Now we all know that when the school year starts, we as parents have an obligation to examine our children’s head on a regular basis to prevent head lice. But you are only human and there will be times that you miss the signs. Don’t feel bad because even people who are trained professionals will sometimes miss the signs of head lice infestation.

The first thing you have to think about when setting up is finding a non-toxic treatment solution. As we have discussed, Head lice are hard to kill but that does not mean that we should poison ourselves or our children to get rid of their infestation. Talk about throwing out the baby with the bath water.

I have found that most of the products you can buy at the store are the pesticide kind and I reject those (see below) because they are dangerous. You can find some good non-toxic products in stores, but you better read the boxes carefully to make sure.

On the Internet it’s easy to find non-toxic lice treatments. One company called All Stop produces a really neat head lice treatment system called Liceadex. It is safe and easy to use (We’ve used it twice now) and is so effective that several chains of lice boutiques have starting using it as their exclusive solution for customers with head lice.

There are also a few different treatments out there on the market today that are insecticidal treatments which will reduce the amount of live head lice, make sure before using that you read the lable and that it clearly states that it is safe to use on your children’s head.

The following are a few dangerous products that you should NEVER use to treat head lice:

Pyrethrins (permethrin): These products are currently on the market under the names of NIX, A-200, RID, and also CLEAR, there are also a few different store brands that will use the same ingredients.

Malathion: This product was brought back onto the market in the United States a little over seven years ago by the name of OVIDE. This is said to work well on head lice as it has been used in countries in Europe for many, many years. But if you’re poisoning your child is it worth it?

Kwell: This is a shampoo that is only available to people if they have a written prescription from a doctor because it works very well and is very strong. It has been on the market in the United States for over fifty plus years.

Before we jump into the nity gritty on head lice, I want to tell you about a cool new program that is being launched to help school moms cope with their lice problems. It’s really good to have something to help you when you have a tough infestation and it keeps coming back.

The All Stop people (makers of the Liceadex Lice Treatment system) have a new program they are working on now for school nurses. They have a page that explains all the details, but in a nutshell the way it works is they provide an education program for children and parents on how to cope with and treat head lice. They have a complete solutions for heads and environment so you don’t keep getting the lice over and over. Go check it out and call your school and tell them about it.

Tell them about my blog while you’re at it. 

Now for the Head Lice Facts:

First of all, we will answer the age old question of just what exactly are these creepy little things we call head lice? Well, we know that head lice are indeed parasites that feed off of and live on the scalps of human beings. There is a scientific name for lice and it goes by Pediculus Humanus Capitis. Which of course is just a nice way of saying that your head has been taken over by blood sucking insects.

Now head lice have three parts to their lives, there are the nits (which are the eggs), the nymphs (which are the babies) and the adults (yes, its that part of your life where you worry about school payments, house payments….need I say more?) These head lice, no matter what form they are in are always difficult to see and are often thought to be dandruff before you start to feel them moving on your head.

The nits will be stuck so tightly to the hair that is closest to the scalp that no matter how much you pick at it or try to shake it off, it won’t come off. These are oval shaped and usually have the colors of yellow or white. These nits take approximately a week to hatch. As mentioned previously the Nits hatch into Nymphs and then they then mature into adults approximately seven days after hatching.

It is nothing to freak out about, as head lice infestation is a world wide occurance and everyone gets them sooner or later in their lifetime. If you dont get them, chances are you will know someone who has or who will get them.

Head lice spred very easily from person to person through direct contact, Head lice can be contracted by:

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Contact with a person who has lice. With kids, the contact is very common because of when they play together, their heads are constantly touching. During classroom activities when the kids have to get into groups and sit close together. Also riding the school bus calls for closeness.

By wearing clothes that have been infested by the head lice, hair ribbons, combs, brushes, towels, hats, scarves, sports uniforms and even coats.

If the child lays on a bed that has been infested with head lice, or cuddles with a stuffed toy that is infested with them, the pillow he or she lays his head on or even the carpet can be hiding the head lice.

Remember that lice can NOT be spread to humans by pets or animals or vice versa, also head lice don’t fly and can NOT jump so there is no need to be afraid of one going kamakaze on you for your blood.

Obviously many of you parents out there would like to know what symptoms to look for in a child that has head lice, the biggest symptom is constant scratching of the head because of the child’s body rejecting or being sensitive to the bite of the head lice and major crankyness. (irritability)

A head lice infestation will be found by examining the child’s scalp and looking through the hair for any noticable adult lice moving around, or nymphs or nits. Now if you are wondering who exactly is in a high risk category for head lice the sad fact is that everyone has to be careful. Mind you head lice love long hair and for some reason they are attracted to the female gender of the human race. This is not a good thing.

Thanks for reading my blog. I have even more stuff on head lice to share next time. It’s so important with school in full swing now.

Take care…

SchoolMom

Its not anything to be ashamed of, every child gets it sooner or later and there is not really anything that you can do to stop it. Today we will be learning a little bit about the behavior of head lice and the symptoms to look out for and we will even be answering the question of whether head lice are contagious.

For research I went to the DermaTechRx Research Center to check out their free information on head lice. They also have info on pubic (crab) lice and body lice, but they have a whole section on headlice that any school mom should bookmark in case of lice emergency. These are the experts and they have been doing this for years. They sell head lice treatment shampoo and even a 3-step lice killing kit on their main website, All Stop.

Reading the latest info, I learned that head lice would rather hang out on a child s head than an adults, very rarely will you hear of an adult catching lice. The lice also seem to favor long hair over short hair, which is why many boys keep their hair very short to the scalp (brush cut) and also because that seems to be their style now a days. Another point we should mention is that head lice really seem to love the hair of females, which makes it much worse for the girl child.

Another interesting fact is that head lice are very rarely found on any African Americans that live in North America. The lice that are found in South America and Africa however have become adapted and in those continents the lice harbor no favorites, all are fair game to them. The cases of head lice are mostly found in kids from three to ten years old but be assured that they can strike a person at any age.

As stated earlier, every child gets head lice sooner or later and these little critters have been a thorn in the side of humanity since the beginning of time but remember this, if you get head lice, it doesn’t mean that you are poor or have bad hygiene. These things have no preference, everything is food to them. Mind you the only thing that they don’t go after are dogs and cats, they would rather human blood over an animal.

Many of you out there are probably wondering what the symptoms are, there really is only one major one and that is itching, but, the child could have had head lice for months before starting to itch. It all depends on how sensitive your child is to the lice bite. And now for the question that has been plaguing you, is it contagious? Yes, quite.

They spread from child to child when their heads touch and we all know that kids are always doing that. These head lice are able to live without food for up to 55 hours before needing to find a host, they scan be spread by bedding, couch cushions (sofa), hats, stuffed animals, combs (of course), brushes, towels, clothes, and finally head phones.

You might be wondering how long a typical infestation of head lice will last, well, a louse lives for approximately a month. New solutions for extreme cases of ‘Super Lice’ are under development at All Stop.

Until next time,

SchoolMom

Hearing our mother’s gasps of terror as they combed through every strand of our hair and picking out the nits which in lay terms is the eggs of the lice. I remember one year my sister and I got head lice and got suspended from school until we got rid of them.

The other kids looked at us like we had the plague. This was back in the late 1970′s and with our luck, my sister and I both had very long hair. Our mother and our aunt sat all night with us sitting on the floor between their legs so that they (my aunt and my mother) could search through our hair for the lice and their nits.

After going through this all night, just when we thought that it could not get any worse then out came the lice shampoo! I can’t for the life of me remember what it was called, I think it was Kewellada or something to that effect but it was the most vial smelling concoction that has ever been invented! Surely the lice ran from the smell of this stuff alone!

Now we know that head lice are not disease spreading and are not really dangerous but they are highly contagious and having head lice can be so embarrassing and extremely annoying! When you are bitten by one of these critters it makes your head or scalp very itchy and causes inflammation. Of course when we were younger and our mom would say, “quit scratching, you will only make it worse”. That is so true and it will lead to infections.

There are also the Lice eggs, otherwise known as the nits that a parent has to worry about and look for on their child’s head. These nits are tiny tan, brown or yellow dots that are very difficult to pick out of the hair. After the lice hatch from the egg, the egg turns a whitish color or clear. The lice will lay their eggs on the parts of the hair that is closest to the scalp where the temperature is much warmer and is the perfect temperature for hatching.

These nits will often be mistaken for dandruff but when you run your fingers through the hair, the flakes don’t come out. These eggs will stick and won’t come off simply by shaking the hair. Now unless there are a lot of nits or head lice, it will be more common for the parent to find the nits in the child’s hair than the actual lice crawling on the child’s head. Nits will hatch up to one or two weeks after they have been laid.

Now, we will discuss a little about the baby lice which is called a nymph and the adult which are referred to as a Louse. The adult head lice are not much bigger than a sesame seed and they are a tannish brown in color. The Nymphs are much smaller and will become adult in approximately seven days after they are hatched. Most of the time the lice will nourish themselves from the blood of the host about every four to six hours but they have been known to survive for up to three days on the scalp.

Any School Mom Survival Guide should include instructions on how to locate and kill lice in your kids hair. Now the school board won’t let your children attend unless they are confirmed lice free. I’m digging for information, and next time I’ll have links and more info (maybe even a video) on how to get find and destroy head lice so your kids can get back to school.

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Nicole
School Mom

Thanks to wordpress for the cool web tools. I will let my friends know about this site and hope they read my blog. Welcome to my new weblog – The School Mom Weblog.

We all face the same challenges, and hopefully can learn from each other. I am always into something with my kids and their schools so this blog will help me air it out.