Recurring threadworms despite repeated treatment and cleaning, has anyone cleared them?

[MyPoliteOtter]

I’m about the end of my tether and don’t know what to do, just hoping I’m not alone/ hoping to get some reassurance from anyone else..

Our family has has recurring threadworms since December now and I just don’t know what more I can do! My daughter had a red and itchy bottom and vagina and was scratching and waking multiple times a night shrieking when we finally put the pieces together and worked out what was wrong - we’d thought she had poor personal care at nursery and night terrors up to that point before I saw one on her and got her treated.

Our first round I had a 3 month old baby so he couldn’t be treated and doctors were reluctant to treat me as I was breastfeeding, but eventually gave me medicine when I found I had them, but I was treated out of sync, so unsurprisingly they came back 3 weeks later..

Round 2, baby still too young to be treated, and yet again, they came back again.

Round THREE, baby was finally old enough for medicine, so we treated all together,
and are now 12 days post our last dose, but my daughter is now waking again in the night, and I have nausea and day time genital sensitivity/discomfort which have been my only symptoms before (I don’t get the ‘itch’) so I just feel it in my bones they are back once again..

I just don’t know what more I can do!! We are washing bedding constantly, hoovering daily, towels washed right away, clean clothes every day, my hands are red RAW from washing, we have done multiple medication rounds with even an extra 3rd dose just to be sure, but they come back again and again. We told her nursery, all they did was put up a bulletin but not much else it seems..

I am getting so depressed now - I feel like such a failure and that we will NEVER be rid of these things. It’s utterly ruining my maternity leave as all I do is clean and not enjoy my baby, and I am constantly on alert for ‘contamination’ or risk. Every time my daughter wakes in the night I think they are back, every time I get a ‘damp’ feeling I think they’re back. My little girl is 3 and at nursery lots so can’t watch her all the time and constantly puts her hands on her mouth. My son sucks his thumb too..

My question is - has anyone else had repeated reinfections? How long did it go on for you? Did you finally clear them? What helped in the end? Did you get your GP to escalate to a specialist or did you change the dosing?

I feel so scared and lost and worried we’ll have them forever.. any advice or hand holding welcome x

What's worked best for us is not washing bedding every day because let's face it, that's unsustainable as a family of four. Instead we do:

• new PJ's each night
• VERY short finger nails
• wash hands as soon as they get up (kids aged two and four now). Thoroughly and before they touch anything else
• keeping medicine in the cupboard and dosing at the first symptom. Then a week later. And a week after that to be sure.

They are a literal pain in the ass and I hate them. But since the morning hand wash schedule we've done much better and haven't had another episode (obviously also hand washing after playing outside, before food etc but this was the game changer in breaking the cycle).

Are you washing stuff at 60 degrees? Lower temperature washes aren’t enough to kill them off.

Are you all wearing underwear at night? Easier to wash underwear and PJ bottoms than all the bedding every day.

Pineapple sorted my dd out in the end, it’s a natural dewormer and luckily she likes eating it 🙈😂

thanks so much for responding - we do new PJs every night, short nails for us all, but we don’t hand wash on waking.. my husband does morning toddler wake ups as I do nights with a frequent waking baby, but he lets her go downstairs without washing first for a little bit which is where I suspect we are maybe falling down, though for 3 days after treatment he washes her immediately.. I will try and get this ‘first thing handwashing’ instilled, no matter how much she kicks off..

So you dose weekly rather than wait the full 2 weeks? I’ve personally suspected that these worms are maturing faster than 2 weeks and therefore the cycle is continuing back to back..

How many reinfections did you find you had before cracking it, if you don’t mind me asking? I’m guessing I’m trying to establish how normal it is to have to go through this repeatedly!

Yep, every towel is washed after use, every time clothes or PJs are worn they are washed, bedding daily for 3 days after treatment then every 3 days thereafter, all washed at 60 and tumble dried on hot :( my bills are ridiculous

Yep, undies and PJs for everyone!

Ooh did it make a big difference then? I’ve been having pineapple juice and pumpkin seeds but no difference it seems :(

It might be reinfection from a child at nursery (or nursery itself it it isn’t being deep cleaned) - have they sent out a letter? Might be worth raising again as rather like nits, it is common for you to treat and treat but get reinfected at nursery/school :-(

Take the normal dose three days in a row. It gets rid of them. It's the instructions on the same medicine at the same dose as sold in Germany. The difference is that it's hellishly expensive here so most people only get it on prescription, but it is the same drug and dosage as ovex.

They will come back every few months while you have DC in infant school. Keep instilling that hand washing is THE way to not catch worms and cut their nails as soon as you notice they are long enough to catch any dirt at all. But you don't need crazy hygeine measures, just common sense stuff like clean underwear, hand washing, and try to avoid them scratching bums at night if possible, which is tricky because they do it in their sleep.

If not keen to redose as soon as the next day I would absolutely redose as soon as you notice symptoms rather than waiting the full two weeks.

Reminds me of the recurring nit problem we had when my daughter was at nursery. Sounds like another kid at the nursery has them and isn't getting treated. I'd ask the school to ask all parents to treat for worms and keep your daughter out of school until this has been done. If they refuse get the health authority involved? Sounds extreme but there's always one parent who thinks it couldn't possibly be their child.

I wondered this too but thing is symptoms occur IMMEDIATELY for me by day 9-10 after medication, if she was bringing it back from nursery surely she’d get infected first and then it’d spread to me a bit later if that makes sense?

Unfortunately she’s 3 and it’s in a nursery, we’d be throwing hundreds down the drain keeping her off til it’s sorted and don’t have alternate childcare, they’re put a bulletin out to parents but done nothing else, I know they wont mandate parents getting kids treated without symptoms either out of policy :(

Is it just 3 doses and done or do you do a follow up in 2 weeks? Is this because they think the one dose has a risk of not getting them all?? I worry so much about how much medicine my kids have had already since this has been going on so long now :(

Sorry you’re dealing with this, especially with such a small baby as well. I found it utterly horrific the first time my youngest had them. A few thoughts - it’s worth saying that some kids seem more prone to them than others, which may explain them hanging around. My older two never had them but my youngest has had them quite a bit. From both my reading about it and my own experience with bad outbreaks, the actions you take first thing when waking up are key, as the worms are most active at night. So right away underwear comes off, bum has a wash with a soapy flannel, dried (with a different flannel of course), clean pants and pjs or clothes put on and hands thoroughly washed. Then, as you’ve been doing, bedding washed every day (so boring!!), towels used only once and clothes washed. And hands washed regularly and absolutely before any food is eaten. Nails kept short. At bedtime, wash bum then Vaseline petroleum jelly around the bumhole helps as it can trap any worms that come out at night. So gross, sorry, but I read that tip online and it seems to help. Also seems to have a bit of a placebo effect on my son, he feels something helpful is being done. We’ve only had to be obsessive like that a few times though, as now my son mentions he has an itchy bum, I give him ovex (plus follow up dose), wash his bum and do the vaseline at bedtime, change his bedding and we’re sorted. It never gets to the stage of disturbed nights etc. Finally, are you sure you’re all getting it? It’s a bit like nits, in that the idea of it is very suggestive that you might have it. Itchiness tends to be during the night so discomfort during the day doesn’t mean you have them. After the first two times my youngest had them we never dose the rest of us as I realised it wasn’t spreading.

One more thing, have you been using Ovex? It works perfectly for us but I remember seeing some people say it seemed to have no effect and their doctor prescribed an alternative. When my son got them in France once, the medicine we got there did nothing for him and the outbreak got quite bad. So kids do seem to respond better to some options than others.

We had three months of infections (about one a month, treat, semi clear, few days good and then start again) and then got super strict with the morning wake up hand wash (not just a quick splash, a proper one) and haven't had them since. That was about seven months ago now I think. So whether it's that, or a happy coincidence, I'm not sure but I'm definitely not stopping!

I agree with @PourquoiPas — it’s most likely reinfection. We had the same situation for the better part of a year. Then we moved house (sorry!) and schools and have never had the problem again. I was a bit shy about bringing it up with the school multiple times but shouldn’t have been. Some children apparently don’t get itching and so are never treated, but keep passing the wretched things around.

Is there a sandpit at nursery? My son was in reception when we had this nightmare and I blame the sandpit.

When my children had them I read somewhere about putting sudocrem or similar on their bum at night to catch any eggs etc (similar to what a previous poster said they did with vaseline). I did this and would then take them straight to shower it all off in the morning and wash hands as well as the usual washing bedsheets, pyjamas and towels.

UK advice of 1 tablet didn’t work for us, the worms returned all the time. we were then in Europe visiting grandparents where the dr prescribed 6 tablets each to take twice per day over 3 days. That sorted it and they have never returned.

Ours seemed to go when we got a new carpet. (Not because of the worms.) You could try shampooing the carpet instead

I find they don't come back in 2 weeks if I do the tablet once a day for 3 days routine, so don't need to re-dose.

I don't think the medicine is dangerous.

I got rid of them after a few returns by dosing us all three times 7 days apart and again once 4 weeks later to be sure.

I washed bums and hands in the morning first thing for a month.

That was along with the normal cleaning. So something worked in there.

Thank you so so much for the advice, I will get stricter on the morning hygiene. Yep it’s definitely them, have seen them with my own eyes :’( I think my husband thinks I’m partly mad though as he’s never witnessed them and gets no symptoms at all but I’ve seen them on my daughter and me so I’m slightly traumatised from that tbh!

Has been a mix of ovex and vermox for the kids but I understand it’s basically the same thing. I do wonder if it’s incomplete clearance, but symptoms definitely die down after 48h so I think it’s doing something..