can't get rid of pinworms

[42mom42]

I can't get rid of pinworms. Have had them for 8 years now.  I have taken many prescriptions and over the counter meds and home remedies.  Now my rectum hurts.  Need advice on getting rid of these horrible things.  I'm fed up!!

[guingnol]

Try a week long water fast. If you don't feed them they will die.  it will be worth it.

[blahblah88]

8 years? Wow... Is it always intense? I mean have you felt intense itching every single night for the past 8 years?

Which medications have you used? Some of them are not as effective as the others. Make sure you use one of these drugs:

From wikipedia: "Antihelmintic drugs albendazole (Albenza), mebendazole (Vermox, OVEX), Piperazine and pyrantel pamoate (Pin-X, Reese's Pinworm Medication) are commonly used to treat pinworms; these medicines kill the pinworms 95% of the time, but do not kill the eggs. The person being treated should receive a second course after two weeks."

However sometimes even medication doesn't help, so you should go for the multiple method approach.

1- Take your medication everyday (my doctor told me it was safe to do it for 20 days or so for persisting infections, although you'd better consult a doctor anyway).

2- Eating 20-30 pumpkin seeds everyday (unprocessed, uncooked, with the peel) works wonders. You can also mix 60 gm of grind pumpkin seeds (with the peel) with honey and water. Eat the mixture in 3 portions every 2 hours. It is said to be the best solution for pinworms.

3 - Make sure to include garlic and lots of spices (especially curry) in every single meal you cook, also swallowing one garlic a day (as a whole, like a pill) helps too. You can also just eat 2-3 garlics a day. Another solution is adding honey to mashed garlic cloves and eating it 2-3 times a day for a week. In short: Eat garlic!

3- Refrain from eating meat and sugar for a while, because they feed the worms. Eat veggies and fruits and foods that are rich in fiber. Some ppl do the pineapple cure in which you eat&drink nothing but pineapple and pineapple juice for 3 days, worms can't take that much acid and die. You can also eat one tablespoon of coconut everyday in the breakfast. Also a small cup of grated carrot taken every morning is said to be offensive to all kinds of parasites.

There are a million ways to get rid of the adult worms inside you, but avoiding reinfection is the hard part. Make sure to

1- clean/vacuum the floors of your house daily (especially the bathroom and the laundry room, if possible buy a pair of slippers only to be used in these rooms and leave them there),

2- change bed sheets and underclothes daily, and be very gentle while doing so, do not shake the dirty laundry cuz then the eggs get airborne and that's bad, also do not forget washing them in boiling soapy water and ironing them with a red hot iron! Fry those eggs that are stuck to your undies!

3- wash your hands as much as possible, eggs on your hands are not persistent but make sure to use an antibacterial soap,

4- use disinfectent for cleaning the bathroom, but do not inhale while doing so, those products are extremely dangerous,

5- bathe twice a day (especially in the morning) or at least swipe your bottom with vinegar in the mornings (or a mixture of mashed garlic and vaseline at night so that the females can't go out and lay eggs),

6-  keep fingernails as short as possible,

7- most importantly do not touch or scratch your bottom,

8 - you can try wearing gloves and masks while using the bathroom or cleaning the house (my mum's a nurse, so I got a couple boxes of those surgery gloves and masks), this way you won't inhale the airborne eggs and your hands will definitely be clean after using the bathroom.

9- Eight years is a looong time! Your whole family must have been infected. So every member in your household should adhere to these rules, and they should be treated with medication as well, because if you don't, something called ping-pong infection happens and the family members keep infecting each other.

10- In order to get rid of the stray eggs in your house, always keep your shades open in the mornings, eggs are sensitive to sunlight and most of them will die this way, for persisting eggs, you can try leaving the house for a day, and heating it up to 95 degrees for 24 hours. That should kill all the eggs.

11- Oh and if you have pets in your house, wash them well and do not let them enter the bathroom or the bedrooms for a while. Although pinworms can only live in humans, animals like to play around on the floor, so they might pick up eggs on their fur, and you can imagine the various ways you might inhale those eggs. I had to shun my beautiful cats for a long time :(

If you do all these things and still get reinfected, there might be a problem. So the last step is the colon cleanse. There are lots of colon cleanse products out there, like MetaCleanse or Ultimate Cleanse, they clean your bowels thoroghly and make sure those little bastards don't have a hiding place in your intestines. They are made from natural ingredients and safe to use.

Good luck!