Help, I've got worms!

[harryetta]

No itching, but today have had a weird crawling sensation around my bum. Just had a look with a mirror and I literally saw one crawl out and I feel utterly disgusting. What do I need to do? I can buy some otc medication tomorrow. I share a bed with my daughter and have lots of cuddly toys on the bed that she brings with her every night. She has SEN. How often and for how long do I need to wash bedsheets? The toys aren'y washable - what do I do with them? How on earth do I stop them spreading over the house/onto door handles?

I'm struggling not to freak out right know after seeing a worm crawl out of my arse -shudders-

Had worms a few times as a kid for the simple fact that I didn't wash my hands after using the toilet.
A few doses of Pripsen - aka the drink of death! -was enough to encourage me to practise better hand hygiene and I never caught the little buggers again.

Steam cleaner will kill the eggs I believe! Should be ok for the toys?

Then you'll be picking them up on other surfaces that your child might be touching, TV remote, door handles etc.

Worms and their eggs are transmitted via the fecal-oral route, meaning you physically have to put them in your mouth!! These eggs hatch in your digestive system and the resultant worms appear in your poo!

so in fact, it ISN'T a simple matter of washing your hands after you go to the toilet, as you pointed out to me earlier? Unfortunately, the eggs are apparently light enough to travel in dust in the air, and if any one person in the household slips up, they're out there. This is hard with very young children - or, as is the case in our own wormy household, children with learning disabilities.

Well, no, it is STILL about handwashing. The eggs live under the nails (of unwashed hands) and will be transferred onto anything that those hands touch, like the TV remote etc. You then pick up the TV remote, sit down with tea and a biscuit to watch TV and, well, you get the gist...
So, yes, worms start and stop with poor hand hygiene. I appreciate this might be a little tricky with a child with special needs - so it may mean you have to be extra vigilant around surfaces and high touch points to avoid cross-contamination.

I'm 60 also never had them neither did my 4 children.

3 of ours never did.

One was constantly infested.

@Iloveeverycat and @productofhertime just the same as not everyone will have the flu in their lifetime. You might have exposure to it, or you might not and be lucky.