Plantar warts are harmless skin growths on the bottom of the feet caused by a virus. 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 for applying it. 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.
• If the wart is painful, apply a corn pad (a small cushion with a hole in it, available at most drugstores) to help ease pressure when your child is standing.
• Schedule any follow-up visits as directed. Your health care provider may have referred your child to a podiatrist (foot doctor) or dermatologist.

• There is pain, redness, or swelling around the wart.
• The wart bleeds or oozes pus.
• The wart seems to be spreading.
• You child won't stand or walk.
• Your child limps.

What causes plantar warts? Plantar warts are 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 plantar warts are different from those that cause genital warts.

How are plantar warts treated? Most plantar warts go away without treatment within 2 years. If a plantar 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 plantar warts contagious? Yes, all types of warts are contagious. Plantar warts 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 walking barefoot where someone with a wart walked, like in showers or around pools. 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 plantar warts from spreading? To help prevent spreading plantar warts to other parts of the body and to other people, your child should:

• wash their feet every day and dry them well
• change socks and shoes at least once a day
• wash in hot water socks, washcloths, and towels that had contact with the wart
• not rub, scratch, or pick at the wart
• wear waterproof sandals or flip-flops in places where other people might be walking barefoot, such as in locker rooms, in showers, and around pools