Key points
Worms are a type of parasite. They’re common, especially in children aged 4-11 years.
This article is about threadworms, which are the most common type of worms. Threadworms are also known as pinworms. Threadworms won’t hurt your child, and you can treat them easily. But they do spread between people very easily too.
Children can get threadworms when they accidentally get worm eggs on their hands and swallow them. This might happen if they put their hands in their mouths or bite their nails after coming into contact with people with worms or with dust, toys or bed linen that’s carrying worms.
Once swallowed, the eggs get into children’s small intestines, where they hatch and lay more eggs around the anus. This can make children’s bottoms very itchy. Sometimes worms get into the vagina and make this area itchy too. If children scratch their bottoms and then touch their mouths, they can swallow the eggs again, causing the cycle to repeat.
If children touch things around the house without washing their hands, the eggs might spread to other people in the house too.
Most threadworm infections won’t cause any symptoms at all. But symptoms can include:
Some rare symptoms include:
See your GP if your child:
Your GP will probably use the ‘sticky tape test’ to check for worm eggs or worms.
This involves putting sticky tape over your child’s anus, removing it and then putting it onto a glass slide. When the doctor or another professional looks at the slide under a microscope in a laboratory, they can see whether there are any worms or worm eggs.
It’s best for your child to have this test early in the morning before having a bath or doing a poo and wiping their bottom.
Threadworms in kids are easy to treat and usually aren’t serious.
You can get threadworm treatment over the counter from a pharmacy. Your GP or pharmacist will probably tell you to give your child a dose of antiparasitic tablets. Your child usually needs to repeat the dose after 2 weeks to make sure all the worms are gone.
If your child is diagnosed with threadworms, you should treat everyone in the household with antiparasitic tablets too. This stops the spread of worms among family members.
It’s also a good idea to keep your child home from school or child care while they have worms. This can help to stop worms spreading to other children.
Worms spread easily, and it’s common for infections to come back. But there are several things you can do to stop this happening and prevent the spread of worms:
Our content is regularly reviewed for quality and currency. The last review of this article was by Dr Kathleen McGrath, gastroenterologist, Department of Gastroenterology and Clinical Nutrition, The Royal Children’s Hospital, Melbourne. Scientific Advisory Board review was provided by Associate Professor Jill Sewell AM.
Dent, A., & Kazura, J. (2019). Enterobiasis (Enterobius vermicularis). In R. Kliegman, J. St Geme, N. Blum, S. Shah, R. Tasker & K. Wilson (Eds), Nelson textbook of paediatrics (21st edn, pp.1882-1883). Elsevier.
Leder, K., & Weller, P.F. (2024). Enterobiasis (pinworm) and trichuriasis (whipworm). UpToDate. Retrieved 23 May 2024 from https://www.uptodate.com/contents/enterobiasis-pinworm-and-trichuriasis-whipworm.
Wendt, S., Trawinski, H., Schubert, S., Rodloff, A.C., Mössner, J., & Lübbert, C. (2019). The diagnosis and treatment of pinworm infection. Deutsches Arzteblatt International, 116(13), 213-219. https://doi.org/10.3238/arztebl.2019.0213.
