where we had to get our primary doctor to send us to the podiatrist - and he wouldnt, he "frooze" it off - and I WILL NEVER allow a gp or pediatrician to treat my son like that again!! IT WAS HORRIBLE (I think he was in jr hi or 9th grade at the time!!) (and that was the last time that particular doctor will ever treat my children!! He's one of 4 in the practice!)

Just thought I'd let you know of our experiences...

 

[snowwhitesmom]

Both my children had these and they were painful - our podiatrist took care of them very quickly and with very little discomfort in his office. I wouldn't try to take care of it OTC. Good luck!

 

[stevenpensacola]

I guess the "scraping" is how they treated mine...he then daubed the site with some sort of medicine with a cotton swab. The "scraping" caused no pain, it actually relieved the pain caused by the wart.

When I was about 18 I had a lot of warts "frozen" off my hands at one time. I would not recommend that to anyone. I think the doc did too many at once....when I sat up to leave, I almost passed out from the pain. So don't let 'em freeze em if you can help it.

 

[stevenpensacola]

You can really tell who the party people are on this board

as we sit here and discuss warts .

Hope your son gets quick relief from the pain.

 

[summerrluvv]

Thanks for all the replies! I feel so bad because I have no idea how long DS has had this, but it's big, so I'm guessing he's had it for a while. I just never look at the bottom of his feet so I had no idea I'm going to try to get an appt for the pediatrician tomorrow to get a referral for a podiatrist. The freezing thing sounds painful. I had a pre-cancerous spot frozen on my forehead and that hurt like heck! DS doesn't have a very high pain tolerance, so hopefully we can avoid that!

The oregeno oil thing sounds interesting so I might try that if he ends up getting more. I've read you get these warts, which are a form of HPV (ick) from public pools, showers, etc. He spent so much time at the pool this summer with no water shoes on, so I'm betting that's where he picked it up. Ugh.

 

[MOMTOMOOTOO]

You can really tell who the party people are on this board

as we sit here and discuss warts .

Hope your son gets quick relief from the pain.

 

[summerrluvv]

You can really tell who the party people are on this board

as we sit here and discuss warts .

Hope your son gets quick relief from the pain.

Well, since there is no Grey's Anatomy or Survivor tonight, gotta talk about something

 

[PlutoPony]

The OTC medication is called "Occusal" or something like that and my local pharmacy had to order it for us, think it was at least $20. DS"s warts were on both feet, one on his heel especially large so the OTC didn't help at that late stage. Podiatrist tried the scrape and treat routine for weeks but in the end we had to have them cut out. Ended up doing it in the hospital as outpatient as DS absolutely freaked at the prospect of having his feet "cut" while he was watching . It turned out the one wart in his heel went all the way down to the bone, so it was a good thing that we did it in the hospital . We had a very good experience with the removal and DS was quite a trooper. The nurses had me very worried saying he should stay off his feet completely for a week afterwards, etc. However his doctor had told us all along that he could do whatever he felt like on his feet after surgery- turns out he was right! They were removed on a Wednesday afternoon, DS was back in school the next day on (missed PE but that's it) and played a full soccer game the following Sunday (altho we made him stay in goal for the whole game, less running).
One other thing (sorry to go on) if you go the podiatrist route, try to get one who's good with kids. There are SO many kids that have plantars and get treatment but I've heard of many many pods who really don't deal well with kids and scare them unnecessarily.......
Good luck!!

 

[geetey]

Occusal! That's right!!

Just to clarify - my dd had to use duct tape on the bottom of her foot because her feet sweat. A regular bandaid wouldn't stay on. By using a drop of Occusal and then putting a piece of duct tape on the wart, the medicine was forced into the area. Each time I removed the tape, a little bit of the wart would be removed.

On follow-up visits, the doctor would scrape the wart some more and we would treat for another week. The 'root' of the wart came out with the tape and then we were done.

Our podiatrist felt this route was much less traumatic for my then 8 yr old DD. (BTW, he felt she also got it from the pool.)

 

[summerrluvv]

update at top

 

[SwedishMeatball]

I would take him to a podiatrist and get it removed. I had one and it was really quite painful.

I agree. My daughter(17) had one. I didn't know what it was, but I took her to a podiatrist and I won't go into the details, but he scraped/cleaned it as deep as he could go and then put this green antibiotic ointment on it that hardened. It took 2 more treatments before it was completely healed.