My nephew (1 year old) is visiting and staying for the weekend, and I've just been reminded of the Toxocara problem which can cause blindness to humans. We have 9 day old puppies, obviously therefore I'll make sure he doesn't touch them. But what about the mother? We did worm her with the liquid Panacur up to 2 days after the birth, does that mean it is safe for him to crawl on the carpet where she will have walked, as long as again he doesn't have direct contact with her?

As long as normal hygiene is observed there is no need to get paranoid.  the fact you worm in whelp will have been a great help and was one of the reasons I did this as when I first bred my kids were small.

For toxacara eggs to become infective they need to mature over about two weeks, usually this happens in the soil, so the biggest danger is from children ingesting them after playing on the ground where dogs have contaminated play areas and they get their hands dirty and put them in their mouths or eat with them  without washing first.  Even then the chances of the lava migrating to the eye or another location where they will cause serious harm are very small.

Of course such a young child will not be handling the pups or even do anything more than stroke the Mum, so just vacuum and mop floors and wipe surfaces as you would normally.

Hi,
All down to hygiene, everyone should wash there hands after handling young pups, all my grandchildren do, with antibactierial hand wash.
The have never found it a problem even when my baby grandson was crawling. Just don't let the bitch lick his face. If so wash it.
Unless there is poo on the carpet, there shouldn't be a problem.
Regards
Denese

That's a relief. Just hair on the carpet, and Ellie's indifferent to the baby anyway, she ignores him as a rule. Only one of the 3 adult dogs really loves to come and play. I'll just make sure everyone washes hands and keep him away from direct contact. :-)

Hi I have been worried about this too.Did you see the program on TV last month.It was about worms and how easy it is for young kids or even adults to get them.they showed a vet shaving a young pups bum and found lots of worms eggs on the puppys hair,it made me sick as i have 3 young children and 3 dogs myself .They said most household cleaners does not kill the eggs ,if anyone here on this site could tell me the best cleaner to use,i would be very greatful.

To be honest these programs just scare peopel.  there are so many bugs adn germs in our environment,a dn guess what we ahve soemthign called and immune system to deal with most of them.

Even with all the scare tactics about the risks of toxocara the statistics for infection are pretty low and the cases of laval migration to a vital area or the eye are tiny.  I think I read somewehre only two proven cases of vision beign affected in a humber of years.

http://www.medic8.com/infectious-diseases/toxocariasis.htm

Started looking for links and didn't edit my typos in time.