Lice: Common problem has simple solution
By John Quinlan Journal staff writer | Posted: Thursday, October 30, 2008
Siouxland District Public Health nurse Karen Lumphrey demonstrates a lighted magnifying glass used to check for head lice. (Staff photo by Tim Hynds)
OK, it may not be a sign of the Apocalypse, but pediculosis is something that might give pause to the owners of those four scary horses ... you know, Conquest, War, Famine and Death.
Then again, the horsemen need not worry about the spread of pediculosis, an infestation of lice on the hair of the head, from their horses to their own scalps. Animals, it seems, attract a different kind of louse.
Children, not so much. They can, in fact, be veritable magnets of the little beasties. And with school in session again, nurses will be seeing their share of head-scratching youngsters.
With humans, the affliction is called pediculus humanus capitus. And it can be nasty, said Karen Lumphrey, a public health nurse with eight years of experience at the Siouxland District Health Department.
"We do a lot of head lice checks," she said. "Mostly, we try to talk to them (the parents) over the phone so that they understand what they're looking for. But if there are questions, they're welcome to come down here because it takes a little bit of time. And then we basically do a little bit of education.
"We get phone calls when kids start going back to school because sometimes they're being checked at school. So their parents are concerned."
Most parents, she noted, want to keep head lice a family secret.
Lumphrey said they get calls from mothers who keep very clean houses and are just horrified that their kids would have head lice. "But it's not a socio-economic thing. Lice don't know what you have, that you're not poor and that you don't have a dirty home," she said. "It's not about that. But it's very demeaning to people to have their kids have head lice."
And the eradication and cleanup processes are time-consuming and, particularly with large families, can be expensive. But despite the horror of the neverending nits, Lumphrey said people shouldn't consider it the end of the world
Some people spend too much time cleaning up their homes and not enough on the heads, she said, noting that lice can't live very long off the head or host -- 24 hours at most. Nor do lice fly or jump. Transmision is always through direct contact.
Bag 'em and tag 'em
"We tell parents to bag up all the stuffed animals and stuff they have on the bed, and just put those aside. Do the laundry, but then devote most of your energy to the head. We really want to spend time on the head," she said.
One examining room in the Health Department clinic is equipped with a large magnifying lamp, the kind dentists often have, which nurses use specifically to check heads for lice. And it gets a lot of use, Lumphrey said.
"We go through washing the hair with medicated shampoo and then treating it. Then for seven days in a row, we do the shampoo and conditioner that's just regular, not medicated, then combing it with a fine-tooth comb or a nit comb. Then again on the eighth day, you use the medicated shampoo," she said.
Though she recommends medicated shampoo, Lumphrey said some people, maybe those with five or six kids in a family, can't afford it. In such cases regular shampoo and conditioner can be used.
The most important thing, she said, is getting all of the nits, the lice eggs of the head lice. They're small yellowish or grayish-white oval-shaped eggs that are "glued" at an angle to the side of a hair shaft. Once laid, it takes 7 to 10 days for a nit to hatch and another 7 to 10 days for the female to mature and begin laying her own eggs. Leave no nits behind.
These parasites can be seen crawling in the hair or attached to the scalp. They move from child to child by direct head-to-head contact and not so much by shared combs, hats and brushes, she stressed. They are not a sign of a dirty child.
"Spend time on the hair, combing through it with a fine-tooth comb, and then actually separating it out, finding the hair, looking at the hair shafts and taking the nits off that," she said. "And that's pretty time-consuming. Your kids won't sit still for it."
Haircuts help
An easier route for parents is the severe haircut.
"With boys it is easy 'cause you can buzz them," she said, noting this isn't as customary for girls. "But, yeah, people with long hair, we do encourage them to get a short cut, especially if you've got to pull that nit all the way down the shaft -- because it doesn't flick off. It sticks. And that's how you know it's a nit rather than a piece of dandruff or dried scalp."
And if your child has head lice, there's a good chance other family members have it, too. All heads should be inspected. But don't treat everyone's heads just because one child is infected, Lumphrey warned. It's an unnecessary expense, "and you really don't want to be abusing a chemical," she said.
Some head lice seems resistant to some of the products used to fight it. In that case, use a different product, she said, stressing the need to spend time checking those nit-plagued scalps.
"One nit can grow a hundred more if it hatches," she said. "It's all about spending a whole lot of time on that."
And it isn't necessary to send children home from day care or school, as long as the parents are notified about a problem, she added.
How to prevent head lice
-- Give each child his or her own comb or brush.
-- Teach your child NOT to share hats, scarves, brushes combs and hair fasteners with other children.
-- Look for lice on heads of best friends who visit or play with your children.
-- Look for lice on heads of all brothers and sisters as well as other members of your household.
-- Early treatment is the key to getting rid of lice.
Information provided by Iowa Department of Public Health
Then again, the horsemen need not worry about the spread of pediculosis, an infestation of lice on the hair of the head, from their horses to their own scalps. Animals, it seems, attract a different kind of louse.
Children, not so much. They can, in fact, be veritable magnets of the little beasties. And with school in session again, nurses will be seeing their share of head-scratching youngsters.
With humans, the affliction is called pediculus humanus capitus. And it can be nasty, said Karen Lumphrey, a public health nurse with eight years of experience at the Siouxland District Health Department.
"We do a lot of head lice checks," she said. "Mostly, we try to talk to them (the parents) over the phone so that they understand what they're looking for. But if there are questions, they're welcome to come down here because it takes a little bit of time. And then we basically do a little bit of education.
"We get phone calls when kids start going back to school because sometimes they're being checked at school. So their parents are concerned."
Most parents, she noted, want to keep head lice a family secret.
Lumphrey said they get calls from mothers who keep very clean houses and are just horrified that their kids would have head lice. "But it's not a socio-economic thing. Lice don't know what you have, that you're not poor and that you don't have a dirty home," she said. "It's not about that. But it's very demeaning to people to have their kids have head lice."
And the eradication and cleanup processes are time-consuming and, particularly with large families, can be expensive. But despite the horror of the neverending nits, Lumphrey said people shouldn't consider it the end of the world
Some people spend too much time cleaning up their homes and not enough on the heads, she said, noting that lice can't live very long off the head or host -- 24 hours at most. Nor do lice fly or jump. Transmision is always through direct contact.
Bag 'em and tag 'em
"We tell parents to bag up all the stuffed animals and stuff they have on the bed, and just put those aside. Do the laundry, but then devote most of your energy to the head. We really want to spend time on the head," she said.
One examining room in the Health Department clinic is equipped with a large magnifying lamp, the kind dentists often have, which nurses use specifically to check heads for lice. And it gets a lot of use, Lumphrey said.
"We go through washing the hair with medicated shampoo and then treating it. Then for seven days in a row, we do the shampoo and conditioner that's just regular, not medicated, then combing it with a fine-tooth comb or a nit comb. Then again on the eighth day, you use the medicated shampoo," she said.
Though she recommends medicated shampoo, Lumphrey said some people, maybe those with five or six kids in a family, can't afford it. In such cases regular shampoo and conditioner can be used.
The most important thing, she said, is getting all of the nits, the lice eggs of the head lice. They're small yellowish or grayish-white oval-shaped eggs that are "glued" at an angle to the side of a hair shaft. Once laid, it takes 7 to 10 days for a nit to hatch and another 7 to 10 days for the female to mature and begin laying her own eggs. Leave no nits behind.
These parasites can be seen crawling in the hair or attached to the scalp. They move from child to child by direct head-to-head contact and not so much by shared combs, hats and brushes, she stressed. They are not a sign of a dirty child.
"Spend time on the hair, combing through it with a fine-tooth comb, and then actually separating it out, finding the hair, looking at the hair shafts and taking the nits off that," she said. "And that's pretty time-consuming. Your kids won't sit still for it."
Haircuts help
An easier route for parents is the severe haircut.
"With boys it is easy 'cause you can buzz them," she said, noting this isn't as customary for girls. "But, yeah, people with long hair, we do encourage them to get a short cut, especially if you've got to pull that nit all the way down the shaft -- because it doesn't flick off. It sticks. And that's how you know it's a nit rather than a piece of dandruff or dried scalp."
And if your child has head lice, there's a good chance other family members have it, too. All heads should be inspected. But don't treat everyone's heads just because one child is infected, Lumphrey warned. It's an unnecessary expense, "and you really don't want to be abusing a chemical," she said.
Some head lice seems resistant to some of the products used to fight it. In that case, use a different product, she said, stressing the need to spend time checking those nit-plagued scalps.
"One nit can grow a hundred more if it hatches," she said. "It's all about spending a whole lot of time on that."
And it isn't necessary to send children home from day care or school, as long as the parents are notified about a problem, she added.
How to prevent head lice
-- Give each child his or her own comb or brush.
-- Teach your child NOT to share hats, scarves, brushes combs and hair fasteners with other children.
-- Look for lice on heads of best friends who visit or play with your children.
-- Look for lice on heads of all brothers and sisters as well as other members of your household.
-- Early treatment is the key to getting rid of lice.
Information provided by Iowa Department of Public Health
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