Lice Report

The holidays have been interesting this year. My oldest daughter came home with lice from school, lack of sleep made functioning in any manner impossible (thanks to having a newborn), and we were going to be traveling. The process of getting rid of lice in our house was really the kicker. This is what I learned.

Lice or Louse are parasitic insects that live on the human body. There are three types head, body, and pubic. Lice are spread from close human to human contact. They don’t jump, crawl, or fly. The most common cause of infection, in children is playing on the playground, sharing of hats, coats, and from backpacks. Lice like warm places to hide and do seem to pick certain hair types over others. Having lice is NOT a sign that you are dirty. Absolutely all of the lice and nits need to be removed in order for the treatment to work. Although it is very contagious it is not going to immediately spread through your entire family.  If you work quickly enough then the issue can be controlled.

When I discovered that my child had lice, I was devastated, because I immediately had horrible visions of my own childhood having to get my hair cut, being made fun of, and hours of hair pulling. Needless to say, it is not that way today. My daughter did however have some concerns, and it did make for some restless sleep for a few nights. She was afraid of getting made fun of, and having to cut her hair. This was the biggest issue. She has beautiful flowing locks and takes pride in her curls. I assured her it would not come to that. I immediately got the creeps, especially when I started to look through her hair and found the lice.  I had two options, our town had a lice specialist who would treat and remove the lice for a hefty price, or I could treat her with chemicals to kill them. I decided that I should treat her myself to save time and money. I used Rid which is the most common product to kill the lice. This is the issue I have with this solution. The main ingredients are pyrethrin, and piperonyl butoxide.

Pyrthrin is a naturally occurring chemical which can be found in perennial plant pyrethrum. It is synthesized to be used as pesticides, and pest repellants. It is the safest chemical to use around pets and humans. Having said that it does pose some health concerns, in small doses it does not affect humans or larger animals, but can affect birds, other insects, fish, and smaller mammals and reptiles. It does break down rather quickly so immediate exposure would have to happen in order for it to be a concern. In large doses it can cause issues in humans especially children. It can cause sneezing, headaches, dizziness, and much more. The amount used in treating lice can cause these symptoms.

Piperonyl Butoxide is a regulated substance under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA). It has some acute and dangerous side effects most concerning is the carcinogen factor.  Being a controlled substance it is highly regulated, but that isn’t saying much. It is not an actual pesticide but rather enhances the effect of pesticide chemicals. Either way it is not a very nice substance and should be avoided.

In our house trying to remove as much chemicals as possible is a hard task in today’s society. This is especially true when your child gets lice and you are forced so it seems to use chemicals to remove them. Here is the issue. Rid the most common and most cost efficient way to get rid of lice and uses pesticides to kill the lice, to then be removed from the head. I learned several important things from this adventure. Number one is to do good and solid research before making a rash decision. I wish I had followed my own rule in this case. I did use a small amount of Rid to kill the lice, this did not work, and it just gave my child a headache. I then called in the big guns; I took her to the professionals. This set us back a good amount of money, but I learned a lot for the future and I can share it with others.

First, Rid may or may not actually kill the live lice, but it does not kill the nits (eggs). Second there is a chemical free way to remove the lice. If you don’t have to use chemicals I am all for it. The professionals used a method of “shocking” the lice, then physically removing them which is the ONLY way to get rid of them for good. Spraying the head with cold water will shock the lice, then using a good conditioner to completely coat the head while you use a good lice comb to comb the nits and live lice out of the head. It is important to rinse the comb in alcohol to kill the lice in the comb so there is no re-infection. You can also wipe the excess conditioner on a paper towel to see if you have removed nits or lice. The best way to do this is in sections meticulously going over and over the spot until you see no nits and no lice. To remove the lice from the scalp, a piece of tape is the best way to go. Keep doing this until you cannot visibly see any lice, or nits. This however may not do the trick on the first try. Every day for 10 days you should meticulously go over the hair in the same way to make sure all the lice are removed.  Lice have a 10 day maturity cycle. If you have missed some of the nits then you will get new baby lice. This is why you go over the head for 10 days just to make sure.

This is what the professionals did, and it worked. I did the 10 day comb through cycle and it seemed to have worked. None of the other family members got infected. The next important thing to do is to quarantine all of the things the child came into contact with. This includes pillows, toys, coats, clothes etc. Anything that can be put into the dryer should be for 20 minutes to kill the lice. Anything else should be put into bags and quarantined for a least a few weeks if not more. If it happens to be the winter, you can just put the bags outside to kill the lice. Any hair products or hair bands etc. can but put into bags and then put into the freezer. This will also kill the lice. This is just the way we did it, but it seemed to work. Quick action and treatment can mean the difference between a bad family wide infection and just a contained one person infection. Random checks of you kids head is essential to early detection for any school age child. I will do this from now on and not use any harmful chemicals. After all your home is your habitat, let’s keep it clean.