Afraid to take my 2 year old to the doctor.

[ArtistWoman]

My husband's had genital warts ever since he can remember. His parents have HPV too. When he's gone to the doctor, they've diaginosed him by sight and perscriped a medicine that gets rid of them.  They are still aggressive even years and years later.  He's HIV-negative and has been tested 3 times.  So I know that his immune system isn't the problem in that way.

I noticed a tiny rough spot on my cervix during my pregnancy.  
I don't trust man-made materials like vaccines. I feel we're being lied too and I don't think we have all the info. So as a metaphysical mother, I wanted my son to mutate his DNA and asscend as a being. Like so many kids are doing right now. So I had a homebirth. I both read and heard from my Midwife that it's safe to deliver with warts as long as they aren't too big. I used cloth diapers, breastfed, etc.  My son has never gotten sick enough to go to to doctor.  I noticed genital warts on his anus when he turned 2.  He's 2 1/2 and he has 5 tiny warts and one big one the size of a sunflower seed, much bigger them mine, even after 3 years of growth! I haven't taken him to the doctor before, now that something is wrong with him can I get in trouble for that? Can you reassure me about what will happen? Does this mean I can't have any more kids? What should we do? He's too young to stay still when asked.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

Genital warts, perhaps especially anal warts, are sometimes seen in kids in families with HPV infection.  The large majority of cases, they are acquired as likely occurred in your case, by exposure to maternal HPV infection during delivery.

Your child definitely needs to be examined and probably treated.  Don't worry about the doctor thinking badly about you or your family because your son has not previously received health care.  Most pediatricians will disagree with your philosophy, as do I; I think all kids ought to receive their childhood immunizations.  But good doctors know that people have differing views on this.  You might get a lecture, but if s/he is a good doctor, it will be a good-natured one that asks you to objectively consider the scientific facts.  Talk to your friends, get recommendations for pediatricians who likely are going to be sensitive to your circumstances (word of mouth actually is a pretty good basis for choosing a doc) then take your son for examination and treatment.  And don't worry about his not holding still--pediatricians and their office staff deal with this all the time.

But there is another aspect you should think about.  Genital or anal warts in a child sometimes raises concerns about sexual abuse.  Warts are not definite evidence of abuse, unlike, say, gonorrhea or chlamydial infection--but you can understand why the concern might be raised.  If you are confident that sexual abuse is not likely, and since there is an obvious explanation for where your son's warts came from, don't let this delay seeing a doctor.  But be prepared for frank questions and to give straightforward, nonevasive answers if they come up.

Finally, a comment about your midwife's advice:  Most providers agree that genital warts in pregnant women should be treated before delivery.  It may not totally prevent the kind of events you now are going through, but it probably reduces the risk.

Good luck-- HHH, MD

[ArtistWoman]

Thanks for the reply.   Could he have gotten HPV from some sort of bacteria on a babywipe, the bathtub, touching a toilet or sitting without a diaper on the carpet?   I'm definately going make an appointment and for myself as well.  Thanks again.

[H. Hunter Handsfield, M.D.]

No. Warts are not caused by "some sort of bacteria"; the virus HPV is the only cause.  It doesn't "show up" by itself as the result of irritation or anything like that; the virus has to be caught frome somewhere.  Conceivably it could have been acquired during diaper changing (if you or your husband had handled your warts, didn't wash, then touched your son in the anal area), but not by the other things you mention.  By far the best bet is that he caught the infection by contact with your warts during birth.

HHH, MD