parasites at school

[JockoT]

What is your school doing to stop kids catching and re-infecting each other with worms and nits?

IMO, it's not the school responsibility. My dd has had both nits and worms. I told the school nurse (living abroad we have the luxury of two school nurses [smug]), she checked the class and sent a letter home about the nits but said there was little she could do about the worms. We gave dd her worming tablets.
I thin until parents get over themselves and start informing the school that their precious darlings are nitty, it is a perpetual cycle. I do get furious though when parents don't tell the school. One mum told me it wasn't anyone elses business.

Here's what have done:I have told the school and asked them to help educate parents re: the signs of worms, treatment etc and encourage open discussion. I had already written to the mums and school about this batch. Lots of mums were surprised. Have invested in a thumbguard for dd stop thumb sucking. we dont have animals and weeks ago we all had the worm pills and cleaned rooms beds etc. dd knows to wash hands. School is clean. Just fyi... dd's worms went inside, harmed her bladder and travelled to her lungs. the second doctor diagnosed them as whip worms after an ultrasound. She had cough for 3 weeks and went to the loo every 20 mins, was tired, a temperature too. Not the standard thread worms that you get at school normally so please dont take our case as typical.

Are you in a developing country Jock?

We all had worms when children. Only once or twice each.

As for nits; one school was always nit infested (this was the posh one full of children of university types) and the school always sent people home when they had nits.

At my next school, nits were so taboo that the nit nurse paid a confidential visit to the home!

Up to 35% of threadworm infestations (ie more than a third) are entirely asymptomatic. I am wondering at all the outraged protestations of "I have never had them!". It is likely that everyone has, at some point. And the figure is probably around 30% of the population at any one time. Mainly, but not exclusively children. Have you ever seen the biological analysis of the surface of a coin.....?

When one DC had a case of worms, the doctor prescribed the medication for the entire family -- is this not standard practice? I'm asking because Kreecher mentioned giving her DD the tablets but didn't mention taking them herself. The DCs' doctor had us all take the medication to prevent reinfection ad nauseum. I couldn't take the medication as I was pg.

dc's school sends a note out informing of outbrakes of nits etc. the worst culprits are the parents who say 'my dc's have never had nits/worms', yeah right, have they ever checked them for nits/worms??, i bet not, and bet the dc's are riddled.

Message withdrawn

If there are no obvious signs in toilets or nappies, try waiting til they are asleep and shining a torch up their bum, the little feckers will be waving at you! Seriously.

I have heard of someone putting sellotape across their dc's anus overnight to catch them too, but I have not gone that far.

TBH though, mine were all younger so on the potty stage, and I only checked because they were itching or having disturbed nights and I could find no other reason for it.

If anyone wakes about 30 minutes to an hour after falling asleep or complains of being really, really itchy about then or when lying in bed trying to get to sleep, there's good reason to suspect worms. You have to visually inspect the rear end of the child before they get up or move around too much, and they can sometimes be seen at that time. Riven's link above details checking procedures.

Should clarfy, we bought over the counter tablets and treated the whole family. Manky is right, they do stand on their hind legs and wave. (metaphorically before anyone points out worms are tubular creatures)

so if there are no symptoms then we should still do the bum check?

mine had worms many times in a row and both dh and I caught them too

it was nothing to do with our hygiene as someone has implied on this thread!

I reckon the worms were being passed around willy nilly at school and eventually, I narrowed it down to the sandpit. You can't see the eggs. All it takes is for a child to scratch their bum with their fingers then touch something and another child to touch that surface then put their fingers in their mouth. IT's so so so easy to get them and v hard to get rid of them, especially if you have a thumb sucker in the family.

I agree with the OP. I think schools should do more. Even when I spoke to the school and pre school about this (worms), everyone seems to want to keep it quiet. You get letters about nits but not about worms and I think schools should give them out as a matter of course.

Riven is right - my children are nearing 10 now and the times we are getting threadworms have definitely decreased substantially. I believe ds had them for ages before we spotted the signs tbh.