What You Need To Know About Children's Warts
Research has found that most individuals within their lifetime will develop a common skin wart. Many of these people will often mistake a wart (which can be found on any part of the body) for a verruca found on the bottom of your foot. You can read more about verrucas in our last blog here!
Often, you will struggle to get rid of skin warts using home treatment. This is not surprising as you may have no idea what your treating or the science and biology behind the remedy and your wart ointments.
Warts are widespread and are caused by the Human Papilloma Virus. Most children develop warts on their hands and feet during their formative years. They are contracted via foot-to-floor contact, such as walking barefoot in changing rooms or swimming pools.
Most common warts are harmless skin growths but some warts can be distressing, especially for children while they are young and active. Warts can be painful when walking and participating in sports activities, causing a great deal of emotional and physical distress. But before darting off to the chemist to try endless home ‘miracle cures’ ask yourself these few simple questions:
Is it painful?
Is my child in emotional distress?
Has it been there for longer than two years?
If your answer was no to the top 2 questions, then leave it alone, children have remarkable immune systems, and eventually, it will see this virus is destroyed. However, if you answered yes, you probably have good ground to start treatment, but what is the right product?
You may find that most over the counter remedies are not in the slightest effective, here's why!
Freezing sprays: It is impossible to form an exempt enough ice ball within the verruca tissue. In fact, it is not about how cold you can freeze the verruca tissue, but the cell destruction caused by the thawing process.
Verruca gels containing salicylic acid: Children with fragile skin and sensitive skin can react violently to these chemical treatments. These products create an acidic environment that verrucas do not like to live in; however, painful side effects can include quite severe burns. Therefore, they are not recommended.
Tea tree oils: Although these have antibacterial, fungal and viral properties, clinical research into this treatment has proven that they do not effectively treat the human papillomavirus.
The best wart treatment you can get is to book an appointment with your local podiatrist and have them professionally remove the wart. The treatment is generally affordable and effective - a win win and a great way to get back to having healthy skin.