My middle schooler has pinworm f$@k!

[wendibird22]

How the F does an 11yr old middle schooler who goes to school that’s only 5-8 grades, wears a mask all day, doesn’t share anything, stays in the same room and eats there too, washes or sanitizes hands a hundred times a day and doesn’t go anywhere other than school get f’ing pinworm?!?!?!

I’m beside myself. I’m pissed. And I’m so sorry for her because at this age she knows what it is and thinks she’s gross and dirty and is so embarrassed. It’s 9pm in a snowstorm and DH just drove an hour round trip to by medicine and I just scrubbed our bathrooms and lysoled every door knob, light switch and thing she could touch. I have a load of throw blankets in the wash. Towels are next. I’ve instructed her that she needs to shower first thing each morning. Use a towel only once. Put towel and pjs and underwear in the laundry. And that we will have to wash her bedding first thing tomorrow and daily for a while.

What else am I forgetting???

And again how does a tween get pinworm during a freaking pandemic when she only leaves the house for school?! Whose kid isn’t washing their hands in a pandemic?! And obviously my kid isn’t doing a great job hand washing either.


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[georgiegirl]

Ugh ugh ugh. That really sucks. I don’t have any experience, but I know someone whose 9 month old got chicken pox from a baby swing at a park last month. Family is all online and no other contact with anything.


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[petesgirl]

Don't worry too much about the 'gross ' factor-- as a medical lab technician I can tell you it's more common than you might think. It doesn't mean you're gross and dirty.
As for where she got it--- do you have any animals? My neice got it from her dog.

[wendibird22]

We do have a dog but everything I’ve read says it’s a human only worm.

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/pinworm/gen_info/faqs.html

And I don’t know how the dog would get it. He doesn’t interact with other animals and we are under several feet of snow.


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[SnuggleBuggles]

I had never heard of these until you posted about them years ago (I think it was you?). Well, either when you posted or shortly after, they went though our house. I wouldn’t have had any idea! So, the bright side is that your experience helped us...and because we’re not gross people that means you aren’t either. [emoji4]


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[carolinamama]

I'm so sorry you are dealing with this. No experience (yet) in our house with pinworms but I don't think you are gross people :) I wonder if most hand hygiene is being done with hand sanitizer at school while pinworms would need soap and water.

[wendibird22]

I had never heard of these until you posted about them years ago (I think it was you?). Well, either when you posted or shortly after, they went though our house. I wouldn’t have had any idea! So, the bright side is that your experience helped us...and because we’re not gross people that means you aren’t either. [emoji4]


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Yup. That was us. Same child. About 5 or 6 years ago. I was out of town and DH had to deal with all the laundry and cleaning of children on his own. At least the upside at age 11, the child is more than capable of stripping her bed and doing her laundry and keeping herself showered.

[wendibird22]

Oh, and I don't think we are gross people. DD2 said she thinks she's gross. I'm trying very hard to walk the fine line between reminding her of proper hygiene, like hand washing, but not make her feel like she's a gross/dirty person.

And yes, carolinamama, I wonder about hand sanitizer too. In the K-4 building their are sinks in the classroom. There isn't once you get to middle school. So her only handwashing is if she uses the bathroom. In class it is all hand sanitizer. So, she could wash her hands in the bathroom, touch the door handle that another child with pinworm touched, contaminate her hands, and then go back to her classroom where she eats lunch at her desk.

[zukeypur]

The TWIV crew has a parasitology podcast, and there's an episode on pinworm. Since I'm teaching parasitology this semester, I've been listening to a lot of these episodes. Pinworm eggs can become airborne very easily and spread, and they remain infective for days. You all probably need to be treated. Additionally, I don't think just using hand sanitizer is going to be good enough against pinworm eggs. The whole class needs to be disinfected, and they all need to be actually washing their hands.

Also, am I crazy, or aren't you also a former MT? And yes, pinworms are human, whipworms are dogs. They look very similar, but the pinworms didn't come from the dog.

[wendibird22]

The TWIV crew has a parasitology podcast, and there's an episode on pinworm. Since I'm teaching parasitology this semester, I've been listening to a lot of these episodes. Pinworm eggs can become airborne very easily and spread, and they remain infective for days. You all probably need to be treated. Additionally, I don't think just using hand sanitizer is going to be good enough against pinworm eggs. The whole class needs to be disinfected, and they all need to be actually washing their hands.

Also, am I crazy, or aren't you also a former MT? And yes, pinworms are human, whipworms are dogs. They look very similar, but the pinworms didn't come from the dog.

Yes, I am a former MT. And yup, we are treating the entire family. We live in NY and so schools are on vacation this week. And YESSSSSS hand washing and yet there's no hand washing in the classroom!!!! Ugh. And what I recall with pinworm is that it takes like a month or two for the infection to show, so she was exposed to this back in early January! Think of how many other kids in that school must've been too, especially with eggs surviving for weeks. I'm disgusted. So much for cleaning and disinfecting the schools during COVID.

[trales]

I think we are all focused on COVID sanitization and not standard sanitation, and kids keep hearing hand sanitizer is the answer to everything in life, we all have. I wonder how many people just use that and think it will solve all the problems and they don't need to wash. There are so many things hand sanitizer won't kill but soap and water will.

I am just waiting for us to all go back to school in August and the lice to jump out of the woodwork and send us back to "old fashioned" parenting hygiene woes.

[Kestrel]

So sorry you have to deal with that. I've not, but we had scabies; similar treatment. Lots of "ick" factor.

Can you contact the school that they'll need to deep clean? Or would it be pointless now? (Since they'll claim they are, anyway?)

[zukeypur]

My guess is that they're doing lots of spraying with disinfectants, but they're probably not wiping down surfaces and vacuuming as much or as thoroughly as they were previously. That, and it's just extremely contagious among kids. So sorry it hit the same kid twice.