Warts are harmless skin growths caused by a virus. They can happen anywhere on the body, but are most common on the hands and feet. Treatments can help warts go away. Without treatment, most warts go away on their own within 2 years.

• Do not let your child cut, burn, or pick at the wart.
• Do not try to remove the wart yourself by cutting, burning, picking, or any other method.
• If your health care provider treated the wart while in the office, follow the instructions given.
• If your health care provider recommended medicine to put on the wart at home, follow the instructions included with the medicine. Before using it:
  • Soak the wart in warm water for at least 10 minutes.
  • Remove dead skin on the wart's surface by filing with a new emery board or pumice stone. (To avoid spreading the wart, do not use the emery board or pumice stone on any other areas of the skin or nails.)
• Wash your hands after touching the wart.

The wart:

• is painful, or has redness or swelling around it
• bleeds or oozes pus
• gets bigger or more warts develop
• does not go away, or goes away and comes back

What causes warts? Warts are skin growths caused by an infection with a virus in the human papillomavirus (HPV) family. There are many types of HPV, which can affect different parts of the body. The HPV types that cause these warts are different from those that cause genital warts.

How are warts treated? Many warts go away without treatment within 2 years. If a wart is painful or bothersome, treatments are available. Ways to treat them include:

• using over-the-counter or prescription medicines on the wart at home
• freezing, burning, scraping off, or laser treatment done in a health care provider's office

Health care providers often use a combination of treatments. Treated or not, warts sometimes reappear.

Are warts contagious? Yes, warts are contagious. They can spread to other parts of the body or to other people through skin-to-skin contact or contact with objects that have the virus on them. For example, a person can get infected by touching things that someone with a wart touched, like towels and shower floors. Warts spread most easily into skin softened by being wet or broken (as from a cut).

It can take months for a wart to show up after contact with the virus.

What can help prevent warts from spreading? To reduce the spread of warts to other parts of the body and to other people, your child should:

• wash their hands and the area with the wart regularly
• wear waterproof sandals or flip-flops in public showers, locker rooms, and areas around public pools if the wart is on the foot
• not share or re-use towels
• not rub, scratch, or pick at the wart
• not shave over the wart

A child with a wart does not need to stay home from child care or school.