P)lease help! 5 yo with thread worms. What can we do for her at this time of night?

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She's screaming in discomfort. This is her first encounter. What should I do?

Put knickers on her (change them in the morning).

Cut her fingernails.

Get ovex tomorrow.

Not at lot else for the itching unfortunately.

I used to put nappy cream on my sons bum, Sudocrem, and give him Medised to knock him out! You feel helpless don't you?

We had this a few weeks ago. The out of hours doc told us that neurofen for kids is the best thing to give. Also have you got any worm medicine? That works quite fast.

Good luck, I can sympathise.

The neurofen worked within about 30 minutes for us. Apparantly it is better than calpol for this but calpol is OK if that's all you've got.

Why nurofen? Unless it is accompanied by cramping. Nurfoen isn't going to help the itching.

We seem to have nothing. No nurofen, not even any sudocrem. Can we get the stuff over the counter? Do 24 hour pharmacies exist?

Yes you get Ovex over the counter. TBH it won't help her tonight - will take 24-72hrs so I wouldn't break a neck to find pharmacy tonight.

You have to treat the whole family simulatenously and go on a cleaning spree.

Eeek - will we get any sleep? She's having a bath right now. But I don't suppose that will have a long lasting effect.

Unfortunaly not.

They are inside here, the bath won't remove them, they will come back out when she goes back to bed.

Is it the itching that is causng her discomfort or has she got tummy cramps too?

here is the hygeine stuff

As much sense as I can get from her, it just seems to be the itching.

In that case I don't think there is more you can do tonight, you need to remove the worms to stop the itching and that takes at least 24-72hrs I'm afraid.

TBH cramping only usually occurs in severe cases...

have you any powder?
i try that due to lack of sudocreme.

Slathering on Vaseline might help a bit? Piriton syrup, if you have it, and would help her sleep.

My own dd had them a few weeks ago, but hardly had any symptoms at all, so not much help, sorry...

This is horrid for her - dd had it a few years ago and the night-time itching was the worst of it. We gave dd a wet tissue to cool the area which helped a little. Piriton, if you have any might help too and at least should help her to sleep. Get some ovex tomorrow and treat everyone. It doesn't take too long to clear up.

Piriton won't help.

Piriton is an anti-histamine. There is no histamine in Threadworm infestation.

The itching is caused by the physical crawling of the worms. Piriton, paracetamol, nurofen will all do nothing.

Well, neurofen worked very quickly for my dd and the doc did say it would help, and he was right. So I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss it.

I imagine nurofen would help ease skin that was inflamed from itching - its an anti-inflammatory, after all.

And I thought the itching was caused by the sticky substance the eggs are laid in, rather than actual crawling? I don't know what the substance is, other than a kind of mucousy stuff, but I do know some people react to it and others don't.

I was thinking the piriton would make her sleepy really, more than helping the itching.

Anyway, hope you got the ovex and she's feeling better soon.