Take the following measures to prevent head lice:
● Avoid head-to-head (hair-to-hair) contact between children during play and other activities at home, school and elsewhere.
● Do not share hats, scarves, coats, sports uniforms, hair ribbons or barrettes.
● Do not share combs, brushes or towels.
● Watch for signs of head lice. Early detection is key to stopping the spread.
● Play it safe — don’t knowingly expose yourself to lice. If your child has lice, notify people who might have been in contact with your child to prevent the spread of the bugs.
Sources: CDC, Elimilice
The facts of lice
● Head lice don’t spread disease.
● Lice are not a sign of poor hygiene.
● They can’t fly or hop but can crawl and usually spread from direct head-to-head contact.
● The egg (or nit): Nits are laid by the adult female head louse at the base of the hair shaft nearest the scalp. Attached to the hair shaft, they are oval-shaped, very small (about the size of a knot in thread) and hard to see. They often appear yellow or white, although some appear to be the same color as the hair of the infested person. Head lice nits usually take eight to nine days to hatch.
● Nymph: A nymph is an immature louse that hatches from the nit. It looks like an adult head louse, but smaller. To live, a nymph must feed on blood. Nymphs mature into adults about nine to twelve days after hatching.
● Adult louse: The fully grown louse is about the size of a sesame seed, has six legs and is tan to grayish-white in color. It may look darker in persons with dark hair. To survive, adult head lice must feed on blood. An adult head louse can live about 30 days on a person’s head but will die within one or two days if it falls off a person. Adult female head lice can lay about six eggs each day.
Source: Centers for Disease Control
The latest on lice
A new report by the American Academy of Pediatrics offers the latest thinking on the topic of lice prevention and treatment. Among its key findings:
● Abandon no-nit policies at schools. After being treated for lice, a child should be able to attend school. Nits do not move from one person to another, and school is no more risky for passing lice than other day-to-day activities such as playing sports. The AAP believes some children unnecessarily miss school because of lice. Even though lice are contagious, they are not harmful.
● If parents want an alternative to over-the-counter insecticides to treat lice, they should consider “wet-combing” (which involves using a special, fine-toothed nit comb to remove the bugs) or another method such as Cetaphil (a mild skin cleanser that can suffocate lice as it dries). Repeating the process for at least two weekly cycles is key.
● If using a pediculicide (chemical treatment to kill the lice), removal of nits immediately after treatment is not necessary to prevent the spread, because only live lice cause an infestation. Repeating the treatment in a week to 10 days kills any lice that have hatched since the first treatment. (Many experts still think it’s a good idea to remove as many nits as possible so there will be fewer lice to deal with during the next treatment cycle).
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