It always happens the night before swimming lessons, doesn’t it. Socks off, and there it is: a small, rough, slightly grim-looking patch on the bottom of a foot that definitely wasn’t there last week. Cue the Google spiral at 9pm: is it a verruca, can she still go tomorrow, and is everyone else in the class about to catch it off her.
I’ve been through this more than once, and the short answer is almost always yes, your child can still go swimming with a verruca. The longer answer is a bit more useful, so here’s what I’ve actually learned about it.
What Is a Verruca, Anyway
A verruca is a small wart that grows on the sole of the foot, caused by a very common and completely harmless (if annoying) strain of the human papillomavirus. It’s the same family of virus behind warts on hands, just landing somewhere it gets a lot more pressure and a lot less airflow. That’s part of why they hang around so long; the skin on the sole is thick, and the virus can sit there for months, sometimes over a year, before the immune system finally clears it.
They spread through direct contact with skin, or with damp surfaces the virus has been shed onto: poolside tiles, changing room floors, shared towels. Warm, wet environments are exactly what the virus likes, which is precisely why swimming pools and changing rooms get the blame, even though you’re just as likely to pick one up from a gym mat or a hotel bathroom floor.
So, Can You Actually Go Swimming With One?
Yes, in almost all cases. Most swimming pools and school swimming providers in the UK don’t ban children with verrucas from the water; what they usually ask is that the verruca is covered, so it isn’t in direct contact with pool surfaces or other people’s feet. Some venues are stricter than others, so it’s worth a quick call or email to your specific pool or lesson provider if you’re not sure of their policy, rather than assuming.
There are a few situations where it’s worth checking with a pharmacist or GP first rather than just covering and carrying on: if the verruca is painful, bleeding, spreading quickly, or if your child has diabetes or a weakened immune system. For the vast majority of otherwise healthy kids, though, a verruca is a minor, self-limiting skin thing rather than a reason to sit out six weeks of lessons you’ve already paid for.
Covering It Properly
This is really the whole ballgame. Covering the verruca does two jobs at once: it protects your child from picking up grit and germs on an already-irritated bit of skin, and it stops the virus being shed onto surfaces for someone else to pick up.
Waterproof plasters are the obvious first thought, and they’re fine for a single quick dip, but I’ve found they’re a bit of a false economy for anything longer than that. They peel at the edges within twenty minutes of proper swimming, and there’s nothing more stressful than trying to reapply a soggy plaster poolside while your child is meant to be lining up for their next length.
What’s actually worked for us is switching to a dedicated verruca sock instead of relying on plasters. It’s a thin, stretchy latex sock that goes on over the foot and stays put for the whole lesson, rather than needing to be re-stuck every five minutes, and it means we’re not throwing away a plaster (and buying a new box) every single week. If you want to see what I mean, AquaSafe do a pair of verruca socks that we’ve used through an entire term of lessons without any drama.
What We Did While Waiting for It to Clear Up
A verruca will usually go on its own eventually, sometimes in a few months, sometimes taking closer to a year, which is a genuinely unhelpful answer when you’re the one googling “how long” at 11pm. In the meantime, we just carried on with normal life: swimming, covered as above, plus the standard advice of not sharing towels or flip-flops, keeping an eye on it, and not letting anyone pick at it (tempting as that is for a six year old with a new texture to explore).
If it’s still there after a few months and bothering her, or if you’d rather speed things along, your pharmacist can talk you through over-the-counter treatments like salicylic acid gels or freeze treatments, and it’s always worth a chat with them before starting anything if you’re unsure.
The Bottom Line
A verruca is annoying, not a crisis. Cover it properly, keep going to lessons, and don’t let one small patch of skin cancel a term of swimming your child has probably been looking forward to. It’s one of those parenting things that feels like a big drama at 9pm the night before and turns out to be a total non-event by lesson three.