Finally beat Threadworm, here's how I did it.

You have to be very specific and tell your doctor that repeated courses of over-the-counter medication has not worked, and it is affecting your life.

My tablets are Albendazole 400mg. Two tablets per day is for a person around 60kgs.

Don't let this go on if you have had trouble treating them. I let it go for 2 years, and it nearly cost me my sanity.

I do still get the odd itching but that could be due to beer or foods like currys etc.. or maybe down there ia scared coz of havin threadworms along time, I dunno but what I do know is, the itching isn't that bad and is gettin better and I haven't found a single threadworm.

If they are still in me then good luck to them, aslong as I dont know there there and they don't annoy me, I can live a normal life.

ps. My kids and girlfriend have never had symptoms so with a bit of luck im the only one who have had them or still have them.

Ill let everyone know how I get on in a few months, if all fails ill still eat the seeds but also try other solutions people have mentioned above.

good luck to you all, do not let these rule ur life

When she was about 6 years old, she got a bad infestation and I gave her mebendazole, two weeks apart which seemed to solve the problem. Around about that time I decided to put the whole family on a parasite cleanse as a precaution (black walnut tincture etc.) I did this every 6 months for four years. We have never had an adverse reaction from this treatment.

Last year however, I did not have time to do the parasite cleanse as we were travelling abroad a lot with my husbands work. Then in December last year 2012 my daughter came to me in tears saying she had the most horrible wriggling sensation in her bottom. I checked her out and sure enough they were back. This time they were so bad (hundreds coming out at a time) that I contacted my GP. He advised, mebendazole and pripsen at the same time over a 2 week period.

We started the medication and at the same time my entire house then got cleaned, the usual threadworm routine. I started with my daughters bedroom, removed and washed all cuddly toys from the bed area and damp dusted every surface, hot washed bedding/towels, carpets vacuumed. As a precaution I also cleaned all door handles, toilets and outside of toilet bowl, just in case any eggs could have clung to it. This took me an entire day.

She took the medicine and it did greatly reduced the wriggling sensation. But we could not get shot of them entirely. I put her back onto the parasite programme (black walnut tincture etc.) but although it reduced it further, again it did not eliminate them entirely. I knew that the infestation had most likely built up over the years and due to massive numbers was not going to be easy to shift.

I did not want to keep giving her the over counter medications as they were not working and I am not keen on loading up a child's body with chemicals, so here's what I did and this finally got rid of them. I worked out that whenever she came in from school she was always starving hungry so this would be a good time to give her medication. There is no proof but I am convinced that some medication works better on an empty stomach, especially where parasites are concerned.

So I gave her 1 x teaspoon of extra strength organic black walnut tincture in 100 ml cold water at 4pm each day. I did this for 7 days in a row. (After 4 days she said the wriggling sensation had completely gone but I felt it best to continue for 7 days.) Then I stopped the tincture and gave her 9 clove capsules a day, 3 before each meal. I did this for 7 days. (This kills all the left over eggs). Also during this week, I bought a fresh pineapple and pumpkin seeds. She ate two portions of both of these a day and again we tried to do it on an empty stomach. I supervised bottom washing every morning and evening for two weeks to remove any eggs around that area. But it is worth noting that you have to clean just slightly inside that area as they tend to lay in the little folds of skin slightly inside, not just on the outside. Finally she is clear after 5 months of trying.

We now know that she picked them up these worms at school so I put "stop and grow" clear nail paint just on the ends of her nails every morning before school. This stops her from putting hand into mouth (tastes bitter).Unfortunately other children in the class have had major infestations and the school cleaners will not damp dust down desks etc. The eggs are most likely scattered over school books etc. that they share. Two children in her class are constantly seen picking their noses and wiping it on desk tops etc. Well I know from a past experience many years ago, if you pick your nose, and accidentally you put your finger into your mouth, you will have a worm wriggling in your bottom within 48 hours. It is the easiest way to catch them. Never ever put your fingers into your mouth unless you know your hands have just been washed. Nail biters....... you need to be aware of this.

The trick seems to be, if you can get them early then over counter medications work. But if allowed to multiply, they are hard to shift. Very difficult with a child because they don't really know what the wriggling sensation means, until they see dozens of worms in the loo! Anyway, we only have one term left in this school and I only hope that her new secondary school will have better classroom hygiene.

Oh and by the way, my husband and I have not had these worms so that confirmed to us that our house hygiene is generally good anyway and that it was likely the infestation was coming from outside of the home. Also my daughter had always worn clean knickers at night time so maybe this kept them contained a bit overnight, not allowing them to spread too much to other areas of the house. Thank goodness!

I'm a new poster looking for some urgent advice. Apols for a long post!

I'm a mum with 2 girls (7 and 4) and husband and am currently cursed with a nasty infection of threadworms that I am struggling to shift.

We first got the blighters 2.5 years ago, shortly after DD1 started school. I'm pretty sure she picked them up there - she's a thumb-sucker - but I was the only one with symptoms (a live worm in my stool in addition to some itching and the dreaded bottom tickle). But I gave us all the 2 dose treatment with Ovex and thought they'd gone away.

6 months later, the dreaded bottom tickle was back along with another live worm - again just me with the symptoms. I gave us all the 2 dose Ovex treatment, this time with full hygiene measures as well. When I was still getting the tickling sensation after a third week I saw the GP who prescribed pripsen powders, which we all did (including the follow up round). This time, it seemed to have cleared it for good.

For the next two years, I didn't seem to have any symptoms.

Then 6 weeks ago I got the dread tickle and very itchy bottom the next morning. I was on holiday at the time without access to any meds and couldn't do the full hygiene measures but as soon as I got home I took ovex etc. I thought maybe I'd imagined it but the next night DD1 came in complaining of an itchy bottom which she said she'd had for a couple of weeks now. This confirmed the diagnosis so I immediately got the whole family on Ovex - ie mebedendazole (at 4 day intervals) along with mega hygiene - daily washing of all bedding, underwear; lots of wiping o toilet seats, endless handwashing, morning showers on waking for everyone etc etc.

DD1 hasn't had any itching of any kind since, but even after 2 weeks of Ovex every 4 days, I'd find that i'd be itch free for a 3-4 days but then it would return. So after lots of researching (including this discussion thread) I sent off for the parasite cleanse recommended here. I did a full one myself, but put both girls on a very very mild version because of their ages; I didn't bother with husband because I knew he'd never do it at work; I kept us all on Ovex every 4-5 days as back up. During this time the girls continued to have no symptoms. Husband has never had any symptoms.

Then on Day 14 of the 16 day cleanse (ie last week, while we were away on holiday) I was woken at night by a mad tickling in one ear; the next morning I had tickling in my nose and throat as well as mild tickling in my bottom. Remembering what was said about them spreading to the ENT area, I took an ovex and prayed i was wrong and that it was just hay fever. It went away. I relaxed a bit.

Then 3-4 days later, on Monday evening of this week, the tickling in the ear and, to a lesser extent nose and throat, was back. I just about managed - with husband's encouragement - to put it down to hay fever and paranoia, but took an Ovex just in case. Next morning, I coughed in the shower and in my hand found what I'm pretty sure was a dead threadworm amid the mucus. It seemed as though the worms had got fed up of the inhospitable GI environment (thanks to the natural remedies) and had migrated or 'scattered' to my ENT area. Horror of horrors!

I saw my GP that day who, remarkably, didn't dismiss me as a nut, but said it was very rare (Having loooked online, I'm not so sure...). She certainly accepted that I was resistant to the Ovex.

But we're out of standard treatment options because Ovex clearly isn't working for me (nor are hygiene measures); and Pripsen powders - the 2nd line treatment - are now no longer available - shortage of the ingredient apparently. Albendazole, which is widely used around the world and is meant to be better at killing off the scattered threadworms eg in your ENT area, isn't licensed in the UK. She's trying to get help from the tropical medicine specialists but they aren't terribly interested/communicative.

So I'm at a bit of a loss, to put it mildly. The ear/throat tickling has diminished a lot but I'm now 2.5days after an ovex, so if the usual pattern continues, it'll be back by tomorrow ie Day 4). The thought of intractable headworms in myself is appalling enough but I am horrified at the prospect of the girls getting them there.

Yet while I'd be happy to risk getting some Albendazole from the US and taking it myself at the high doses that seem to be required, I don't feel confident risking it on my daughters without some medical input because of the side effects, especially for the liver. And yet if we don't get rid of the blighters in all of us, we're just going to see the infection continue. Which is a desperate thought, especially if the girls are still infected. And even if I'm the only one left with a chronic, long-term infection, I'm going to reinfect them again at some point. I feel like I'm carrying the bubonic plague!

I'm pretty sure I must have had a low grade infection over the last couple of years, just not enough to notice the symptoms.What caused it to suddenly go hyper weeks ago, I don't know.

And I'm at a loss about how I could still have enough worms in my system to be coughing them up - usually a symptom of a hyper-infection - after nearly 6 weeks of ovex every 4 days, endless clove tablets to kill off eggs (plus the other natural worm killers), and an unbelievable amount of washing and wiping. Surely it should at least have diminished. I do wonder whether all the stories out there of intractable worms means that strains of the worm are emerging that are basically resistant to mebendazole.

Phew, that was a long post. But I'm really at the end of my tether and truly terrified that the girls are going to end up with a chronic infection like mine.

Any thoughts or ideas would be really welcome. I feel quite desperate.