Good hand-washing habits are particularly important, says Dr. Kaplan. If your child is potty training, encourage hand washing by overseeing her. Buy a soap that she will relate to and want to play with, such as soap in the shape of a cartoon character, he says. Keep nails cut short. Regularly trimming back your child's fingernails can also help, adds Dr. Woolley.
Long fingernails provide convenient hiding places for eggs in transit.
You can wash your child's anal area, but don't scrub too hard in an effort to achieve ultra-cleanliness,'' says Donald Gromisch, M.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Nassau County Medical Center in East Meadow, New York, and professor of pediatrics at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Scrubbing can be counterproductive if it irritates the child's behind, he says. Experts say that the best way to pin the rap on pinworms is for parents to collect the hard evidence themselves. While your child is sleeping, spread the cheeks of his buttocks and look at the anal opening with a flashlight. They look like a small piece of cotton,'' says J. Martin Kaplan, M.D., professor of clinical pediatrics at Hahnemann University in Philadelphia.