What to do if your child suddenly had lice ...

As practice shows, lice in a child can appear at any time, even in the most seemingly neat family. Therefore, parents need to be prepared for this in advance in order to be able to recognize the presence of parasites in children in time and begin effective treatment.

The most likely infection of the child with head lice, as the most common in children's groups. But children's louses are much less common in children, and with a regular change of linen and hygienic skills imparted to them, even an occasional parasite of this form does not survive on a child's clothes.

Infection of children with pubic lice is a rather unique phenomenon and occurs in isolated cases (for example, from infected parents, and sometimes even in public swimming pools).

Below the photo shows the head lice on the child's hair:

Lice infestation and symptoms that develop in a child due to the activity of these parasites are called pediculosis in medicine, and liceiness in a popular way. There are, respectively, head, clothes and pubic lice. All these diseases can be differently dangerous for the child.

 

Hazards of lice infestation

Pediculosis itself causes multiple unpleasant symptoms in a child. Most often the disease is characterized by:

• itching in places lice bites
• the appearance of characteristic reddish bite marks
• the appearance of gray-blue spots on the skin
• pustular skin lesions.

Pustular lesions are usually already the result of scratching bites from lice and getting into scratching secondary infections. If untreated, the development of the disease can go further and lead to the appearance of ulcers and pyoderma.

The following photo shows characteristic crusts on the ground of scratching when infected with head lice of a child:

If a child has lice, his body can respond to parasite bites with an allergic reaction with rashes, fever, nausea and vomiting, and headaches. Even a few parasites are enough for this,enzymes that bite the child into the blood.

Important!

Highly lice are dangerous in infants whose immune system is not yet fully formed. In developed countries, infecting a child at this age is practically impossible due to good sanitary conditions in maternity homes, but in third world countries, babies sometimes after a few weeks after birth begin to suffer from body lice bites.

Body lice and much less often - headaches - are carriers of causative agents of typhus and relapsing fever, as well as some deadly rickettsiosis. These diseases are characterized by severe illness, blurred symptoms and the likelihood of death. Therefore, it is necessary to fight lice in a child immediately after the detection of parasites in it, and ideally parents should clearly know by what means and how exactly such a struggle should be conducted.

Here are some more photos of head lice:

Feedback

“As soon as the kindergarten began, the child often had head lice. We derive them promptly, but this epic never stops even for a month. The worst thing is that the child has an acute reaction to lice - it sprinkles all over the body, the temperature rises, and so on until we remove the lice.We already went to the administration to swear, they wrote a complaint to the doctor, but still there is a child or several in the garden who have lice and infect other children. Though nanny hire and leave the garden! "

Lyudmila, Ivanovo

 

Where and how to look for lice in a child

To detect lice in a child can be on several characteristic grounds:

• Itching, because of which the child often scratches his head.
• As well as bite marks on the scalp. Such bites are small, have a bright pink color and a red center.
  
  
• The presence of nits in the hair - eggs lice. Nits in a child are usually noticeable better than in adults, due to the lower density of the hair. They look like small white dots on hair.
• And finally, the presence of lice themselves on the hair. Usually they become especially well visible when the head is heavily infected, but upon careful examination of the hair, individual parasites can also be found.

In the video, Dr. Komarovsky tells in detail how to determine the presence of lice in children. To do this, you can use a simple desk lamp - with its light, the nits in children in the hair become especially noticeable:

About lice and scab

The photo below shows the head of a child infected with lice, and the nits are clearly visible:

Trying to recognize lice in children, you should first check the head, upper neck and the place behind the ears. Much less lice appear on the eyelashes in a child, and sometimes on his eyebrows. Usually they prefer to parasitize pubic lice:

Head lice in children look like tiny blond bugs crawling in their hair.

Signs of lice in a child do not all appear at the same time. Most often, the behavior of the baby, who often scratches his head, first draws attention to himself, and only then the bites and the insects themselves begin to show up. Therefore, you should always pay attention to how the child behaves and examine it with obvious signs of anxiety.

 

Where and how can a child pick up parasites?

Almost always, a child becomes infected with lice only in a team from another child or an adult. Lice are most actively spread in kindergarten and school, where children constantly participate in games and fights, use toys and household items together.

Important!

Lice are transmitted from the child to the child even when the infected baby has no characteristic signs yet.Therefore, a child with lice can go to kindergarten or school and infect their peers for several weeks until the parasites are found.

Sometimes lice are transmitted from relatives and friends who play with the baby and spend time with it. In rarer cases, parasites infect a child in public places and even in pools.

Feedback

“Lice appeared in our kindergarten. Moreover, the child brought an infection from there, we treated it, we informed the director of the kindergarten, and in two months - a new infection. And so - three times! One time after being infected at home, a second child became infected. Imagine - lice in a child in 2 years! He also has no hair! We did not know where to complain, we wanted to leave the kindergarten. Until they wrote a complaint to the sanitary epidemiological station. I don’t know who the director called, but on the second day a team of doctors from the regional center came to the kindergarten, found several children who had lice constantly, forbade them to drive to the garden. And that's all. After that, the child has never been sick. ”

Irina, Vinnitsa

It should always be remembered that the peak of infestation of children in kindergartens falls on the beginning of autumn, when babies infected during the summer distribute their lice to the rest.

After the autumn scandals, everyone is usually treated, and until next spring only a few precedents for the appearance of lice in kindergarten occur.

Once again, we note that measures to remove parasites should be taken immediately after they have been detected. signs of lice The child has.

 

Appearance of lice: are they exactly?

Lice are difficult to confuse with other parasites: almost no bloodsucking arthropod bites in the hairy part of the body, but lice live in the hair. Sometimes a tick can bite in the hair, but tick bites in children are rare and do not cause constant itching.

In the photo - a few lice:

For comparison - a photo of a tick (note that it has 8 legs, and there are only 6 of them for lice):

And in the next photo - bed bug bug:

A louse accidentally encountered on clothing differs from bugs in its small size and light color, and from fleas in the same light color of body covers and inability to jump.

Lice and nits in children are always found at the same time, and not only one or two parasites are usually found, but their whole settlement, consisting of adult individuals, larvae of different ages and nits. Lice are practically the only parasites that can be found in large quantities on a child's hair.

 

Child friendly head lice products

The following remedies are commonly used to control head lice in children:

• Special lice shampoos - LiceGuard, Hygia, NOC are suitable for children. Means such as Pedilin and Medilis should not be used for children because of the high toxicity and strong side effects.
• Creams are best known for the Knicks and Nittifor. The latter can be used only for children over 5 years.
• Combs from lice and nits are absolutely safe means that require approximately 5 days of persistent combing of the baby’s head to achieve the effect.

Before you decide exactly what to poison the lice in a child, you should learn about the possibility of using this or that tool in children of appropriate age. Pediculicidal sprays for children are usually not used because of the risk of insecticide entering the respiratory tract. The only exception is Nuda spray, which contains no toxic substances.

 

The procedure for removing lice in a child

Remedy for lice is applied to the head in doses and in the manner specified in the instructions, and the required time is maintained. After that, the drug is washed off, and the hair along the strands combed antiparasitic comb (for example, you can use a comb for combing lice and AntiV nits).You can not comb the combing, but then with a high probability the treatment will have to be repeated.

Children can not handle the head of a strong toxic drugs with ovicidal action, and therefore some of the nits on the hair often remain alive. They are either combed with a comb, or the larvae that have emerged from them are destroyed a week after the first treatment of the head.

For better combing nits in a child, you can pre-treat your head with a solution of citric or acetic acid. These tools weaken the attachment of nits to the hair. It is only important to observe the correct concentration of the solution.

Feedback

“At first I didn’t even know what to do if the child had lice. About kerosene did not even think, so as not to poison him. Not decided and all sorts of chemical shampoos to buy. But the comb helped me. I bought LiceGuard, I combed my head for a week, fainted from these filths. But combed out! Highly recommended now for Nudu, but I have not tried it. They say it is safe for the child. "

Olga, St. Petersburg

Toxic agents for lice can not be used as a preventive.

Today, a good remedy that can be used for prophylaxis isnot containing toxic substances for the child.

 

Prevention of infecting a child with lice

Prevention of pediculosis in children it is difficult, since it is usually difficult for a child to achieve compliance with all necessary hygiene rules. However, in any case, to reduce the risk of infecting the child with lice by the following measures:

• To instill in the child the rules for using his clothes and hygiene products.
• To teach children not to have close contact with peers.
• Avoid places where people may become infected.
• Do not give the child to play with children who have signs of lice (matted messy hair plus frequent scratching of the head).

In any case, every few days the child should carefully inspect and comb his hair. If even a single individual of the parasite is detected, it is necessary to immediately consult a doctor for advice on treatment. Independently choose the means of fighting lice is undesirable, because the child may have an individual intolerance to a drug.

 

Useful video: advice from a specialist in removing lice in a child

 

How to completely remove the lice and nits, using only comb AntiV