2019年6月5日星期三

Warning: Your Children Are Disgusting

Warning: Your Children Are Disgusting

By Jessica Grose

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5 2019

Leon Edler

When I found out one of my kids had head lice, my knee-jerk instinct was to burn down my house and walk away from it all. That seemed like an easier task than laundering absolutely everything my child had touched for her entire life, which is what I thought we needed to do. I'm grateful, as always, that we have Jolie Kerr, NYT Parenting's go-to cleaning expert, to explain how to clean up after our lousy (literally) children — and it doesn't involve setting fire to all of our belongings.

In her article for us this week, she goes over cleanup for a number of childhood contagions that are easily spread in your home, so that they're less likely to infect your whole family if one kid gets sick: lice; pinkeye; hand, foot and mouth disease; and the most horrifying childhood plague of all — pinworm.

Here's where the warning comes in: I'm focusing on the medical part of pinworm for this week's newsletter. It's the Human Centipede of childhood maladies. It is horrifyingly disgusting. I'm telling you about it anyway because it's extremely common — there are about 40 million people infected with pinworm in the United States — and your child's reaction to the symptoms will seem upsetting if you don't know their cause.

But I'm also telling you that if worm content turns your stomach, you should skip to the Tiny Victory at the bottom of this newsletter.

I had never heard of pinworm before one of my girls got it. She would be fine all day, and go to sleep normally. Then, about two hours after she had gone to bed, she would start screaming at the top of her lungs that her butt was itchy. She would be truly frantic and unable to fall back asleep for at least another hour. This went on for a couple of nights before we called our pediatrician, who told us without even having to see our kid: Oh yeah, that's pinworm.

I don't know how else to say it, but pinworm is actual worms that crawl out of your child's tiny butthole at night and make her itch like crazy. I called Dr. Adam Ratner, the division director of pediatric infectious diseases at Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone, and asked him why the pinworms come out at night. "We don't know why at night — that is the cycle of when worms deposit their eggs," he said. "It's not known exactly what they're responding to. They have some signal they are picking up on that the host is asleep." THE HOST IS ASLEEP. This is an actual living nightmare.

So how did my child get this ... thing? You get pinworm by ingesting eggs that someone with pinworm has shed, Dr. Ratner said. The eggs can survive indoors — on clothing and bedding, for example — for two to three weeks. Kids mostly get it from other kids who are infected in crowded situations, like preschool or summer camp, by touching each other or the same surfaces. Reinfection is a big problem, Dr. Ratner said, because kids' butts itch, they scratch their butts, the eggs get under their fingernails, they swallow the eggs and the disgusting cycle starts again. A lot of handwashing is a must here! Because the eggs are pretty stable, don't shake out your blankets when cleaning up after pinworm because the eggs could travel to the carpet, Dr. Ratner said. Per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "Some small number of eggs may become airborne and inhaled," so you really don't want to shake out your blankets and throw those eggs everywhere.

What are the symptoms? As previously described, your child's butt will itch. Horribly. At night. About a month after the eggs are first ingested, the worms mature in the colon, and they're ready to deposit their own eggs. So they "migrate out of the anus to the perianal skin and deposit" thousands of eggs, Dr. Ratner said. That's what causes the itching. But keep in mind that a child can exhibit zero symptoms, so good handwashing and overall hygiene are necessary to stop the spread, whether or not you've seen worms. While pinworm is gross and uncomfortable, it's not serious, even if you don't catch it early. "Unlike a lot of other parasitic infections, you don't have long-term effects," Dr. Ratner said.

How do I test for it? I'm so glad you asked. One way to verify that your child has pinworm, once he's complained of an itchy butt, is to wait until he's asleep, and then take a flashlight and shine it on his anus. "If you see these worms, they're about a quarter inch long, they're skinny, white and they move," Dr. Ratner said. (The C.D.C. has an entire image gallery!) Another strategy people use is the tape test. When their child wakes up, they stick a piece of clear tape to their child's butt. You can use regular old tape, or you can get special pinworm test kits that perform the same function. Once you've done the test, bring the tape to your pediatrician and have a professional look for eggs under a microscope.

Uh, can I just treat them without doing these tests? You sure can! If you suspect pinworm and don't particularly want to get that intimate with your child's butt, there are over-the-counter treatments that are safe and well-tolerated, Dr. Ratner said. The brand Reese's Pinworm Medicine, which contains a medication called pyrantel pamoate, is easy to find at the drugstore and is taken orally. Give your child one dose immediately, and then dose again two weeks later to prevent reinfection. Tell your pediatrician that you are treating the worms, Dr. Ratner said. If the infection doesn't go away after over-the-counter treatment, it's time for a pediatrician visit and possibly a prescription for a medication called Albendazole.

P.S. Share this email with a friend with a strong stomach. Follow us on Instagram @NYTParenting. Join us on Facebook. Find us on Twitter for the latest updates. Read last week's newsletter about why preschoolers love pretending to be animals.

Want More on Your Horrifying Children?

Melinda Wenner Moyer, a frequent NYT Parenting contributor, goes deep on cleaning up after your kids' barf-related illnesses, so that they don't take down the entire family.
Do you want to know how to clean your children's disgusting sippy cups? Over at Lifehacker's parenting site, Offspring, Jolie Kerr has you covered. She also has tips for cleaning your child's gross high chair.
Fatherly has a fascinating interview with an academic who studies the concept of disgust — it covers when (around age 4) and why (he believes it's culturally conditioned) children learn that certain things are gross.

Tiny Victory

Parenting can be a grind. Let's celebrate the tiny victories.

	If we have a day planned that involves a playground, museum or similarly crowded venue, I dress my toddler and my 4-year-old in matching shirts — that way, my chronically sleep-deprived brain only has to track one color.
	— Phoebe Kosman, Cambridge, Mass.

If you want a chance to get your Tiny Victory published, find us on Instagram @NYTparenting and use the hashtag #tinyvictories; email us; or enter your Tiny Victory at the bottom of this page. Include your full name and location. Tiny Victories may be edited for clarity and style. Your name, location and comments may be published, but your contact information will not. By submitting to us, you agree that you have read, understand and accept the Reader Submission Terms in relation to all of the content and other information you send to us.