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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – While school days can mean an influx of head lice cases as children are together in close quarters, you can help protect your family.
The Problem
Lice are most commonly spread through direct head-to-head contact-not typically through sharing hairbrushes, scarves and hats. Research also shows that lice are often transmitted between siblings or neighborhood playmates.1 Performing weekly head checks at home can be a smart way to stop an infestation before it affects the entire family.
It can take four to six weeks for infestation symptoms (such as itching) to show up.2 And catching lice early is vital to controlling them, so vigilance is key.
What You Can Do
Here are three tips on how to check your child’s head for lice:
- Work under a bright light and use a nit comb to remove anything you find. Part your child’s hair and watch for movement (lice quickly travel away from light).
- Part the hair to look for eggs stuck to the shaft near the scalp. About the size of a poppy seed, lice often look like dandruff that can’t be easily removed.
- Pay particular attention to the nape of the neck, behind the ears and from bangs to the crown of the head. Recently laid eggs are nearly transparent, so it’s helpful to examine hair from different angles.
If your child does have lice, you may be glad to know Vamousse Lice Treatment kills lice and their eggs in one treatment. It uses non-toxic ingredients to dehydrate lice and nits rather than relying on pesticides such as permethrin and pyrethroids, to which super lice have become resistant.3
If your child has been exposed, Vamousse Lice Defense is recommended for daily use during high-risk periods and for 10 to 14 days after potential exposure to defend against an infestation. As with all the company’s products, it’s generally affordable, available over-the-counter, non-toxic and safe for the entire family.
Lice can quickly advance through several life cycles before being caught, so conducting routine head checks is a vital step toward helping your entire household stay lice-free all year.
Learn More
For a downloadable reference card, visit www.vamousselice.com/head-check.
1 Pontius, D.J. (2014) “Demystifying Pediculosis: School Nurses Taking the Lead” Pediatric Nursing, 40, (5), 226-235
2 Devore, C.D., Schutze, G.E., The Council on School Health and Committee on Infectious Diseases (2015) “Head Lice,” Pediatrics, 2015; 135; e1355; originally published online April 27, 2015
3 Gellatly et al. (2016) “Expansion of the Knockdown Resistance Frequency Map for Human Head Lice (Phthiraptera: Pediculidae) in the United States Using Quantitative Sequencing,” J. Med. Entomol. Advance Access
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