Dealing With Head Lice Step 1: Don’t panic! It can be upsetting to find out that your child has head lice. However, before you freak out, here are some facts you should know about head lice. Head lice do not carry disease. Head lice cannot be transmitted to (or caught from) pets. Head lice are transmitted by head-‐to-‐head contact. Though possible, it is much less likely to get lice from sharing hats or combs. Head lice do not survive long away from the human head (approximately 12 to 36 hours at most). Head lice do not hop or fly; they can only crawl. Head lice eggs (nits) will not hatch away from the warmth of the scalp. Head lice prefer clean hair. In short, head lice are an itchy annoyance, not a disaster, an indication of poor hygiene, or a judgment on your parenting. Knowing some basic facts about lice will help you get rid of them. Step 2: Determine the extent of the problem If your child has head lice, you should check every member of your family to determine who else may have it. Transmission is more likely among family members who share beds or who otherwise have regular head-‐to-‐head contact. As you can see from the images above, head lice and their eggs (nits) are extremely small. Lice themselves are whitish to rust-‐colored insects about the size of a sesame seed. Nits are approximately the size of a grain of sand and can be white, grey or tan in color, and are stuck to the hair shaft at an angle. Nits are most often found in the hair behind the ears and at the nape of the neck, very close to the scalp (about ¼ inch away). Make sure you check under bright light, and you may want to use a magnifying glass. Another way to identify lice is to put conditioner on dry hair, comb through with a lice comb, and then wipe on a white paper towel. Any nits or lice combed out should be visible on the towel. Don’t assume because you can’t see the lice that your child doesn’t have them. The actual bugs move very quickly away from light, and the eggs are tiny. If your child is scratching their scalp, especially around the nape of the neck or behind the ears, lice should be 2 suspected. Try the conditioner method if you’ve checked visually but your child is still scratching. Step 3: Treatment There are many varieties of commercial products and home remedies available for the treatment of lice. The key to any of these methods, however, is removing lice and their eggs from their preferred environment (the human head!) with a lice comb. The most effective kind of lice comb has long, closely spaced metal teeth. Included below in the Resources section are directions for a home remedy that other parents have found easy to use and effective. You should also take steps to clean objects, linens, and clothing that were in contact with the heads of affected family members. Wash clothing and bed linens in hot water and dry in a hot dryer. Vacuum furniture, mattresses, car seat covers, etc. Put items that cannot be washed (such as stuffed animals or throw pillows) in plastic bags and leave them sealed for 10 days to 2 weeks. During the treatment period, change pillowcases daily to prevent re-‐infestation. While there is a fair amount of work involved, taking a diligent approach will ensure that the lice do not come back. You may want to treat everyone in your household at the same time to ensure that lice won’t be passed back and forth between family members. Remember, no chemical treatment, whether commercial or a home remedy, kills 100% of the eggs. Any treatment plan must include regular combing to be effective. See the next page for tips to help maximize the effectiveness of your treatment efforts. 3 • You may want to use repellent shampoos or sprays to protect unaffected family members from infestation and to keep treated members from being re-‐infested. These remedies often contain tea tree oil or peppermint oil to repel lice. (Repellent remedies will not kill or eradicate lice, and should not be considered a substitute for treatment.) • Avoid wetting the hair before applying any chemicals. Lice go into a state of suspended animation when in water and can easily survive showering, regular shampooing, and swimming. • Blow drying the hair in conjunction with lice combing can increase the effectiveness of treatment. In a study by the University of Utah, “A handheld blow dryer was used to apply directed heating. Hair clips were used to divide each child's hair into 20 sections. The dryer was held still for 30 seconds to heat one side of each section, then held still another 30 seconds to heat the other side. This method killed 55 percent of lice and 98 percent of eggs." However, blow drying alone is not a substitute for combing! • Take care in utilizing home remedies suggested on the internet. If you use tea tree oil, peppermint oil, vinegar, Listerine, or other home remedy suggestions on yourself or your child, they should be diluted. These are strong chemicals and can irritate the scalp. • A handy tip for keeping your furniture clean is to place towels on the backs of your sofas and wash them daily during treatment. • DO NOT use pesticidal sprays meant for furniture or upholstery on people; the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend the use of these sprays at all. 4 Resources 1. Cetaphil treatment for lice. This method has been successfully used by other parents and does not involve the use of pesticides. Cetaphil Skin Cleanser is readily available at Ralphs, Target, CVS, and other stores. (Some stores also carry store brand versions of this product.) Often parents are reluctant to apply chemical shampoo to a child's head to treat lice. Lice are becoming resistant to the chemical shampoos, and sometimes you still have lice after a chemical treatment. Smothering the lice has been a long-standing non-chemical treatment. Cetaphil is one smothering method that pediatricians may recommend to kill head lice, and it's not as difficult to remove from the hair as mayonnaise or olive oil. Instructions Bath towel 8 to 12 oz. Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser 8 oz. application bottle Comb Bath towel Metal lice comb Applying the Cetaphil 1 Purchase a 12 oz. bottle of Cetaphil Gentle Cleanser at a major retailer or drugstore. You also need an 8 oz. clear application bottle with a tip, which can be found at a beauty supply store (or see online Resources below). Fill the application bottle with Cetaphil. 5 2 Drape a towel around the child's shoulders to catch any extra cleanser that drips off the hair. The hair should be dry for this treatment. 3 Begin at the nape of the neck on the left side and apply the cleanser directly to the scalp moving back and forth from the nape of the neck to the front hairline until you reach the right side. This should use 1/4 of the cleanser. 4 Change the direction of the zigzag pattern to criss-cross the first pattern. Now the application bottle should be half empty. 5 Massage the cleanser into the scalp. 6 Repeat Steps 3 and 4. Now the application bottle should be empty. Massage the cleanser into the scalp again. 7 Refill the bottle half full if you child has long hair. Squirt the cleanser on the hair strands and massage it in. Completing the Treatment 1 Wait just 2 minutes and then comb out the cleanser. Wipe the excess cleanser onto another towel. The goal is to remove as much cleanser as possible so it will take less time to blow dry the hair. 2 Remove nits with a lice comb. Place the lice comb at the scalp and slowly comb through. Swish the comb in a bowl of water to see if anything comes 6 out. A white bowl works best to spot the nits. Flush the water down the toilet when done. 3 Blow dry the hair so that the scalp, roots and strands are completely dry. This is very important so the cleanser adheres to the lice and cannot be rubbed off on a pillow. Expect blow drying to take three times longer than it normally does. Do not apply hair products. 4 Leave the dried cleanser on the hair overnight or for at least 8 hours. 5 Shampoo with your normal shampoo. You can rinse hair with a 50/50 mixture of vinegar and warm water and then comb again with the lice comb before shampooing. The vinegar helps to loosen the nits. 6 Check daily for live lice and nits. Remove nits immediately. Retreat with Cetaphil if you see live lice or contact your pediatrician for advice. 7 Repeat this treatment after seven days and again seven days after that to kill any newly hatched lice before they become adults and lay eggs. This is a crucial step to break the lice life cycle. Read more: How to Treat Head Lice With Cetaphil | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2123367_treat-head-licecetaphil.html#ixzz1LtFg3Zia 7 2. An information sheet on lice and treatment from a Northern California school, which contains a recipe for a homemade lice shampoo. 8 9 3. Professional Lice Treatment If you are feeling overwhelmed or would simply like some backup, there are professional services that treat for lice. These usually charge a lower fee (approximately $25) to evaluate if you have lice and higher fees to treat in the event they find lice (around $75-‐85 per hour of treatment; most services will credit an evaluation fee toward treatment cost). To find a local service, Google “lice removal Sherman Oaks” for current information. Some services will treat in your home. Some lice-‐removal businesses also sell lice combs and/or their own brands of lice treatment products. Please note that if you use professional lice services you should still follow up by combing out your child’s hair in your own home. 10