A Natural Home Remedy to Treat Your Child’s Molluscum Contagiosum

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!

Kim Trinchet
Kim is a Wichita transplant who never planned to stay, but 15 years later she’s convinced Wichita is the perfect place to raise a family. She’s a wife to Jorge and a mama to Nico and Lucia. She moved here from the Chicago suburbs and works in the communications world. The rest of her time is focused on seeking out adventures with her little family. She also loves browsing grocery store aisles, reading cookbooks, iced coffee and wine. Kim’s trying to learn Spanish as well, her kiddos are bilingual and already speak better than she does!

12 COMMENTS

  1. My son got this a few years ago and it was the worst!! The doc said it “would go away on its own” for over a year- which was false and delayed our treating it. Tea tree oil and these remedies didnt work because it was so entrenched by that point. We had to used apple cider vinegar and an online cream called Conzerol. It seemed shady but it was our lifesaver. Only thing that worked. Worst thing was even after informing our doc of an effective tx, he didn’t care! Ugh!! Hope parents don’t have to go through that.

  2. I’m glad your son is better but that sounds like an awful process. I didn’t know it could get entrenched. Thanks for your comment, hopefully your experience can help someone in the same boat.

  3. Look into Australian Lemon Myrtle as a promising treatment. Essential oil is available online, but is not as plentiful as some of the regulars… like those carried by Doterra (U.S.)

  4. Hi Kate,

    I’m glad you found the blog helpful. I buy the Melalecua from Doterra and then mix it with fractionated coconut oil. Melalecua is also tea tree oil, which you can find at various health stores too. Let me know if that answers your question! Thank you.

  5. Hello I just found your blog and after reading several other sites and postings about essential oils…I will try ANYTHING to keep this nightmare at bay! My son is just starting out with this. Has not been to a ped or derm to confirm visually but has been confirmed thru pictures but will be making an appointment. I am NOT ok with just letting it “run its course” I’m trying to attack this head on! My emotions are they the roof and I’m glad I’m not alone. The tree oil and coxnutnoil here we come.

    • Hi Amber! I hope it does the trick for your son. I know it can be stressful when something is wrong with our babies. Let us know if it helps.

  6. Am glad i found this, my daughter has it on the face, had been told it will go away on its own, but am definitely going to give the essential oils a try

  7. Hi Kim, thank you for the link. Just purchased it together with some tea tree oil too. Sitting now in Urgent care to confirm it. But wanna be ahead of game and also wanna make sure my son is clear to go to school tmrw. Really don’t know where this come from but I’m gonna make sure is gonna be gone soon. Thank you again. Sure the coconut oil and the rollers will find other use as well. 🙂 Katerina

  8. Does using a roller ball cross contaminate areas? I was told to never use the same tool twice – like changing out Q-tips with working with Molluscum.

    • Hi Leanne, I didn’t have any issues and used the same roller bottle on my child each time. Error on the side of caution for your peace of mind!

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