Threadworms

[mindutopia]

Tell me about your experiences getting rid of them.

5 yr old has been complaining about pain in her bottom since probably Wednesday, mostly after a poo (so assumed it was constipation?). They past two nights have been hell, 3-5 hours straight of screaming in pain from about 10pm til 3am. The only thing that would settle her was just distraction so literally put her to bed with her tablet at 3am and let her fall asleep watching that (normally very strict about screen time). Also have an 8 month old who is ebf, so though I’m used to being up in the night, enough was enough, we all needed to sleep (dh was obviously the one up with her but I was still awake holding ds so her screaming didn’t wake him up for the hundredth time). We’re all exhausted. Normally, she sleeps well, so it was obvious something was very wrong as she has been absolutely distraught and clearly in pain.

She hasn’t complained of itching really and on first inspection I saw no signs of worms on her or in poo. But I read via Dr. Google someone else describing the exact same sort of nighttime pain and it turned out to be threadworms. So we went out yesterday and got the medicine and treated her then. Dh also took it as a precaution. I’m bfing so as far as I can tell I can’t take it (f’ing great! Which means I’ll surely get them!).

Checked again this morning and yes, definitely worms. She had the medicine nearly 24 hours ago, how soon should we expect it to work? It obviously isn’t yet. And then I know it’s just lots of cleaning, changing bedding, washing hands, but realistically is it gone or are we going to have to keep dealing with this for weeks. We just got rid of nits last week, so I’m totally done with feeling infested. Joys of the start of term, apparently.

Oh geez. Sorry to hear you are dealing with both at start of term! It’s so frustrating that at the start it seems these things are happening! When I went to school I never had either. And only knew of one case my entire time at school when someone had lice (as the entire class was then checked). Now at my kids school I get emails all the time about lice and last year threadworms! It’s crazy! Sorry, I can’t give you an answer how long it takes to work. But I’m sure if you google it, answers will come up. Good luck!

When my DC had worms, we were told it could take 7 days to clear. You should have a follow up dose in the packet if needed and they aren't gone.
I didn't catch them even though i was dealing with nappies at the time.

When you take the medication (ovex), they do die quite quickly. However the eggs that they have left won't die from the medication. Either they will die naturally after 2 weeks or they will be ingested and grow again, so it's best to repeat the medication at 2 weeks before they have chance to lay any more eggs.
In the mean time, keeps hands away from scratching that area, cut nails short, lots of hand washing, washing sheets and towels 1/2 times a week, hoover everywhere. Wearing onesies and/or tight underwear to bed as well stops the eggs from spreading.

You should continue with all the precautions you mentioned until the second dose of the treatment in 2 weeks . This is because the mebendazole kills the threadworms but not the eggs.