Treatment of pinworms in children: drugs, treatment and prevention of enterobiasis

All diseases caused by parasites form a risk group for certain categories of patients, to which includes adults with pets or working in the agricultural sector, and children.

Enterobius vermicularis belongs to the genus of primordial worms that parasitize exclusively in the human body. Among the population, these fossils are known as pinworms, and it is not for nothing that they enjoy a very bad reputation. The fact is that pinworms cause a complex and rather dangerous disease in humans - enterobiasis.

And the most unpleasant thing is that children in the world infected with pinworms, according to medical statistics, at different times can number up to 100%. That is, all the children of the planet at one stage or another in their life have helminths in their bodies!

How is this disease expressed? Why is the presence of parasites in the child's body dangerous? And how to recover from helminthiasis, ridding the child of pinworms.

Symptoms are latent and overt

Yes, it is into two types that the symptoms are divided, which appear (or do not appear) with the disease enterobiasis or helminthiasis. In most cases of infection, the clinical picture remains calm, and the parents do not even suspect the presence of pinworms in the child's body. There are no external signs. No complaints, pains, discomfort. This continues until parasitic invasion occurs (sooner or later). Only then can helminthiasis be suspected by the behavior and complaints of the baby.

Advice. Check your baby regularly for worms. Get tested - a smear - annually, even if no signs of worms are observed or you are not able to notice them. And teach your children to wash their hands!

What the child complains about

When complaints related to helminthic invasion appear, children (if they already know how to speak) begin to voice the following.

1. Itching in the anus. Usually the peak occurs at night. May be so distressing that it causes sleep disturbances. The child has difficulty falling asleep and sleeps very restlessly. Small children scream and cry in their sleep, or wake up periodically.
   

   Itching in the anus

2. Loss of appetite. The kid can refuse food, referring to the fact that he does not want and he is not hungry. This can be accompanied by bouts of nausea.
   

   Loss of appetite

3. Increased appetite. Also, oddly enough, a sign of pinworms and other parasites. Increased salivation is added to hyperappetitis and a constant feeling of hunger.
   

   Hyperappetitis

4. Abdominal pain, which is most often felt in the navel area. Sometimes the painful sensations intensify and become cutting.
   

   Abdominal pain in a child

5. Stool disorders of various kinds. It can be diarrhea or constipation, increased flatulence or difficulty passing gas, as well as intestinal dysbiosis.
   

   Stool disorders of various kinds

6. Systematic dizziness, as well as headache, fatigue, irritability and moodiness.
   

   The child is naughty, annoyed

7. Visually becomes the skin of the face is paler, the skin darkens under the eyes, the veins appear brighter.
   

   The shade of the skin changes

By the way. One sure sign that is not on the list of medical symptoms, but is noted by many parents, is teeth grinding at night.

Why are the manifestations of helminthiasis dangerous?

In addition to discomfort and pain, symptoms can have complex and dangerous consequences.

1. For example, nighttime itching in the anus leads to involuntary scratching of the anus. In this case, the infection gets into the formed wounds and cracks. And the remnants of helminth eggs accumulated on the hands and on the skin under the nails provoke infection of other people and self-infection.
   

   Infection and self-infection with pinworms

2. Nausea, changes in appetite, pain are signs of deep invasion due to permanent self-infection. The more widespread the colony of helminths, the more numerous pinworms, the more toxins the parasites will release into the child's body. Children poisoned by toxic substances become irritable and quickly fatigued.
   

   Fatigue is caused by toxins

3. Exposure to toxins and a feeling of itching at night, combined with pain and sleep disturbances, also leads to disturbances in the nervous system. Hence - inattention, lagging behind the educational process among schoolchildren, loss of interest in life.
   

   It is hard for children to study, they lose interest in life

4. If the lesion with pinworms is prolonged and cannot be treated in any way, the child develops allergic symptoms. This is expressed in dermatitis and eczema lesions of the skin, since the level of eosinophils in the blood increases.
   

   Skin rashes

5. A pale complexion with helminthiasis may also indicate a decrease in hemoglobin in the baby's blood.
   

   The skin of children with parasitic infections is pale

Important! Separately, it should be noted that for girls, pinworm damage can result in enuresis, since parasites crawl into the urethra, or secretions from the genitals and their diseases (pinworms get and there).

A long-lasting invasion, if treatment is not carried out in a timely manner, will certainly give complications. The child is deprived of a large amount of nutrients that the body needs for development and growth. The body is depleted. His intoxication occurs.

Where do pinworms come from in the body?

The presence of helminths can be suspected by the child's complaints or a timely analysis (scraping). But is it possible to understand from some of the conditions for the appearance of parasites that take place that the child is most likely infected?

How pinworms enter the body.

1. Helminth eggs are the first to enter the human body. This happens with the help of the oral-fecal mechanism. That is, in other words, pinworms enter the gastrointestinal system through the child's mouth.
2. Helminths lay eggs at night outside the body, around the anus. The temperature and environment there is just such that it favors the reproduction of this species of parasites.
3. A child (or an adult) automatically in a dream combs the place of laying, because crawling there, pinworms cause itching and itching of the mucous membranes.
4. Parasite eggs remain on the hands and under the nails. They also remain on underwear and bedding if the child sleeps naked.
5. Further, if hands are not washed immediately, underwear and bed linen are changed (and children can be accustomed to brushing their teeth and washing their face in the morning, but not wash hands thoroughly), at the slightest contact of the contaminated material with the body of another person or with one's own, as well as surrounding objects, occurs infection.
6. Helminth eggs can be found everywhere - on toys, baby things, furniture, food. Upon contact, everyone becomes infected - children and adults.
7. If pets live in the house - animals, birds - helminth eggs will live on their wool. Therefore, the likelihood of transfer and infection with helminthiasis in such houses increases.

Important! Irregular hand washing encourages pinworm eggs to enter the mouth, from there into the intestines and begin to grow and multiply there. After a few days, the larvae appear. Within a month, they turn into adults and lay new eggs.

If enterobiasis is detected and cured in a timely manner, in the absence of the possibility of re-infection, it will pass in 2-3 weeks. That is why it is important to teach children to observe personal hygiene by slightly revising the generally accepted rules. Hands should be washed not only after using the toilet, outdoors, playing with animals, and so on, but also in the morning after sleeping, and always before eating. In this case, the process of washing hands must be carried out thoroughly, using disinfecting cleansers and hot water.

Diseases caused by pinworms

Many diseases can cause in a child "harmless" microscopic parasites. If the infection occurs constantly, the diseases caused by it can take on a chronic nature and harm the child's body to a strong degree.

Vulvovaginitis

The disease of adult women, but it may well affect a little girl if she has pinworms in her body. Inflammatory processes of the genital organs from the outside and from the inside of the vagina begin at the moment when sexually mature pinworms climb into them and settle there.

Oophoritis

And also salpingitis - these female diseases in girls will develop if the ubiquitous pinworms get to the fallopian tubes or choose the ovaries for life and reproduction.

Eosinophilic enterocolitis

This intestinal lesion is characteristic of children of both sexes, as well as adults who have parasites in the body for a long time. If the infection is repeated, intoxication occurs for a long time, and the sensitivity of the patient's body to pinworm antigens is high, the disease is almost inevitable.

Appendicitis

Why is the appendix suddenly inflamed, which exists inside a person as a rudimentary organ, without showing itself to the moment of inflammation? Worms can become one of the causes of appendicitis. They accumulate in the cecum in incredible quantities and provoke inflammation.

Important! If the helminth is massive and total, parasites seep through the intestinal wall into the abdominal cavity, and peritonitis occurs.

Allergies

Any parasites that are active in it can almost certainly become the cause of the body's allergization. The toxic substances released by them in the process of vital activity are the more dangerous, the larger quantities they are absorbed by the patient's body.

Other complications

Parasites are almost ubiquitous. They fall into the most secluded places of the body, even infect organs that, it would seem, are impossible to penetrate. For example, in boys - in the foreskin. Infection of the genitals and urinary organs, their itching, lead to children's masturbation, the awakening of sexuality in childhood.

Children with a predisposition to neurological pathologies, with long-lasting enterobiasis become mentally unstable, lose weight, lag behind in physiological and mental development, do not grow.

As a result of enterobiasis continuing for how many years, epileptic seizures can begin to develop.

How to detect

Diagnostic methods for detecting parasites living in the intestines of a child are not always (in the case of pinworms - almost never) analysis of feces, as most patients believe. The closest method to obtaining a 100% result is scraping.

To take a sample for enterobiasis, a smear from the perianal folds is required. It is there that pinworms and other parasites lay and preserve their eggs until they hatch.

The peculiarity of the procedure is that scraping is taken exclusively in a clinical setting, however, it should be done in the morning, before defecation and without performing preliminary hygienic procedures.

By the way. The analysis can be most successful in the morning of the day when the child complained of severe itching the night before.

But, despite a good rate of detection in this way for signs of disease, scraping with a high probability may turn out to be false-negative. Pinworms do not lay eggs every day. It happens that even several smears in a row will not reveal the presence of parasites.

Important! The cleanliness of the scraping should not soothe parents, especially if there are complaints of pain, itching, manifestations of allergic rashes, intestinal upset and other side signs.

To confirm the diagnosis, you can take a blood test, in which, in the presence of parasites, eosinophils will be present in an increased rate.

It is best to take scrapings in the amount of three every other day - the result will be as reliable as possible.

A scraping can be taken from a child in two ways. Or it is a cotton swab, which is scrolled at the entrance to the anus. Or an adhesive strip applied to the anus for a few seconds. The strip is then connected to the glass, the stick is placed in a glass reservoir and sent to the laboratory at least two hours after the smear is taken.

In the analysis of feces, pinworm eggs are almost impossible to find, since they are not there. Parasites lay eggs near the anus, and they only live in the intestines. In this case, the probability that an adult pinworm is found in the feces (it looks like a thin white "stick" with a length about a centimeter) is also very small - parasites do not settle in feces, preferring tissues and mucous membranes organism.

By visual inspection of the anus or linen, you can find the pinworm at night, when it goes to oviposition. You can also visually notice traces of scratching the anus, which confirm the presence of pinworms.

How to treat

Whatever the treatment of helminthiasis, it is important to remember that it is prescribed only by a pediatrician after full diagnostic measures and an accurate diagnosis. The type of parasites inhabiting the child's body to a very large extent depends on the group of drugs and auxiliary therapeutic agents.

When prescribing, the characteristics of the child, his age, and other existing diseases should be taken into account. Exact adherence to the dosage of drugs is necessary. A repeated therapy course is often carried out, which follows two weeks later. This is necessary for the reason that medications destroy only adult pinworms, and they do not have such an effect on larvae and eggs. Therefore, after removing a new population from the laid eggs, the entire therapeutic course is repeated to destroy them.

Important. Since it is very easy to become infected with pinworms, including repeatedly and everyone in contact with the parasitic carrier, after the detection of helminthiasis in one of the family members, everyone who is with him in contact.

Table. Medicinal antihelminthic drugs.

Name	Description of action
"Piperazine"	The direction of action is an anthelmintic drug. Recommended for enterobiasis. Paralyzes nematodes, having a destructive effect on their neuromuscular system. Eliminates helminths by 90% during the first course of application, and by 100% during the second course. Its effectiveness is considered not the highest, but the drug is popular for its low toxicity.
Pirantel	Together with the analogue "Helmintox", it affects various parasites, including pinworms. Blocks the work of the neuromuscular connections of helminths. Destroys individuals of any stage of sexual maturity, except for larvae and eggs, by 100%.
"Vormil"	The drug and its numerous analogues have a wide spectrum of action due to the active substance albendazole, which suppresses and destroys helminths, destroying their metabolism. They act not only on adults, but also on larvae and eggs.
"Vermox"	It helps to disrupt the utilization of glucose in the tissue bodies of various types of helminths. Effective for enterobiasis, and has a broad effect. The drug sideways reduces the insulin requirement of diabetics. Destroys adult helminths without affecting moving larvae and egg-laying.
"Dekaris"	By neuromuscular paralysis of helminths, the drug kills and removes from the body within 24 hours all adults and pinworm larvae.
"Nemozol"	A drug based on albendazole, but very strong and has many side effects. The drug is taken only with massive enterobiasis, pronounced, or with combined helminthic invasions.

Features of the treatment of pinworms

The effectiveness of drug antihelminthic therapy depends not only on the correctly selected and dosed drugs, but also on the thorough preparation for their adoption by the child's body.

Preparation takes place according to the following rules.

1. The day before the start of treatment, the child should stop eating food that contains foods that have a strengthening effect.
2. Shown are vegetable soups, fermented milk dishes, easily digestible food.
3. In the evening - only a light dinner of vegetables and fruits.
4. In the morning, the drug is taken, according to a medical recommendation.
5. On the same day, in the evening or every other day, a laxative prescribed by a doctor is taken, which will help remove the destroyed pinworms from the body.
6. If itching and allergies are severe, in parallel with the antihelminthic agent, the doctor will prescribe an antihistamine ("Zodak", "Tsetrin" and others).
   

   "Zodak"

7. A day after the anthelmintic drug, an absorbent can be taken to prevent intoxication (Polysorb, Filtrum, Polyphepan, Enterosgel, activated carbon).
   

   "Polysorb"

Advice. Enterosorbents should not be taken more than twice, since they, like anthelmintic drugs, disrupt the absorption of trace elements in an organism already depleted by helminths.

Folk remedies

If you are an ardent opponent of pharmaceutical drugs, and act only with the help of herbal remedies, you can try to rid the child of pinworms using folk methods.

Pumpkin seeds with oil

Without peeling the film, which is located between the husk and the grain, 100 g of raw pumpkin seeds must be crushed. Then add the same amount of olive oil to the mass. Mix everything thoroughly and give the child a tablespoon on an empty stomach for three cheers in a row. After the medicine, you can not eat for three hours. After a two-day break, repeat the course.

Pumpkin seeds with honey

The second treatment option with pumpkin seeds requires preparation. An enema is done two days before the start of treatment. For a day - the second. In the evening before the enema, the child is given a salt-based laxative. Then the pumpkin seeds in a film, crushed and mixed with honey (again an equal amount of ingredients) are given to the child once on an empty stomach.

Dosage:

• three years - 75 g of seeds (plus honey);
• five years - 100 g;
• seven years - 120 g;
• nine years - 140 g;
• twelve and older - 150 g.

It is necessary to eat the whole mass immediately within the first morning hour after waking up. Then refrain from eating for four hours. After that, a laxative is taken (maybe a herbal one) and an enema is given. A child can eat after a complete emptying of the intestines.

Pumpkin seed decoction

A decoction of pumpkin seeds also has an antihelminthic effect. It is prepared from raw materials, crushed and boiled in water for a third of an hour, and then kept in a thermos for 12 hours.

Take the following doses on an empty stomach:

• up to five years - 150 ml;
• seven years - 200 ml;
• over ten - 300 ml.

Two hours later, without eating, a laxative is taken.

Garlic

This method was used by grandmothers, but modern medicine does not recommend (unlike pumpkin preparations) to use it, since garlic irritates the esophagus and stomach. In any case, deciding to use this folk method, make sure that your child does not suffer from gastritis or other gastrointestinal diseases.

Two cloves of large garlic are chopped in any way. The gruel is diluted one to one with water.

It is necessary to drink it before going to bed, washed down with large volumes of water. The procedure is repeated three evenings in a row, and then again the entire course, after a week break.

Vegetable juices

A mild remedy, used, rather, for the prevention, and not for the total destruction of pinworms. Of all the vegetable juices, carrot and beet juice have antihelminthic qualities. In addition to fighting pinworms, they relieve intoxication.

Before going to bed in the evening (4 hours before bedtime) and on an empty stomach in the morning, the child is given 100 ml of beet juice mixed with 50 ml of carrot juice. The course is two weeks. Squeeze the juice fresh each time and stand in the refrigerator for three hours before taking it.

The method also assumes a healthy stomach and the absence of gastroesophageal pathologies.

Buttered onion

This method is slightly softer than garlic. Onions should be grated with a blender to make 100 g of mass. Then add 50 ml of vegetable oil and a teaspoon of non-iodized salt. All this is drunk by the child before bed for five days.

Prophylaxis

In conclusion, it will not be superfluous to say a few words about prevention. The most important thing that parents can do is to teach from infancy to hygiene and adherence to the rules of communication. Also, all family members must adhere to these rules.

1. Cut your fingernails short or keep them clean.
   

   How to cut your child's nails

2. Change your underwear in the morning and evening.
3. Wash and iron underwear, pajamas, bed linen, towels and other personal items.
   

   Ironing children's clothes

4. Wash hands after using the toilet, after the street, waking up in the morning, before eating, after contact with animals.
5. Don't let your child bite their nails.
6. Disinfect the toilet and baby pot as often as possible.
   

   It is necessary to disinfect the toilet and the baby pot more often

7. Do wet cleaning every day in the child's room, and even better - in the whole apartment.
8. Wash children's toys with hot water.
   

   It is important to take care of the timely disinfection of your baby's play items.

If you do not observe hygiene, do not pay attention to bad habits, do not destroy bacteria that may live and multiply in throughout the house, re-infestations of pinworms will occur over and over again, despite any medicinal and supportive therapy.

It is easy to get infected with intestinal parasites, it is not easy to get them out. And even worse - not knowing that the child's body is poisoned hourly by the toxic secretions of pinworms, live with it and do not take any measures.

Video - Pinworms in children symptoms