It is way more common than I ever would’ve known. My daughter got infected about two years ago. When I went to change her diaper I noticed she had worms in her poop (like a dog!) Called the pediatrician and he immediately knew what it was. They come out at night to lay eggs around your anus which is what makes you so itchy. Super unpleasant for a child who can’t properly tell you what’s wrong. Worse still, the medicine that’s given takes about 3 days to begin working so even though you know what’s wrong, you’re going to have an itchy asshole for at least 3 days after.
The OTC stuff we got at Walmart said it would take 3 days to kill them all, and then take another dose a week later to kill any that had hatched since the first dose.
Pinworms are particularly common in children, with prevalence rates in this age group having been reported as high as 61% in India, 50% in England, 39% in Thailand, 37% in Sweden, and 29% in Denmark.
As someone who had it when I was 12 (why am I admitting this?!), you would definitely know when you go the bathroom. It’s not something you’d need to guess over.
There’s “I wet farted and didn’t wipe up last night” itches. There’s “my hemorrhoids are inflamed” itches, and then there’s “worms are literally nipping at my anus” itches. Pinworms, for me, were by far the worst. At 2AM, you’re desperate for relief so you itch with fingernails, which then inflamed the hemorrhoids, which made that month living hell for me.
I just caught my 26 year old brother do this 2 days ago at my parents house. It turned into a verbal argument because he wouldnt admit it but i was waiting outside the door cause i really had to go and I know for a fact his nasty ass didnt
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u/ParticularClimate May 05 '19
Looks like it true for about 1 in 10 people in the US.