Symptoms of ascaris in children - how to get rid of them

Ascariasis is a common disease that belongs to the category of parasitic diseases. It is especially common in children, including very young children. If you do not engage in treatment, the child's body will not withstand the destructive effects of parasites, which will lead to the development of chronic diseases. How do ascarids in children, symptoms and treatment of the disease - many children's doctors pay attention to this topic.

• Features of Ascaris
• Symptoms of infection
• Where do parasites come from in the child's body
• Treatment of children
• Folk remedies
• Effects
• Prevention

Features of Ascaris

What do askarids look like? They are worms of white, pink, yellow color, reaching a length of 40 cm. When asked what the ascarids are, the famous doctor Komarovsky answers that this is one of the most dangerous parasitic diseases in children. Eggs enter the body of the child through food, then settle in the small intestine. Later, larvae and adults appear, causing internal organs harm.

The disease progresses as intensively as the larvae grow rapidly. They are released from the eggs in the small intestine after several hours. Over the next week, the larvae penetrate into the blood, through the vessels they get to other internal organs - the liver, the heart, the lungs, the eyes.

Larvae, which are highly active, reach the lungs, destroy their tissue. They provoke a cough with sputum discharge. The patient coughs bronchial mucus and re-swallows it. So ascarids penetrate into the gastrointestinal tract. Then they settle in the small intestine, starting an active life. After several weeks of stay in the intestine, adults lay eggs. The duration of the life cycle of ascarids is 1 year, after which they come out with feces from the body.

Important! Although the disease can go by itself, ignoring it is dangerous, because parasites do a lot of harm throughout the year! The child develops chronic gastrointestinal diseases, immunity decreases, the nervous system suffers.

Symptoms of infection

The clinical picture of the disease has its own characteristics. They depend on the stage of the disease. In total, ascariasis passes through three stages:

• early;
• late;
• stage of complications.

The early stage begins with the ingress of worms into the body, when their development is just beginning. Signs of infection at this time is easily confused with the symptoms of other diseases - allergic reaction, bronchitis, intoxication. Often parents begin to treat a child from a viral infection, giving anti-cold medications. In fact, the deterioration of health is not due to ARVI, but to the penetration of parasites into the lungs and into the blood. The main symptoms are:

• increase in temperature to 38 degrees;
• aches in muscles, joints;
• swelling of the face;
• cough;
• shortness of breath, shortness of breath;
• fatigue, loss of strength.

Symptoms of the late stage of ascariasis, when the worms enter the intestine, are:

• bloating;
• painful sensations around the navel;
• problems with stools;
• lack of appetite;
• nausea, vomiting;
• a sharp decrease in weight.

Complications that are associated with the penetration of larvae into other internal organs, flow into chronic diseases, it is impossible to completely get rid of them. Most often it is:

• dyspepsia;
• pancreatitis;
• enterocolitis;
• appendicitis, peritonitis (rarely);
• Pneumonia with massive lung damage.

Important! Ascarids are dangerous for children in that a fragile organism can not fully resist the harmful effects of parasites! In adults, complications also occur, but in childhood they are most pronounced.

Where do parasites come from in the child's body

The disease spreads fecal-oral route, when the child swallows the eggs of ascaris together with food. The ways of infection can be different. Eggs of parasites fall into the soil together with feces. Due to their ability to sustain life for years, they can be active for long. Usually the infection occurs for the following reasons:

• after contact with the soil - after playing on the ground the child eats without washing his hands;
• the use of dirty vegetables, fruits, any products grown in contaminated soil;
• drinking unboiled water, the source of which is next to the contaminated soil;
• through insects carrying soil particles with eggs of parasites.

Explaining how the roundworms are transmitted, doctors say that any household item polluted with earth can become a source of infection. The risk of ascaridosis increases if the child does not wash his hands, licks his fingers. Danger is the door handles, money, toys lying on the ground, pet hair, any other items.

Interesting! Children living in the city are less likely to get infected with ascarids! More often the disease occurs in rural areas, where the child spends all his free time on the street.

Treatment of children

After diagnosis, the delivery of tests, ascertaining the stage of ascariasis, anthelminthic therapy is prescribed. It consists in taking the drugs inside. After treatment, which was prescribed correctly, you can observe how the ascarids go out of the body. A month later, they leave no trace.

When the early stage of ascariasis is prescribed anthelmintic tablets, often recommend treatment with Nemozolum, Helmintox. If the disease progresses, parasites settle in the intestine, then the doctor prescribes a one-time intake of potent drugs - Decaris, Pirantela. An infectiologist or a pediatrician prescribing a medicine will calculate the dosage individually, based on the weight of the child.

Anthelminthic therapy is supplemented with the use of multivitamin complexes, iron preparations, and other restorative products.

After taking some medications, the condition may worsen. For example, Vermox destroys parasites, inhibiting their metabolic processes. The rapid death and destruction of helminths intensify intoxication - vomiting becomes more frequent, headache intensifies, and a breakdown occurs.

Such drugs are effective, they cure of ascariasis in a short time. However, due to the severe tolerability of the child, it is not recommended to prescribe them to patients under 6 years of age. Vermox and its analogues are taken orally under the constant supervision of a doctor for no more than three days.

An obligatory condition for the successful treatment of children is the observance of a diet, with the exception of fatty, fried, smoked, spicy, salty foods.

Folk remedies

Treatment of folk remedies is best used as an additional therapy to the main medication. If the disease progresses, the ascarids already live in the intestine, then they can not cope with some improvised means. Our ancestors knew how to treat parasitic diseases.

Today, against the Askaris, such popular recipes are used:

1. Pumpkin seeds. Grind 100 g of peeled seeds, pour 10 ml of boiling water, mix, take for 1 hour. l. in the morning on an empty stomach. In an hour, it is necessary to make a cleansing enema out of water or a decoction of chamomile.
2. Bow. We take one large onion, finely chopped, pour 200 ml of boiling water, leave to infuse until the mixture cools. A drug is taken 50 ml three times a day for 4 days.
3. Walnuts. The preparation is prepared for the day: take 4 tbsp. l. crushed nuts, pour 200 ml of boiling water, add a pinch of salt. We insist half an hour, then filter. The entire solution must be taken per day, divided into uniform doses.

Advice! Since most of the products, prepared according to folk recipes, have an unpleasant taste and do not like children, in any of them it is allowed to add a little honey!

Effects

The consequences of ascaridosis, like most parasitic diseases, can be serious. The child's organism develops day by day. As the growth of larvae can fall into the interior of the body, preventing its normal operation.

Helminths can "wander" throughout the body, causing damage to different systems, while determining the real cause of unpleasant symptoms is sometimes impossible. Diseases without treatment progress. In especially severe cases, fatal complications can develop, for example, intestinal obstruction due to obstruction of the lumen by the ascarid ball. Instead of the much needed anthelminthic therapy, doctors sometimes mistakenly prescribe a standard anti-cold or other treatment.

Children suffering from ascariasis have weak immunity, often get sick. Suppressed stress resistance of the body, there are nervous diseases, the child may lag behind in mental development. To avoid consequences, it is important for every parent to know what parasites are coming from, in time to consult doctors for complex diagnostics.

Prevention

Prophylaxis of ascaridosis consists of a number of rules. Observance of them helps to prevent infection not only by these helminths, but also by many other parasites. The task of each parent is to teach the child to observe the rules of hygiene from a small age, because his health depends on it. It is necessary to adhere to such recommendations:

• wash hands before each meal;
• wean the child from the habit of gnawing at the nails;
• carefully wash vegetables and fruits;
• boil water if it comes from its own well;
• regularly conduct wet cleaning of children's and other rooms, several times a month - general;
• Street toys should be washed regularly, it is advisable to treat them with boiling water;
• maintain hygiene of domestic animals.

Advice! Any products, even from their own garden, must be carefully processed! Greenery should be soaked in vinegar, solid vegetables and fruits in water with soda.

To avoid having to remove ascarid from a child's body, it is extremely important to follow the rules of hygiene. At the first suspicion of the disease, you should immediately consult a doctor, determine the diagnosis, and perform the prescribed treatment.