Head Lice

Head Lice are another common mishap during many children's adventures in life. Let's see what they are and what we can do about them.

What Are Head Lice?

A head louse (singular for lice) is a tiny parasite that can't fly. It lives among human hair and feeds on small amounts of blood drawn from the scalp. They are contagious and sometimes very tough to get rid of.
 




How Do I Know If My Child Has Head Lice?

Even with their tiny size lice can be seen by the human eye. Look for lice eggs, called nits. Tiny yellow to brown dots on or near the scalp. They look like dandruff but cant be brushed or shaken off. It is more common to see nits in a child's hair than it is to see live lice crawling around. It's easiest to spot these nits after the louse has already hatched from it. It is white or clear in color and remains attached to the hair shaft.

Your child will also be itching. The lice bite the scalp to feed on blood. and the reaction to their saliva is the itchy part.


What Can I Do?

There are a few things you can do to get rid of these bugs. One solution involves a medicated shampoo, cream rinse, or lotion that all work to kill the lice. These should be used as directed because they contain insecticides. using it too much can increase the risk of causing harm and not using enough will not properly kill and get rid of the lice.

BUT, if your child is under 2 years of age it is not recommended to use the above mentioned treatments. Instead you can use a method called wet combing. Use a fine tooth comb on your child's wet, conditioned hair every 3 to 4 days for two weeks after the last live louse was seen. Wetting the hair temporarily paralyzes the lice and the conditioner allows for the comb to move through the hair more easily. Other popular treatments such as saturating the hair and scalp in petroleum jelly , mayonnaise, or olive oil are not as effective as the previous methods.

Lice do not survive for very long after they fall off the person so you don't need to spend a lot of time and money ridding the house of any lice.


Pictures from 
http://www.macon.k12.mo.us/useful_links/health_page/headlice_101
http://ragingrootsstudio.com/rrs/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/nits_in_hair.jpg