Head Lice Removal
Head Lice Removal
You may be wondering: How can I be sure whether my child has head lice or not? Perhaps you have seen them scratching their scalp or possibly you have seen some suspicious specks in their hair. So, how do you know for sure, whether they have lice or not and if they do, then how in the world do I get rid of the nasty little parasites?
Hair lice are human parasites. They take their nourishment from small amounts of blood which they suck after making a small bite in the scalp. Infestations of lice are most frequently found on children from the age 3 to 12. They are not however, limited to children in those age groups or even to children. Adults also can fairly easily get lice if they are involved in situations that might be considered high risk.
It is not unusual for girls to get lice more often than boys but that does not mean that boys are immune to the problem. Noticing and finding head lice can be difficult. You need to be observant. As a general rule, bugs do not wander about on a persons head. Lice however, thrive there.
When you discover a small crawling insect about the size of a sesame seed and light brown in color on your child’s head, they likely have either a few or a whole infestation of lice. For some people, the lice eggs (called nits) can be harder to see. What you think is a nit, might just be a flake of dandruff or dried hair spray. If you see small white or light yellow or brown specks in the hair it should naturally arouse suspicion. There are some quick easy ways to tell if it is a nit or just a speck of something else. If the speck in the hair comes away from the shaft of the hair easily, it is not likely a louse egg. However, if it is difficult to remove from the hair shaft and is yellow or light brown in color it is probably a nit. After the eggs have hatched, the remaining shell they will appear to be either clear or white in color.
Once you have made a positive identification that there are lice in the hair, the job of removing both the lice and their eggs should be started in earnest. A common starting point is to purchase a medicated lice shampoo and apply it to all the hair on the head.
After rinsing the hair, while it is still wet, divide the hair into small inch wide sections. Start in a logical place to begin and using a fine toothed lice comb, carefully comb the hair from the end at the scalp all the way to the very tip of the hairs in that section. Then, clean the comb thoroughly and repeat the process with every section of hair. This procedure can literally take hours to complete so plan accordingly.
It is important to comb out the hair very thoroughly. Lice shampoos usually do a good job in killing the lice but any nits that are left behind may not be killed by the shampoo and can hatch, thus causing a reoccurrence of the problem. By making a point to carefully process every strand of hair, you will pretty much insure against the nasty possibility of a future infestation.
Some people try to remove hair lice from the head with tweezers. This can be done but it is much more difficult than with a good metal lice comb. You still need to section off the hair as with the comb and then carefully go through each section, one at a time. You may wonder, what do I do with the lice and nits that I get out of the hair?
After removing the nits from the shaft of the hair, they are not sticky so you want to keep that in mind. Hopefully any lice you remove with tweezers are either dead or dying but what do you do with them?. Probably the best method to dispose of these lousy remnants is to put them on piece of wide duck or masking tape … on the sticky side. When one piece of tape is filled up, roll it up and put it into a sealable plastic bag and throw it in the outside trash.
Remember to completely clean all bedding, furniture and other objects that may have become “infected” through contact. Vacuum the floors thoroughly as well as any upholstered furniture. Do not forget to vacuum the car! Wash anything that you can in the washing machine with the wash cycle set to hot. Any other objects that cannot be put into the washing machine can likely be put in the dryer on hot for 20 minutes. These procedures should get rid of and kill all remaining lice and nits and make it so you do not have to repeat the process seven days later when stray eggs begin hatching.
