To ask if there have been threadworms in your child’s class?

[Anxioustoday]

Help! I’m finding this a bit difficult. My DC has just started reception and we’ve received a message from school saying there are several cases of threadworm in the class. Already!? Several!? They have only been in a couple of weeks. We are very clean and hygienic, and I struggle with this sort of thing. Can I ask if you have had this in your child’s class at school? Is it that common?
We never had this in nursery and I’m sure it would have been more obvious there if it was present, because the kids are still in nappies or needing their bottoms wiped. Please no horrible responses about how I need to be less precious. I find this stuff challenging.

Please vote: YABU: I have had threadworms in my child's class. YANBU: I have not had threadworms in my child's class

[edited by MNHQ at poster's request]

It’s pretty rife in any junior school as are nits. It’s one of the yucky bits of parenting . Also if whole class doesn’t treat then it’s pointless as they are so infectious that if 1 child has it, they probably all do

Threadworms are really, really common and there is no obligation to inform a school or nursery when a child has them as far as I'm aware so it may be there was the odd case at nursery etc and you just weren't aware.

Give everything a good wash (towels bedding etc) encourage extra good hand hygiene, clean pants and pj's every night for bed and keep an eye out for any worms or itching. If you think your DC has worms you can buy the treatment from the chemist and it's really easy.

Honestly it's not a big deal and it can be easily sorted! Good luck!

I think I read that at any one time, something like 60% of people have them, it's just some people react more severely than others.

I don't think you can always, erm, see them! They're pretty easy to treat too, you just take the tablet or medicine and then take it again a couple of weeks later, and it works pretty quickly. It's probably worth getting the medicine and taking it anyway, even if you dont have any evidence that you've got them at the moment.

DS had them in reception and a few days later there was a letter home to say that they were in his year group. I hadn't even thought about contacting the school, we just treated everyone in the whole family as soon as I realised. No one else had them (or seemed to have them) in the family, we just made sure hands were washed more thoroughly than usual.

We had the nits letter home last week, I am amazed they weren't eradicated during Lockdown.

Well I'll say YANBU because I've never had a letter or email from the school about threadworms from the school but undoubtedly they do spread around. Dc have both had them on 2 occasions. Unsure on the source. Most likely school but when Dc got them he had spent some time with children we are related too. Their mum was reluctant to treat as 'her kids were too clean for worms* (I think this is the attitude that makes them spread around more, anyone can catch them and they are more of a taboo subject than head lice so people are embarrassed).

I didn't actually tell my DC's school as we discovered them in the school holidays a few weeks before due back!

It does make me mad though. Worm eggs can live on surfaces and if they were cleaning as much as they say they are due to covid surely they would be spread around less. Also in DC's school I don't think they are sharing equipment such as pens, pencils and scissors so surely the risk should be minimised??

We get the regular nit texts, but we've never had a threadworm alert.

We've had them once - it really wasn't that much of a big deal. DD1 and DD2 both had them, we all took the medicine as per instructions, I changed everyone's sheets and made them wear pants in bed for a bit.

I haven’t experienced this recently because my child isn’t school age yet, but they are REALLY common and I remember being treated for them twice as a child myself.

I think I once read that up to 40% of children under 10 have them at any one time.

I sympathise with you finding it difficult because the thought is just so gross, but I think the thought is more gross than the reality. They’re harmless, extremely common, and easily treatable. Don’t worry

Thank you for reminding me that our booster dose is due shortly.
They're just one of those petty annoyances. No idea if DS picked them up straight away at school or had been harbouring them for a while before alerting us.

Like nits, treat and get on with it.

Yeah DS, 7 has had them already since going back to school 🤦🏻‍♀️ We are in Scotland so he went back in august and they have been an absolute bugger to get rid of 😡 we had to treat him 3 times before we were shot of them, he was miserable with them.

Yanbu to ask! But most Mumsnetters don't have children in nursery or primary school so this subject isn't relevant to them or of interest to them. Couldn't you ask somewhere more relevant?

Never had a letter home but yes they are pretty common in primary. At least when they have nappies on they aren't touching their bums!
Unfortunately my dd caught them a few times from a boy who was not well looked after at home, as well as impetigo

Really common in nurseries and primary schools- we had a few notifications from nursery. Just treat the whole family with Ovex.

But most Mumsnetters don't have children in nursery or primary school so this subject isn't relevant to them or of interest to them. Couldn't you ask somewhere more relevant?

Am I missing something? Where would be more relevant than MUMSnet for a question about parenting nursery/primary age children?

@FunDragon, yes you are missing something. There's

The primary education topic

The children's health topic

The general health topic

Even Chat

It's not a question of being unreasonable or not is it?

Pretty common especially in reception as it is time when they are becoming a lot more independent with toiletting with less supervision of hand washing (though you’d hope that was good at the moment).

I think it often doesn’t get reported in the class as people are embarrassed.

Easy to treat and worth keeping a stash of treatment to hand as symptoms often appear in the evening.

Thank you for your replies. I guess I am more worried about them, as I am pregnant, so I wouldn’t be able to take the treatment if my child had to.

@Chicchicchicchiclana

Oh, I see. So when you said ‘most Mumsnetters don’t have children in nursery or primary so this subject isn’t of interest or relevance to them’, you actually meant ‘many Mumsnetters have children in nursery or primary school, and I can’t speak for all one million of them in relation to what they find relevant or interesting, but I don’t think this is the appropriate board for your question.’

No. I'm saying there are other topics where this question fits better.

They're fairly common - I picked them up when teaching infants as well.

It's usually nits, threadworms or impetigo doing the rounds - or all three in a swirling vortex of germs and ick for most of the infant years. Then the nits start to resurface apparently when they hit group selfie age and have heads together to fit in the photos together.

Welcome to the primary school years!

My dc have all had them at some point- my nail biting DS2 and DS3 the most. It's so irritating as even if you treat your own DC they can keep getting reinfected by classmates that go untreated.

It's the washing of all bedding/ PJs/ underwear as soon as you discover them that drives me mental - 60 degrees necessary to kill the buggers too. I now wash the above items at 60 ( or.with added Napisan) all the time to try and stave them off.

Ah I see. You being pregnant is important here. I’d consider giving your DC (and any other household members apart from you) treatment even without obvious symptoms. Perhaps speak to your GP.

YANBU to be horrified at all the nasties which do the rounds at school.

Currently DDs yr (yr 2) has cases of threadworms, nits and shingles.

Lovely.

Yes, it's one of those things unfortunately.

Keep your dcs fingernails short. Encourage them to wash their hands and not touch their mouth too much or suck their thumb.

I also iron underwear to help prevent them.

Really stringent hygiene (mainly loads of washing of bedding, pj's etc) will eventually see them off without any treatment. It's slower but it can work.

I found this quite useful

www.westsuffolkccg.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/Threadworms-patient-UK-leaflet.pdf