Tell your school-aged children about lice and the steps they can take to help minimize the risk of contracting it. Occasionally, an allergy to lice feces will lead to a rash and additional discomfort in the affected person. Continuous scratching of an area to relieve itching can lead to breaking the skin barrier and, subsequently, an infection in that area. In rare cases, lice living on eyelashes can lead to eye inflammation and pinkeye. Sometimes the very idea of lice can lead to stress and sleepless nights for children and parents.
If this occurs, you should repeat the entire treatment seven days from your initial treatment date. Your life will most likely be lice-free again quickly.
The three kinds of lice — head, pubic, and body — feed on human blood, leaving small, red, itchy bite marks. Learn how to identify and treat a lice…. Super lice are parasites that are resistant to traditional lice treatment. Learn how to prevent the spread of super lice and what you can do to treat….
Lice are parasites. You can catch them through personal contact and by sharing belongings. Find out how to identify the symptoms so that you can get…. Lice are parasitic insects that feed on human blood. An infestation occurs when certain types of lice invade the body and clothing. Finding lice in blonde hair can sometimes be a bit difficult.
Learn best practices for how to calculate how long you have had lice. Then, learn how to treat lice at home or with medical treatments as well as how…. Do salt…. Besides making your hair messy and oily, mayonnaise is unlikely to treat head lice. Here's why, and what you can try instead. From vinegar and tea tree oil to simple olive oil, numerous home remedies are available that work to get rid of head lice. Read on to find out which…. Health Conditions Discover Plan Connect.
Medically reviewed by Judith Marcin, M. Types of lice. How do lice spread? Treating lice. Preventing lice. Head lice are a common problem, especially for little kids. But teens can get them too.
They spread easily from person to person, and sometimes are tough to get rid of. Their bites can make the scalp itchy and irritated, and scratching can lead to infection. Head lice are annoying, but they're not dangerous and they don't spread disease. They're not a sign of poor hygiene — head lice need blood and they don't care whether it's from someone who's clean or dirty.
Lice are tiny, but you can still see them — though it's not always easy. An adult louse is grayish white or tan and about the size of a small sesame seed.
Lice move fast, so you're actually more likely to see their eggs than the lice themselves. Louse eggs are called nits. Nits look sort of like dandruff, except they don't brush or fall off as easily as dandruff. Lice attach their nits to pieces of hair, close to the scalp. If you think you have lice and see a small, oval blob on a strand of hair, it's probably a nit.
If nits are yellow, tan, or brown, it means the lice haven't hatched yet. If the nits are white or clear, the lice have hatched and just the egg remains. Lice eggs hatch within 1 to 2 weeks after they're laid. Besides seeing nits or lice on the head, itching — or the feeling of something moving around on the scalp — is another clue that you might have lice. Like mosquito bites, the itching is a reaction to the saliva of the insect. Some people with lice also get a rash of small red bumps from scratching.
If you think you have lice, call your doctor. Your doctor can recommend a medicated shampoo, cream rinse, or lotion to kill the lice. These may be over-the-counter OTC or prescription treatments. It all depends on what your doctor thinks will work best for you. Head lice are found worldwide. In the United States, infestation with head lice is most common among pre-school children attending child care, elementary schoolchildren, and the household members of infested children. Although reliable data on how many people in the United States get head lice each year are not available, an estimated 6 million to 12 million infestations occur each year in the United States among children 3 to 11 years of age.
In the United States, infestation with head lice is much less common among African-Americans than among persons of other races, possibly because the claws of the head louse found most frequently in the United States are better adapted for grasping the shape and width of the hair shaft of other races. Head lice move by crawling; they cannot hop or fly. Head lice are spread by direct contact with the hair of an infested person. Anyone who comes in head-to-head contact with someone who already has head lice is at greatest risk.
Spread by contact with clothing such as hats, scarves, coats or other personal items such as combs, brushes, or towels used by an infested person is uncommon. Personal hygiene or cleanliness in the home or school has nothing to do with getting head lice.
Nits are firmly attached to the hair shaft and are oval-shaped and very small about the size of a knot in thread and hard to see. Nits often appear yellow or white although live nits sometimes appear to be the same color as the hair of the infested person.
Nits are often confused with dandruff, scabs, or hair spray droplets. Head lice nits usually take about 8—9 days to hatch. This is difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.
Nymph: A nymph is an immature louse that hatches from the nit. A nymph looks like an adult head louse, but is smaller. To live, a nymph must feed on blood. Nymphs mature into adults about 9—12 days after hatching from the nit. Adult: The fully grown and developed adult louse is about the size of a sesame seed, has six legs, and is tan to grayish-white in color.
Adult head lice may look darker in persons with dark hair than in persons with light hair. To survive, adult head lice must feed on blood. Adult female head lice are usually larger than males and can lay about six eggs each day.
Head lice and head lice nits are found almost exclusively on the scalp, particularly around and behind the ears and near the neckline at the back of the head. Head lice or head lice nits sometimes are found on the eyelashes or eyebrows but this is uncommon.
Head lice hold tightly to hair with hook-like claws at the end of each of their six legs. Head lice nits are cemented firmly to the hair shaft and can be difficult to remove even after the nymphs hatch and empty casings remain.
Head-to-head contact with an already infested person is the most common way to get head lice. Head-to-head contact is common during play at school, at home, and elsewhere sports activities, playground, slumber parties, camp. Although uncommon, head lice can be spread by sharing clothing or belongings. This happens when lice crawl, or nits attached to shed hair hatch, and get on the shared clothing or belongings. Examples include:. The diagnosis of a head lice infestation is best made by finding a live nymph or adult louse on the scalp or hair of a person.
Because nymphs and adult lice are very small, move quickly, and avoid light, they can be difficult to find. Use of a magnifying lens and a fine-toothed comb may be helpful to find live lice.
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