Worms :( DoesAnybody Routinely Worm Their Child?

[CockwombleJeff]

Please don't flame me.

I'm knackered & fed up of worms.

After 10 years of parenting , for the first time I'm having to deal with these little bastards.

We've all got them. I'm stripping and washing all bedding, pyjamas, clothes daily.

I'm thoroughly cleaning the kitchen & bathroom twice daily.

Cleaning floors daily and hoovering whole house daily.

We are wearing pants to bed and our nails are short, and we've done the Ovex thing.

Does anybody routinely worm their children ? I know it's not the done thing but the thought of going through this again anytime soon makes me want to run away .......

Because I'm so knackered my imagination is running wild ( please please don't anybody fuel it ) and I can't sleep as I keep thinking I can feel them ( which I probably can ).

[CockwombleJeff]

Yes Choco this is our experience with school and it's bloody annoying !

[chocomochi]

DD1 has just had second dose of Ovex and still has the bleeding worms. Went to the pharmacist who said go to the GP, then prescribed Ovex again for third and fourth rounds.

School doesn't care. Phoned up the receptionist to put an email round two weeks ago (they do it for nits), but nothing. Actually, haven't had an email about worms in the two years at the school so far (school of roughly 700 children) and have nit emails roughly every week.

[Botchit]

Don't forget to treat again with Ovex after two weeks. I believe Ovex isn't absorbed into the blood stream, so is safe to retake.

[CockwombleJeff]

Thanks Eli it's reassuring to hear other people's stories.
Thing is I was SO tired it started to send me potty/paranoid/OCD.
Everyone has their weaknesses don't they and this certainly has been mine - I think because life is so busy & stressful , working mum , no family around to support us , I'm always walking a tightrope - and it only takes something like this to throw me out of kilter!

[Ragusa]

The thing is, there is no point going overboard at home because if they are in any school or childcare setting, they may just get reinfected again there. Most important things are hand washing, discouraging thumb-sucking and cutting fingernails very short.

There is a school of thought that says that human beings need to get parasitical infections ...

They might be irritating but it's honestly not worth getting all het up about. Just treat, treat again in 2 weeks: job done., hopefully. I do feel for people who get really upset by this kind of thing - it's a natural revulsion, but you need to talk yourself down :)


I personally think routinely treating children for worms is not all that great an idea. Why give them drugs they very probably don't need?

[Elibean]

OP, I went quite potty when pregnant with dd2, when dd1 had suspected worms. dh thought I was paranoid, I thought I was infested, and we never did find out the truth but my kind OB let me use piperazine just in case and that did the trick.

Since then, dd2 has had them several times - though dd1 never has again, apparently. Ovex for the whole family, one reasonably big clean and lots of handwashing/clean PJs seems to have cracked it each time. But yes, various friends and I got into the habit of worming the entire famiy every time we went on holiday - on the basis that any eggs left in our house wouldn't survive without us for 2 weeks+ - and it certainly helped peace of mind if nothing else.

Ovex is not taken up much into the bloodstream, it stays mostly in the gut, so really pretty safe drug. But I'm talking maybe twice a year, and now the kids are 9 and 12 we don't do it anymore.

[CockwombleJeff]

My secret anti nit protection has always been to mist DCs hair with hairspray before school.

Works a treat .

[LovelyFriend]

I'm more paranoid about nits!

[CockwombleJeff]

You were lucky then Lovely .

[LovelyFriend]

Dd1 had them once. We all took a tablet. Sorted. No big deal at all.

[CockwombleJeff]

Polly it's absolutely no joke is it having it in your forties ?

I was wandering round the shopping centre today thinking how absolutely totally unglamorous and gross I felt !!!

[Pantone363]

Every time we have a DC in reception we get them! Little sods not washing their hands properly.

I worm them every month with Ovex. Tablets not liquid

[CockwombleJeff]

Ragusa I don't think anybody is saying worms aren't anything other than a childhood "affliction" but so is the same can be same of cystitis and thrush in women and I certainly go to greats lengths to avoid those - because it's very uncomfortable and distressing and I don't want repeated infections.

[CockwombleJeff]

Totally agree Daisy about the nit nurse.

We do need them to be more visible!

[Ragusa]

Threadworms are just a routine childhood affliction, honestly there is no need for days and days of washing and cleaning.

[grace11]

I too am going through worm hell - must be the season! I think the most important thing to do is clean bums and hands first thing - and change towels, pjs and underwear every day - and clean the bathroom. Once the big clean has been done on the first day, there's no point cleaning the whole house over and over as you are hopefully washing the eggs away in the morning. I've put my dd1 in a onesie to stop her accessing her bum. Grated carrot is good as is garlic - I'm eating two cloves of raw garlic every morning and probably stink but I don't care. I told my daughter's teacher and she didn't know what it was! She asked if you got it on your hands. Couldn't believe it.

[PollyPerky]

I never had an itchy bottom. As a child myself I found them in my poo and on the loo paper.

As a parent I had a sensation of something wriggling to come out my bum usually in the early evening. I also found one on loo paper when investigating the 'wriggling' feeling.

Lovely.

[daisychicken]

Sorry forgot to say: yes you don't need to change bedding every day but there is a cycle of eggs hatching to worms to eggs and so on and it's beating that cycle. I think I did the kids bedding every couple of days (we had bed wetting accidents too!) and then kept on top of clean pjs/pants, nails, towels, wiping door handles (esp bathroom) etc. I seem to recall the teacher asked the cleaners to help with a little extra cleaning in the school and she and her staff wiped pencils etc.. She was a fantastic teacher I have to say! Mrs S, if you read this 'thank you!'

[daisychicken]

I think there's a feeling of 'dirtiness' amongst society when it comes to threadworms. It's a subject that people don't like and so won't speak about it. I'm afraid I made the issue loud and clear as it's just one of those things and why is it any 'dirtier' than nits? Both are unwanted guests!

I totally agree that some people are unaware their children have threadworms rather than 'just' an itchy bum but some children don't have symptoms and some only have a slight itchiness. I remember having threadworms at least twice as a child - I'm not embarrassed to admit I've had them and i also remember how horribly itchy it was, it was an intense painful itching that just didn't stop. Seeing my child go through that - and all I wanted for him was the itching to go - was horrible so I was quite happy to make a fuss in order to help him!

I do think we need the school nurse to be visibly seen and active in our schools - bring back the "nit nurse" and let's get some of these issues which could be so easily treated sorted!

[PollyPerky]

I do wish schools and nurseries would be more proactive on this- we suffered for years; having threadworms in your 40s is no laughing matter.

It's as if they care about nits but not worms.

I suspect a huge number of parents don't know their child has them and therefore they aren't treated.

The shared use of pens, pencils, books, desks, etc in school makes it so easy for the eggs to be transferred from kids' hands during a school day- not so much after using the toilet unless they are literally touching their poo- but from under their nails when they have scratched their bums at night and not had a thorough handwash or shower in the morning before school.

It's as if threadworms are taboo when it comes to schools tackling them.

[TooAswellAlso]

We used to get ice cream as a treat afterwards for swallowing it. Eugh.

[CockwombleJeff]

Thankyou for that demented x

[CockwombleJeff]

TooAs ... Yes I remember that shake ... "Pripsen"!

Re pets , I rewormed the pets, made the dog wear pull ups and then learnt that threadworm are a human parasite and can't be caught off pets !! Poor dog.

[CockwombleJeff]

Polly that's my feeling - that some parents just aren't addressing them enough.

[TooAswellAlso]

We used to be routinely treated as kids. With a disgusting pink milkshake like solution. Boak.

I'm not sure mine have ever had worms as such, but they have been treated a few times over their lives (9 and 8) normally for itchy bums, increase appetite.

I did us all last week when the cats had them, just in case.

Thankfully it's just a tablet now a days!