It's like I had two lives: one before I knew about worms and one after. I mean, it's one thing to know about it and another to live with it - to feel the threat it might come back (and it will!) unless we don't take things in our own hands (well make sure they're clean before!)
The Theory Behind It
So let's get clear about the causes, manifestations and what it is we're dealing with here, in Modiin Illit, where I work as a homeopath (did I mention it already?)
What are we dealing with, here, doc?
To make sure we're not afraid of these little creatures that creep out of our children's rectum during the night (what a nightmare!), let's get down to basics and know who or what we're dealing with:
Most likely, if you have wormy cases here in Israel, you're dealing with pinworms. There are other kinds of worms but it's better to know what's causing the problem, exactly. So there we have a name - pinworms. Because they're small like a pin (I guess?) Small means = between 5 to 10 mm. Let me give you an example:
---
That's about it. and it's white. And it's around the anus, usually at night but I found some during the day too.
It is VERY CONTAGIOUS. Let me repeat this (or rather copy-paste it) VERY CONTAGIOUS.
I told the ganenet of my son who was infected: " maybe we should let the other mothers know " And she answered there was no need, it's not contagious. Uh?
Which brings me to our second point:
How do We Catch these things?
1. Pinworms colonize the colon (lower part of the intestine). In the evening, the female comes to lay her eggs around the anus.
2. The child (in general) scratches and becomes contaminated again by later bringing their fingers to their mouth.
3. In doing so, it also lays eggs - which can survive for nine days in the open air - on any object it touches.
4. These worms particularly parasitize children, because they have not yet got into the habit of washing their hands well, and above all cannot refrain from scratching.
For Gd's sake! So you see, children scratch, they put whatever's on their hands in their mouth, or on the toys, and don't go and tell me it's not happening in gan! There's an epidemic of worms in our holy city of KS - now don't tell me the ganim have nothing to do with it!
What are the Consequences?
Obviously, we all know about almost sleepless nights, as if a newborn waking up mummy at every hour of the night wasn't enough?
The child with pinworms cannot sleep because pinworms mothers work extra at night to plant their eggs around your child's anus then.
Also, the child is restless (in general) during the day, or we can have other symptoms, like restlessness, increased appetite, doesn't listen to parents and other lovely things like that. It all depends of the case and we have to analyse, for example it we want to give the right homeopathic remedy.
Restlessness = CINA (in general) as a remedy to counter-act these annoying symptoms.
You should know that the child himself changes and is not his usual self. I was dealing with a ADHD case once and it was getting better until we've got worms in the way. So we dealt with the worms and got back to our case.
Which brings us to our last point for Part I:
How to get Rid of Worms?
In case of pinworms, the whole family needs a nice cleaning meaning, cleaning the toys, cleaning the hands, the sheets, the towels, did I mention the underwear to be changed everyday?
Now here's an idea to make sure your child doesn't scratch down there (at least during the night):
Put a onesie on, that covers his body from head to toe, like little babies. For babies we use them but not because they scratch themselves, I don't think they could even if they wanted to.
Diatomaceous Earth
How Can Homeopathy Help?
- arsenicum
- bapt.
- cina
- ignatia
- lycopodium
- merc
- natrum phos.
- sant
- sil
- spig
- teucr
- valer
Anti-Worms Carrot Soup?
Well, first of all, isn't that a winner name? Second of all, I'm not sure it's really effective but I found a soup recipe that contains all the ingredients supposed to scare the worms away.
- garlic
- coconut
- pumpkin seeds
- carrots
- beet roots.
Except it doesn’t include beet roots. I thought that if I can include all the first four, it would already be hishtadlus (effort) alright.
The original recipe called for coconut yogourt. Now I don't live in a city where that's very popular, we're lucky that we can find goat milk (even if it’s not fresh).
So I thought, “well, I’ll make it myself then!” And so I was on my way to the health store, looking for coconut milk. I found there coconut water and coconut cream. That’s how the conversation started in the store about the difference between both, and which one would be the coconut milk, if any? I wrote a post about that too, Coconut Family.
Got home with coconut water and tried to add probiotics (which I bought there as well, in powder format) and let it transform into yogourt with Hashem’s help, but that didn’t happen. Since I want to get this recipe in the press already, I didn’t have the whole year to practice making yogourt, so I thought I’d improvise a bit.
So I used the one cup of coconut water with probiotics and added it in the carrot sauté. I’ll explain everything a bit further.
Recipe for the Carrot-Sauté which Really Now we’ll Call Carrot Cream
So here’s my version of that delicious anti-worm carrot soup, and, I’ll say it again, it’s delicious! I was suppose to taste it but I couldn’t stop eating it! Only healthy stuff… and now I just hope that my four-year old will agree.
Let’s look at the list of ingredients:
- 1 lb. carrots
- 12 garlic cloves
- 1 jalapeño
- 3 inches fresh ginger
- coarse salt (for roasting vegetables)
- extra-virgin olive oil (for roasting vegetables)
- 1 1/2 cups pumpkin seeds
- extra virgin olive oil (for toasting pumpkin seeds)
- 1 cup golden raisins
- 1 cup coconut water
- 2 teaspoons of probiotic powder
Let’s Get Cooking
You heat a casserole with at least 2 tbsp of olive oil and there you sauté your garlic cloves and the carrotts roughly cut in small pieces. Forget them in there like me and you’ll get a light-burn taste. Also add the ginger cut into small pieces and one hot pepper (doesn’t matter the size). I put in some coarse gray salt (I’ve got fancy salts at home, not the table salt which is really poison). In a different pan I roast the pumpkin seeds in 2 tbsp olive oil. DID you KNOW that pumpkin seeds pop when heated? That was such a chidush to me, and made the whole adventure so much more fun. I made pop seeds! (instead of pop corn, get it?) So once it almost all popped and tanned, you put it in the pot where the carrots should be tender already. I add the coconut water mixed with probiotics and more water, depending on the thickness you prefer for your soup. Oh and don’t forget to add the raisins for a nice sweet taste!
** I’m not including a picture because it really looks like a purée, the real seller here is the taste, and for that, you’ll have to get cooking too!
Conclusion
In conclusion, let's just say that worms, for mothers of small children, are a constant or almost constant reality to deal with. That's how Hashem wanted it. Now He didn't leave without tools, and they can usually be found in nature itself. So the first one is the Diatomaceous Earth I was telling you about. The second one is homeopathy. And feel free to send me an email to tell me about your worm story: y0556706407 @ gmail.com.
If you enjoyed this post, maybe you'll also like:
Comments
Post a Comment