Question for Medical bods (chiropody related)

[Willow]

My 12 year old has a severe verruca problem. The little devils have been with him for at least 4 years and it may actually be longer. We have done all the over the counter stuff. He has seen the chiropodist at £40 a go (the stuff she gave us didn't do much) he has seen the doctor who said just let the life cycle take it's course. Now I know eventually they give up the battle but this poor lad has an ugly mess on his foot and it is starting to embarrass him. I can't afford to take him to the chiropodist on a weekly basis or whatever to sort it. I'm thinking of going to the drs again to see if they now take a different approach - does anyone have any advice/solutions on this please.

If it helps he rides a Dawes bike.

 

[Danny]

I once had a very persistent verruca that I was only able to shift with Extra Strength Bazuka gel. Even then I had to follow a fairly rigorous treatment regime every day for weeks to get rid of the damn thing.

I had understood that doctors can just cut them out by first freezing or anaesthetising the affected area, so if your son has already other treatments I would ask your doctor if he can remove it.

 

[buggi]

don't know much about them but aren't they contagious because i thought they were, yet i was babysitting the other day when i saw that the kid had something wrong, so i said, what's wrong with your foot and he said its a verruca. it was fecking huge.

i had been walking round all day with nothing on my feet. i was well p'd off that the mom didn't tell me. put my shoes and socks on straight away.

 

[snakehips]

I have heard that polarised light can help with skin problems. I believe that somebody in Hungary uses/d it extensively. Why not check it out? You might have to spell it polarized to get anything meaningful from e.g. Google

 

[vernon]

My 12 year old has a severe verruca problem. The little devils have been with him for at least 4 years and it may actually be longer. We have done all the over the counter stuff. He has seen the chiropodist at £40 a go (the stuff she gave us didn't do much) he has seen the doctor who said just let the life cycle take it's course. Now I know eventually they give up the battle but this poor lad has an ugly mess on his foot and it is starting to embarrass him. I can't afford to take him to the chiropodist on a weekly basis or whatever to sort it. I'm thinking of going to the drs again to see if they now take a different approach - does anyone have any advice/solutions on this please.

If it helps he rides a Dawes bike.

Be patient. They do give up the ghost eventually. My son had lots of them at 12 - the soles of his feet were an awful mess and we'd tried a range of 'cures' which only offered a temporary respite. They spontaneously faded away.

All during this time I didn't worry about walking barefoot around the house and I never gained any verrucas of my own. Neither of my other two children or my wife had a problem with verrucas during this time.

 

[fossyant]

My son gets them on occasions - usually Bazooka sorts it pretty quick....

Have you tried soaking in salt water - as a kid I had a big 'un, but many hours in the sea cleared it up....

 

[postman]

Press for a referal to a Hospital.Your child should not be suffering like that.School mates may also be giving him some stick and he has not told you.

 

[surfgurl]

Gaffer tape. Apparently there is something in the glue which gets rid of them. Stick a piece of gaffer tap over the veruccas and press down onto it. Leave it on until it falls off and then replace with another. I've seen the odd verucca cured within a week or two with this. As he has lots it may take a little longer, but you should start to see results. It's worth doing just for the meantime while you pursue other courses of action.
I work in a boarding school and this is the current treatment recommended by the GP who deals with our kids.

 

[Will1985]

If you've tried the salicylic acid ointments (>25% is pretty strong), there is always cautery or cryotherapy. Most GPs should be able to do electrocautery or silver nitrate cautery in the surgery. Cryotherapy might need a referral, but as with most NHS departments you could be waiting a while!

 

[goo_mason]

My daughter's been refusing to try out a treatment that my Dad's very curious about, after various friends swear that it works, despite the fact that it sounds like superstitious nonsense. Something about getting a stone, rubbing the verruca with it, then putting the stone in matchbox and throwing it away. The verruca then goes away.

Now, my Dad's a highly intelligent, completely unsuperstitious atheist - so I'm not sure quite why he's so keen to see someone try this. Maybe it's just to help him confirm that it's utter b*ll*cks

I had a verruca seen to with the old cryo treatment at the doctor's surgery when I was in my teens. It was agony - it felt like he was pressing a red hot poker into the sole of my foot, and it went on for about 5 minutes. Imagine how annoyed I was after going through that medieval torture session to find that he'd not got rid of it after all, and I then had to use over-the-counter remedies to finally get rid of it.

 

[woofer]

get the doc to freeze them off with liquid nitrogen, worked for me.

 

[colly]

I had some on a couple of toes for what seemed like ages (2yrs), tried all sorts to get rid of them even prescription stuff from the GP.
Then one day I noticed, right out of the blue, they were all but gone. Just like that.
I'm not sure quite how long they actually took to go once they started to heal up but it was very fast. A week maybe less.
I spoke to a chiropodist who my mum used to use and she said that it was not unusual for them to spontaneously clear up like that.

Perhaps something to do with the immune system suddenly coming up with the right anti-bodies?

 

[col]

I had two whoppers on my heel as a kid of 8,my dad was a medic in the raf and got most of it out himself,then kept putting something on it,it went pretty quickly as i recall,im thinking it was something from the medical centre,wish i could remember what,but probably similar to whats available over counter now?Dont go down the numbing route at a adocs if you can help it,the pain from two injections in my big toe for an ingrowing toenail was the worst iv ever known,and im thinking anywhere on the foot would be similar.Speak to your docs again and maybe get other solutions.I would keep using over the counter stuff and be patient,unless he is really affected by it.

 

[jonesy]

I had one that lasted nearly ten years: tried different treatments from the chemists, had several attempts at freezing, but it always returned until it finally gave in to one of my periodic attempts to blast it with Bazuka Extra Strong last year. I've no idea why the treatment worked then when it hadn't previously, or even whether it would have gone anyway, without the treatment...

 

[summerdays]

We've done the Bazuka treatment that took ages to get rid of a big verucca on one of my kids - certainly close to a year.

Just found this on the internet about the duct tape method:

Duct tape is a simple method of treating warts on the hands. You can buy duct tape at a hardware store, or you can use any strong, sticky, waterproof tape. According to one study (Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 2002;156:971–4), duct tape is as effective as other treatments, such as freezing.

Cut a piece of tape the same size as the wart and stick it on.
Leave it for 6 days, then remove it in the evening.
After removing the tape, soak your hand in warm water and then gently rub the wart with an emery board. Leave the tape off overnight and then apply a new piece for another 6 days.
If the skin under the tape becomes red and soggy, stop using the tape for a few days.
Continue this routine for 2 months.
In the study, 85% of the warts disappeared with this treatment and most did so within 4 weeks.

However, a more recent study in the same journal (Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine 2006;160:1121–5) gave a much lower success rate of only 16% after treatment with duct tape for 6 weeks. And another study has suggested that after duct tape treatment, a wart is more likely to reappear (Archives of Dermatology 2007;143:309–13).

I would be tempted to at least give it a go in a small area and see if there is any change in the amount.