What is worm infestation?

Does your child often complain of stomach aches? One of the leading causes of stomach ache in children is intestinal infections that may result from intestinal parasites, like worms. Several types of worms can live inside your child’s intestine, like tapeworms, roundworms, pinworms or threadworms and hookworms. These worms tend to live inside the intestines of your child and feed on the nutritional food of your little one that you give them to eat. Worm infections are common in children and can be easily treated with the help of homeopathic medicines. 

How your child gets infected?

Young children are very dynamic and playful, so they come in contact with these germs very easily. Some of the common causes with exposing children to worms include-

• Coming in contact with the infected soil or surface that contain eggs or germs while playing at the playground.
• Touching pets infected with worms
• Drinking infected water or consuming food infected with eggs or worms
• Not maintaining proper hygiene 
• Inadequate and improper washing of hands after returning from the playground

What are the symptoms of worm infestation?

The sign and symptoms of worm infestation can be sometimes very vague, but this problem is so common in children that the symptoms are mostly linked to worm infestation as the first provisional diagnosis unless any specific symptoms relate the diagnosis to some other medical conditions.

The common symptoms may include- irritability, weight loss, stomach ache, bedwetting, blood in stools, etc. Some of the symptoms related specifically to different intestinal worms may include-

1. Tapeworm infection- The symptoms pointing typically to tapeworm infection include- jaundice, nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, eating too frequently or sometimes causing malnutrition.
2. Roundworm infection- Roundworm infection may cause diarrhoea and the child may pass worm with stools, there may be dry cough and fever also.
3. Pinworm infection- There might be symptoms like itching around the anus, difficulty in sleeping due to itching and painful urination.
4. Hookworm infection- Hookworm causes symptoms like wheezing, coughing, fatigue and even anaemia.

How to diagnose worm infection?

To establish the diagnosis for worm infection, the doctor will carefully investigate the history of symptoms in your child and do a thorough investigation to know if the symptoms are caused due to worm infestation. The doctor will also go into the details of the symptoms so that he can identify the type of worm infestation in your child.

Investigations

If the symptoms of the child get worse like there has been diarrhea for an extended period, there is the presence of blood and mucus in the stool, severe abdominal pain, nausea, headaches or fever, especially if there has been an outbreak of parasitic illness at the school or daycare of your child, or your child has recently drank untreated water by mistake, there are the chances of parasitic infection in your child. If these possibilities and symptoms are present, your doctor may advise you to go for stool examination of your child for an ova and parasites exam. 

Homeopathic treatment 

Homeopathy is considered to be a boon for your young ones. It is the safest, gentle and natural way of healing for children. Nowadays, parents succumb to anxiety on just one sneeze of their little ones and immediately rush to the doctor. Conventional medicine doctors prescribe so many hard medicines for the children, without realising what damage they can cause to their tender organs. Homeopathy on the other hand provides chemical-free, side effects free, easy to consume, gentle and most natural way of treatment for any kind of disease in children. 

Homeopathy works on the holistic concept, according to which the whole body is considered as one entity, and it’s not any part of the body that is diseased, but it’s the whole body that is sick. The medicines are chosen to heal the body as a whole, which help the inner strength of the body to arise itself to cure the symptoms. That is the reason homeopathic remedies not only treat your child’s disease symptoms but also the crankiness, irritability and behavioural changes, worm infestation cause them.

Top homeopathic medicines for worm infection 

1. Cina– It is a top grade remedy that is prescribed to children suffering from worm trouble. The symptoms include anal or vaginal itching, with marked teeth grinding at night. The child needing this remedy constantly keep grinding his teeth while sleeping. The child may present with cramping, pinching, cutting colic in the abdomen, due to worms, which gets better by applying pressure. The child has a canine hunger and becomes hungry immediately after eating. He may constantly need to eat well, but does not gain weight. The child needing this remedy is extremely irritable, ill-humoured, very cross, with a tendency to bite and strike.
2. Teucrium– It is another gem of remedy in treating anal and vaginal itching caused due to worm infections in children. It is best suited in cases where there is a crawling sensation and anal itching, that gets worse during the evening or in bed. 
3. Merc sol- This is best suited for children who grind their teeth at night, along with copious salivation from mouth due to worm troubles.
4. Spigelia– It is a very effective medicine in the treatment of abdominal pain in children, caused due to worm trouble. The pain is colicky, pinching pain, that is centred around the umbilical region. Nausea may also present with navel pain.
5. Natrum mur– It is one of the best medicines prescribed for excessive hunger due to worm infections. The symptoms are almost the same as in cina, where a child has a constant desire to eat and is hungry soon after eating. The child eats well but does not gain weight accordingly.
6. Abrotanum– It is a wonderful medicine for irritability in children due to worms. The child is ill-humoured and irritable, with marked emaciation.
7. Santoninum– In this remedy the teeth grinding is very marked at night. The child constantly grates his teeth while sleeping. 

The above described homeopathic medicines are the top remedies that are prescribed in children suffering from worm troubles. But self medication is a dangerous and risky practice, so it is advised to go for expert advice before giving any of these medicines to your little ones. AVI Homeopathy can help you to get expert advice from the best homeopathic doctors, from sitting at home only.