This means your child must have been touching heads with someone who has head lice. This may happen during sports, slumber parties or play time in or outside of school. A less likely way to get head lice is by sharing personal items that touch the head, such as hats, hair brushes and hair accessories. Once your child comes home with a confirmed case of head lice, take steps to prevent lice from spreading to other family members.
Washing hats, pillow cases and similar items that touch the head in hot water may help contain head lice. Cohen says. To properly treat head lice, you need to understand your enemy. Head lice can be found in one or more of these forms:. All three generations of head lice need to be nonviable, or dead, to get rid of head lice for good.
Head lice need a human host to survive. If the hair is gone, so are head lice. If your child already gets short haircuts, it may make sense for you to deal with head lice by destroying their habitat. Lice cannot jump or fly.
They can only crawl. Lice are only passed to others by close head-to-head contact. Even then the risk is low. Lice are rarely passed to others by sharing caps or combs. Sleepovers and sleeping together only has a small risk. Bed-sharing is the only reason the AAP recommends treating after exposure. Most often, the spread of lice to others occurs at home, not school. Bellevue Everett Federal Way Seattle.
Should your child see a doctor? In addition, it should not be used by people who are allergic to chrysanthemums or ragweed. Pyrethrin based products could cause a serious allergic reaction. Avoid using mayonnaise, olive oil, tea oils, petroleum jelly, margarine, or butter. These alternative treatments aim to suffocate the lice. They have not been proven to be effective and may be hard to wash out of the hair.
The doctor may order a prescription lice medicine if the over the counter medicine does not work. A prescription medicine might be needed for treating lice in a very young child.
These medicines have chemicals that are different than the over-the-counter medicines. The directions for using them may be different. Some may require only one treatment. They often cost more and may not be covered by insurance. Malathion has flammable ingredients that could set the hair on fire. Machine-wash in hot, soapy water then dry. Use the hot cycle of a dryer for at least 20 minutes. Wash all washable clothing including hats, scarves and coats and all bed linens, towels and washcloths that have had contact with your child in the past 3 days.
Vacuum all carpets and furniture, including beds. This will remove any hairs that might have nits attached that are still alive. Do not spray insecticides on carpet and furniture nor hire a pest control company to treat your home.
It is not necessary and could expose children to harmful chemicals. Pillows, stuffed animals, clothing and other things that cannot be washed may be dry-cleaned. Or you can put them in a tightly-sealed plastic bag for 3 days Picture 1. Any nits or lice on these things will die in 2 days. Check the hair and scalp of all family members every 2 to 3 days by combing the hair until no live lice are found for 10 days. It is not necessary to treat anyone unless they have lice.
Treatment that is not needed increases resistance to the lice medicine. Tell parents of your child's closest friends that their children may also have lice since the children play together. Tell the school nurse at your child's school. The nurse can check other children for nits and make sure they're treated too. In some schools a child cannot return until he or she has received one treatment and is checked for live lice by the school nurse.
If live lice are found, the nurse will send the child home. Check your child's hair often during the school year, especially when the school tells parents there is a lice problem. Skip to Content. Urgent Care. In This Section. Conditions We Treat Head Lice. Section Navigation. Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Syndicate. Minus Related Pages. General Guidelines Treatment for head lice is recommended for persons diagnosed with an active infestation. Follow these treatment steps: Before applying treatment, it may be helpful to remove clothing that can become wet or stained during treatment.
Apply lice medicine, also called pediculicide, according to the instructions contained in the box or printed on the label. If the infested person has very long hair longer than shoulder length , it may be necessary to use a second bottle. Pay special attention to instructions on the label or in the box regarding how long the medication should be left on the hair and how it should be washed out.
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