When lice crawls up the hair
- By Team TDO
Does your kid continuously scratch his hair? It might be a problem of head lice. When kids start going to school, they make friends, who may have lice in their hairs. They unknowingly transfer these lice to your kid’s hair. It is an irritating problem and affects the concentration of the kids in school.
Follow these simple tips that will help you keep these blood sucking parasites away.
What are head lice?
Head lice are a common parasite found in children mainly in the age group of 3-12 years. It is more common in girls than boys. The infection is not because someone is unhygienic or unhealthy.The infestation can happen in kids of any socio-economic background, irrespective of whether they wash hair or bathe regularly or not.
Do they spread any diseases?
Lice are not contagious and do not spread any disease. They spread from person-to-person contact and sharing objects like combs, caps or clothing.
How to detect head lice?
You will initially find lice by finding nits (eggs laid by the lice) on hair strands closer to the scalp. These nits cling tightly to the hair and rupture after 1-2 weeks. Then the nymph or the adult louse moves freely onto the scalp.The movement may give a creepy sensation to the child. These louse feed on the blood from scalp several times a day. Irritation or itching in the scalp is in response to the saliva of the louse.
How to treat head lice?
Treatment of the same is very simple, but sometimes anxiety may cause harm. Many over the counter medicated shampoos are available in the market. These products must be used safely as these are pesticides.
The correct way to use them is:
- Apply the shampoo on the scalp.Leave on for 2-3 minutes then rinse off with water.
- Then apply a conditioner on the hair that eases combing and avoids pulling of hair.
- Once done, use a fine toothed comb to comb the wet hair itself as the nits are loosened now due to use of the shampoo.
- The procedure should be repeated once very week for two weeks until the last louse moving in scalp was seen.
- Repetition of product is advised for cleaning of the newer nits laid by the louse later.
When should one consult a doctor?
One must take care if there is no improvement even after using the medicated shampoo for more than two occasions.Consult a doctor who may advise some other topical applications or sometimes, other medications.
