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Child Having Colorless, Painless Bumps On Torso. Any Idea What It Could Be?

Posted on Fri, 18 Jan 2013

Question: my son is five years old, and has never had any health issues in his past other than a couple of ear infections. Very recently, we began noticing these round, colorless, painless bumps on his torso, back and on his right arm. There are about 10 in all, and the majoirty cover the right side of his torso. He does not complain about them, and does not appear to have any other symptoms. They are odd shapes and sizes, although all are less than the size of a pea. Thgey are somewhat soft too, as I believe I could scratch them off if he let me (although I have no intention to do so). Any idea what it could be, and should we be overly concerned?

Answered by Dr. Santosh Kondekar (4 hours later)

Hi,

I suppose these are only few millimeters in size, say less than 5 mm. Such bumps are called papules. Check if they are in groups or in rows or scattered. If scattered, they may be related to nonspecific viruses that may last 2-3 months. A classical example of such viruses is hand foot mouth virus.
As there may be no specific therapy unless it is related to allergy or gets complicated.

Larger bumps are related to insect bites, sebaceous gland infections or urticaria.

A look at the picture suggests that it is not allergy, but likely to be related to nonspecific viral infection.

Let me know if you require any further clarifications.

Thanks

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Mohammed Kappan