FFS, threadworms *again*?!?!

[VermoxQueen]

This is about the 5th episode in the last year! Am I doing something wrong or is it just bad luck?

The whole family do the 2 doses of Vermox, a fortnight apart, I wash bottoms every day until the 2nd dose, I wash bedlinen & clean the floors (though have only done this once or twice during fortnight's doses - should I be doing every day?) Why can't we get rid of this??? DD (7) is a thumb-sucker so could be regularly getting it from school, I suppose, but no other mums have mentioned it and they are the sort of friends who would mention it, they wouldn't be embarrassed. Though I must say, if I hadn't had it before, I probably wouldn't recognise the 'wriggly' feelings (sorry).

Also, I don't understand the info leaflet with the Vermox, it says to continue the hygiene measures every day for 6 weeks (eeek, changing bedlinen every day for 6 weeks?!?!) because the life cycle of an adult worm is 6 weeks. But if the little sods are killed off after a fortnight then why do I need to do this for 6 weeks? AFAIK, they are killed within one week but you take a 2nd dose to kill off any eggs that were swallowed since that first dose. So no idea why the 6 week thing...

They gross me out so much, I wish I could stop bloody getting them!!!

hi - no mums mention it! but trust me - others will have it and no mistake. you need to get school to send home a letter - like they do with headlice. youll never get rid if half the school have em.

i rang the school when DD had it and the bloody office woman said she had never heard of it! made me feel scummy! stupid woman. i got our school nurse to go in in the end.

i did everything you do. i also cleaned all door handles etc regularly. i also bought DD a nail brush and soap for school and i got her some really nasty tasting stuff for her finger nails - she is a nail biter.

and i always - always! have a family pack of thread worm tablets in the cupboard.

they are horrible. i sympathise!

DD had them once and after that I kept her nails shorter and we didn't get them again - I'm sorry you are going through this. If your kid's mates have them, they will keep getting them. Get the school to do something!

I've heard you can inhale the eggs.

I odn't think we've ever had them, but i did give out Ovex to the DC's once, just incase.

Dd had them 4 or 5 times in a two year period. The first time, when I told her pre-school, they said she couldn't come in until she had had the first dose of medicine. I confess that after that time I never told pre-school or school, just went ahead and got the medication as quickly as possible and treated everyone. We also have nailbrushes by every basin, and taught the dcs to use them scrupulously during and after an infestation.

We think that the first time, when dd must have had them for weeks before we realised, that dh may have got infected. But apart from that, nobody else in the family has ever had it. We always treated dh and ds1 at the same time whenever dd was treated, but ds2 and I could never be treated because I was either pregnant or breastfeeding and he was less than 2yo.

So I suspect that some people must just be more vulnerable to it than others. I wonder whether it is possible to boost a person's 'immunity' to threadworm. Homeopathy perhaps? Had dd continued getting infestations, then I would have looked into this myself.

Not that that helps you, sorry.

i think that if one of you has them then you probably all do - just some people probably dont know about it! i mean who actually studies their own poos!?

id tell school and ring the school nurse., thats what i did - and i swear you will be amazed at the number of parents who havnt got a clue about them - and it will be their kids who have the little buggers...

I've never found them by looking at poo. Always by dd's distress - not necessarily itchiness, but vaginal pain - and by examinging her bum by torchlight while she's asleep.

I think I would know if I had them.

And, yes, when you have a baby, too young to be treated, in nappies, boy! do you examine their poo!

Nail brushes by the sink is a good idea, I hadn't thought of that!

Lynette, yes you can inhale the eggs - this is why I feel like I'm fighting a losing battle - you can wash all your bedlinen and wash floors as muhc as you like but if the eggs are floating around in the air then how on Earth can you avoid them?!

I suppose I ought to tell school, yes. I don't mind telling my close mum friends but what if they don't know how common it is and all go "ewwww, you are gross!" and all talk about me?! I bet it's in the Playdough...

Actually, would an anonymous letter to the school be a daft idea?

Vermox, we seemto get worms on a regular basis too. And I do not think you need to write an anonymous letter to the school. AMrch right up there and tell them what a problem it is for you.

Clearly someone at the school has worms (probably most of the class if you did a straw poll) but lots of people do not realise.

Schools talk about NITS ad infinitum, but never nits, just becasue it's to do with bum holes. FWIW I seem to get them more than anyone in my family YUCK> So I take the Ovex weekly until they have gone , just to be on the safe sie.

I do not wait until the 2 week second dose, as I figure some may have hatched since then.

Again, YUCK. Also worm eggs live in sand pits and play dough...so what chance do we have when our children go to school every day.

YUCK

Not to mention inside books...

"I do not wait until the 2 week second dose, as I figure some may have hatched since then. "

I think the point is that those which have hatched by then won't be mature enough to lay eggs. But that you need to wait the 2 weeks bwfore the 2nd dose so that all the eggs will have hatched. IYSWIM...

When we used to get them regularly our Dr's advice was to take three lots of the tablets i.e. one tablet to begin with then one 7 days later and one 14 days later just to really blitz them. Now is an excellent time to do it as it's the holidays so you dd won't pick them up from school.

I remember reading that something like 90% of children have worms at any one time but not everyone shows symptoms so they can be easily spread about.