Threadworms and due in a week!

[MommaBearKOE]

Sorry for the long post!
I am due to give birth in about a week and have just discovered I have threadworms! I thought I must have picked them up from one of my kids but I haven't yet seen any in their poo. We went to the beach for the weekend about a month ago and I was sat on the sand eating crisps while everyone else played in the water so maybe I picked up eggs from the sand? I don't know but the family has been dosed with Ovex and I've been cleaning like a mad woman, changing and boil washing jammies and bedsheets for about 3 days now. The whole household has been terrorised by me hovering over them supervising constant hand washing and making sure everyone is in undies at all times. No easy feat as DS has ASD and sensory issues resulting in a real hatred for wearing any sort of clothes. I'm barely sleeping because it's all I can think about! Does anyone know of any medication I can take while pregnant? I'm scared to go into labour knowing these nasty little critters are there!

Bump

Coyjdyou check with a pharaoh if there is anything safe to take? I thought I had read somewhere that you can’t take the usual treatments. I’m not sure if later on the pregnancy would be safer or not.

Sorry should say Pharmacist

Ask your GP for an urgent appointment, there's bound to be something that can help. You poor girl, stop worrying, things happen but they pass, not your fault.

Asked the pharmacist and she said there's nothing OTC I can take but to call GP. I'm waiting on a call back now since I missed the first one cos I couldn't hear my phone over the hoover. Typical! I guess I was just wondering if anyone had taken the Ovex in late pregnancy and what happened? Is it really unsafe or is there just a lack of research? I'm going out of my mind I know they seem like such a silly inconvenience but I just have visions of the midwife looking.down there to find a load of worms!

I doubt anyone would notice you had thread worms in labour. Ovex isn’t absorbed into the blood stream but works in the gut. Obviously you need your GPS advice but you may be able to take it.
Scrubbing under nails every morning can help reinfection too. Get your curtains and windows open as the eggs like dark places.

I've my kids and OH tortured with scrubbing under our fingernails lol I didn't know they liked the dark I'll be opening all blinds and windows then! Thanks

I caught them at 26 weeks from a child at work. As well as the scrubbing, it sounds weird, but before you go to bed, put Vaseline around the anus. I used a bottom wipe to get everything really clean and then cotton wool pad to apply the Vaseline. It means that the eggs can’t stick and I think I effectively suffocates the worms that are inside. In the morning, I would clean off the Vaseline with a bottom wipe and then immediately remove underwear/pyjamas and place in a washing basket. They were gone within days.

Thank you for the advice, I have been doing all that and boil washing sheets and pyjamas every morning andhaven't seen seen any in a day or so. I'm gonna call midwife and ask her as I asked GP and she literally said "I don't know. It says here you can't but ask your midwife or consultant." I asked the consultant yesterday and he said "I don't know anything about that sorry" l. It's so weird cos everyone keeps saying how common they are so I don't understand how this problem isn't something they've seen before

I took ovex when I was 6 weeks pregnant because it's not absorbed into the blood stream. There's nothing written about its safety in pregnancy because it is unethical to conduct research on pregnant women so in most medication you'll see 'consult your gp ' under pregnancy or breastfeeding.
Ovex works in the bowel by dropping the transfer of glucose to the gut wall, which is what the threadworms live on. It needs repeating 2 weeks later in case any eggs have hatched.
I was also told that in other countries where parasites are very common they routinely 'worm' the mothers at the booking in clinic and every month thereafter until birth (was told by a doctor friend who volunteered in Africa) x

Thanks so much for your advice! I called the maternity hospital and got a doctor who told me just to take it so I have done and hopefully a repeat dose in two weeks for all of us gets rid of the wee monsters altogether!

Excellent 😊

Glad you got sorted. Probably obvious but make sure everyone in the house takes it in 2 weeks too.

Gosh, I’m sorry, just seen that you’ve put ‘for all of us’. Ignore me!

Gosh poor you having to deal with this when you should be taking it easy before the little one comes. I think you could have picked them up from the beach as my 1 year old dd got them just after a beach holiday and we'd caught her eating sand! Ovex works a treat. Glad you can take it. Good luck with the new baby!

Thank you everybody, I took it about 36 hours ago and haven't seen anything (alive) in the last few hours, thank goodness it's such a relief. Can't let up on the cleaning though, my hands are all cracked and red lol but I feel a lot better. Thank you all for your advice!