Warts develop more often in children than adults, and result from a virus called the human papillomavirus, or HPV. Although given enough time most warts will disappear without treatment, foot warts often require intervention. According to the PediatricPlanet website, warts that develop on your child's foot are usually plantar warts that appear on the heel or ball of the foot and can make walking painful. Choose either home remedies or medical treatments to kill and remove a foot wart.
Step 1
Wash the affected area with soap and water, then apply an over-the-counter wart remover containing salicylic acid. Although this treatment method requires daily application for about three weeks, Warts.org recommends this method as the safest and most effective way to treat foot warts, as well as warts that may appear on the hands and face.
Step 2
Cut a piece of duct tape large enough to cover the foot wart. Keep the wart covered with duct tape, replacing as necessary, until the wart disappears. It will take a few weeks for the wart to disappear. According to "Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine," the results of a study complete in 2002 on 61 children showed the duct tape method of removing warts to be significantly more effective than freezing warts using cryosurgery.
Step 3
Freeze the foot wart via a medical procedure called cryosurgery. Cryosurgery kills the HPV cells of the foot wart using very cold liquid nitrogen. Removing a foot wart using cryosurgery usually involves more than one application, and can take up to a few months, according to KidsHealth. Because cryosurgery can be somewhat painful, MayoClinic.com recommends considering other options if your child is very young.
Step 4
Zap the foot wart using a few laser treatments. According to KidsHealth, most doctors recommend this method only if other removal methods fail. When removing a foot wart using laser treatment, your doctor can kill the wart by cauterizing the blood vessels that feed it or by using the laser to cut in layers, starting at the top of the wart and working down.
Things You'll Need
- Soap
- Salicylic acid wart remover
- Scissors
- Duct tape
