As kids head back to school, be prepared that your child could be exposed to crawlers like lice.
If your child complains of an itchy scalp or comes home with a lice diagnosis from the school nurse, don’t panic. Lice are not a health hazard and you can’t get physically sick from them, according to Dr. Don Shifrin, a Bellevue pediatrician.
Take steps to treat it, and your child should be rid of the pests.
“You are not an inadequate or failed parent if your child gets lice,” Shifrin said.
What are head lice?
Lice are wingless parasites that have only be found on humans. Adult lice are about the size of a sesame seed and can live over three weeks, according to Shifrin.
After maturing in nine to 12 days, lice can lay up to six to eight eggs per day. The eggs attach to the hair shaft about 1/8 inch from the scalp in sacs called nits. Nits are often seen at the nape of the neck or behind the ears.
Most lice infestations are caused by head-to-head contact; about 4 percent of cases are from infected pillowcases with even less from hats or hairbrushes, according to Shifrin.
How do you treat head lice?
If your child is diagnosed by a school nurse or your pediatrician, Shifrin said to treat your child’s hair with an over-the-counter treatment that contains 1 percent Permethrin, an anti-parasite medication. Shifrin warned against using other products, such as olive oil, mayonnaise, or bleach.
“There is no proof these are effective,” Shifrin said.
Manually removing the nits is time consuming and may not be necessary if the treatment is effective, according to Shifrin.
You can also wash sheets and stuffed animals or seal any other items in a plastic bag for two weeks. However, Shifrin said lice rarely survive off the scalp.
