Molluscum Contagiwhat? That’s what I was thinking when my doctor first said those words to me. I must have given him a weird look, because he quickly followed up with something I could understand: my son had a wart virus. Gross, I thought, how in the world did he get that?

I learned that molluscum contagiousum is pretty common in kids and they’ve been seeing it a lot in Wichita lately. It’s a virus that spreads easily with skin-to-skin contact or sharing things like toys or clothing. It was around Christmas last year that we first noticed some reddish pink bumps on my son’s back. We thought it was dry skin, but then it kept spreading down his back and around his sides. We went to the doctor and he instantly diagnosed it as molluscum contagiousum.

He told us it’s not serious, but there aren’t any proven treatments. Doctors can put liquid nitrogen on them or prescribe an expensive topical cream, but my doctor said none of those treatments were guaranteed. Time was really the best thing to let them heal. He did say that some of his patients were having luck using a natural treatment for molluscum contagiousum: tea tree oil, an essential oil with antiseptic properties. I already had tea tree oil (melalecua) at home, and decided I too would give it a try.

I’ve dabbled with essential oils over the last couple of years and have used tea tree oil for things like cuts and scrapes. I didn’t have a strong opinion on whether it did much until I used it on my son’s molluscum contagiousum. It worked for us! After six weeks of applying tea tree oil, two to three times a day to the bumps on his body, they were all gone. And my daughter, who had close contact with him never contracted it. Since then, we’ve told this treatment to other friends who have also had success with it. So if you are dealing with it or know someone who is, give this a try. It will hopefully help!

What you need:

1. Roller bottle- small glass bottle with a roller ball on top 2. Tea tree or Melalecua oil (I use Doterra, a home sales brand, but lots of brands exist) 3. Fractionated coconut oil (fractionated means that it always stays liquid)

You can buy all of these things online – here is a set with roller bottles and fractionated coconut oil, or at a local natural grocery store. Add 10-15 drops of tea tree oil to the roller bottle and fill the rest with fractionated coconut oil. You should never apply the tea tree oil directly to your child’s skin, it is too strong and needs to be diluted with a carrier oil like coconut.

Once you’ve mixed the roller bottle, roll it on the infected areas two to three times a day. We started to notice improvement after about two weeks and by week six they were all gone. I hope you also have the same success!

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