How to Prevent Possible Lice on Furniture

Parents, don't exist blindsided.

September is Head Lice Prevention Month, every bit good a time equally whatsoever to prepare for a possible infestation of the tiny critters — peradventure even on your own child'due south clean caput.

Vigilance is crucial, co-ordinate to the experts, especially since lice prefer a meticulous head, ane that is free of oil or dirt, one that allows them to efficiently grab and cling onto a hair shaft.

So you might want to codify a plan now that will assistance you lot stay calm in the outcome that you lot get a phone call from the school nurse saying that your youngster's head is infested.

"Don't panic," says pediatrician Barbara Gannon, M.D. of Washingtonville Pediatrics. "I think that in that location are very bad societal feelings about lice, that people think you're dirty. And that's wrong. Anybody gets lice. It'due south an annoyance, information technology'due south a hurting, only it'due south not horrible."

Gannon knows from personal experience: She'due south dealt with caput lice at home on three separate occasions, with i tour lasting for six months, as three of her six children kept passing information technology dorsum and forth.

"I couldn't get rid of information technology considering I think I would get 2 of the three perfectly clean, and then someone would have a nit (a louse egg) or two then it would be all over (their heads) over again in a month," she recalls. "My kids have very blond hair so it's hard to encounter nits on their hair. And my daughters have very thick, thick hair. Picking nits became my life."

Finally, Gannon says, she gave the girls cute, practical, chin-length haircuts. Her kids no longer launder their hair every day, in hopes of making their heads less attractive to the insects. And they know not to share brushes, combs and hair decorations.

The most common spots to find developed lice are backside your ears and along the back of your neck.

Lice eggs (nits) on hair shafts tin can be mistaken for dandruff, just unlike dandruff, they can't be easily brushed out of hair. Lice cement their eggs firmly onto the base of hair shafts, very shut to the scalp. Co-ordinate to the Centers for Illness Control and Prevention, nits found more than a quarter of an inch abroad from the scalp take either already hatched or aren't going to hatch.

Simply finding nits isn't proof of an agile head lice infestation. The clearest sign is finding a living, moving louse. Combing wet hair with a fine-toothed rummage is the best fashion to find this evidence.

Lice may cause you to scratch your head then vigorously that you break the skin. See your doctor if these scratches become infected.

Lice can alive for about two days without a meal, and nits volition die within a week if they're not kept at the same temperature as that found well-nigh the human scalp. That's why information technology's then uncommon for people to be infected with lice by any method other than head-to-caput contact.

Gannon has lots of advice for other parents finding themselves in similar situations. Get-go, she says she thinks people should exist more open almost the subject, and that parents should tell others when their children have head lice.

Such "heads ups" would allow other parents the opportunity to check their children's heads subsequently play dates. "Don't be afraid to talk about information technology," Gannon said. "Because it's of import for people to exist enlightened. If at that place are lice in the classroom, check your kid. And and so treat, kill the alive lice and and so pick out the nits."

Gannon says she normally tells parents to use chemical shampoos or crème rinses such as Nix or Rid to impale the live lice, followed immediately by a good combing with a metal castor to sweep the dead bugs from the hair.

Later that, the "wearisome" work of going through the hair, inch by inch, picking out nits, begins. "Every twenty-four hours, for seven days," Gannon says of the nit picking.

"And and so you treat over again with some product, whether it'southward Nix or Rid." And rummage and choice again for another seven days.

Gannon emphasizes that parents should not exhaust themselves by trying to make clean the entire house while they're coping with nits. Care for the live lice with whatever method yous've decided to employ (in that location are many; see stories on next page), then change the bedsheets of the affected person, and wash the wearable they wore in the last two days in hot h2o, followed by twenty minutes in a hot dryer.

But you only have to practice it once, she emphasized. "You lot've treated them for alive lice and you're done. They don't alive very long off your body."

Or skip the laundry altogether, and pack affected bedding, wearable, blimp animals and the like into plastic bags and put them in the basement for two weeks. Gannon says she vacuums — especially the person'south bed — merely focuses mainly on treating and combing out heads.

"The whole point to treating lice is to impale the alive lice and and then pick the eggs out," she said. "Lice have lived for so many years considering their eggs are very tough and nothing really gets in there to kill the nits. You lot have to get the nits off because in 7 days they're going to hatch, and you're going to have new bugs in there."

Both over-the-counter and prescription medications are available to care for head lice. Follow all directions carefully.

According to the Mayo Dispensary, shampoos containing either pyrethrin (Rid, others) or permethrin (Nix) are usually the first option used to combat lice infestations. In some locations, lice have grown resistant to the ingredients in over-the-counter lice treatments. If over-the-counter preparations don't work, your dr. can prescribe shampoos or lotions that comprise unlike ingredients.

• Head lice are a very mutual problem, affecting millions of people each yr - specially preschool and elementary school-anile children and their close contacts. • Head lice are tiny, wingless, parasitic insects that live and feed on blood from your scalp. Head lice tin't fly or spring, and they're not transmitted past pets. • Lice are tiny, most the size of a strawberry seed, merely they tin can be up to ane/eight inch in size. • The greatest chance factor for getting head lice is coming into close contact with someone who already has lice. They are commonly spread by caput-to-head contact. • Less commonly, caput lice may be transmitted past such items as caps, hats, scarves, brushes, combs, hair decorations and headphones. • Head lice may sometimes be contracted by contact with contaminated towels, clothing, blankets, pillows and upholstered furniture. • Cleanliness and personal hygiene have little bearing on whether y'all become lice. Kathy Swanwick

KEEP THESE FACTS IN MIND

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