Little girls

[Teamedup]

Read a copy of a sante magasine today and it said that 30% of little girls catch cystitis and urinal problems from dirty badly adapted toilets at school.

Where can I find european figures for this. As usual my search found  everything but what I wanted.

[Punch]

I doubt if you will find stats for this, but I have to agree with school hygeine especially toilets. At my daughters school, the children are discouraged to flush the loo (uses expensive water), the teacher goes in and flushes it when he/she feels fit. En plus, there is only cold water to wash hands and a hand towel which probably puts more germs back on to the childs hands. It's the same at the ecole public in the same village. Our local swimming pool was so dirty it gave our daughter a rash and veruccas, which immediately cleared when we stopped going there. We recommenced at the pool this holiday and guess what, the same problem has re-occured. It is no wonder thet the "gastro" goes round on a regular basis in schools.

I have been slated on here for saying this before but in my 16 years experience, hygeine facilities in France are often abysmal compared to the UK. As a good example, the large Hyper U supermarket near us in Mayenne rarely has soap, has no hot water, and the handrier hasn't worked in years. It is situated right next to the restaurant and "les gens" come out of the no2 cubicle, without even a glimpse at the sink and then delve around in the knife and fork:bread roll basket at the restaurant entrance. Don't get me going about asking at the same place for a sandwhich - everything is stuffed in the roll with bare hands that have been dealing with money, shaking hands etc. McDo's usually have great loos in the Uk, but dare you go into the one in Mayenne and you will find all the same problems, even when there are six staff sitting by the front counter smoking and reading the paper in the morning. You would be dismissed in a UK Mcdo's for doing this.

So what are your experiences, do you often have to wipe you hands on a dirty towel that has been hanging up for months or am I paranoid?

Paul

[SaligoBay]

Mostly right, Paul.

I accept that there are abrutis in every country, but..... women's stuff coming up......  it's much more common in France to see an open bin in a toilet, containing used sanitary towels or panty pads, not rolled up, not hidden, just discarded there openly.

I suppose it's like the dog-poo argument.  Yes, it is natural, BUT !!!!!! 

I remember waiting to get into a restaurant toilet in Nimes city centre - one door, and it opened into the kitchen where they prepare the food.

I don't know.  But there do seem to be a lot of gastros around on a fairly regular basis, and they're not all caused by dodgy oysters. 

 

  

 

[Alexis]

I don't know about the cystitis but I either read or saw on the telly about girls refusing to go to the loo at school and 'stewing' it until they arrived back home which was causing all sorts of infections and problems.

Some toilets had no doors and that put them off using them too.

Then they had to cross the yard to reach them....

[opas]

Not sure about our daughters friends suffering with cystitis etc, but our youngest always has.The last poster mentioned abuout not wanting to go to the loo because of the state of the school ones ie no door,smelly and outdoors.....sounds about right! but one of our daughters teachers insisted on a no going to the loo during lesson time too, we are talking 7/8 year olds (one of the boys even had `an accident` through this rule)......we sent in a note insisting that if our child says she needs the loo, then she must go  due to kidney problems.

As for public loos in general....yep no loo roll, I always have a packet of tissues inmy handbag..with 2 girls this often needs replacing! as for the situation that SB mentioned with sanitary products there are an awful lot of dirty beggars about....but It also occured in my workplace in UK too.

Mrs O

[Ron Avery]

Not sure it is a greater problem in France than in the UK, supermarkets in France do not sell the treatment packets as they do in the UK, so most simple cases in the UK are not recorded.

It may seem like there is a bigger problem here because there may be more recorded information because you cannot buy the over the counter remedies except herbal ones, even in the chemist.  Chemists round here will sell the herbal remedy but normally insist that you go to the doctors to make sure it is not anything more serious, so although more cases of cystitis are recorded than in the UK, it does not mean that there are more.. 

[Teamedup]

RA, I don't think that a parent would self treat a little girl for cystiits in the UK. It isn't a condition that a parent would expect a young child to get, is it?

[Monika]

[quote]RA, I don't think that a parent would self treat a little girl for cystiits in the UK. It isn't a condition that a parent would expect a young child to get, is it?[/quote]

What about Cranberry juice? This is supposed to regulate the alkaline.

I often think that little girls are not dressed warm enough, especially in the colder months, to be cold and damp impaires the kidney function which means certain bacterias can not be filtered out, it's the same with getting a cold when you are wet!

[Ron Avery]

[quote]RA, I don't think that a parent would self treat a little girl for cystiits in the UK. It isn't a condition that a parent would expect a young child to get, is it?[/quote]

Why not?  If it is only cystitis and not anything else.  You obviously haven't been in the UK for a while then, all the supermarkets do cystitis treatments next to the aspirin, it is just not taken as seriously in the UK as it is in France  And as someone else has said cranberry juice is a great preventative for people who for various reasons, suffer more than most from this.

[Clarkkent]

When my daughter was young she had frequent bouts of cystitis - sufficiently frequent for her to invent some when she wanted to bunk off school.

The cause of cystitis is bacteria contained in faecal matter which can be transferred via the very short female urethra into the bladder. In many cases children infect themselves by inadequate cleaning after a bowel movement. Dirty toilets in a school is (or should be) totally unacceptable since this could lead to the transmission of cystitis from one girl to another. The school should be made aware of its public health responsibilities.

[opas]

I think I have to agree with TU here, all those tubes of Caneston and the sachets of powders for threating Cystitis are  surely meant for adults. If a child regularly suffers with this condition and is just self treated without proper diagnosis ,you could have a serious problem on your hands. Our youngest had bloodtests /scans etc due to a syndrome she was born with, it was discovered on one of these tests that she only had one fully functioning kidney, to leave this  to self treatment of cystitis on my behalf would have been critical.

Don`t for get barley water(not the lemon...oooch) and I was also advised that banana also has beneficial effects of reducing the acid in the system...do not know what factual evidence there is to this , but it does appear to ease symptomes....oh and plain yogurt to the external area as well!   food for thought!

Mrs O

[Iceni]

Don't read this if are squeamish BUT the simple act of wiping the bottom from front to back and not back to front would probably solve an awful lot of these infections in girls.

When I was a lab technician any urine infections in girls was treated very seriously. Once married it became - honeymoon cystitis - which I had in agony for 6 months till I passed a stone, their idea of my fun was a rather serious illness.

I am horrified by these figures and can only think that they had better start forward ordering dyalysis machines - early damage or backflushing of urine can have lasting effects.

[Russethouse]

I thought Caneston and yogurt were for thrush ?

Ron, I think the self medication stuff sold on supermarket shelves in the UK is aimed at adults, most parents would want to be pretty sure it was just a urine infection before attempting to treat it.

I agrree with Di, 'front to back' would save a lot of problems