Rather sensitive question - re. DD's 'front bottoms' ...

[Snowstorm]

... Is it normal for a young child's/girl's 'front bottom' to smell in any way at all? Or could it be an indication of some kind of infection that I should take her to the doctor about?

Vaginal swabs ... actually inside ... oh god, I hope DD2 doesn't have to have one of those, I think she'd be traumatised by it and never let me take her to the doctor again ... oh god ... I'm anxious now ...

Have read the www.patient.co.uk article and I'm now 99.9% sure that DD2 has threadworm. Apart from the medical treatment, pants at night and meticulous hand-wshing etc. what does that really involve on the washing front? Am I really going to have to wash our bedlinen, her bedlinen and DD1's bedlinen and towels EVERY DAY for 2 weeks??????

As a general rule I damp dust her room (as it always seems to start with her and the eggs can be carried in the dust......yuck )

Strip all beds, have designated towels and dose all of us with the meds. Wehave never needed the second dose but have had them three times in as many years.

Am not that meticulous as they say, every day for 2 weeks, bloody hell, you'll be getting called Dot Cotton next !

My DD is a thumb sucker and I put it down to this mainly.

With regards to the front bottom tests, I cannot deny it was awful and they do use the same long cotton bud too. We needed it doing twice becasue of urine infections.

Thanks for that - love the name by the way!

Excuse my ignorance but what excactly is 'damp dusting'?

We already have designated towels - guess I'll be doing all the bedding/towels again tomorrow. Will probably need a few days to recover after that before I do it again and will take it from there.

DD2 is a thumb sucker too ... in fact it seems to be worse at the moment ... she seems to be very tired at the moment and her thumb seems to permanently be in her mouth.

Fingers crossed that front bottom test is not required ... wouldn't it be better for the doctor to give them the medication 'just in case' rather than to put them through that trauma - DD2 is 4 and I really do not want her to undergo that unless it is 110% necessary.

Completely agree about the test business, however, on both accassions she had had blood in her urine and they were worried about kidney damage. When it was put to me like that it seemed the lesser of two evils.

Yes, about my name, when I first posted I thought, OMG she's gonna think I ma taking the proverbial, have had this name since my dear MN friends made me surrender 39andcounting on my 40th !! Bless those friends.

Oh and damp dusting is either a damp duster or baby wipes, less dust is put into the atmosphere that way and you restrict any eggs being airborn. Yuck, its all awful but plenty of us to help. x Not with the dusting, just the advice

Yes - think I know where you are coming from on the lesser of two evil thing!

Didn't even notice your name until you'd posted a couple of messages ... too busy scanning what you'd written!

Thank you for all the information/advice - really appreciate it .

snowstorm- can I have a Brownie point for my disgnosis lol
Re. cleaning rooms - if you can, try not tow woosh the sheets off the bed as the eggs might fly all over- take the sheets etc off gently. and wash YOUR hands after you have loaded them into the washer.

The other thing is, if they (kids) can shower or bath every morning, to get rid of eggs left overnight .

My kids often had worms and me too- yuck. They pick them up at school off desks etc and bring them home.

I think once a week washing of bedding is enough as long as they wear pants etc in bed and you make sure you all take Ovex.

After a while, i used to de-worm us all a few times a year- symptoms or not , as it is so hard to tell, and the tablets can't do any harm.

Hope you get on okay.

All kids get threadworms several times during childhood, it's just one of those things.

Launder everything and iron with a hot setting but ONCE is enough not everyday.

Have your own towels.

just my two pence worth - my lovely step dd (living with us) who was about 5 at the time, had smelly front bits and I would make sure she was well washed /dewormed etc etc. Eventually she started complaining about itching/pain and only at night time (also made me think threadworm again). Ultimatley took her to the GP who was great. Didn't do an exam as such, just asked loads of questions regarding type of smell (ie fishy - sorry tmi / salty / yeasty / wee-ish) and also about discharge etc. He had 4 daughters and apparently they go thru a hormonal adjustment at about age 5-ish where chemicals in bath soaps /detergents / shampoo can irritate their sensitive front bits. He advised ZERO soap product on her. Bath in plain water with a flannel only. If very dirty, then play for a bit in the bath water, then soap down and rinse off by pouring water over her with a jug. Also to use aqueous cream after baths to soothe and after about a week she stopped smelling - I kept that up for about 2 years, and slowly introduced soaps again and she is fine now. I know I get itchy and sensitive when its that time of the month so I kinda buy into the hormone effect.
hth

Everyone's experience helps - thanks Tamsmum. Am mentally filing it all away for as/when/if need it!

Girlnextdoor ... not only do I think you absolutely deserve a Brownie Point but ... drumroll please ... Have a big gold star too !

Thanks snowstorm- hope you get it all sorted

Soupkitchen - went to the doctor this morning with DD2. Reasons for going have changed a bit over the week since I booked the appointment. Started as 'Does DD2 have thrush because she can be a bit whiffy and I thought that meant it wasn't thrust?' and then moved on to 'I think DD2 has threadworms' .

In any case, there is a possibility that DD2 might have thrush or something which I've been struggling to remember (too much smiling and nodding at the doctor ... I have a very annoying tendency to do that) - but it essentially meant a swollen and red front bottom. The doctor took a swab (not internal thank god) and will get back to me. However, because DD2 HAS got threadworm, the doctor's treating that first and not anything else because she thinks it might all be connected.

The bit that's relevant to you (once you've waded through all that) is that when I mentioned the smell she said she wasn't concerned about that at all. If we were following all the usual hygience measures (wiping front to back), washing hands etc. and there was no discharge then keep your DD as clean as you can but don't worry about it too much. She said it might be a bit of unwiped pee or some such thing. Don't use soap - she prescribed us Oilatum for the bath (and both DD's skin felt really lovely for it afterwards too).

Sorry that's not 100% thorough and that I've taken a while to revert but I've been washing, washing, washing and doing yet more washing (of bedlinen, towels etc.) today and I'm knackered!

Thank you for your help everyone, I really appreciate your ideas, guidance and experiences ... it's not a topic I'd raise in 'real life' and it's been brilliant to have all this knowledge pooled here. Thank you.

Thanks for getting back to me snowstorm,
Glad I don't need to worry about the wiffyness.

Glad you are getting things sorted for your dd, but sorry it has increased your workload so much