Has anyone tried herbals for parasitic infections?

[melaidmor]

Here's the story - it's a pretty gross one! My 7 y.o. son and I brought home a new kitten last week. I let him sleep with it on the couch and when I woke up in the morning, the cat had diarrhea all over the house - including his pillow and blanket! While cleaning it up, I discovered a huge WORM. Needless to say, took it to the vet, had roundworms, dewormed it, etc. After talking to one of the pediatricians at work, I was told that if he was infected, it would take a couple of weeks for him to have symptoms at which point he could be treated with an antihelminic. But after much research into my nursing texts, I've found that many infestations can be silent, and that pharmaceuticals will only kill the mature form of the worms, not eggs and larvae. I went to the health food store and found that they have a tincture coming in in the next couple of days that is safe for children. Something with black walnut and cloves that is supposed to kill all stages of the cycle. Has anyone had any experience with anything like this? If so, what did you use, and what was the outcome? This is kind of freaking me out, especially since nursing school is turning me into a germaphobe! Thanks!

[sbgrace]

Roundworm would concern me (lots of parasite experience here...we've not had any luck with herbals for them but my son tends to get really rotten ones). I think roundworm is the one that can do serious health damage if it gets in the wrong parts? My son had hookworm among others. The treatment (prescription) was pretty easy and it did work (we did several metametrix tests over a long period of time due to other harder to get rid of parasites). I imagine roundworm would be the same. With hookworm you do the treatment then do it again in I think two weeks or something like that though I might be mixing up my parasites as he's had a bucket of them. Did they say what drug?

[Aubergine68]

I tried a similar tincture and it didn't work for my family for pinworms.

Food grade diatomaceous earth did work, however, mixed into smoothies and baking over a period of several weeks. You may want to do a search for the pinworm thread here to get more info on this.

ETA the prescription med for pinworms, Vermox, also did work, but needed a repeat treatment. I agree that if you look at the life cycle of intestinal worms, the standard treatment protocols don't often seem to make sense.