Help! Threadworms every 6-8 weeks!!!

[scaredykatt]

My DD, who is a finger chewer, wakes up in the night once every 6-8 weeks crying that her "front bottom" hurts and inevitably a threadworm has found its way in and I have to remove it so she can get back to sleep (sorry if TMI!). I dose her and the rest of the family, and again two weeks later, and do all the bed changing, teddy washing, nail cutting, damp dusting etc etc. Yet still they predictably return! I know that the statistics suggest that a large proportion of children have threadworms at any given time, but it seems that it is much more of a taboo subject than nits and not many mums I know will admit to their DCs having had them. Are we for some reason just not getting rid of them (maybe the Ovex isn't working?) or are we just doomed to get repeat infections because DD always has her fingers in her mouth? Has anyone who has been in this situation successfully got rid of them for good? Help! I am so sick of them! Any ideas?

how old is dd?

we have just had a case with dd4, and she was so uncomfortable, and like you, found one in the entrance to her 'front bum' as she says.

its so taboo, yet apparently 40% of young children have them at any one time.

does your dd attend any playgroups? or play in sandpits?

DD is 9 and this has been going on for years! I'm guessing she just keeps picking them up at school or gymnastics (school carpets and gym mats strike me as highly probable sources!). I think part of the trouble may be that boys often do not have symptoms because the threadworms do not get "lost" in the same way, and they therefore may remain untreated and able to keep reinfecting others? A lot of the threadworm posts refer to DDs.

We seem to get them about once a year, although part of me suspects we always have them going round and round the family all the time. We dose, we wash, we clean but they still come back. Does anyone know how effective Ovex really is? When we dosed last summer I certainly found some worms 2or 3 days later. Actually now I think of it it's more like every 6 months. And no one ever talks about t. This can't help as the children are probably passing them around repeatedly. DD (15) certainly didn't tell her (now ex) bf although I told her to!

Dd is 7 & and I have to say that when she gets them, I don't wash all her linen, I don't treat us all, wet dust, clean her soft toys. Just remove it, get her out of her pjs, get her to wash her hands - which she has to do before we do anything else (i.e touch drawers etc) I open all doors, turn on taps, dispense soap, so she isn't touching anything with 'dirty' hands - she gets fresh pjs on & and I treat her.

We combat them by making sure she cleans her hands before she eats regardless of what she is doing & she doesn't put anything into her mouth. She has also learnt to brush under her nails each wash.

So it may even be that she has itched her bottom before you treat her, transferred the eggs onto her self (face, arm etc) teddy etc, then touched it again before sucking her fingers. Or they are lying under her nails. Her nails don't have to be long!

Also, remember that it not all children are treated & many children don't wash their hands at school. So they could use the toilet, touch the door handles/shared pencils/scissors etc with eggs on their hands, leaving the eggs on those times, your daughter comes along, touches it, chews hands...eggs go in, worms come out.

She really needs to stop sucking/chewing her fingers, because through all that you are doing, they are getting into her somehow. And there really is NO point you doing all you are, if she is picking them up at school, because she doesn't wash at school/chews fingers.

I have stopped an infestation in myself with very basic cleaning of hands etc. I used an ovex equiv (in Australia) for dd as I know that in many cases she can't avoid contact, and no matter how well she washes hands, one or two will get through.

But I wouldn't use it on me or dd2 (3)

I don't think you can get rid of them without drugs - however hygienic you are if they are present you will have to treat to get rid of them. It's a different matter if you are just preventing an infection. Many people don't have symptoms.

I treat a week after the first dose now (we get a lot of reinfections)

I let the school know as well- they are very hot on 'bug busting' for headlice but the children could be crawling with worms and the parents unaware-

worm eggs live outside the body for 2 weeks so some bugger is spreading it around!

Yeah, I feel your pain, my DDs have had them twice and when I told preschool (with the intention that they should put up a notice asking parents to be vigilant) they were horrified and said that no child there had ever had threadworms before (120 kids there full-time) and practically called SS on me.

But I was told by my GP that the whole family had to be treated (plus the cleaning - ugh!) not just the child. Mind you, if they're getting reinfected straight away it hardly seems worth the faff. Luckily ours don't seem to come back that often.

EAch of my dds has had them once, at different times. Both times, we treated with Ovex, re-treated a week later AND two weeks later (mebendazole barely gets into the system, mostly stays in the gut - a very safe drug the GP told me). I changed all our sheets, washed favourite cuddlies, PJs, etc - and hoovered all play and sleep areas. I cut nails short, and everyone wore pants and PJs for two weeks.

I did not go mad damp dusting, I did not change the sheets again for a couple of days, and then only dd's. I didn't iron all her knickers, wear a face mask when changing sheets, or boil wash anything.

No return of worms.

OP, I really think your dd is being re-infested...if they are around at school, and she is sucking fingers, its very likely that. I would really work on the finger sucking with her, find an incentive for her and make it a Star Goal!!