Verrucas are such pesky things to deal with. What’s more, they seem to be very common among children. People don’t really talk about them, given that verrucas are hidden away on the soles of their little feet, but they are rife among children.
It’s a battle we’re fighting in my own house at the moment. My daughter diligently keeps it covered at swimming, gymnastics etc, and when her friends see the bandage, they ask what’s the matter with her foot. When she tells them she’s keeping a verruca covered, the vast majority reply saying they have one too! That was how we came to realise just how common they are among children.
There are lots of over the counter options available in the chemist but the annoying part is, a treatment that works perfectly for one person might have very little effect for another. It makes getting rid of the verruca very hard – there’s so much trial and error.
Prevention is better than cure, as they say. Wearing flip-flops or pool shoes in communal areas is a good idea. Keeping their feet clean and dry also helps. However, despite our best efforts, we’ve still found ourselves battling a verruca – it nearly seems inevitable that an active child will pick one up somewhere along the way.
Checking the feet regularly is a good idea. Whenever I clip their toenails, I take the time to check over their little feet. Sometimes, the verruca is in a tender spot and the discomfort makes the child aware, but they won’t always feel it and might not mention it to you if they do.
A verruca looks like a small, rough patch of skin on your child’s foot. If it has a black dot in the centre and causes discomfort when pressed, chances are it’s a verruca.
While they are generally harmless, they can be uncomfortable and they are highly contagious, so it’s best to get rid of them when the going is good.
Aside from the over the counter options, there are lots of random home remedies that many people swear by. Taping a banana peel over the verruca is said to help. Covering it with duct tape or coating it with nail varnish are popular methods too.
Soaking a cotton ball in apple cider vinegar and taping it over the verruca is another plan of attack. Some of these methods sound a bit bonkers, but Letterkenny Babies page members reckon that the verruca falls out and is gone forever using these methods.
In my experience, it’s a much more arduous process of soaking the foot and filing away at the verruca with an emery board. It’s the consistency that’s required that makes getting rid of them so hard; you can’t drop the ball at all.
There are lotions and potions available online too that may help; some of them do have very good reviews. There’s even the option of getting a cure or going to a holy well to treat a verruca. I always keep an open mind – particularly if the cure is free and requires nothing other than a little faith. It works for plenty of people.
There is of course the option of seeking professional medical treatment too. Chiropodists and many GP surgeries offer various verruca busting services. Cryotherapy involves freezing the verruca with liquid nitrogen. Many also have access to prescription strength salicylic acid and laser treatments. New, high tech methods of verruca removal are also becoming available.
If you ring a clinic to book an appointment, I’d advise you to ask over the phone what methods they have available to treat verrucas and how much that treatment typically costs. There can be a big price variation depending on the methods used. I’m hoping we’ll get the better of our resident verruca soon – it’s a tiny torture!
Louise Flanagan is an admin of Letterkenny Babies Facebook page and the author of the children’s book series, Dragonterra and Dream Beasts. www.dragonterra.ie
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