Does your child have head lice?
Head lice are a common problem among young children – in fact, infestations of these tiny parasitic insects are second most common communicable disease that affects school-age children, after the common cold. So how do you recognize when your child has them and what should you do about it?
What are head lice?
Head lice are tiny wingless insects, gray-brown in color (they resemble sesame seeds), that live in the hair and feed by sucking blood from the scalp. An infestation can start out from just one of them crawling onto your child’s hair from another child (they can’t jump) to lay its eggs, which are called nits. The eggs take a week to 10 days to hatch and the nymphs mature into adult head lice 14 days later, and can then reproduce itself.
Head lice are particularly common among young children who play or sit close together, since this enables the lice to transfer between heads. It’s also possible for them to spread via hairbrushes and hats. Having head lice is in no way a reflection on hygiene levels in your home – I fact it’s thought they prefer clean hair.
What are the symptoms of head lice?
Although it’s common for an infestation to occur with no symptoms, most children with a large infestation may complain of a crawling sensation on their heads, and may also itch intensely (this is an allergic reaction to head lice saliva). You also may see a red rash of tiny spots on your child’s scalp.
It’s difficult to spot adult lice in the hair, especially if your child is dark-haired, although they may be seen at the nape of the neck and behind the ears – you can use a magnifying glass to help you track them down. These also are the sites where you may see nits attached to the hairs close down near the scalp. They resemble white flecks of dandruff that isn’t dislodged when you brush it, or scrape it with your fingernail.
Finding live lice is the most reliable sign of an infestation and the best way to do this is by wet combing your child’s hair. Wet it and apply conditioner, then comb through it a section at a time, pausing to wipe the comb on a clean white towel between each stroke to check if there are any lice.
How do I treat head lice?
Treatment can be difficult because head lice are so hard to detect, can rapidly develop an immunity to insecticides, and have such a short life cycle. One treatment may kill all the live lice on your child’s head, but may not destroy the nits _ which will then hatch out and re-infest her a week or so later. For this reason, the best way to treat them is actually the simplest – regular wet combing, which removes the live lice as they hatch before they have time to start reproducing themselves. This method also avoids exposing your child to strong insecticide treatments and shampoos. You should thoroughly comb through your child’s hair ever two or three days for a period of two to three weeks until no more live lice are being removed.
You should only use an insecticidal lotion or rinse if you have found a live louse on your child’s head (don’t use these on babies). Ask your pharmacist to recommend one, follow the instructions to the letter, and then remove dead lice and nits with a nit comb. You will likely need to repeat the treatment a week later to kill any remaining lice that have hatched in the meantime.
Preventing head lice
The best way of preventing head lice is to get into the habit of wet combing your child’s head every few weeks. It’s difficult to stop young children from playing closely together, but do encourage your child not to share hats and/or scarves, and if you have more than one child, don’t permit them to share her hairbrushes and combs.
It also is vital to treat the whole family (including yourself) if your child has head lice since it is likely that they will have spread.