Lice in a child - the most effective treatment

The first of September is not only the beginning of the school year, but also the time for regular examinations of children for lice. If in a close children's team there is at least one child infected with these ectoparasites, then soon all the kids or teenagers begin to itch. Pediculosis is undoubtedly extremely unpleasant, but there is no reason for panic and excitement. Get rid of bloodsucking insects modern pharmacological preparations that destroy both nits and adults will help. Lice in a child disappear after double treatment with anti-pedicule agents.

Where do lice come from

The life cycle of lice is just over three weeks. But in such a short time, the female manages to lay about a hundred eggs. Young insects hatch from them, which in a week are able to actively reproduce. Therefore, it is impossible not to notice ectoparasites in a child - every day the baby will itch more and more intensively. There are no parents who would not wonder about where do lice appear in children. The answer to it is relevant not only during the treatment of pediculosis, but also for the prevention of reinfection.

This is interesting: There is still an opinion that insects start from strong emotional experiences or from occasional hair washing. This statement has no scientific justification, is false.

Insects can appear on the hair of children in only one way - to crawl from the head of another person. Infection is possible when using a common comb, hairpins, gum. Kids, especially girls, can exchange hats, hats, scarves for trying on, which also causes the development of pediculosis. The rarest household way of transmitting insects from person to person is visiting public places:

• baths;
• pool;
• saunas.

A typical picture for a garden or school class - one child shows a new toy or gadget, and children crowded over it. It is during the contact of the heads that the infection occurs. If appeared lice in children, the reasons should not be sought in non-compliance with personal hygiene. Until now, mothers and fathers, upon detection of parasitic insects, feel a sense of shame and prefer not to inform the teacher or class teacher about this. It is believed that lice are given only to children living in marginal families in which parental control is depressingly low. Doctors explain that insects feel great in any conditions:

• it is easy to fix eggs (nits) on clean hair, and it’s much more convenient to pierce washed skin with a proboscis to extract fresh blood;
• dirty and tangled hair is an ideal environment for active reproduction, because in them you can hide and mask skin itching from bites under the symptoms of seborrhea.

The hardest thing is the parents of the girls. Firstly, the louse easily clings to long hair. Secondly, the boy can simply be shaved bald and this is the end of the treatment.

How does lice manifest

Suspecting pediculosis in a child, inexperienced parents have been looking for signs of insect activity on the child's head for a long time. Contacting a medical institution would help to quickly diagnose the disease and take measures to eliminate it. The dermatologist’s office is equipped with special lamps that emit fluorescent light. When the device is pointed at the hair, adults and larvae turn blue. But even at home, it is not difficult to detect blood-sucking insects with a careful study of the hair. Here are the main signs of lice in a child:

• when biting the skin, insects secrete saliva toxic to the human body, which prevents blood clotting. Under its influence, a severe itching occurs - one of the pronounced symptoms of pediculosis;
• after the ingestion of lice on the skin, erythema, vesicles, and papules quickly form. They look like small red swelling, and sometimes visualized with bluish blue spots;
• when examined, strands of nits can disguise themselves as oily dandruff. But an attempt to remove the whitish scales from the hair will not bring the desired result. The nits are tightly attached with a special substance that the female insect produces;
• if you look at the hair for a long time, you can catch the movement of lice on the scalp. They are constantly looking for intact areas for blood saturation. Adults are tawny, and when you hover over them with a regular table lamp, they can gleam dimly.

If it was possible to remove live nits from the hair, then when squeezing between the nail plates, it emits a sharp characteristic crack. Dead eggs will not “click”, and their detection indirectly indicates advanced pediculosis.

A sign of contagious pathology is also combs of the scalp. Their swelling and severe redness of the neighboring areas signal an admitted bacterial infection (staphylococcal, streptococcal), which requires urgent additional treatment.

Warning: If pediculosis therapy is not carried out or does not bring a positive result, then after a short time, erythema and papules will take the form of chronic dermatitis.

Many parents in prosperous families simply cannot believe that their child has lice. Therefore, when the baby complains of severe itching, they once again wash his head, making it easier for the insects to all life processes. This leads to a loss of the baby’s appetite, nervous disorders, and sleep problems. As a rule, pediculosis is diagnosed with regular examinations by medical personnel in child care facilities.

Treatment

Pharmacists and pharmacists often listen to customer complaints about the inefficiency of pediculosis treatment with the most modern and expensive drugs. Of course, there is a small probability that it is this remedy that will not show therapeutic activity, but it is minimal. Usually, parents neglect to read the package attached to the spray or spray solution. After processing the hair once, and then upon examination without revealing live insects, they consider the problem solved. It is not surprising that after a couple of weeks the baby begins to comb his head again.

Recommendation: No anti-pediculant can destroy all lice and their eggs after a single application. In a week, young insects will appear from living nits, provoking a new round of negative signs of infection.

The use of the drug may be ineffective as a result of reinfection in the following way:

• without informing the management of the child care institution of the detected head lice, parents risk sending the treated child to the kindergarten or school. It is possible that other babies are still infected;
• Moms and dads like to play with children, kiss and hug them. With close contact, there is a high probability of the development of pediculosis in parents. They can repeatedly infect an already healthy baby.

In attempts to stop the spread of blood-sucking insects in the family circle, pets are often treated with anti-pedicle drugs. This method of prevention will only cause an allergic reaction in a cat or dog, since head lice do not live on animals.

Folk remedies

Often parents are embarrassed to go to the pharmacy with what they consider a delicate problem, therefore they are used to treat pediculosis folk remedies. On the Internet, you can find the most diverse ways to treat lice in children. The practice of using essential oils, a decoction of onion peel and even cranberry juice. It is not surprising that such "therapy" lasts a very long time and ends with a visit to a pharmacy or hospital. But the following are the most common popular methods of treatment:

• Kerosene. It's hard to believe, but this method of disposal is still in use. In the best case, it has a therapeutic effect, however, along with blood-sucking insects, the child gets rid of most of the hair as a result of a total lesion of the bulbs. In the worst case, doctors diagnose a severe skin burn, acute allergic reaction or general intoxication of the baby's body with poisonous kerosene compounds;
• Vinegar. Table vinegar is a popular treatment for pediculosisbut ineffective. A positive result can be achieved only with a combination of rinsing hair with diluted vinegar and frequent combing of nits and live insects. Dead adults are absent due to the inability of the food product to kill lice.

The radical folk methods of getting rid of insects also include the use of hair dyes with aggressive chemical compounds or ploes, irons, hair curlers. Such techniques take a lot of time, effort and health, both in children and in parents.

Mechanical methods

What to do when a lice is detected in a child - comb out your hair as often as possible. The correct implementation of this procedure 1-2 times a day brings very good results. Lice eggs connect a sticky and very strong substance to the hair, which prevents their separation. Before combing lice and nits, thoroughly rinse the locks with any acidic solution. In this case, cranberry juice and weak (1-2%) dilution of apple or table vinegar will come in handy. After rinsing, the procedure can begin in 15-20 minutes. During this time, softening and partial dissolution of the sticky substance that binds the nits to the hair will occur. How to comb out lice:

• under the hair should spread a light fabric or thick sheets of white paper;
• for combing, you need to use a special scallop, which is sold in a pharmacy or hygiene store;
• combing must begin from the root itself, gradually advancing to the tips;
• the scallop must be constantly rinsed to get rid of the nits that have accumulated between the teeth and living lice.

Paper or tissue with insects should be folded and, if possible, burned. No matter how thoroughly combing is carried out, there is a high probability that nits will remain on the hair - a source of re-infection. The best result is obtained by manual selection of insects and eggs with subsequent destruction. They can be crushed between the nails or lowered into a container of water. This procedure takes a lot of time, so the child needs to be distracted by reading or watching your favorite cartoons.

The removal of nits should begin with the temples and the back of the head. In this place there is a thin and delicate skin that is easily bitten by lice. Carefully inspecting each hair, it is necessary to carefully separate the egg, smoothly moving it down. In this way, the entire head of the child is examined.

Tip: If you combine this technique with the use of anti-pedicular drugs, you can quickly get rid of nits and lice.

Pharmacological preparations

When purchasing a lice remedy for children in a pharmacy, age restrictions should be considered. For example, the popular drug Para-plus is not intended for the treatment of children under 2.5 months of age. Anti-pediculosis drugs are available in the form of sprays, shampoos, lotions, solutions. As a rule, all products are applied to dry hair and evenly distributed with a comb. After a while, indicated in the annotation, the drug is thoroughly washed off with a stream of warm water. To consolidate the therapeutic effect, you can rinse your hair with a weak solution of vinegar and carefully comb out dead insects.

Warning: Do not cover your hair with cellophane or keep the product longer than the time indicated by the instructions for use in the hope of enhancing the therapeutic effect. This can cause an allergic reaction or symptoms of general intoxication.

When buying any drug to destroy lice, parents primarily read colorful labels on the packaging. Manufacturers often indicate that the product they release destroys eggs and adult insects right away. This is just an ordinary publicity stunt - a drug with similar effectiveness has not yet been synthesized. If the approval of the manufacturers was true, then secondary hair treatment would not be required. And in each annotation to the anti-pedicular agent, the necessity of reapplying the lotion or solution after 5-7 days is necessarily indicated.

The following drugs are the drugs for lice for children with the highest therapeutic activity:

• Full Marx. The solution includes isopropyl myristate and cyclomethicone, which have pronounced anti-pedicular properties. Packaging is equipped with special comb for combing nits and dead insects;
• Medifox. It is produced in the form of a concentrate, which is diluted with boiled water before use. One of the advantages of the drug is the ability to use the drug in children from 12 months;
• Pedicule. The lotion contains ethyl alcohol and anise essential oil. The drug has a specific odor, and the presence of a herbal component allows the use of the drug from only five years old;
• Paranit. The composition of the shampoo includes clearol, which shows a dehydrating and asphyxiating activity against adult lice;
• Veda. A cheap and effective product with permethine and additional ingredients that prevent hair damage by an aggressive chemical compound;
• Pedilin. Time-tested anti-pediculosis drug with malathion, a substance that is a powerful insecticide;
• A couple plus. The combination of three active ingredients - malathion, permethrin and piperonyl butoxide - provides a high efficiency spray.

All of the above funds are able to quickly and effectively destroy parasitic insects. But it’s best to decide than to bring lice out of a child to a dermatologist. He will choose a remedy in accordance with the age of the baby and his state of health.

Recommendation: After recovery, wash your bedding, clothes, scarf and baby's hat in hot water. If possible, it is better to get rid of combs, hairpins and elastic bands to prevent re-infection.