Head Lice Background And Treatments
Lice infection is very common among young children, especially the ones who are starting school. This is because lice are commonly caused by contact to other children or even adults. While the head lice prefer the human heads with hair as their living place, it is important to know that lice infection in not a medical disease. Lice feed on the human blood. But they don’t even spread diseases like the bacteria and viruses do. Having lice on your head is not a thing to get terrified about as they can be removed.
However, they are an annoyance. People infested with head lice are irritated by the lice because they itch. Even if you get rid of adult lice, the problem is not over till their eggs, called nits, are removed too. So, how to get rid of lice and nits? No amount of soaping and shampooing will do the trick. Then, is there a way to get rid of this embarrassment? Yes, there are quite a few methods to rid of the infestations.
A manual search to find and kill head lice and nits will be effective but is slow, laborious, and frustrating. Medicated shampoos will help kill them. Using a lice comb on wet hair will force lice and nits out of hair so that they can be disposed of. In fact, such nit combs, as they’re sometimes called, are more effective than most medical treatment since many lice are now immune to all current forms of chemical treatment that are used to kill them.
After combing using the lice comb, remove all debris from the comb and wash it by holding it under running water, preferably warm water, and dry thoroughly. You can use your hair blower to blow hot air on it from a slight distance. Wash and dry the head and repeat the whole routine of combing. Just combing once is not enough and you have to repeat to ensure all the nits and head lice are eradicated.
Washing all bedspreads, pillow covers, towels and clothing in hot water and drying them in a hot dryer can avoid fresh infestation. Items that cannot be washed this way can be placed in an airtight container for about three days, so that any lice and nits in these items will die, deprived of human blood for more than a day. While treating the recently used items of personal usage, hats, scarves, caps should also be included.
Next, clean all the combs, brushes, hairpins and other such things that can come into contact with the head. Tell your children about the importance of not using combs, brushes, hats and caps belonging to other kids. Allocate separate combs and brushes for each person, easily identifiable by different colors. Do not let any child lie on pillows belonging to another. The whole process has to be repeated at least every week for a month. This is to make sure infestations do not occur after a couple of weeks, as the lice have a life cycle of three weeks.
You can use fine-toothed combs called lice comb on moistened hair to remove the lice and nits. Just combing once is not enough and you have to repeat to ensure all the head lice and nits are removed. Now how to get rid of lice you need to make sure that anything touching the infested head is clean- combs, brushes, caps, hairpins, and so on. Even if you get rid of adult lice, the problem is not over till their eggs, called nits, are removed too. Adults coming into contact with the children can get lice as well. Lice are not exactly a medical problem, and you should not panic if you are infested.
- norman horowitz
