Has anyone beat pinworm/threadworm after having them for a long time?

Elimate sweets, foods high in sugar in general from diet. Threadworms feeds off sugar/glucose.

Mia, my dear! Have you talked to your family about this? You need support, and as you know, the rest of your family could have them and you all could just be re-infecting each other. You don't need to suffer by yourself! They are not a life-sentence! They only come back if your body is a good host for them AND you get re-infected.

Hellocarla75217, thank you for your advise. Yes my mom and dad know about this. I take tablets that help get rid of them. And it seems to have worked. I really appreciate you replying. Thank you

Hi Mia, Hope you got rid of the ugly things. Hope your stomach pains are gone. I, too, have heard they can cause pain in the stomach/abdomen. Did you use Comantrin (OTC) medication to get rid of them?? Or...do you still have them?? Did everybody else in the family also take the medication?? Hope all is well. I've just been going over my old emails and came across this one. Perhaps, if I read ahead, I will find out more. Hopefully the questions I asked are not premature. Take care.

Hi Sweeter,

Number 1 rule in all of this is : Don't stress this, chill. I'm a 32 yr old momma in Florida and my girl knows when she feels an itch in her tail ( for her, we call the anus 'tail'.) To come let me check. We do the tape test, roll up a bit of super strength clear tape, ready your flash light ( I have to hold mine in my teeth) , turn off the room lights, pull down the britches, and take a good look at the tail. If you see one, blot the tape on it firmly. Fold it over and zip lock it for the doctor in the morning if you want prescription grade meds. Otherwise, you caught it, you can great at home like I do.

Number two : never feel like your disgusting for having them. People who do not come forward with this suffer immensely out of embarrassment and end up contaminating others. You would be amazed at the actual amount of people walkin around here with parasites. Naturally, we do live on a symbiotic relationship with most. Generally they are helpful, such as the flora in our intestines, we need them. But worms, no, they gotta go! Early acknowledgment is key to ridding yourself of these.

OK treatment:

Reese's is what I use. Measured out to you body weight. If someone says " I don't itch, I don't have them" tell them to shut up and take it! You cant risk someone's uppity ignorance being the reason your reinfested. If you have a spouse, or you and your siblings or your child(ren) sleep in the same bed, you HAVE to treat them without any question. You will be retreating in two weeks with the same meds. I like to keep vigilant for a month or more.

Wash wash wash! All your linens your booty touched, clothes or unclothed. No towel twice, no undies twice, no pants/ skirt/ shorts/ dress/ etc. Twice. All must be washed. I recommend soaking undies in a bucket of hot water with detergent and vinegar. This keeps the closest proximity of infestation away from the rest of your clothes- though , everything your bottom touched my get washed. Vacuum your bedding, your couch, car seats, anything for a booty to be placed, vacuum well or wipe down with straight bleach. The vacuuming needs to be done every three days as well as washing the bedding ( all other clothing that goes on you tooshy is to be washed every day and important here...do remember when you pick up those clothes, they have eggs or more in them. Wash you hands afterwards. I'll explain how to do that in a bit.)

Wipe you tail with flushable wet wipes. In the morning, every single morning, scrub down your tail in the shower. Avoid loofahs and wash clothes, this can hold eggs or worms for others to use on their parts. No baths, take showers. All toilets need a wipe down with straight bleach and the same with tubs. Do not use the tub for baths, only showers, until you and the family are in the clear. Wipe down all handles, knobs, arms rests with the bleach, too.

At night, you can plop a glob of Vaseline on your tail. This prohibits the ability of the worm to lay her eggs. In the am, you get up and wash it off. If it is itchy through out the day, some anti itch cream or benedryl can help along with the mental chant " I'm winning, they're dying. I'm winning, they're dying" .

Hand washing: you must, after every time you pull your britches down, no matter what for, you must wah you hands. Use a warm water. Wash for 20 seconds, scrub with vigor. Use a small nail scrubby brush for under your nails. Eggs hide under them and wait for you to place them in you mouth to reinvest.

Don't eat a lot of sugary, starchy foods. Try to eat high fiber foods, and yogurt. Fiber and yogurt will help to create more bowel movements to push them out. Do not forget to hydrate. Plenty of water. Garlic is a great tool. Try eating more of the raw kind or get the supplement pill.

Sweeter, it's a lot but afterwards, you will not take washing your hands for granted. We all make mistakes and end up with creepy crawlies at some point. It's just the smart person who recognizes them and does something about it. You happen to be one of them

Please forgive my grammatical errors, I'm keying from my phone. Also, the meaning process has to be kept up until you are free of them. Do not relent any sooner. As I said, I do this for about a month. The medication is to be taken twice. Once in the beginning and once after two weeks. If taken more, the risk of the worms gaining an immunity or tolerance is a possibility. Good luck everyone.

How weird is it that while i was reading your post i could feel a crawling sensation in my butt. Ew. Anyway, I posted something like a month ago once i found out i had them. I got prescription medicine from my doctor but that didnt work. I washed, cleaned, showered but at some point i stopped. I almost gave up. But the itching is back and I am desperate again. I am taking 4 drops of wild oregano oil daily (twice in a day if i remember) and drank apple cider vinegar (once because that stuff burns) I bought pumpkin seeds and gave my kids Reese's medicine. I am the only one itching and i feel like im back at square one. Ugh, but i cant live like this

PS. I like your chant, and did u get rid of them then?

Lol, kids, if there is anything creepy crawly to pick up and transmit, they find them and lovingly share. I did beat them but, school is a breeding ground. I try teaching my girl to hover or line the seat effectively but she's not able all the time. Picking this stuff up is just a part of being a kid and parent. Not a great many teachers know of this either, they could do well with wiping down their rooms and potties better. Maybe a bit TMI but have you considered hemroids? I'll admit after my girl, I gained them. I also have hair to my waist. And it gets everywhere, often I've run to the bathroom and its a single stray hair tangled up in my panties causing me to twitch. But the hemroids can also give a weird little twinge itch. Witch hazel on a cotton ball dabbed and settled there for a few minutes works for me but,crhats nor discounting your symptoms to that, I'm just pointing out what I have found to be my causes. If your itching, do the check. OMGosh, my momma, god rest her soul, called it the " midnight butt raid" ! Horrible but quit accurate. They are the ist active at night, so the tape test with the light is effective. Do u have someone to do it for you? If your like me, no one does it as well as you so that's a no. My advice is treat again. Stay strong for a month long, you can do it!! Drink a lot of water, acidity seems to be a good thing. Keep up with your apple cider vinegar. Eat fiberous foods often. Steer clear of sugary things and starchy things. Get activia, man that stuff gets you going! Flush them out that way, tjw scrubby nail brush is something people don't think of. I'd your in the US, stop by a dollar tree.

The chant is my own but theind can be your greatest enemy in this. That's why I said number one is to not freak out, stay chill. If we get worked up we forget steps and then we get phantom itches or we concentrate so hard (without realizing it) on " oh my gosh, I can feel it thinking about biting me! " lol, ya know? In every crisis we as mommas and daddy's , must have mind over matter, keep that chant in your mind. I've never used any other oils, herbs or tinctures. Just alteredy eating, cleaning and quarantine time. I'd I didn't mention this before hand, use disposable baby wipes at all times. Good luck.

I wish I could edit this stuff , I loathe spelling errors. * the mind can be your greatest enemy in this * is what I meant.

best sentence i read "i did beat them" Its kinda sad when you read that you never beat them that tehy only go away for a little while. I know i have them, i saw one crawling once in my butt when i ran to the mirror because i knew it wasnt hemorroids so i checked and yup, there it was. I FREAKED! but anyway i am not going to give up and i guess will carry babywipes with me and start cleaning all linens again...so much work. BUT THANKS!

Hang in there, Stef. Its so tedious. With school age kids its nearly impossible to prevent creepy crawlies. With head lice, we generally can spot the infecter and go through all the necessary steps but, this..it's a mystery game and then we have no idea exactly how long whoever you got it from has had it and who they spread it to and where else they've been, etc. Etc. Here is the thing I didn't mention: my daughter has had them twice. This is the second time. First time was over a year ago. I had them as a kid and remembered all my momma did and spplied it here. My hubby nor I actually have the"itchies" butz because she has them, I go nuts on the clean up and assume we do too. I also make her help me clean. You may not have old enough kids but if they are, make them help don't burn yourself out. My other mother would say " be a mother, not a martyr". Talk to you later

Forgot to mention, my girl is 10. For her to only have had this 2x in 10 years, I consider that not bad here in the South where we all get dirty and eat the best foods with our fingers. I don't have issues with reinfestation, I consider that pretty darn good. So yeah, "beat them" wasn't the best phrase to use, I didn't eradicate their entire species,no,lol. we all let a piece of our guard down at some interval in life, but I'm happy to have at least helped with the wet wipes idea

Luxangel and Stef, thank you so much for all your advice!!!!!! ITS SO HELPFUL!! 

Do I really have to drink vinegar?? that sounds disgusting! 

What does the acid do?

Luxangel, that's great advice about the vasaline! Ill try it tonight!

Also, just out of curiosity, where do the eggs comes from??

Your mother sounds amazing...be a mother not a martyr. Most of us mothers need to hear that phrase, alone. Combantrin seems to be the one that works since it paralyzes them. Repeating in 14 days will kill any leftoever eggs that have hatched. Cleaning the door handles everyday and cleaning the toilet seat before and after each use combined with everybody else in the family is using it twice also and following the same hygiene habits as you. Even when they don't take it seriously because of no symptoms; I had to convince them about the ygiene issue...to the max. I'm still scared they will come back as the person I believe my daughter caught them from is still in the picture and unwilling to believe in "such a ridiculous thing". Soooo, I think they will soon come back again. Perhaps if my one daughter would get symptoms (like an itchy bum), she would take it more seriously. Hope yours are gone for good. Good luck and take care. P.S. I did notice that whenever I ate a lot of garlic, many would come out black and dead. They hate it when we eat anything garlic. The non-odour supplement does not work as good as eating the real thing: ie a lot of garlic in your food whenever possible. Good luck to all.

OMGGGGGGGG. I have them also!!!!!!!!  Took Albenza twice and these suckers are still going strong.  I have read every post TWICE and will try several things.  I too feel them in my ears and nose.  Anyone felt them in their mouth? Or am i imagining them?  It’s been almost two months now and I am going CRAZY. No one in my house believes me but the Dr. did.  My hubbie thinks I am crazy.  Please continue to comment if you have news.  Thanks and I am so sorry anyone has to go thru this MESS!

The biggest mistake we made was putting oils on our bums before bed. Apparently they still lay eggs but they lay all of them inside because they don't want to come out. That's when we got infested. It was awful. But we did the paralyzing med for a few cycles and everything else like the soup, seeds, papaya seed smoothies, wormwood, and on and on. And then we found MSM.

MSM is the only thing that got rid of them in lab mice so we did a little in our water every day for a month. Magical. But my whole fam is already mostly paleo diet with some exceptions for treats so it may work faster for people who already don't eat much sugar and few simple carbs as well.

I've also read you have to be careful which brands you buy because some come from contaminated sources. I don't have a list of brands because I don't want the moderator to be concerned I'm marketing or something but just be careful which brand you buy.

Good luck!!

I forgot to mention that sometimes the phantom itching can be nervous system and I wonder if some of the itching was from chemicals we took to get rid of them. I read an Orkin post where he talked about invisible mites being actually from chemical effects on nerves. Our kitchen had just been treated for roaches and ants. We started wearing slippers on the floor in there and the crawling feeling went away. We were also off the oral meds by then. I can't say for sure but worth considering as a possibility.

We did definitely have them in our eyes though about 3 weeks after ee started the oil on the bum because I pulled pin worms out of our eyes, including my kids. Soooooo horrible.

I cured myself from pinworms over a 3 week period. I approached it the same way I got rid of fleas on my cats. Flea meds don’t kill the adults and eggs, they have to be treated separately.

Took Reese’s Pinworm meds every Sunday for 3 weeks (3 doses). This is killing the adults in the intestines.

The key for me, I think, was removing the eggs that had been laid during the night! Put some hydrogen peroxide on a paper towel (leave a roll in the bathroom). Every morning, before going to bathroom, wipe very well. Dig around in there (sounds gross but works). The 1st day, I had tons of eggs and a couple of worms come off on paper towel (didn’t even need a magnifying glass). The 2nd day, many eggs. 3rd day, less and so on. Each day, there were less eggs. Finally, they were gone. If I felt itchy during the day, I’d wipe with the peroxide paper towel.

I also took baths with some hydrogen peroxide in the water- to help kill any lingering eggs.

Practice good hygiene so that you do not get re-infested from eggs in the house or yard. My doctor told me that I probably got them from the soil and I garden daily. A couple of ideas are: sleep in 2 pair of undies so bed sheets are not affected, spray crotch of undies with Lysol before putting in hamper, scrub nails after gardening, peroxide in washer, etc.

Some other observations I have made:

Some people have suggested putting vaseline on butt so female cannot lay eggs. I think this is kinda dangerous. That female needs air and is desperate to lay her eggs. She may travel up the digestive system to another opening…the nose/mouth. I want her to stay in my gut so the medication can work. 

I’ve taken an alternative type approach to healing for decades. I’ve found that herbal remedies are simply not strong enough if what you are trying to fix is strong. Pinworms appear to be very strong since some people are posting that they have had them for years.  I took MSM and garlic as an adjunct to the Reese’s meds. Maybe they helped, who knows? 

I’ve studied gut health for a long time and have a healthy gut. I eat low carb, no sugar, take probiotics. Pinworms ARE NOT the same thing as the bacteria in our gut and seem to feed on fecal matter (see Dr.Greene article below). So, approaching the killing off of pinworms with only diet doesn’t really make sense.

What are pinworms?

The pinworm, or Enterobius vermicularis, is one of the most common parasitic infections of humans. Somewhere between 10 percent and 40 percent of children have pinworms at any given time. 

The adult pinworms are white and measure less than one half inch long, with the diameter of a strand of thread. 

The adult worms live in the colons (large intestines) of human children and apparently feed on human fecal matter.

When adult male and female worms copulate, each female pinworm produces about 10,000 fertilized eggs. At night, the pregnant female migrates from the colon, out through the child’s anus and onto the skin of the buttocks. There she violently expels all of her eggs and dies. Some of the eggs become airborne and land elsewhere in the child’s room, but the great majority of the fertilized eggs stay on the skin of the child’s buttocks. The eggs mature within six hours of being laid.

The adult worms and the eggs on the skin of the buttocks can cause intense itching in the child. When the sleeping child scratches, the eggs often get on the fingers and under the fingernails. If the child sucks his or her thumb or otherwise brings his or her hand to the mouth (perhaps while eating breakfast), the pinworm eggs are swallowed. They usually hatch within the small intestine and mature there. When they become adults, they move to the colon where they take up residence. The entire life cycle lasts four to six weeks.

Occasionally the story goes a little differently. Sometimes a child can inhale airborne eggs and become infected that way. Every now and then the eggs will hatch on the skin of the buttocks, and the immature larvae will crawl back through the anus, up into the rectum and eventually arrive in the colon. Also, the eggs can hatch on the skin of girls and the larvae crawl into the vagina instead of the rectum. This happens in up to 20% of girls with pinworms. The vaginal pinworms usually die out with no outside help.

I cured myself from pinworms over a 3 week period. I approached it the same way I got rid of fleas on my cats. Flea meds don’t kill the adults and eggs, they have to be treated separately.

Took Reese’s Pinworm meds every Sunday for 3 weeks (3 doses). This is killing the adults in the intestines.

The key for me, I think, was removing the eggs that had been laid during the night! Put some hydrogen peroxide on a paper towel (leave a roll in the bathroom). Every morning, before going to bathroom, wipe very well. Dig around in there (sounds gross but works). The 1st day, I had tons of eggs and a couple of worms come off on paper towel (didn’t even need a magnifying glass). The 2nd day, many eggs. 3rd day, less and so on. Each day, there were less eggs. Finally, they were gone. If I felt itchy during the day, I’d wipe with the peroxide paper towel.

I also took baths with some hydrogen peroxide in the water- to help kill any lingering eggs.

Practice good hygiene so that you do not get re-infested from eggs in the house or yard. My doctor told me that I probably got them from the soil and I garden daily. A couple of ideas are: sleep in 2 pair of undies so bed sheets are not affected, spray crotch of undies with Lysol before putting in hamper, scrub nails after gardening, peroxide in washer, etc.

Some other observations I have made:

Some people have suggested putting vaseline on butt so female cannot lay eggs. I think this is kinda dangerous. That female needs air and is desperate to lay her eggs. She may travel up the digestive system to another opening…the nose/mouth. I want her to stay in my gut so the medication can work. 

I’ve taken an alternative type approach to healing for decades. I’ve found that herbal remedies are simply not strong enough if what you are trying to fix is strong. Pinworms appear to be very strong since some people are posting that they have had them for years.  I took MSM and garlic as an adjunct to the Reese’s meds. Maybe they helped, who knows? 

I’ve studied gut health for a long time and have a healthy gut. I eat low carb, no sugar, take probiotics. Pinworms ARE NOT the same thing as the bacteria in our gut and seem to feed on fecal matter (see Dr.Greene article below). So, approaching the killing off of pinworms with only diet doesn’t really make sense.

What are pinworms?

The pinworm, or Enterobius vermicularis, is one of the most common parasitic infections of humans. Somewhere between 10 percent and 40 percent of children have pinworms at any given time. 

The adult pinworms are white and measure less than one half inch long, with the diameter of a strand of thread. 

The adult worms live in the colons (large intestines) of human children and apparently feed on human fecal matter.

When adult male and female worms copulate, each female pinworm produces about 10,000 fertilized eggs. At night, the pregnant female migrates from the colon, out through the child’s anus and onto the skin of the buttocks. There she violently expels all of her eggs and dies. Some of the eggs become airborne and land elsewhere in the child’s room, but the great majority of the fertilized eggs stay on the skin of the child’s buttocks. The eggs mature within six hours of being laid.

The adult worms and the eggs on the skin of the buttocks can cause intense itching in the child. When the sleeping child scratches, the eggs often get on the fingers and under the fingernails. If the child sucks his or her thumb or otherwise brings his or her hand to the mouth (perhaps while eating breakfast), the pinworm eggs are swallowed. They usually hatch within the small intestine and mature there. When they become adults, they move to the colon where they take up residence. The entire life cycle lasts four to six weeks.

Occasionally the story goes a little differently. Sometimes a child can inhale airborne eggs and become infected that way. Every now and then the eggs will hatch on the skin of the buttocks, and the immature larvae will crawl back through the anus, up into the rectum and eventually arrive in the colon. Also, the eggs can hatch on the skin of girls and the larvae crawl into the vagina instead of the rectum. This happens in up to 20% of girls with pinworms. The vaginal pinworms usually die out with no outside help.

I know this has been awhile since you last posted but wondering if you finally beat them.  One thought I had for all of the pinworm sufferers is whether most of us are on an Acid Reducer pharmaceutical medication, like Protonix or Prilosec....perhaps we are creating a very low acidic environment which helps these monsters survive and thrive?

We had them last year and I treated and vigilantly cleaned. I'm thinking they may be back. How often have you had them? Do they seem to just come and go often?