Headlice Pages
Advice from an expert in point form, as to strategies to deal with headlice - especially where it pertains to children aged 4 to 8 years of age.
* Don't Panic - Head lice are a nuisance - the only danger to the child is from the over-reaction of parents - ie. incorrect treatment with noxious chemicals, etc.
* Head lice are extremely prevalent in the pre-school, early school age group - a recent JCU study found that almost half of the children in this test group had head lice.
* Cleaning of bed sheets, floors, clothing etc even hats and pillows is completely useless to their eradication in a household. The same JCU study counted thousands of headlice found in children's hair. A complete and thorough microscopic examination of every single classroom did not even find a single one anywhere else.
* Headlice themselves can become fairly resistant quite quickly to virtually any treatment. Head lice eggs (or nits) can neither be killed nor removed by any insect killing chemical treatment within the first three days of being laid. This means that physical removal via a fine tooth comb is also necessary regardless of which chemical treatment is used.
* Physical removal of head lice from long hair requires conditioner. Note well that the head lice will be very close to the scalp, and may evade careless combing. Combing will not remove the eggs - Breaking the breeding cycle requires re-treatment after 6-7 days. After 6-7 days, all the eggs will have hatched, but the lice will not be old enough to breed. Earlier or later re-treatment will not be as effective in breaking the cycle.
* Re-infestation is the main cause for "persistent" infestations that seem never to go away. Although careless or inadequate removal and inadequate re-treatment is also an issue worth checking on - behavioural training of the children is the longer-term solution.
* Since generally 95% of transferral is directly from head to head touching, and the other 5% from hair touching in other ways, eg. sharing the same pillow at the same time - Silly things like teaching children to hug without touching hair, tying hair back meticulously are good long term preventatives.
* More esoteric theory can demonstrate that teachers concentrating on the few children that seem to hug everybody, and deterring their behaviour or training them in ways to avoid hair contact will have a positive effect on everybody's hair. Teachers can also help by getting parents to treat the kids on the same day.
* Olive oil - This natural therapy is ages old and can work BUT it doesn't work like an insecticide. It kills the lice very slowly by gradual suffocation. You can't put it on, wash it off after 20 minutes and expect the lice to die. The idea is to leave it in the hair between washes - which can look and feel disgusting. If you care about how your daughter's hair looks, I wouldn't use this. Gel and hair spray can look good and slowly suffocate the insects at the same time.
* Boys - Clearly the easiest solution with boys is to shave the hair down to a "number 2". This doesn't necessarily kill them all, but it makes it much easier to.
* "Strength" of insect killing chemical. This is much less important than it seems. Even if some solution is found which kills head lice very effectively, this tends to give users a false sense of security - which is the bigger problem. Stronger chemicals are also more likely to have side effects, and probable longer term issues.
* Chemical free treatment - We have had good success with just normal shampoo and conditioner. This at any rate immobilises the headlice while you can comb them out. I have a bucket nearby to rinse the comb so I can tell how many lice there are, and how big they are. At the initial treatment you may notice lice of all sizes. In the re-treatment after a week, they should be uniformly small (hatchlings). If there are some adult ones, this can either mean there has been a re-infestation or careless treatment on the original treatment 6 days previous.
* Frequently asked questions - well , I don't know what they are yet - so ask away!
Advice from an expert in point form, as to strategies to deal with headlice - especially where it pertains to children aged 4 to 8 years of age.
* Don't Panic - Head lice are a nuisance - the only danger to the child is from the over-reaction of parents - ie. incorrect treatment with noxious chemicals, etc.
* Head lice are extremely prevalent in the pre-school, early school age group - a recent JCU study found that almost half of the children in this test group had head lice.
* Cleaning of bed sheets, floors, clothing etc even hats and pillows is completely useless to their eradication in a household. The same JCU study counted thousands of headlice found in children's hair. A complete and thorough microscopic examination of every single classroom did not even find a single one anywhere else.
* Headlice themselves can become fairly resistant quite quickly to virtually any treatment. Head lice eggs (or nits) can neither be killed nor removed by any insect killing chemical treatment within the first three days of being laid. This means that physical removal via a fine tooth comb is also necessary regardless of which chemical treatment is used.
* Physical removal of head lice from long hair requires conditioner. Note well that the head lice will be very close to the scalp, and may evade careless combing. Combing will not remove the eggs - Breaking the breeding cycle requires re-treatment after 6-7 days. After 6-7 days, all the eggs will have hatched, but the lice will not be old enough to breed. Earlier or later re-treatment will not be as effective in breaking the cycle.
* Re-infestation is the main cause for "persistent" infestations that seem never to go away. Although careless or inadequate removal and inadequate re-treatment is also an issue worth checking on - behavioural training of the children is the longer-term solution.
* Since generally 95% of transferral is directly from head to head touching, and the other 5% from hair touching in other ways, eg. sharing the same pillow at the same time - Silly things like teaching children to hug without touching hair, tying hair back meticulously are good long term preventatives.
* More esoteric theory can demonstrate that teachers concentrating on the few children that seem to hug everybody, and deterring their behaviour or training them in ways to avoid hair contact will have a positive effect on everybody's hair. Teachers can also help by getting parents to treat the kids on the same day.
* Olive oil - This natural therapy is ages old and can work BUT it doesn't work like an insecticide. It kills the lice very slowly by gradual suffocation. You can't put it on, wash it off after 20 minutes and expect the lice to die. The idea is to leave it in the hair between washes - which can look and feel disgusting. If you care about how your daughter's hair looks, I wouldn't use this. Gel and hair spray can look good and slowly suffocate the insects at the same time.
* Boys - Clearly the easiest solution with boys is to shave the hair down to a "number 2". This doesn't necessarily kill them all, but it makes it much easier to.
* "Strength" of insect killing chemical. This is much less important than it seems. Even if some solution is found which kills head lice very effectively, this tends to give users a false sense of security - which is the bigger problem. Stronger chemicals are also more likely to have side effects, and probable longer term issues.
* Chemical free treatment - We have had good success with just normal shampoo and conditioner. This at any rate immobilises the headlice while you can comb them out. I have a bucket nearby to rinse the comb so I can tell how many lice there are, and how big they are. At the initial treatment you may notice lice of all sizes. In the re-treatment after a week, they should be uniformly small (hatchlings). If there are some adult ones, this can either mean there has been a re-infestation or careless treatment on the original treatment 6 days previous.
* Frequently asked questions - well , I don't know what they are yet - so ask away!
posted by Marco Parigi at 3:05 PM
2 comments
