Water warts are small, painless bumps on the skin caused by a common viral infection called molluscum contagiosum. The name “water warts” comes from their waxy, pearl-like appearance, though they aren’t actually warts in the traditional sense. They’re caused by a completely different virus than the one behind regular warts. Most common in young children, water warts are harmless and clear up on their own, but they can take anywhere from several months to a few years to fully disappear.
What Water Warts Look Like
Water warts appear as small, round, flesh-colored or pinkish bumps, typically 2 to 5 millimeters across. Their most distinctive feature is a tiny dimple or indentation in the center of each bump, which gives them a slightly donut-like shape. The bumps have a smooth, shiny surface that can look almost pearly or waxy, and they’re usually firm to the touch.
Most people develop clusters of anywhere from a few bumps to several dozen. They tend to show up on the torso, arms, legs, and face in children, while in adults they more often appear in the groin or inner thigh area when spread through sexual contact. The bumps are painless, though the skin around them can sometimes become itchy or slightly inflamed.
Who Gets Them
Children are by far the most affected group. The highest incidence occurs in kids under 14, with the most common age of diagnosis being 1 to 4 years old. The point prevalence in children ages 0 to 16 ranges from about 5 to 11.5 percent, and some estimates suggest the overall prevalence rate among American children could be as high as 62 percent at some point during childhood. Adults can get water warts too, though it’s less common in people with healthy immune systems.
People with weakened immune systems are more vulnerable to widespread or persistent infections. In otherwise healthy individuals, the bumps stay relatively small and manageable.
How They Spread
Water warts spread through direct skin-to-skin contact with someone who has them. The virus also survives on surfaces, so shared towels, clothing, toys, and pool equipment can all pass it along. In adults, sexual contact is another common route of transmission.
One thing that catches many parents off guard: you can spread the bumps to new areas of your own body. Scratching, picking, or shaving over existing bumps can transfer the virus to surrounding skin, which is why the number of bumps sometimes increases over weeks or months. This self-spreading tendency is a key reason doctors often recommend leaving the bumps alone rather than trying to pop or scrape them at home.
How Long They Last
Water warts are a self-limited infection, meaning the body’s immune system eventually clears the virus without treatment. The typical timeline is 6 to 18 months, with about half of cases resolving within 12 months and roughly 70 percent clearing within 18 months. The average duration is 13 to 18 months.
That said, some cases drag on longer. Bumps can persist for up to 4 years, even in otherwise healthy people. In adults with normal immune function, clearance typically happens within 12 months, though it occasionally takes 2 to 3 years. New bumps can continue appearing while older ones fade, which can make it feel like the infection is lasting longer than it actually is.
Diagnosis
Doctors can almost always diagnose water warts just by looking at them. The combination of their pearly appearance, central dimple, and typical size makes them easy to distinguish from regular warts, pimples, or other skin conditions. A biopsy is rarely needed unless the bumps look unusual or the diagnosis is unclear.
Treatment Options
Since water warts resolve on their own, many doctors recommend simply waiting them out, especially in young children. This “active non-intervention” approach avoids unnecessary discomfort and potential scarring. However, treatment may be worth considering if the bumps are spreading rapidly, causing embarrassment, or located in areas prone to irritation.
When treatment is pursued, the most common approaches involve physically removing or destroying the bumps. These include freezing them off (similar to how regular warts are treated), scraping them with a small instrument, or applying a topical blistering agent that causes the bumps to peel away over a few days. Other topical options include solutions containing salicylic acid or potassium hydroxide, which gradually break down the bumps over several applications.
Immune-boosting creams that help the skin fight the virus locally are another option, though their effectiveness is debated. No single treatment works dramatically better than the others, and all carry some risk of minor scarring or skin irritation, which is part of why watchful waiting remains a reasonable choice for many families.
Swimming Pools and School
One of the biggest practical concerns for parents is whether their child needs to stay home from school or skip the pool. The CDC is clear on this: children with water warts do not need to be excluded from schools, daycares, or swimming pools. However, if your child is going swimming, there are a few precautions worth taking:
- Cover visible bumps with watertight bandages before getting in the water
- Avoid sharing towels, kickboards, goggles, or pool toys with other children
- Skip the pool if any bumps have broken open, since open sores can pick up bacteria from the water
- Dispose of bandages at home rather than in pool area trash cans
Pools and recreation centers should also be disinfecting and drying shared equipment like kickboards regularly, which reduces the chance of transmission through surfaces.
Preventing the Spread at Home
Since the virus travels easily through shared items and direct contact, a few simple habits can limit spread within a household. Give your child their own towel and washcloth rather than sharing. Wash clothing and towels that have touched the bumps in hot water. Discourage scratching or picking at the bumps, since this is the primary way the infection spreads to new areas of the body.
Keeping the skin around the bumps moisturized can help reduce itching, which in turn makes it easier to leave them alone. If your child is old enough to understand, explaining that touching the bumps can create new ones is often the most effective prevention strategy of all.