Safe medication for constant pinworms?

amother

Chartreuse

Sun, Aug 26 2018, 12:28 am

My dd always seems to have pinworms but I am concerned about giving her the medication so frequently. Is there a treatment that is safe to use often? I have tried many natural alternatives with little improvement.

happyone

Sun, Aug 26 2018, 1:54 am

Some say garlic works. Try taking her off sugar. I had a friend that struggled with a child and she swears that limiting sugar for her child eliminated the recurrent worms.

FranticFrummie

Sun, Aug 26 2018, 3:01 am

Have you tried Vermox? It's not over the counter, you need a prescription. I've found the over the counter stuff doesn't work at all.

Another thing is to have her snack on raw pumpkin seeds every day.

(TMI warning: My cat had tapeworms, and after 3 months of very expensive medicine, she still had them. I mixed ground up pumpkin seeds in wet food, and the worms were gone within a week.)

happyone

Sun, Aug 26 2018, 4:39 am

FranticFrummie wrote:

Vermox has been taken off the market in the US.

amother

Blush

Sun, Aug 26 2018, 10:35 am

I have been dealing with this issue myself for the last few years[I] (yes, years). Each time I took the over the counter medicine, it seemed to work, but a few months later, the pinworms would be back. I finally went to an infectious disease specialist who didn't have much to recommend but gave me albenza, which is very expensive and most insurances won't cover (b"H mine did, partially). It worked for a number of months, but less than a year later, I am dealing with the same problem. This time I tried a healthfood store which gave me the Zahler's paraguard supplement and recommended that if they are coming back repeatedly, I try a probiotic with it. The idea is that if you have the proper balance of bacteria in the digestive system, even if you ingest the eggs, they won't be able to settle in in your intestinal tract.
If anyone else has dealt with this kind of longterm situation successfully, I'd love to hear how...

FranticFrummie

Sun, Aug 26 2018, 4:06 pm

Vermox can be ordered online from Kiwidrugs.com It comes from New Zealand.

Yes, I know cats and humans are not the same, but it would not hurt to snack on pumpkin seeds. They have a lot of protein and amino acids in them.

amother

Periwinkle

Sun, Aug 26 2018, 5:48 pm

Vermox is back on the market since before the summer in the us and most insurances pay for it. Ask your doctor for a prescription for albenza, mebendazole or vermox. Your insurance should pay for any version. Your pharmacist can tell you which one is covered.

oneofakind

Sun, Aug 26 2018, 5:48 pm

I found that pinworms keep coming back when children are bathed together. My DD kept getting it at a certain day camp. It could be the swimming pool wasn't chlorinated properly. On doctor's orders, I did shower her off every morning.

amother

Peach

Sun, Aug 26 2018, 5:51 pm

The active ingredient in the over the counter treatment (pyrantel pamoate) is actually pretty safe, it's the additives that are cr*p. If you can get that compounded, that can be a great way to treat. You can look up protocols online. But I agree with other posters, if they keep coming back, it's because the environment in your gut is right for them, and you need to figure out how to make it inhospitable for them to thrive there.

amother

cornflower

Sun, Aug 26 2018, 5:58 pm

Showers every morning, not baths.
Put your clothing through the hot load and then the dryer.
If possible dry hands with disposable paper towels.
Wash pajamas every day in hot water.

Frumwithallergies

Sun, Aug 26 2018, 7:53 pm

Please check with your doctor.....but a friend of mine was told by an infectious disease doctor to treat the whole family as part of the battle to avoid re-infection.

FranticFrummie

Mon, Aug 27 2018, 4:42 am

Frumwithallergies wrote:

Please check with your doctor.....but a friend of mine was told by an infectious disease doctor to treat the whole family as part of the battle to avoid re-infection.

The only way we could stop the pinworm cycle when DD was little, was to treat the whole family, including our dog. We retreated at 2 weeks, and then again a month later. It got so that every spring we did a round just to be sure, and that worked great. (Using Vermox.)

Update on the cat: She's still pooping out tapeworms, but they are not moving. I think we're getting the second round of residual eggs that are hatching, so I'm going to keep treating her for another month. She's tolerating the pumpkin seeds really well, and is happy to be getting wet food. Wink

My theory is that not only are the seeds scraping the worms out of her gut, but that something in the seeds is making the gut inhospitable, which is why they are coming out already dead.

amother

Chartreuse

Mon, Aug 27 2018, 5:43 am

amother wrote:

Did the paraguard and probiotic work for you, Blush?

amother

Blush

Mon, Aug 27 2018, 4:27 pm

I don't know yet. It's supposed to be a one-month regimen and I'm less than a week into it. Haven't found any more, but who knows if it's gone for good.