How to Fight Head Lice

In Miami-Dade and Broward schools, children are sent home if lice or lice eggs, called nits, are found in their hair. Children can return to school after they are lice and nit-free.

Experts say being proactive is important because preventive measures can help your child avoid an infestation. Head lice are transmitted by head-to-head contact. They do not jump or fly, and they cannot live off of the head for more than 24 hours. Lice eggs, or nits, are teardrop-shaped and tiny, about the size of a knot in the hair. They are cemented in place with a secreted glue. If you pass your fingers over a spot in the hair and it doesn’t move, it’s likely a nit.

“Head lice are an equal opportunity parasite. Anyone, at any age, can get head lice,” said Shirley Gordon, director of the Head lice Treatment and Prevention Project at Florida Atlantic University. “Having head lice does not mean children are dirty or poorly cared for” – lice prefer clean heads. There are a few tips parents can follow to be pro-active, Shepherd said:

• Use mint spray on hair. A peppermint-scented spray has a 92-95 percent success rate in repelling lice. “The smell is pleasant to us, offensive to bugs,” Shepherd said.
• Get a nit comb.
• Do a weekly comb-out. Have your child wash and condition her hair. Detangle, then comb through with a nit comb. The hot spots are the nape of the neck and behind the ears, crown and bang area. Comb, then wipe on a white paper towel. Bugs will move around, and nits will look like tadpoles – an egg with a tail of glue on the end.
• Have children wear hair pulled back. Braid it if it’s long. Since lice are transferred by head-to-head contact, this makes it slightly harder for bugs to get to a head. Don’t worry about putting gel in hair; it’s not a deterrent, she said.
• Don’t worry so much about your child sharing hairbrushes, hats and headphones. “Less than 2 percent of the cases come from sharing items,” Shepherd said. “But if it makes you feel better, send your own headphones to school.”
• Have children take their own pillows to sleepovers.

Treatment involves a combination of a lice-killing shampoo and manual nit removal using a fine- toothed nit comb. After treatment, the hair should be checked every two to three days for nits. Lice eggs take a week or more to hatch, so the hair often has to be retreated seven to nine days after the initial treatment.

“Many parents spend their energy inappropriately cleaning the home,” Gordon said. “Head lice do not infest the home. Parents should focus their attention on treating their children and removing head lice and nits from the hair.”

Shepherd, author of Lice Advice: The Shepherd Method of Strand by Strand Nit Removal, said the real solution is knowledge. “What to look for, and using the right tools are what matters,” she said. “There’s no miracle product. It doesn’t exist.”

“Parents are capable of successfully treating head lice on their own. However, head lice treatment centers can be very helpful if parents are unsure if their children have an active infestation, have never treated their children for head lice, are not sure where to start or if their family is experiencing persistent infestations,” Gordon said.

When parents are shopping for over-the-counter products, they should remember that how the product is used and how well nits are removed determine success, Shepherd said. Rid and Nix are FDA- approved, but they are pesticides, and there are resistance issues from bugs, she said.

Pesticide-free options include Lice Cure, Licefreee!, Ginesis, Nit Free, Babo and LiceLogic. X-PEL is a good product for self-treatment, Shepherd said, because it strips the hair of oils and makes hair easier to work with.

Natroba, approved by the FDA in 2011, is a prescription product that looks promising, Shepherd said. Another new FDA-approved product, Sklice, is scheduled to hit the market later this year. Don’t use kerosene, gas, pet shampoo or malathion from a garden store. They are dangerous, Gordon said. Home remedies, such as mayonnaise and petroleum jelly, are hard to remove and have not been clinically proven to kill lice, she said.

Finally, don’t be embarrassed to tell, Shepherd said. Notify your child’s playmates so they can be checked and treated, or your child may get it back.

First Published on: 09/16/2012

Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/incoming/article1949513.html#storylink=cpy