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My daughter has lice, what should I do? Lice have appeared - what to do? Can pubic lice occur?


Head lice can appear in any child, regardless of the fact that parents strictly observe the rules of personal hygiene and keep their body and clothes clean. In order to take timely measures and remove lice, you need to know the main symptoms of lice infection in children and what to do if lice infection is confirmed.

The main symptoms of pediculosis are:

  1. Severe itching accompanied by scratching the head - main symptom pediculosis diseases. If you notice that your child’s scalp is constantly itching, you should examine him carefully.
  2. Detection of lice or nits will definitely confirm the disease with pediculosis. It should be noted that nits are very similar to dandruff. The main difference is that lice eggs cannot be shaken off with your hand or a comb, as they are firmly glued to the hair.
  3. When a child has head lice, a rash may appear on the back of the neck and behind the ears, which is caused by lice secretions.


Many parents try not to advertise that their children have lice and try to remove them at home. This is possible if you know how to properly treat pediculosis. But in some cases it is necessary to mandatory consult a doctor:

  • Lice were found in a child less than 2 years old.
  • If children have allergies or asthma.
  • In the case of an advanced stage of the disease, when nits are located on the eyebrows and eyelashes.

After the examination, the doctor will decide what to do in a particular case: he will treat and treat the child himself, or he will prescribe medications and give recommendations to parents.

The first thing to do is to calm the child down and explain that no one is going to blame him for what happened. Explain what this disease is and why it needs to be treated. It is necessary to calmly inform children what actions will be taken to get rid of lice, as well as what to do in the future to reduce the risk of infection.

When starting treatment, you need to know that the drugs kill only adult lice and larvae, and most of the nits remain alive. What should I do to get rid of them? The answer is simple - comb it out.


We must try to clearly explain to children what to do to reduce the risk of infection. It is necessary to convince children: under no circumstances should they use other people’s combs, bows, hairpins, and should not try on other people’s hats. Explain how lice move from one person to another. The prevention efforts should be aimed at ensuring that children try to reduce the possibility of contracting head lice and at the same time do not experience panic horror and disgust for sick comrades.

In addition, parents need to remember that regular examination of the child’s head will allow timely detection of lice and take treatment measures without waiting for the advanced form.

For this procedure you will need a 4.5 percent vinegar solution(mix table water with equal proportions).

It is applied along the entire length of the hair, left for 20-30 minutes, after which it is washed off and the remnants of lice and nits with thin, densely spaced teeth are removed (also sold in pharmacies).

Find out more about how to dilute a vinegar solution against lice and nits from.

Regardless of what product is used for, It is advisable to perform procedures in the bathroom, spreading a film on the floor - this will prevent insects from getting on furniture, carpets, and clothes.

Cushions, furniture and carpets will need to be left outside for a few days sun rays. An alternative to this is treatment with a steam generator in maximum ventilation mode, but such devices are not available in every home.

Pets do not need to be treated or disinfected. Lice do not affect cats, dogs, hamsters, rats, mice, etc. They can only exist on the scalp of a person.

How to prevent infection of other family members?

To prevent the spread of lice to other family members, it is necessary If possible, reduce contact with the infected. Therefore, in turn, do not hang your outerwear on a common hanger, use an individual comb.

Lice, despite popular opinion, They can't jump like fleas. But they move very quickly.

Skin contact for a few seconds is sufficient for infection. Simply staying in the same room between a healthy person and a sick person is unlikely to lead to lice infection.

As a preventive measure, you can temporarily use dust shampoo for everyone.

The likelihood of infection of household members remains for 2 weeks. Preventive measures are appointed for the entire period. When finished, you should call your family doctor for a final diagnosis.

Total pediculosis is quite contagious, but not dangerous disease . Eliminating lice on your own is quite easy when you know what to do if lice are in your hair.

Useful video

Useful video on how to reliably get rid of lice on your head:

Unfortunately, absolutely any child can become infected with lice, regardless of age, gender or social status.

Types of lice diseases - pediculosis, They are divided into three types - hair, pubic and clothing. What symptoms appear when you are first infected?

  1. Itching on the head or groin area.
  2. Glued hair constant confusion.
  3. Violation psychological state because of constant worry bites, the appearance of neurosis, sleep disturbance.
  4. Presence of microscratches on skin, sometimes purulent formations.

What to do if a child has lice on his head?

If you are constantly being monitored by doctors, then feel free to go to a specialist for a diagnosis and prescription. The main condition in this situation is following all doctor's recommendations.

If we're talking about about things and bedding made of fabric, then you can simply wash them at high temperature and carefully iron them.

Of course, if you have the opportunity, then it is best to completely get rid of objects with which the infected person has been in contact. If you have a large family, then you need to examine all members, as well as isolate the healthy from the infected family man. It is also necessary to develop a set of preventive procedures for the family.

How to keep other family members safe?

Here is the most complete answer to the question: “what to do if a child has lice?”

What else needs to be done in such cases?

  • Carry out a regular daily inspection that will show the presence/absence of re-infection;
  • if necessary, repeat the procedure for disinfecting the head and place of residence;
  • Pay attention to children from other families; perhaps the children became infected in the same institution.

Of course, lice are an unpleasant and unaesthetic disease that most inhabitants of the Earth are afraid of. Despite this, Harmless lice are easy to remove and do not require close attention. Before you panic, think and evaluate the scale of the tragedy. Perhaps the problem arose out of nowhere.

Useful video

Watch a useful video about the symptoms of head lice, and what to do if your child has lice?

Our body is not a completely limited part environment. We contact her and exchange. As an example, many bacteria live on a child’s skin, and there are even more of them in the intestines, and at the same time we are in symbiosis with them: the bacteria receive nutrition, and they help the child digest food and produce vitamins.

The incidence of head lice among children is astounding. At my appointment at the clinic almost every day there are children who are diagnosed with lice. It is not correct to think that only socially disadvantaged children suffer from head lice. Lice are detected in children from any family, regardless of the income of their parents.

Girls with long hair are most susceptible to lice. This is due to the fact that long hair requires more careful care. Longer hair is also easier for lice to cling to. Girls love to play “Beauty Salon” games, where children use common combs and hairpins and thus infect each other with lice.

Infection occurs from a sick child to a healthy one. Many people think that lice can jump and jump from the head of a sick child to a healthy one. Lice do not jump, but only crawl, so they can only crawl from the head of one child to the head of another. This happens very often in pioneer camps, where children’s beds are quite close to each other.

The transfer of lice from a sick child to a healthy one occurs when using personal hygiene products: combs, towels, hats, hairpins, elastic bands; it is possible to shake a louse onto a friend’s head during active outdoor play.

Once on the head, the louse lays eggs (nits), attaching them to the hair shaft using an adhesive substance. After 8-10 days, these eggs hatch into larvae, which, after 10 days after several molts, turn into a sexually mature louse that is capable of laying eggs. Lice live for about 40 days. During this time, she lays 350-400 eggs.

Symptoms of lice infestation

Lice feed on blood, causing scalp irritation and itching - these are the first possible symptoms presence of lice. When scratching the head, a child can introduce an infection into the wounds, which can be a complication of lice. The skin becomes inflamed, redness appears, and body temperature may rise.

Complications of head lice in children

Among the population there are people with genetic resistance to pediculosis. Even in the most lice-infested room, these people cannot become infected with lice. For lice, these people are, as it were, “tasteless”, “inedible”.

How does a doctor find lice?

Pediculosis is quite easy to detect. It is necessary to examine the child's head, starting from the temples and the back of the head. First, the head is inspected for live lice.

Then the hair itself is examined to detect nits. Nits are whitish-gray rounded formations found on the hair. Sometimes nits can be confused with dandruff, but dandruff is easily removed from the hair, but the nit is not removed, since it has a capsule that is firmly attached to the hair. When you press on the nit, it “bursts” with a characteristic sound that is similar to the sound of popcorn popping.

If lice are detected, the doctor must submit emergency notice to the sanitary station. Specialists from the sanitation station must visit the child’s parents at home, examine all the people living in the apartment and, if necessary, sanitize the people and premises. This is carried out in order to prevent the spread of head lice among the population.

How to get rid of lice?

Pediculosis is treated at home. Various shampoos and lotions are used to treat head lice; pharmacies now sell a huge number of them. There is no fundamental difference between them. Some manufacturers use tricks to make their products more attractive to the buyer: they make the drug in the form of a spray that is easy to apply, they add a special comb to the packaging for combing out nits (lice eggs). This is all just a marketing ploy. Even if you buy the most cheap product, it will work well on live lice.

There is an opinion that treating the head with anti-lice shampoo is enough to get rid of lice. However, this is not true. Any drug has no effect on lice eggs. In addition to chemical treatment with shampoo, it is necessary handmade by sampling nits from the head.

How to get rid of nits?

Nits are attached to the hair with an adhesive substance, which makes it difficult to separate them from the hair. To soften the capsule, it is necessary to treat the head with a weak solution of acetic acid diluted in warm water. The vinegar solution is applied to the head and left for 10-15 minutes, after which the most painstaking work begins - manually removing each nit from the hair.

In the literature it is often written that the hair needs to be combed with a fine comb and thus remove nits from the hair. Very often this is not enough. Most best way Removing nits involves going through all the hair with your hands and removing eggs from the hair shaft. The child's hair is combed to one side (right or left), after which they begin to examine the head, starting from the temporal region. After examining one section of hair, take several curls and lower them down. They examine everything again and move on to the next curls. In this way, the entire head is examined, cleaning one area after another. This whole procedure is best done in daylight and best on the balcony, where there is very good lighting.

For the laziest parents, there is a very simple way to get rid of nits - to shave the child “bald”. However, not a single girl (and boys too) will say “Thank you” to her parents if she has to go to school or kindergarten with a bald head, where all the children will point fingers at her. Therefore, I advise you not to be lazy, but spend 2-3 hours and pick out all the nits with your hands.

Folk remedies for lice

Very often our parents are lazy not only to choose nits, but also to go to the pharmacy for medicine for head lice. In this case, they really like to resort to traditional methods treatment. People often like to use kerosene and vinegar. These substances are applied to scalp the child's head, wrap it in a plastic bag and leave for 40-50 minutes.

Yes, kerosene and vinegar have a detrimental effect on lice, however, these substances also have a detrimental effect on hair roots. After such treatment, there is a very high chance that your child will go bald and get rid of nits at the same time. Kerosene can also get into combs on the scalp and cause irritation and inflammation of the scalp.

Prevention of head lice

Prevention of head lice is very simple. It is necessary to observe the rules of personal hygiene: the child must be taught that he should only have his own comb, and for this, everyone in the house should have their own comb. You must teach your child by example. Children should also understand that hats cannot be exchanged.

It is very important that after a child has been away from home for a long time without parental supervision (pioneer camps, sanatoriums), it is necessary to carefully examine the child’s head for the detection of live lice and nits. Girls should braid their hair when going out, because... public transport Close contact may lead to lice infection.

Some essential oils repel lice, for example, plants such as anise, basil, geranium, oregano, thyme, sage. These oils are used by adding them to shampoos when washing the hair, as well as for aroma combing before the risk of contact with lice-infested people (apply the oil to a comb and distribute through the hair.

Scalp treatment mixtures can provide more effective protection against lice. They are made on the basis of mustard, rapeseed or camelina oil, corn oil with the addition of mustard, or, in extreme cases, any vegetable oil. Adults and children over 10 years old:Tea tree 5 ml,Thyme 5 (thyme), Geranium 4, Rosemary 4. Or a mixture Geranium 5, Melissa 3-4, Rosemary 5, Tea tree 5. For 50 ml of base oil. Rub into your head, hold for 40 minutes to 1.5 hours, then rinse.

Children under 10 years old: Melissa 3 ml, Geranium 4, Rosemary 4 or Tea tree 4, Geranium 3, Rosemary 4 for 30-50 ml of base oil.

After using the oil, be sure to wash your hair in the evening.

Pediatrician Letyuk T.Z.

Apply to hair, wait for the time specified in the instructions, and rinse off. A photo of what it looks like can be seen below.

Medicines


To the second group of effective pharmaceutical drugs from lice, nits include medicines external use. These include:

  • boric ointment;
  • : lavender, ylang-ylang.

The child’s hair is processed according to the instructions, a special cap or plastic bag is put on the head, and wait 20-30 minutes. Wash off with warm water. It is necessary to treat in 2 doses with a break of 10-14 days. If adults continue to detect lice on a child after twice treatment, it is necessary to seek help from specialists.

Folk remedies

An extensive group whose recipes are passed down from generation to generation. Some of them are as effective as professional medications. Active components There are strong-smelling substances, juices of berries, fruits, vegetables, plant decoctions, oils, and other natural ingredients.


  • . In 250 ml of wine, apple cider vinegar add 50 g of salt, 5 ml of alcohol. Wet the gauze and cover the head. Repeat throughout the day as the gauze dries. Acts on louse, nits.
  • Elecampane. The plant is crushed along with the root. 5 tbsp. spoons of the potion are poured into 1 liter of boiling water. They insist for half an hour. Treat the scalp and hair. Put on the bag. Wash off after 20 minutes.
  • Geranium oil. Add 5 drops to regular shampoo. They wash their hair. The procedure is carried out daily for a week.
  • Pomegranate juice. 2 tbsp. spoons of peppermint pour 200 ml of pomegranate juice. Boil for 10 minutes. Cool and treat the head. Wash off after 20 minutes.
  • . Wet your hair, lather generously with soap, put on the bag, and leave for 30 minutes. It is also used in the same way, but due to its strong toxicity it was no longer produced.
  • . Dilute with water in a ratio of 1:3. Wet the hair. Leave under the bag for 20 minutes. The product is more suitable for teenage girls with blond hair. Quickly destroys the sticky substance of nits.
  • Oils. Use either anise. Dilute in a ratio of 1:8 with olive oil, sunflower oil. Apply to hair, wrap for 40 minutes.

Note!

To make it easier, rinse the child’s hair with a vinegar solution, citric acid. For 1 liter add 200 ml of vinegar or lemon juice, 1 tbsp. spoon of acid.

Features of the fight against pediculosis in children

Lice appear much less frequently in adults than in children. Several factors contribute to this - adults behave more carefully and know what to do after contact with an infected person.

Remove lice and nits from a child initial stage fails because it does not attach special significance, itching on the head, and perceives a lice caught by chance as an ordinary bug. The mother begins to sound the alarm when the child itches a lot and sores appear on the head.

The egg shell is so dense that not a single insecticidal agent gives the desired effect. The only one effective method for nits - combing out.

A highly effective product and a thorough combing procedure do not provide a 100% guarantee after a single treatment. The size of nits is only 1 mm. You can skip a couple of pieces, after 14 days a new population of lice will appear. To avoid this, regardless of what product was used to combat insects, re-treatment is carried out after 7 days.


Additional events

Lives only on the head, but can periodically travel. In 1 minute, an adult louse is able to cover a distance of 35 cm. If a child is found to have lice, within a few days the whole family will be infected.

What to do with the bed:

  • Bedding must be thoroughly washed in water above 65 °C, dried, and ironed with steam. at temperatures above 45 °C.
  • Change the bedding on the bed again 7 days after the head is re-treated.

What to do with things - it is not necessary to unload everything from the cabinets, wash everything, iron everything if a louse appears on your head. It is necessary to pay attention to those items that the child wore for 1 month before the disease was detected.

What to do with the house - lice are not able to live, lay eggs in pillows, carpets, furniture, and interior items. It is worth carrying out a thorough washing of the floors on the day of head treatment, and again after 7 days. In case the louse falls.

Pediculosis in children puts adults at risk of becoming infected. It is necessary to take timely measures and not let the situation get out of control.

The whole family has lice

Lasts about 2 weeks. While one louse lives on the head, its bites are practically not felt. Periodic itching on the head does not particularly bother anyone until the unpleasant symptoms begin to intensify over time.

All members need to fight familial lice at the same time. The head also needs to be treated for those individuals on whose head no live louse is found and no signs of nits. The method is chosen based on individual characteristics body, age.

Lice removal procedure


Whatever remedy the mother chooses for her child, she must first conduct a sensitivity test. Delicate baby skin can react to any component with a strong allergic reaction.

  • Apply a small amount of product to the elbow and leave for 60 minutes. Monitor the condition of the skin and the child’s well-being. If there are any unusual manifestations, you should stop using the drug.
  • When treating the head, you need to make sure that the product does not get into the eyes, mucous membranes of the mouth, or nose. You need to put a special fabric bandage on your forehead or make it yourself from a scarf.
  • The head must be treated fresh air or in a well-ventilated area. Open the window, window. Strong smell medicinal product may cause dizziness and nausea.
  • First comb your hair and divide it into strands. Work from roots to ends.
  • Put on a plastic cap and bag. Tie a towel on top. High temperature activates the reaction active ingredients, will cut off oxygen to insects.
  • Do not keep the mixture on your hair for longer than the specified time. On average, the procedure takes 30 minutes. If severe burning, itching, or other unpleasant symptoms appear, you must immediately wash off the composition without waiting for the recommended time to expire.

Dry your hair and begin the procedure of combing out nits. Lice on long hair the child is removed in a similar way. But you will have to tinker more with the procedure for getting rid of eggs.

Nits removal procedure

In a child, nits are located at a distance of 1-5 cm from the roots of the hair. The combing procedure can be very painful and lengthy. To make things easier little baby, you must first prepare your hair. Use products to destroy the adhesive substance of nits.

  • use only your own comb;
  • do not exchange things or hats;
  • hang outerwear inside out;
  • go to bed with clean, washed linen.

If a child is diagnosed with lice, there is no need to remember how lice were removed under Tsar Pea. There are many modern drugs, allowing you to get rid of lice in 2 procedures with a frequency of 1 week. You can comb out nits and dead louse with a special comb.

If the lice do not come out, you should seek help from a pediatrician. Frequent infections indicate weak immunity child, unfavorable environment. The source of infection must be looked for by the relevant authorities.