did you have worms as a child? does your mum know anything about them?

[hatwoman]

dd2 has got the little blighters. discovered it last night, all dosed up and am now embarking on ludicrous cleaning frenzy (great way to spend the weekend...). My mum's staying and she's prety much in shock over it. she'd barely heard of them, doesn't really know what they are, has never heard friends talk of them (with respect to their gcs). Poor thing's quite revolted (understandably). She asked me if they are more common nowadays. I don;t know the answer to that but given that they're incredibly common, given that hygiene is so key, and given that hygiene has generally improved over the years I suspect it's more likely that it's a case of improved knowledge. I see no reason why they should have been less common when we were kids - if anything I would think the opposite. I can also remember having an itchy bum at times - so I do think I probably had them. what do you reckon?

I used to get them a lot - I sucked my thumb, which can't have helped. We used to have the most hideous-tasting medicine called Pripsen. Just the smell of it made you gag. Ugh.

I never had them but my children did once.They are very common and always have been. Just have a huge stigma and never get talked about in RL. My friends children had them twice and her house is like a show home. They can be picked up all over the place.

Yes. I was one of three children and we had them several times. Well remember the awful Pripsen.
However, DH never had them and he was completely grossed out by the very idea. He was an only child and I am guessing that makes you less likely to get them, statistically.

Def a stigma! I remember one of the boys in my class aged 7 whispering, 'Can I tell you a secret? I got worms in me bum!'

had them loads, mum removed them with hair grip!

I don't remember having threadworms as a child but my own DCs have had them 3 or 4 times. Washing bedlinen and towels and hoovering bedrooms on a daily basis is such a chore. So sympathy to you hatwoman!

Remarkably, none of my toddler-group friends or pre-school mums have ever had this with their own children - although on MN a large number have. So either my DCs are Gods and can spontaneously create life or perhaps all my RL acquaintances are liars embarassed or possibly unaware?

So what I think is threadworm for some is still a bit taboo.

[bawk] at the hair grip . are you really talking about thread worms?

stockthingummy - so true. but you know those r-l friends who don;t talk about worms? they're the same people as the ones on here that do...I guess we're chipping away at the taboo. I;m not a fan of taboos but if you are going to be embarrassed about health things that are no fault of your own, I guess worms up your bum seems like a sensible candidate.

I think I had them pretty much nonstop as a child (earliest memory was when I was about 7, latest when I was in my late teens thanks to having a grubby younger brother) Strangely enough though my Dcs didn't start getting them until after DD was born, and she's the one that seems to get them more - maybe girls just notice them more?

I'm never that embarrassed at getting them, and tbh I'd rather we had bouts of threadworms than nits, which we've so far managed to avoid!

same as Marthamoo

I even got psychosymatic threadworms when I did my first set of uni exams.

Pripsen was VILE

We never had worms as a child and my dc have never had them. My sister's dd had worms almost continually for years and years, yet her ds didn't catch them once.

I never had them, neither did my siblings, and no one I knew ever (apparently) did. My sister does remember her friends at secondary school having itchy bums, and being treated - but for some reason, we never had them.

BUT my mother isn't shocked at the idea (we thought dd might have them last summer, though still not sure if she ever did - Ovex all round to be safe anyway). Grossed out yes, but shocked no - she's heard of them, remembers her brother having them as a child, etc.

Its definitely not on the social list of things to talk about in the playground of my dd's preschool, but I think any of my RL friends whose LOs had had them would tell me. So far, not

Oh, apart from my DB's kids, who had them (and DB too) a few months ago. In poshest Fulham, too

I had them as a child & more recently!

My dc's had them but of course it wasn't until I was infected & had an itchy bum that I realised what it was!! And I had had them for a couple of weeks before it actually dawned on me what they were!!

I then made ds & dd bend over the arm of an old sofa othat night til I checked up their bums with a torch! There were millions of the buggers crawling away up there merrily!!!

I got them bathed, washed the covers, dosed them up & hoovered their matresses!!!!

I think I got them as they quite often sleep with us.

Kids can pick them up so so easily though... even opening a door handle that someone has touched, or sand pits are buggers for them! Sand gets under their nails where the worms are, then goes back out into the sand pit infected with worms...

As long as you treat them & then take the follow up treatment for the eggs it should be grand! The stuff is much easier to take today in tablet form than it was when I was wee! Yucky raspberry flavour drinking stuff... I still won't drink anything strawberry or raspberry flavoured now & I'm almost 30!

I had them as a child - can't remeber what I was given for them......but I never had nits so its just one of those things I guess...

I never had nits either! My sister did!!

I got a letter home from school the other day to say there had been an outbreak of nits in dd's class... I almost passed out!

yep, I had them as a child, remember Pripsen too, I love raspberries but cannot eat anything raspberry flavoured as a rseult.
DC have also had them, and I am trying to break the taboo by talking about them, admitted to a group of mums who were talking about nits that the worst I had had to deal with was nots one week followed by worms the next. yuk!

I recall my Mum saying several times "My God, Child, have you got worms or something?" in response to my enormous appetite.

Cannot ever remember actually having them, though. Certainly wasn't treated for them.

None of us ever had them (5 of us) but we did get nits quite a few times. My Mum would know about worms as she is a biology teacher but I remember her being horrified that we had lice as she hadn't even thought to check us for them.

Eurgh, my hair has just gone itchy at the very mention of lice. Prioderm was what we were subjected to. The lotion was awful, but the preventative shampoo in a tube made your hair beautifully shiny