Curing Maida's Rash (the long version)

(Feel free to just look at the pictures, which document Maida's way to clear skin, instead of reading the complete story.)

I wanted to start this post with, "Remember this?" and then post a video of Maida's rash from my YouTube site. Well, when I went to get the video from YouTube, apparently YouTube (or maybe a viewer-?) decided that this particular video was a violation to the terms of service and they removed it "without prior notice and at its sole discretion," for the reasons of either "pornography, obscene or defamatory material, or a video of excessive length."

Hmmm. Okay.

So, I not only don't have a video to post here to show you how bad her rash got, but I'm also extremely frustrated because I felt like by posting that video, I was able to help people with children who had the same rash, aaaaaaaaaand I don't feel like it violated any of the YouTube codes. There were at least a dozen people who had emailed me, or commented on the video, over the past year asking for help and asking us what we did to treat the rash. I actually felt like this video was part of a mission that I was on, for getting the word out there that Molluscum Contagiosum IS treatable (regardless of what doctors tell you).

So anyway, (please excuse my venting)

many of you remember that back when Maida was eight months old, she developed a bad rash while we were on vacation down in Oklahoma.

It started as red dots all over her body. Doctors down there couldn't figure it out. When we returned home, doctors up here couldn't figure it out. So, we just started experimenting - removing things from her diet and even taking her down to just breast milk, removing things from my diet, giving her less baths and then eventually giving her more baths, soaking her body in oatmeal, removing products from our house that contained fragrances, removing rugs from our floors that could be housing something she was allergic to, slathering her in lotions numerous times a day, rubbing her down with thick creams after baths, drenching her skin in baby oil, letting her run naked, changing to cloth diapers and all natural wipes... eventually her rash developed even more. She looked as if she had been sunburned.

She was so miserable. I ended up ditching our family doctor for the time being (who was wonderful, but wasn't worried as much about M's rash as I was) and scheduling an appointment with a PA who used to work in allergies who we got referred to by Erik's preceptor. We though that he might have some suggestions for us while we waited to get into a dermatologist (which was a three month wait). The only suggestion he had for us (other than everything we were already doing, was to give her Benedryl every night before bed. He also called the dermatologist and got us in the next week.

By the time we saw the dermatologist the next week, she had also developed little bubbly-blister type things on her body, mainly on the sides of her, under her armpits. When I saw the dermatologist, I brought my laptop along and had a powerpoint presentation of all the stages her rash had been through. He told me that the little bubbles were called Molluscum Contagiosum and they were a virus and untreatable. You just had to wait until they went away (which could take up to five years). They were also extremely contagious, so we were to be careful around other children, especially. He couldn't figure out what the red rash was, though, and sent us to an allergist to find out if maybe she was having an allergic reaction to something.

The allergist was no help. They had to do a two hour allergy test on Maida where they scraped her back with a needle in several different places on her back (fun!) and then we waited to see what her reaction was to the different things they injected (peanuts, dairy, dog/cat dander, etc). The only thing she had a slight allergy to was dust mites, which who doesn't have an allergy to dust mites?! So, a month later we found ourselves back to the dermatologist for a follow-up appointment, which left us with no more answers and even more questions. However, he did give her a steroid cream to try on the red rash.

We went home and the rash kept getting worse and worse, despite all the creams, oatmeal baths, steroid, and Benedryl. Not only did the red rash get worse, but the bubbles spread everywhere. Once they spread down into her private parts, I had had enough. She was even more miserable than ever. I made several calls into our dermatologist, but he never returned them. Once I talked to his nurse and she said that Maida's rash was untreatable and we just needed to wait it out. I was afraid, though, that if we waited it out and it took five years to get rid of, our new baby (who was due in just three short months) would get the Molluscum Contagiosum, too. I remembered seeing another, younger, dermatologist in the same office where our dermatologist was at one of our appointments. So one day I just decided to make a call into him and see if he would see us. I figured we'd at least need to wait a month, or maybe two, but he called back an hour after I left a message for him and got me in the next day.

He was sooooo good and soooo amazing. I really felt like he treated the rash like it was his own child suffering with the rash. He not only gave us several creams to use on Maida's skin to make her more comfortable, but he gave us some Zyrtec (to use instead of the Benedryl), free of charge! And the best thing was that he agreed to treat the Molluscum Contagiosum. He really thought that if we eliminated the Molluscum, then the red rash would go away, too. The next week we started treatments.

For the treatment, we had to go into the dermatologist's office. There we stripped Maida down to her birthday suit and then the dermatologist touched as many of the Molluscum as he could with a wooden stick which contained a small about of Cantharadin on the end. The Cantharadin was then covered with a piece of medical tape, which we left on for three to four hours, as long as Maida could stand it.

Then we would let her soak in the bath for as long as she would. At the end of the bath, we would have to rip the tape off, which was by far the worst part of the treatment. Imagine ripping tape off of an open wound!

Over the course of the next two weeks, the treated Molluscum would turn into blood blisters and then start to dry up. We'd pick at them every night, trying to get the inner white core (kind of like a pimple head) out of them, which was the contagious part of the Molluscum, and after it was removed, that particular Molluscum would go away.

We went back to the dermatologist and did this treatment three times and every time it got harder and harder because Maida knew what was coming - it was very painful. Several days after the treatments, we couldn't pick her up because it would hurt so bad. She would also bleed and ooze through a lot of her clothes. It was hard to watch and have your child go through.

A month before Skogen was born, Maida's Mollusum Contagiosum completely went away, and took the red rash along with it! Even though the treatment was a nightmare and super painful, we feel that it was the best decision. We still don't really know what the red rash was or why she got it, but the dermatologist thought that it was something that she picked up in Oklahoma while we were there, which lowered her immune system. So when we got home and took swimming lessons, Maida was susceptible to other skin conditions and got the Molluscum Contagiosum in the swimming pool from another infected child.

Here is Maida's skin now. It's all clear, all except a few scars she has from the Molluscum.

We are SO thankful for Dr. Evans and his willingness to help us.