I like how children think. Things are really clear for them; there are no grey areas to cause confusion or doubts. With kids, it’s either black or white. There isn’t anything in between. Sometimes I wish we could all think like that but life just doesn’t work that way. But still it’s lifting to see how kids respond to things…horrendous things like warts!
Warts in the simplest explanation is a form of tiny skin infections that leaves you with an unsightly lump/bump on the surface of your skin. There are over 80 different strands of virus that could give you warts but most are harmless and will go away on their own, but some are malignant and need surgical removal.
Now when an adult experiences a wart, it’s simple, warts are unsightly and possibly a sign of something worse to come (HPV virus). So you go to the doctor and you get it fixed. But to a child, if he/she has a wart, then it’s pretty clear that he/she is turning into:
- 1. A witch
- 2. A troll
- 3. A toad
- 4. A mushroom
And believe me neither is something your kid is going to laugh about. You’ll hear endless whines and possible tears over it and as a super mummy you just have to make it go away. Doesn’t help that kids are especially susceptible to skin infections because of their weaker immune system and preference to run about without shoes on.
Well the common warts are absolutely harmless and these are the ones that are likely to infect the average child. You won’t need :
- To burn the wart off with a light electrical current)
- Cryosurgery (freezing the wart with liquid nitrogen), nor will you need laser treatment
but you do need some medication to treat the virus and make sure that after it goes away, it won’t be coming back. You can opt for over the counter medications which are always ‘toxic’ or made of salicylic acid, or you can try a home treatment which you can be sure will leave no adverse effect on your child.
You may opt to use either of the following options but it will take about 1-2 weeks for the wart to fall off.
- 1. Clean the infected skin with spirit (rubbing alcohol)
- 2. Apply either of the following directly onto the wart
- • Oregano essential oil (1 drop concentrated)
- • Sap of dandelion
- • Tea tree essential oil (1 drop concentrated)
- 3. Apply a bandage on the spot (the idea is to not allow the wart to breathe, but to soak entirely in the application)
Repeat the application 2x a day and the wart should clear off soon.
