Worms....every 3 to 4 weeks!!

[londonkids]

My DS recently started a new school and since starting has got worms about every month. He is giving them to the rest of the family and I am worried that giving him Ovex on such a regular basis is not good for him or the rest of the family. I have tried homeopathy but had little success with it, have heard carrot and pumpkin seeds eaten in the morning can help. Has anyone had worms this much in their family, it feels a crazy amount, my mother says we only had it a couple of times in our primary education?any other remedies apart from Ovex?

It sounds like there is a problem at the school where a child/children are not being treated. Would it be worth asking the school to do a letter home like with nits in case parents are missing this?

With worms you will need to treat (either conventionally or homeopathically) again after two weeks to get rid of any stragglers that were just eggs at the time of initial treatment.

Did you visit a homeopath or buy a remedy yourself? A good homeopath should be able to give a remedy to both get rid of the worms and also to boost the immune system to make the child less susceptible in future.

You don't say how old he is but make sure he knows how to properly wash his hands (like the signs in hospitals with instructions). And that he does it after going to the loo and before eating, this will cut down on opportunities to reinfect himself. It's hard but encourage him not to put his hands near his mouth unless he has washed them.
Same advice goes for the rest of the family too.

'a good homeopath' will not be able to give you anything which will cure worms because homeopoathy does. not. work

It sounds to me like it's time for a trip to the GP. It also sounds like the ovex is not doing the job. I seem to remember sth in the instructions about giving a second dose two weeks later...

Are you washing bedding, towels and wiping surfaces, doorhandles etc when you dose him? The other thing you may have to do is to get your ds to be very careful about handwashing after using the loo....my 3 still occasionally forget and they are well and truly old enough to know better!! At least one of my 3 gets threadworms every 6 months or so, but if you're dosing that often I would suggest that you're not ever getting rid of the eggs around the house.

Are you treating everybody again 2 weeks later? Cut nails very short as well.

Apparently, worms do not like pineapple.

Is ovex an otc medicine? I'd just go to the GP and get enough for the whole family for 2 doses.

Papaya can be useful, I think the enzyme can help, but if he keeps getting them, I'd be after find where they are coming from!

we went through a phase of this with my dd (whos a thumb sucker)

I wonder if it was just a case of never really getting rid of them properly rather than them keeping on coming back

I wash sheets, Hoover, whole family takes Ovex, cut nails short, do everything but I think the toilet hygiene at school bad. Lots of mums complaining that kids getting nits all the time, we have yet to get them, and lots of mums complaining of toilet hygiene at school but no one saying the words worms yet, I think people too embarrassed, we get lots of nits letters but no worms letters. But I suspect if my DS got worms every month their kids must too. A lot of mums kicking off about toilets not being kept clean enough but I suspect they really want to complain about worms but too embarrassed . His old school had nail brushes in the toilets, maybe I will buy a load for this school. I suspect no one is washing their hands before or after a meal, at his old school they were made to.

But are you treating again 2 weeks later?

No I haven't, but it seems 3 weeks later we have it again so i use ovex again, but I can try Doing it 2 weeks later even if we dont have them then. I have also just found out a child in his class has a mother who doesn't cope and the child permanently has untreated nits so I'm guessing this child may have untreated worms too.

Dosing 2 weeks apart is the key to getting rid of them.

Worms are endemic, poor hygiene or no. Something like 30-40% of a school population are estimated to be infected at once.
It's not necessarily a case of slack parenting. Don't believe all school gate gossip ...

As pp has said, you have to treat two weeks later again. I dug out the leaflet.

Tbh if everyone is not treating it, it is extremely difficult to get rid of them. I lived in a house as a student and I was plagued with the bloody blighters. Yuck, it was horrendous, nothing worked, I took vermex and some godawful pink solution to no avail, cut nails. Bleached, cleaned etc. Doubled the dosage. No good. What worked? Moving out. That worked.

So I bet it's an issue in the school and the kids are re-infecting each other. School needs more that a few nailbrushes, needs a whole hands wash regieme and bleach and notes home. Not just the bathroom either, all surfaces, probably for at least 6w. I'd complain. It's a horrible thing and so embarrassing.

And forget homeopathy, TOTAL rubbish.

Thank you I'll do the top up dose at 2 weeks

You need to do the deep clean around the house at the same time too. So first dose, do all bedding, deep clean bathroom, clean and cut nails - and then when you dose again 2 weeks later do it all again. GP told me to wash all soft toys as well, but we just washed the favourite ones