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Parasites: How we get them, how to get rid of them {Episode 60}
123 Plays5 years ago
Ewww! Parasites in kids, who wants to discuss that? But we feel this is really important information for parents to have for the benefit of their kids health.
In this episode, we discuss some general information about what are parasites anyway? How we get them, sources of infection, symptoms of parasites, how to get rid of them, and maintaining a parasite free life. It's not the most fun subject, but we think you'll be glad you listened!
Mentioned in this episode:
Episode 27: Mother's Intuition
Chewable parasite cleanse for kids
Helpful parasite website with different cleanse reviews
Never miss another episode by subscribing to our weekly email HERE!
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Transcript
Introduction and Hosts' Mission
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello and welcome to episode 60 of Outnumbered the Podcast. If you are super grossed out by today's episode, don't worry, we were too. We just want you to have this information so you can decide how to use it. So let's talk about parasites.
00:00:23
Speaker
Hello and welcome to Outnumber the Podcast. I'm Bonnie. And I'm Audrey. We're experienced moms to a combined total of 18 children. Our mission is to help overwhelmed parents find peace in parenting and humor in the chaos. Come join us as we attempt uninterrupted conversation about parenting with joy and intention.
Preparing for the Parasite Discussion
00:00:49
Speaker
All right, we're back and we're ready to talk to you about probably our grossest topic yet, parasites.
00:00:57
Speaker
But we're going to start off by reading a really nice comment that we got on Instagram. You can follow us at Outnumbered the Podcast. So this comment is by Messy House So What. And she writes, you know, every time I listen to you, too, this is after the topic, after our episode on Teething came out. She says,
00:01:20
Speaker
So let me start over. You know, every time I listen to you two, even if I initially assume the topic isn't completely relevant to me, I always learn something. I love listening to your wisdom and experience. And I feel so much better knowing two women I admire also don't do the tooth fairy with their kids. I can't even remember what I ate for breakfast, let alone hiding a goody under a pillow after the kid falls asleep. Hashtag mom brain hardcore.
00:01:48
Speaker
Yeah, so nice. Thank you so much. We love your comments, your reviews, anything you want to give us, feedback of any sort, we'd love to hear it, especially ideas. We love hearing ideas that you guys want.
Parasites: A Global Issue?
00:01:59
Speaker
We have seriously so many ideas for topics I don't think we'll ever run out ever, but we specifically want to know what you guys want to hear. So yes, and I'm over. Right. Very good.
00:02:09
Speaker
And so today's topic is hopefully helpful and educational, if nothing else, like she commented on it being like she learned something. So we hope that today's topic is, if nothing else, educational to you. It is kind of icky. We have we are intending no shame with our topic today. We're just trying to be informative and
00:02:32
Speaker
school you or teach you or help you on a topic that has been life changing or helpful for our own families.
00:02:42
Speaker
Yeah, totally. And talking about parasites reminds me of like lice in general, right? Nobody wants to talk about lice. It's super icky sounding and gross. And the first time you get it, you don't want to tell anybody and all your friends are like, ew, until they get it and they realize, oh, it's like there's nothing you can do. It's just the world we live in. So definitely no shame. This is just all informational stuff and hopefully can help you guys too.
00:03:05
Speaker
You know, generally, we often think that we don't have to worry too much about parasites in very well developed countries like the US or Canada. I have multiple friends who have gone to third world countries for mission trips, and they very often come back with a parasite. And we're not talking like a mild little pinworm, like something horrific that like inhabits their gut, like, so that's the kind of
00:03:31
Speaker
thing that people usually think of when you talk about parasites. But this could be a very enlightening episode because we have lots of them here as well and they're found all over the globe. So just eye opening. Right, right. People do usually think of third world countries when they think of parasites. So if your kids have had parasites, you might, first of all, feel shame.
00:03:55
Speaker
disgust, grossed out by your kid, and more. All those feelings are okay. That's okay to feel that. That's what I felt the first time one of my kids had parasites. Acknowledge your feelings and then move into solution space so that you can help your kid get through this parasite situation. Yeah, that's just kind of motherhood in general, right? That's a good tagline for motherhood. Acknowledge the feelings of disgust and then move on.
00:04:22
Speaker
Body training, teeth falling out, all the gross things that kids go through. Yeah, that's totally normal. So like we said, parasites are actually really common in a variety of different forms. According to some sources, they say that potentially up to 90% of the population actually has some sort of parasite infected in them and that's in the US. So that's kind of interesting.
00:04:47
Speaker
Right.
Understanding Parasite Classifications
00:04:48
Speaker
So when we get into this, you'll think you'll kind of understand why, because we're going to talk about how we get them the sources of infection, the symptoms, how to tell if you have parasites or your kid has parasites, how to get rid of them, and then maintenance plan to keep yourself parasite free in the future and your kids.
00:05:09
Speaker
And just a side note, you guys probably can guess we're not medical professionals. So none of this should be construed as medical advice, hard and fast medical advice. We're just moms sharing our own experiences and things that we've researched. So if you think you have a real medical problem with a parasite, you know, go to the proper medical professionals. Right. Exactly. So there are over 1000 types of parasites.
00:05:33
Speaker
Wow. Now that's gross. Yeah, yeah. So 30% of parasites live in the digestive system and 70% of parasites live somewhere else in the body. I found that incredible when I saw that statistic because I thought most parasites inhabited the digestive system. So I learned something too.
00:05:53
Speaker
Same. I don't even really know how that works, how they would inhabit other areas of the body, but that's interesting. I have heard of parasites that are not in the digestive tract, but I just kind of assumed that most of them were interesting. Right. So I guess there's four main classifications. So we're going to go through those for you guys.
Sources and Ingestion of Parasites
00:06:09
Speaker
Four classifications of parasites. The first kind is one cell parasites like protozoa. Some examples are diseases like malaria, tuberculosis, E. coli, other foodborne illnesses.
00:06:23
Speaker
Right. Yeah. And the second classification of parasites is roundworms. If you've heard of parasites in humans, this is probably what you think of because this class includes pinworms, hookworms, whipworms, all the worm type parasites. Oh, barf. I know. Yeah, gross.
00:06:42
Speaker
So number three are called trematodes or flukes. I think I'm pronouncing that right. So these come from raw fish, undercooked water plants, and are also carried by pets. These can also come from undercooked and contaminated meat, unwashed veggies, et cetera. There are some flukes that inhabit your liver, lungs, and blood. So that's informative for me too. Yeah.
00:07:08
Speaker
And the last kind is sestodes or tapeworms. Also, I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right. So tapeworms can be, in this class, sestodes or tapeworms, they can be from half an inch to 33 feet long. That really grossed me out when I read that.
00:07:25
Speaker
I have no one's eating their lunch while they're listening to this episode. Don't fold laundry and stand, right? Yeah. When you hear about people coming from foreign countries and having parasites, very often there are these tapeworms that inhabit their intestine. So that's, I think, what most of us think of. But they come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, apparently.
00:07:50
Speaker
Okay, so moving on, we're gonna talk a little bit about how we get parasites. So there is this misconception that we eat or consume the parasite itself, and that's actually false. It's usually that we're ingesting these microscopic teeny tiny eggs, which have been deposited on our food and haven't been washed off, and then they hatch inside of us. So that's creepy.
00:08:14
Speaker
Right. Right. So when you were talking about flukes, you mentioned a few of the sources of parasites. But when I was researching this to find the sources where parasites come from and where they live and where people get them from, there was so many. I could read a list for half an hour.
00:08:32
Speaker
the different ways that kids, that people, humans get parasites. So if your kid has parasites, like the first time my kid had parasites, I thought, oh my goodness, I'm like the dirtiest mother in the whole world. Like I must not bathe my kid often enough. No, wait. When I go through this list, shortened list of the sources of parasites, you're going to realize that your kid can get parasites just by walking around.
00:09:01
Speaker
And so you could be like the cleanest, most sterile person and there's still a good chance that your child could get parasites. Yeah. And if you ever go out into society, anyone else could have been contaminated and then just touch something and pass it on. So it is extremely, yeah, extremely common. Just like picking up the cold, the common cold. We shouldn't be ashamed of that and we shouldn't be ashamed of this either. So.
Symptoms and Transmission of Parasites
00:09:21
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:22
Speaker
So some sources of parasites, it comes from foods like you talked about. If we eat raw fish, you and I both love sushi and we try to eat at reputable restaurants. But anyway, raw fish can be a source. Undercooked beef, chicken, pork, unwashed or not properly washed vegetables. If you have pets in your house or outside farm animals like we do, they carry parasites.
00:09:47
Speaker
And I'm gonna talk about this later when we each share our personal experience, but we deworm, and most people who have pets and animals deworm their animals on a regular basis. Well, when your animals and pets are dewormed, those parasites and eggs come out. And if they're not properly disposed of, or even, you know, if they are, as you are properly disposing them, you can pick up some of those parasites. Gross, but true. Yeah.
00:10:16
Speaker
Parasites can be transmitted by mosquitoes or other insects from one host to another. Parasites can be found in drinking water. Yes, in the US, yes, in chlorinated water because some of these parasites have a hard shell that resists being killed by the chlorine. Children often
00:10:38
Speaker
transmit parasites to each other when they're playing so one kid goes to the bathroom and doesn't wipe properly and doesn't wash their hands properly and they go out and play with other kids in the daycare or on the playground or whatever and they transmit it to each other or they touch something and then your kid is the next kid along to the playground or
00:10:58
Speaker
to the library or to the McDonald's play place, whatever, and they can pick it up there. These little one-celled ones that we talked about at first, they can enter, they're like floating in the air, and they can enter through a cut, through a wound. You can breathe them in through your nostrils. So that's what I was meaning, like walking around, you can breathe in pairsets. No, what is safe?
00:11:26
Speaker
Don't worry, we're going to go on to how to get rid of them section. You got to stick around
Treatments: Medical and Natural
00:11:30
Speaker
at least that far. You can get parasites from eating peanut butter. Yes, you can. And then as you mentioned, travel is a common source of like, yes, if you travel to third world countries. But as I was researching this, I was so grossed out to read about airplanes being a huge source of transmitting parasites from one person to another, because yes, airplanes are cleaned in between flights.
00:11:56
Speaker
But they're not, what would be the proper word, sanitized? So yes, they go through and they pick up the trash and they throw things away and they, you know, maybe wipe off the seats or change, you know, clean the bathroom. But yeah, anyway. Well, and all that recirculated air, if there's airborne ones, forget about it. You're going to inhale them a hundred times over.
00:12:20
Speaker
Do you ever get off an airplane and just go, you feel like you need to go have some sort of chemical bath? Yeah. Watch off everything you've just picked up on the plane. Yeah. I remember one time when my husband was traveling and it was a big travel scare. There was, oh, what was it years ago? Some sort of virus. Swine flu, I think that was going around. And they were saying, if you're traveling on an airplane, go home and don't touch anybody, shower, get all your clothes through that, you know, whatever.
00:12:49
Speaker
So if sicknesses and flu, it's very common for somebody to get a cold after they travel on an airplane. That's pretty well documented. So if those kind of things can be transmitted and passed on airplanes, why not parasites? Yeah, totally.
00:13:05
Speaker
Okay, so a few symptoms of parasites in case you think that maybe you have lived a day on this earth and you might be infected. A few symptoms are stomach and intestinal complications, so gas, bloating, diarrhea, etc.
00:13:20
Speaker
fatigue, skin disorders, allergies, mood or anxiety issues, sleep disturbances, weight or appetite problems, muscle joint pain, blood disorders, reproductive problems. So basically, there's a wide variety of symptoms.
00:13:37
Speaker
There are a few we're going to talk about that are pretty cut and dry for parasites, but very many of these could come from a million different things. So again, you never quite know what the source of it is, which means that you sometimes will be surprised at how much better you feel after you do a cleanse.
00:13:52
Speaker
So if you are, you know, trying to treat a child for some disease or some disease, some disorder or allergy or something, and it's just not working what you're doing, maybe do a parasite cleanse and then go back and try the other things again. Maybe there was something causing the remedy not to be working. Hmm. Yeah, interesting.
00:14:14
Speaker
So, you were listing the general symptoms of parasites, but some very specific symptoms that almost always mean parasites are, if you have a child that grinds their teeth at night, boom, that's a sign of parasites. And I was curious about why. Why grinding their teeth at night in little kids, why is that a sign of parasites?
00:14:37
Speaker
Um, between 1 and 3 a.m., that's their most active time. And the kid is actually grinding their teeth kind of against the itching or the pain or something while they're in their sleep. Really? Yeah. Interesting. Speaking of itching, if your child is itching their bottom, has a rash and itching bottom, there you go. That's another pretty sure sign that your child could have parasites.
00:15:02
Speaker
If you have a child that has an inability to absorb nutrients, like super skinny kid who eats a lot but never gains any weight, possibly there could be some parasites consuming the nutrients that they're eating. And so that's why they're not gaining any weight. Of course, it could be genetic and body type and all that. But if you have, going back to our mother's intuition episode, if you have this little warning signal, this kid eats all the time and never gains any weight, maybe you should try a parasite cleanse.
00:15:31
Speaker
Yes. Dark circles under the eyes that are persistent and don't go away after adequate nights of sleep could be another sign of parasites. Bad breath, like persistent bad breath, diarrhea, gas, bloating. Bedwetting can be a sign of parasites. Disturbed sleep in the night between 1 and 3 a.m. like we were talking about, those most common active hours.
00:15:57
Speaker
if your kid gets up or their sleep is disturbed during that time. Excessive saliva or alternatively, a very dry mouth. You know how sometimes you've seen, maybe you haven't, okay, if a child has, if you have them stick out their tongue and they have a pretty pronounced crease down the center, not across from tooth to tooth, but like from the tongue to the throat, that's a pretty good sign of parasites.
00:16:26
Speaker
I'm going to go check all my kids' tongues after this. Yeah, interesting. Stick out your tongue, let me see it. Weird unexplainable rashes can be a sign of parasites. And then the ringworm rash is a pretty, you can Google it to see what it looks like, but it's a round ringworm rash. Pretty distinctive, right? Yes, pretty distinctive in appearance.
00:16:52
Speaker
Yeah, so we're now gonna share just a little bit of our own personal experiences. So when you said the thing about the eating and the eating and the never gaining weight, I had a younger brother who had a parasite at a time two and we couldn't figure out how he was like this bottomless pit when it came to eating and never gained any weight. And we thought, well, it's just as genetics, it's just as this, whatever. Anyway, he had some other symptoms and they ended up giving him a medication for a parasite and sure enough, he had some sort of a worm that was like,
00:17:22
Speaker
eating all his food in his digestive tract. As a teenager, I thought, this is the weirdest thing I've ever heard of, but it really happens. It's so strange. Our own family, we haven't had a ton of experience. We have had some ringworms. So this is really common.
00:17:40
Speaker
In kids who do sports especially wrestling I'm sure you guys have heard of the old wrestling ringworm, right? So if one kid has it and they're all Rolling around sweaty on some wrestling mats that it's very very easy to spread because it spreads in moist warm conditions Also, and then and then kids don't wash their socks that kind of thing. So teenage boys are a very ripe and
00:18:10
Speaker
Our other experience was with pinworms. So these are very, very common. And, and I didn't know what they were called the first time we had them. And I remember calling the doctor and saying, my kid has a tapeworm. And he's like, really?
00:18:21
Speaker
Well, describe what it looks like. And I'm telling him and he goes, oh no, those are pinworms and those are very, you know, much more common than tapeworms. And this is how you get rid of it. But so pinworms, now I'm going to get a little grody here. If this is when you're eating your lunch, this is a good time to stop eating. Don't stop listening. You can go back to eating later.
00:18:39
Speaker
But one of the symptoms is actually seeing the worms come out of the anus. So this is very common in young kids who are running around playing barefoot in dirt, et cetera. And they, you know, and usually you find it when you're changing a diaper. So there's all kinds of things you can read up on how to make sure for real if your kid actually has it. But that's just one little symptom that is sure to gross out any mother.
00:19:07
Speaker
So yeah, that's just a little bit of our experience. Yeah, yeah. Well, my personal experience, our personal experience with parasites is the first time like my, my oldest kids, they had like all the signs of parasites, but we'd never had this before. And so I think, I think probably they got it. We had a little stray kitten that came and they were of course in love with this kitten. It wasn't in our home, but anyway, kids and kittens.
00:19:37
Speaker
And so my husband, we were walking somewhere and one of them was complaining, my bottom hurts. I can't walk anymore. You know, it's usually my feet hurt. I can't walk anymore. My bottom hurts. I can't walk anymore. And my husband is like, the light bulb went on. He's like,
00:19:53
Speaker
Oh, we need to deworm our children. Even though one of my siblings had had, I think it was, I don't know, a pinworm or a taperm. I don't know. I don't remember what it was. Obviously, I was too young to know much. I just remember my mom's horror.
00:20:14
Speaker
I didn't have much experience with it as a kid. But my husband, he had a younger brother that was 12 years younger than him. He has a younger brother 12 years younger than him. So he was kind of up on raising little kids better than I was. So anyway, I've mentioned quite often that we live on a little farm, hobby farm kind of, and we have
00:20:36
Speaker
dairy animals and we have cats and we have chickens, we have rabbits. Well, we deworm all our animals on a regular basis. Otherwise, their hair gets kind of lackluster or their feathers get kind of dull looking on the chickens.
00:20:52
Speaker
Their milk production goes down on our dairy animals. They get kind of skinny, lots of the same signs that people get. And so we just put our animals on a deworming program. And on a regular basis, we deworm our animals. Well, because we're deworming our animals, even though we try to be as clean as we can,
00:21:10
Speaker
I'm sure that some of that gets picked up. I mean, my little kids run outside barefoot all the time and they just do. And so we just made it a protocol in our family that in the spring and in the fall, we take a parasite cleanse, the whole family, because if one person in the family has it, probably all the people in the family have it.
00:21:37
Speaker
I'll talk more about how we get rid of them and why I'm comfortable with just deworming twice a year. Deworming. Anti-parasiting. Is there a nicer term for this than deworming? I don't know. I don't think so. It's just a grody thing in general. So because we use an herbal program, I'm comfortable with just doing it twice a year and not going to a doctor every single time and getting a medication.
00:22:01
Speaker
And then I know it's effective because in our personal experience, all my kids who are still growing have huge growth spurts after we do a parasite cleanse. And so I'm like, okay, yep, that worked. Interesting. And now we get to move on to the part you've all been waiting for if we still have any audience left.
00:22:22
Speaker
We're going to talk about how to get rid of these parasites that we probably all have. That's right. So I'm going to share some of my experience of getting rid of parasites medically, and then Audrey will have some natural alternatives. So from our experience, ringworm is very easily treated with a topical ointment. You can get any drug store. The thing about it is that you just have to be pretty consistent and follow the instructions.
00:22:50
Speaker
I can't remember exactly what it involves, but usually using it until it
00:22:54
Speaker
It disappears and then for a little bit longer. So you wanna make sure you follow the instructions on that one and stay consistent. And then the other thing is the pinworms. There's an oral medication for this. And I believe you can bite over the counter now. And usually it requires just one dosage, which is awesome. Sometimes they'll do one dosage and then recommend doing one more like a week or 10 days later just to make sure that you get any eggs that hadn't hatched yet. But that was super duper easy. I've had to do it on multiple toddlers, so.
00:23:25
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I too have friends who are ministering in different countries. And one of my friends was telling us that he was in a South American country and knows all the signs of parasites. And when he gets them, he just goes down to the drug store and picks up whatever medication is there for the parasites and does the cleanse because he just expects it as a routine that it's going to happen. And so the way that medical
00:23:45
Speaker
Pretty simple.
00:23:55
Speaker
and drug parasite cleanses work is that they kill any parasites that are in your body. Okay, so now I'm going to talk about how to get rid of parasites naturally using herbs. And the way that herbal parasite cleanses work is they do not do any killing, but they make your body so inhospitable to parasites that the parasites leave instead of being in your body and they go to find a different host.
00:24:24
Speaker
So that's the difference between how medical and herbal parasite cleanses work. Yeah. So we have been using one called Humaworm and we'll link all of these that we're talking about in the show notes. Humaworm is a mixture of herbs that get rid of parasites. And something we also do is that we switch which parasite cleanse we're using every few years because parasites, some parasites do become resistant.
00:24:53
Speaker
And if you have animals, you know that it's recommended that you switch brands or switch dewormers every few years because parasites become resistant. Wormwood is a very common herb used in parasite cleanses because that's its very name. Wormwood, it's intended to get rid of parasites.
00:25:14
Speaker
Anyway, I found another one we've used is called Paragon for kids. It's a specific one for kids. Humor worm, I was telling Bonnie before we started recording, Humor worm used to have an adult and a children dewormer parasite cleanse, whatever term we're going to use here, because some of the herbs are too strong for children. Likewise, if you're pregnant or nursing, you would want to use a child parasite cleanse.
00:25:42
Speaker
herbal parasite cleanse instead of an adult one because there's a couple herbs that aren't considered safe for pregnant or nursing mothers. So Paragon for Kids is another program that we used. And then when I was researching this, I actually found a chewable option, which I think I'm going to try it out because on your very youngest kid, it's difficult to get like a pill or
00:26:07
Speaker
powder or different, you know, it's hard to get some of these, um, parasite cleanses down kids. So I think I might try this chewable option. Although my older kids were laughing at me because one of the ways I used, I tried once of getting a parasite cleanse down my kids was by mixing it into a milkshake. And they still to this day talk about how horrible that milkshake was and how I tried to poison them.
00:26:30
Speaker
Yeah, right, mom. Uh-huh. It'll be delicious, I promise. Yeah. So with herbal parasite cleanses, some require diet alterations while you're doing this. And usually an herbal parasite cleanse is going to last longer than medical one because it's not killing the parasites. It's just making your body inhabitable for them.
00:26:52
Speaker
So, some require diet alterations. I remember with the paragon for kids, it was recommended that the kids have no sugar for the 30 days that they were on that parasite cleanse. Also, you'll want to follow the directions. Some have to be taken on an empty stomach and some need to be taken with food. And then one recommendation is to drink lots of water after work during the parasite cleanse because
00:27:19
Speaker
Um, especially if they're intestinal or in your digestive system, these, um, they get tummy aches or tummy hurts. So as the parasites are leaving, so drink lots of water. You can probably tell I have tons of experience with this, which good or bad. Anyway, part of the year, my kids are free from parasites.
Prevention and Final Thoughts
00:27:44
Speaker
Okay, so next we're just going to talk about briefly about a maintenance plan to help your kids and yourself stay fairly parasite free in between your parasite cleanses. So part of mine is just educating your family about parasites in general, especially if you have animals, like sometimes kids are just clueless and like no cats and dogs should be licking kids faces, that sort of a thing. If you know how animals clean themselves, they clean their private parts.
00:28:13
Speaker
that are often covered in parasites and eggs and then they lick your kids face, so don't let that happen and make sure you educate your kids about that. Animal feces are rife with them, so extra care when cleaning cat litter boxes, picking up dog poop, lots and lots of hand washing and just don't let any younger kids do it because they're not smart.
00:28:34
Speaker
Oh, I did wash my hands. I just ate a popsicle first. Like, no. And then just also the best care you can when going to sandboxes or parks with sand, like those are like just giant litter boxes anyway. So especially the animals. And, you know, being aware when kids are out running around. But again, so much of that we cannot control unless we choose to live this hypersensitive, strict,
00:29:00
Speaker
lifestyle that is not realistic for any of us. So, you know, the next step is just watching for symptoms and being aware. Okay, might be time to do one again.
00:29:08
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. Our maintenance plan is that we do a parasite cleanse every six months in the spring and the fall. We also try to teach our kids good hygiene. And, you know, like if we go to a play place or a park, maybe we just all wash our hands before we leave. But also good hygiene in the bathroom when you're teaching a kid how to wipe themselves. I mean, have we done a episode on potty training?
00:29:36
Speaker
Yes, we have. Okay. So teaching good hygiene, washing your hands afterwards. Also, you know, just kind of reviewing it real quick, if you have an older kid that's allowed to change younger kids diapers or wipe younger siblings, any kid or
00:29:59
Speaker
a teenager, anybody that works in a daycare or around other children should be especially careful of good hygiene. And then we try to do careful animal care, like you were talking about, you know, cleaning litter boxes and things. But when you milk a dairy animal, first thing you do is you wipe off their udder. Well, what you're wiping off is
00:30:20
Speaker
partly their waste, their poop, because they've been laying down in it on the ground. And so just careful teaching of how the proper way to dispose of the rag that you've used or whatever. So anyway, lots of careful care with animals and with personal hygiene.
00:30:40
Speaker
And then another thing we do is after we do a parasite cleanse, and I would definitely recommend this after a medical parasite cleanse, but also after an herbal parasite cleanse, we do lots of good bacteria. So lots of acidophilus, yogurt, sauerkraut, lactobacterias, lots of good bacteria is putting in the body. And these kind of take up space and multiply.
00:31:09
Speaker
They're also little one-celled organisms, but they're not parasites because they're not robbing from your body. I suppose that's the difference between a good bacteria and a parasite, is a parasite is a little creature that lives in the host body and lives off of the host body, whereas a good bacteria lives in the host body and is beneficial, so it's adding something positive to the host. Is that a good way to explain the difference?
00:31:39
Speaker
Yeah, I think totally. Yeah, that the parasite is removing from you and the probiotics are actually or rather the good bacteria is actually contributing. Yeah. Yeah. So if the more good bacteria you have, the less space there is for the parasites to take up and they can kind of fight off some of the parasites, too. But definitely, you know, if you do a medical cleanse, some of these will actually kill some of the good bacteria, too.
00:32:06
Speaker
So anyway, just be careful of that. Yeah, that's a really good tip. Moving on, we just wanted to give a couple of final thoughts. My final thought just has to do with the whole topic in general. There are not a lot of people that want to sit around and talk about this topic. It's gross, but it is the world we live in. And a lot of moms might even
00:32:26
Speaker
feel shame and express shame towards people if this is brought up. So please do not feel bad if this is your reality and it's probably all of our reality at some point or another. Just be aware of it and I really wish I had been aware of it a little bit or at least that I had known how common it was before it happened to us so that I could have maybe seen the signs earlier and not waited so long and gotten us the cleanse or the medication we needed before it got out of hand. So yeah, just something to be aware of and to
00:32:56
Speaker
prepare to take care of. Yep, that's awesome final thoughts. My final thoughts are very similar. If your mother's intuition is telling you, so now you've got the information that we gave you and you can go do research yourself, tons of information out there about parasites. And if you take your child to a doctor,
00:33:17
Speaker
And the doctor does a test and says, nope, no parasites, but your mother's intuition is still telling you that there might be something wrong. Can I recommend to go ahead and do an herbal parasite cleanse? It's just herbs and it's not going to hurt your kid. They're just going to go right through their system. And if there is parasites, they'll go ahead and discourage them from living in your body too. Not that doctors are not
00:33:42
Speaker
I'm not saying that doctors don't know what they're doing, but a lot of these parasites are so tiny that they are very easy to miss in an examination, is what I'm trying to say. So, my thought is just that an herbal parasite cleanse isn't going to hurt your kid.
00:34:02
Speaker
it might do them a lot of good. So do your research, listen to your mother's intuition, and give it a whirl. Those are my final thoughts. Yeah, totally, totally helpful. Yeah, we hope this episode's been helpful. I know it's a little bit gross. I know it's not fun dinner conversation, but why not be aware of what's out there? And I'm totally curious to try. We have not done an actual herbal cleanse before, and so I'm totally curious to try and see if it helps any of some of these general symptoms that I've seen in my own kids.
00:34:32
Speaker
Yeah, can't hurt, might help.
00:34:35
Speaker
Right, right. So the recommendations are I'm going to link to that Humaworm website, and I'm going to link to Paragon for Kids, herbal cleanse that I mentioned, and I'm going to link to that chewable parasite cleanse. Although I have to admit, after I researched, did the research for this episode, I said, okay, it's almost spring. We're going to go ahead and do another one because mom is so grossed out by this research. So I'm going to be trying that chewable option on my littlest kids, and I'll let you know what they think of it.
00:35:04
Speaker
Yeah, let us know on Instagram so that we can all follow up and do the same thing. Will do. Thanks so much for tuning in.
00:35:12
Speaker
Did you know you can help the podcast in several ways? First up, we're on Patreon and there are three different levels to support us there. Just head over to patreon.com slash outnumbered. Next up, if you enjoyed this episode, please leave us a written review on iTunes. It helps other moms find the podcast and receive the help that you're enjoying. And finally, you can follow us on Instagram at outnumbered the podcast.
00:35:35
Speaker
We're always having fun over there, too. As usual, if you have any questions or ideas for future episodes, you can always reach us at OutnumberThePodcast at Gmail.com. Thanks for all your support. We'll talk to you next week. OK, hopefully this kid is nothing super loud. No talking. Hi, Dean. Oh, you're poopy. Awesome. OK, sorry. Keep going.