Although pediculosis does not affect a specific gender or a specific age, head lice are more common between three and eleven years of age and girls are more prone to them.
Although the reason is not clear, it seems to be due to the length of the hair, the head of the Social Pediatrics Unit of the Niño Jesús University Children’s Hospital, Dr. Jesús García Pérez, explained to Europa Press.
Lice are parasites between 2 and 3 millimeters Greyish brown in color, which inhabit the scalp and whose usual diet is human blood, which is why they produce strong itching on the head.
However, one of the great myths about these parasites that they fly from head to head is false, since they are actually spread by direct contact between heads and by those objects that have been in contact with it, such as caps, hats, pillows. or hair bands.
In addition, lice appear throughout the year, there is no specific time, but it is true that their appearance can be aggravated by high temperatures and at the beginning of the school year.
To detect them, the doctor points out that it is important that “when parents observe that the child is scratching, they check if they are infected. If so, you have to wash the hair, rinse it and separate the strands to control the area where they may be housed”.
Treatment
Lice are born from so-called nits, of which they can lay between 50 and 500, which are usually housed in the hair root, especially in areas with the most sweating, such as behind the ears or in the occipital area.
The usual treatment used in these cases is 1.5 percent permethrin both in the form of lotions and in the form of shampoo. The first thing to do is apply a suitable lotion with a gentle massage and cover the head with a bathing cap for 10-15 minutes to intoxicate the lice.
“The cap favors the absorption of the shampoo that will kill the bug and then protects from possible external contagion with other children,” says Dr. García Pérez. Once this is done, he rinses his hair and repeats the action but applying a permethrin shampoo.
Finally, you have to brush the hair with a nit comb (a special comb with the teeth very close together) since it allows you to drag the dead lice and nits.
Seven or ten days later, it is necessary to verify that the treatment has worked and if not, it must be repeated until the parasites disappear completely.
Are home remedies effective?
Mothers have always used vinegar to eradicate lice and it is not a topic since vinegar, in its proper measure, helps to detach the nit. It is not a question of washing children’s hair with vinegar, the doctor specifies, but of dissolving it with a little water and rinsing the hair with this solution.
Bearing in mind that lice cannot be prevented with any type of product such as colonies, it is important to disinfect all objects and garments that have been in contact with the child in order to avoid a new contagion.
In the case of clothing or objects that cannot be washed, they must be placed in plastic bags for a minimum of 15 days so that the lice die.