Daughter with itchy bottom

[SpiritualKnot]

My 8 year old daughter is suffering for a second night with an itchy bum.It's not worms, she's had those before, though I have some tablets from before and could give her one of those anyway?

How can I help, I've washed her with water and tried Eurax cream, that worked last night, But tonight it didn't work and she's crying with it as she's so tired.

Any suggestions of how to help?

SK

Give her an antihistamine tablet or a spoonful of something like Piriteze? Do you have any nappy cream - I think Sudocrem is amazingly soothing.

I would treat her again for worms (and you and the rest of your family), coz this has happened before to us... We didn't think there were any and then days later we realised there were!!

Also, to placate her I would use something like Sudacreme which is soothing and deals with the external discomfort.

Remember to change pjs tomorrow aswell, be especially vigilant about hand washing and change the towels and bedding tomorrow also.

Good luck!

Repeat worm treatment in a fortnight's time.

why are you so sure that it's not worms? it's so easy to get reinfected

check to see if she has the turd that waves back. Worms are hellishly easy to re-infest with, you can inhale the eggs, and they end up in the gut and hatch.

Hi again,

I've given her a worm tablet. Went to give her an antihistamine but it says over 12 years for a tablet on the ones we have. Should I half it? What's Piriteze?

She's calmed down a bit since the worm tablet, I'll wait and see.

SK

Has she eaten a load of food containing yeast?

It may well be worms. DD1's symptoms disappear immediately after Ovex. I think the pills are quite strong, esp for the liver (?) and shouldn't be repeated more than necessary (i.e. ascertain it's worms to the best of your knowledge) but they are v effective when used.

How do you spot worms? DD is 5.5 and not had them yet. I said that last year about nits and now I feel like I am an authority on the little bastards.

The ones my DD1 had were like think cotton threads coming out of her bum. You can google it for images if you feel strong enough

Sorry, Piriteze is an antihistamine syrup that's formulated for children, but if it is worms rather than an allergic reaction then it may not be appropriate. But now I think of it, are worms itchy because they provoke an allergic reaction, or for some other reason?

these are threadworms aka pinworms

these are the most common worms that a child in the UK will have

40% of infabt age children will have them at one time or another.

Check around the anus at night....use a torch! Or you can put a small bit of sticky tape there, they will come out to lay the eggs and get stuck.

Or check a stool sample. You'll see the little feckers wrigling!

Made me squirm on my chair just looking at the photo.

then my work here is done........

You really can inhale the eggs, when you change the bed linen etc, not matter how often you wash hands etc.

Some thread work females of some species actually allow themselves to dry out so they explode and in doing so spread their microscopic eggs into the air.

People inhale them. they get stuck in the mucus of the lungs. This mucus is removed from the lungs by microscopic hairs, whic beat and move the mucus up, and out of the lungs at a rate of 2cm a minute, until they drop into the stomach.

they survive the acid in the stomach, get to the alkali intestines where they hatch. And the whole merry cycle starts all over again!

This is why you need two doses of drugs, you 'catch' the second hatching of eggs before they become productive.

Hygine alone will often not be enough.

(I need to get out more.....)

martianbishop i have never heard that turd waving phrase !!!

That's the most succint explanation I've read about threadworms. Are you a science teacher?

in australia you can get worming chocolate it is fab

Christina, yes, but it isn't on the sylabus! shame, the kids love this sort of thing!

And not just the kids!

and obviously kids can still re-infest by scratching bottom and biting nails etc.

they are curiously interesting little wriglers.

I know too much about head lice too.....

I really should get out more!

Well, she's asleep now. I'll buy some Piriteze tomorrow. I'll check with a torch tonight to see if anything comes out! How fast do the tablets take to work though? Will they still come out tonight? Or have they all been zapped dead already!

the fact that the laying of the eggs causes itching is a helpful survival advantage for the treadworms, stimulating the scratching, which significantly inreases the possibility of the eggs being under the nails, which them get bitten, and the person re-infested

and so on and so on.....

My dd hasn't had this yet but I'm sure she will at some point. What other symptoms are there except for itchy bottom?