Dr. Komarovsky about worms in children

Every second person on Earth has had helminthiasis at least once. And it is children who are more susceptible to infection with worms, they know the world “to the tooth” and to the taste, often lick hands, toys, different objects. In children's groups (at school, kindergarten, in a country health camp), where children are in close contact with each other, sometimes helminthiasis generally becomes epidemic in nature. The well-known pediatrician and TV host Yevgeny Komarovsky tells parents how to recognize the disease and correctly treat it.

Worms (helminths), which are parasitic in the children's body, are different. This single name combines the following types:

• Tapeworms - echinococcus, bovine tapeworm, pork tapeworm, etc.
• Worms flukes - liver fluke, cat fluke, trematodes, schistosome, etc.
• Roundworms - pinworms, roundworms, hookworms, trichinella, etc.

Helminths have different transmission paths (from human to human, from animals to human, including through infected animal products, from the environment to human), however, all paths converge in the mouth, it is through it that all worms enter the body. Therefore, helminth infections are often referred to as “dirty hands disease”, although parasites can be found in water, on vegetables and fruits, in meat.

After entering the body during the incubation period, the worms do not make themselves felt, the first signs of helminth infections appear a little later. The child becomes sluggish, has no appetite, or, conversely, the baby begins to eat more than usual, there may be pain in the abdomen, in the navel, rarely - nausea and diarrhea. Almost all children have headaches, babies become moody, hysterical, sleep badly at night, dark circles form under the eyes.

The worms themselves do not cause much harm, says Yevgeny Komarovsky, while he emphasizes that the consequences of a long stay in the body of the parasites are dangerous. A child receives insufficient vitamins, nutrients from food, as a result he may develop anemia, vitamin deficiency, physical retardation, severe forms allergies. In the most advanced cases, if the treatment is not in a hurry, the parasites can affect the membranes of internal organs, causing severe illnesses and internal bleeding.

A video release of Dr. Komarovsky’s program on worms in children can be viewed below.

Worm diseases, according to Yevgeny Komarovsky, are some of them quite simple in diagnosing ailments, which any parent is able to discern, no matter how far from medicine it may be. To determine the parasites is quite simple by the presence of eggs in the child’s underwear or on the pot, as well as in the feces.

The second way is to take the child to the clinic, where they will take a stool test on the eggs of the worm and a smear from the priests. There are special tests that are able to determine some types of parasites by blood analysis, but they are expensive, and it is unprofitable to use them in ordinary clinics.

Teeth gnashing at night, which popular rumor firmly recorded in almost the main symptom of infection with worms, Komarovsky considers not a very reliable sign, because quite often children with increased nervous excitability, hyperactive babies, who have no parasites, squeak in their sleep.

Very often parents turn to Komarovsky with a question about the effectiveness of treatment with folk remedies. The doctor does not object to the use of herbal prescriptions, but he emphasizes that the effectiveness of such "drugs" is much lower than that of traditional pharmaceutical preparations. He advises to resort to treatment with garlic and lemons only if the child is severely allergic to medications.

Traditional medicine can and frankly harm, says the doctor. After all, pumpkin seeds recommended by healers need to eat about 350 grams at a time to achieve the desired effect! And that amount is hardly even an adult. But even if you feed the child with pumpkin seeds in such quantities, it can cause serious problems with digestion, some of these “complications” of folk treatment may then require surgery.

He warns against self-treatment, because parasites are different, they are deployed in different parts of the intestine, and they need to be treated differently. Preparations from pinworms are not always able to help with infection with ascaris. Independently determine the type of parasite that has settled in the child’s body, without laboratory testing, is impossible in principle. Therefore, the question of treatment must be decided by the specialist doctor.

Another "popular" recipe for the treatment of parasites sweetened with brandy, which sometimes ask Komarovsky, the doctor considers the height of parental stupidity and irresponsibility. Alcohol can not destroy the parasites, but to kill a child, even in a small dose, is quite capable.

Komarovsky calls the best treatment such treatment, which is prescribed by the doctor after a thorough laboratory examination of the feces and blood of the patient. Traditional methods can supplement it, with the permission of the doctor, but can not replace it.

Komarovsky offers the following treatment regimen:

1. First, the child is given anthelmintic pharmaceuticals.
2. Then, with the help of enterosorbents, they cleanse the body and begin to give the child prebiotics and probiotics to restore healthy intestinal flora, which suffers when taking anti-worm drugs
3. The last child prescribed vitamin and mineral complexes.

• Taking antihelminthic drugs (such as "Vermakar", "Levomizol" or "Pyrantel") Komarovsky considers quite acceptable and without confirming the presence of a worm. Although a large army of parasitologists and pediatricians speak out categorically against giving medicines for a rainy day to prevent infection. After all, the majority of drugs that destroy parasites are quite toxic, they say. On this Komarovsky clarifies, you need to take not for prevention, but only in cases where the clinical picture allows a high probability of infection with parasites.

• Komarovsky advises to teach elementary hygiene of a child from 1.5 to 2 years so that the baby knows that washing his hands after a walk and using the toilet, before eating, is an obligatory and very important ritual.
• If the child has worms, the whole family should be treated. At the same time, the patient will take medications in therapeutic doses, and all other members of the household will be preventive. It is advisable to give appropriate veterinary medicines and four-legged pets living in the family.
• Treatment is best done in two courses. The second should start 10 days after the first in order to “fix the result”.
• After the treatment, it is necessary to undergo an examination again after 3-4 weeks in order to rule out a recurrence of the disease, which is not so rare with respect to helminths.
• To reduce the risk of helminth infection, Komarovsky advises to always wash vegetables and fruits before eating, to ensure that the child drank only high-quality clean water, and while swimming in open water bodies (in lakes and on the river) the peanut did not swallow water.