Threadworms (come out of the anus at night to lay their eggs between the buttocks, causing extreme itching. They look like small white threads moving about and may be seen with a torch. The threadworms may also be seen on the surface of the stools (poo) if a person has a heavy infestation.
Threadworms look like thin, white, cotton threads. Sometimes you can see them in faeces (stools or motions) in the toilet. If you cannot see threadworms in the faeces, but suspect your child has threadworms (if they have an itchy bottom), try inspecting the child's anus.
The worms are white and look like small pieces of thread. You may notice them around your child's bottom or in their poo. They don't always cause symptoms, but people often experience itchiness around their bottom or vagina. It can be worse at night and disturb sleep.
Pinworms are rarely spotted in stool samples. Because bathing or a bowel movement can remove the eggs, the tape test should be done as soon as the person wakes up in the morning.
Around 4 weeks after ingestion, the adult female moves down the gut and exits the body via the anus to lay a batch of eggs on the surrounding skin, often at night. The worm then dies, her reproductive mission complete.
Rope worms are long structures that sometimes occur in the intestines. They are likely a buildup of intestinal mucus and debris and may pass in a person's stool during an enema or other clearing procedure. Some researchers claim that rope worms are parasites, while others believe them to be intestinal debris.
It moves. If it doesn't wiggle, it's probably lint or a thread. The worm may be seen around the anus or on the child's bottom. It is especially active at night or early morning.
Medicine kills the threadworms, but it does not kill the eggs. Eggs can live for up to 2 weeks outside the body. There are things you can do to stop becoming infected again.
Tapeworms and pinworms can appear as white specks in stools. Tapeworm infection is uncommon, but these specks are a key symptom. White or yellow specks may be pieces of parasitic worms. These pieces are usually flat, square-shaped, and about the size of a grain of rice.
Deworming is not always necessary, but is recommended for children who live in endemic areas once a year when the prevalence of soil-transmitted parasitic worms in the community is over 20% and twice a year when the prevalence of soil-transmitted parasitic worms in the community is 50%.
Threadworms (come out of the anus at night to lay their eggs between the buttocks, causing extreme itching. They look like small white threads moving about and may be seen with a torch. The threadworms may also be seen on the surface of the stools (poo) if a person has a heavy infestation.
As eggs can become infective after 3-5 days the bathing should be repeated every third day. If a problem is occurring, then daily bathing is best. If the skin is irritated a dilute mild antiseptic can help. Applying Vaseline to the skin after cleaning can help protect the skin and prevent the eggs sticking.
The worms die after about six weeks. Provided that you do not swallow any new eggs, no new worms will grow to replace them. So, if you continue the hygiene measures described above for six weeks, this should break the cycle of re-infection, and clear your gut of threadworms.
Threadworms are very common and easily spread, so it's hard to completely avoid them. Having threadworms doesn't mean you have poor hygiene.
Without treatment, threadworm may give rise to vaginitis (inflammation of the vagina) in girls and women. You can often see threadworms, a 1cm thread-like worm, wriggling in your child's stools or their bottom.
Threadworms do not go away by themselves, and people do not build up immunity to them, so they must be treated in order to eradicate them totally from the body.
Threadworms live for about 5-6 weeks in the gut, and then die. Before they die, the female worms lay tiny eggs around the anus (back passage). This tends to occur at night when you are warm and still in bed.
It's also important to wash any bedding and towels to get rid of any eggs, as they can live for up to two weeks outside the body. “Worms like sugar,” says Dr Snell, “so it can also be a good idea to cut back on sugar in your child's diet, too.”
Chlorine dioxide gas inactivates pinworm eggs in a non-invasive and non-corrosive manner.
Your doctor will give you some medicine to take right away and then again 2 weeks later to be sure the worms are gone. The doctor can also give you a cream to help stop the itching. Because it's easy to pass pinworms on to other people, the doctor may want the other people in your house to take medicine, too.
So many of us or our family members have experienced this relatively mild though distressing infection. Pinworm is the most common worm infection in North America with up to 50% of some groups of school aged children getting infected.
A trichobezoar is a bezoar made up of hair and is a rare cause of bowel obstruction of the proximal gastrointestinal tract. They are seen mostly in young women with trichotillomania and trichotillophagia and symptoms include epigastric pain, nausea, loss of appetite and bowel or gastric outlet obstruction.
People may notice an overgrowth of Candida if they find white mucus, foam, or a string-like substance in their stools. Other symptoms of a Candida overgrowth depend on where the infection occurs in the body.