If one person in the house has it, there is a high probability that at least one other individual will have it, so you'll want to avoid passing it back and forth between yourself, your children, and their siblings. So when we're asked “If my child has lice, should I treat myself” our answer is always yes.
All household members should be checked for head lice and treated if needed. Anyone who shares a bed with the affected person should also be treated. Although lice only survive 1-2 days without a human host, it is prudent to take some simple steps to clean the home environment.
While lice can live only on humans, they can be spread quickly when kids share hats, combs, or hairbands, or simply by being in very close contact. They can even crawl into bedding or towels. And lice don't discriminate. Anyone can get them, even if they are uber clean.
Head lice don't just infest children's hair. Head lice in adults are more common than you think. As a parent, proximity to children puts you at risk of catching head lice from them. Even as an adult without children you may meet children or the parents of children, and so risk catching head lice from them.
Lice are rarely passed to others by sharing caps or combs. Sleepovers and sleeping together only has a small risk. Bed-sharing is the only reason the AAP recommends treating after exposure. Most often, the spread of lice to others occurs at home, not school.
Anyone who comes in head-to-head contact with someone who already has head lice is at greatest risk. Spread by contact with clothing (such as hats, scarves, coats) or other personal items (such as combs, brushes, or towels) used by an infested person is uncommon.
All infested persons (household members and close contacts) and their bedmates should be treated at the same time. Some pediculicides (medicines that kill lice) have an ovicidal effect (kill eggs). For pediculicides that are only weakly ovicidal or not ovicidal, routine retreatment is recommended.
It's not that the pesky critters prefer children's blood to adult's. It's the simple fact that kids are in closer contact with one another on a daily basis. Young kids don't have much regard for personal space. Because of this they frequently commit the number one lice spreading no-no: head to head contact.
While we see lice most frequently in children, the fact of the matter is, if one child in the family has it, there's a high likelihood that it will pass to others in the household. Once lice is in the home, it doesn't discriminate based on age. So, lice can infest parents as easily as siblings of the child with lice.
Tell your parents eventually.
Lice are highly contagious. Even if you believe your infestation is gone, you could have easily infected another household member.
Once you are aware of the lice exposure immediately wet the child's hair and begin to comb through the hair with a fine-tooth comb while removing any lice you see manually. It is extremely important to take action right away to keep the lice from moving deep in the hair and spreading quickly.
Talk to your doctor or pharmacist about over-the-counter or prescription shampoos. These shampoos will kill lice, but may not kill all of the nits. You may have to treat again in seven to 10 days. Call your doctor if two rounds of lice treatment are unsuccessful.
Shaving Will Not Get Rid of Lice.
The reason shaving will not work is because lice live on the base of the hair, and on the scalp. The nits are laid right at the base of the hair oftentimes against the scalp. Shaving will not get close enough to make an impact on the lice and nits.
There's no need to wash your child's bedding every day.
Wash the pillowcase, but the comforter/blanket, sheets, and stuffed animals and other lovies can simply go in the dryer on high for 20 minutes. As for the bottom sheet, you don't even need to remove it from the bed.
Some studies suggest that girls get head lice more often than boys, probably due to more frequent head-to-head contact. In the United States, infestation with head lice is much less common among African-Americans than among persons of other races.
Why head lice treatments fail to work. For years, parents have been buying these non-prescription shampoos and cream rinses. Because the active ingredients have remained the same all these years, new generations of head lice have become immune to them. Once lice become immune, the product no longer works.
Head lice survive less than one or two days if they fall off the scalp and cannot feed. Head lice eggs (nits) cannot hatch and usually die within a week if they do not remain under ideal conditions of heat and humidity similar to those found close to the human scalp.
Lice are most often spread by head-to-head contact with another person who has lice, such as sleeping in the same bed. Although they do not survive long away from a human host, lice may also be spread by wearing another person's hat or clothing, or by using another person's comb, brush, or bedding.
As far as we know, there have not been any clinical studies proving any human population to be immune to head lice. However, head lice can have difficultly attaching their eggs to hair that is thick or coarse; therefore, those individuals may be less likely to experience head lice infestation.
THE INFESTATION
An infestation with lice is called pediculosis. In a normal healthy child, an infestation usually involves less than 10 live lice (7). Infestations may be asymptomatic. Itching may occur if the individual becomes sensitized to antigenic components of louse saliva that is injected as the louse feeds (7).
While head lice can feel embarrassing, informing others can help prevent the spread and help them find infestations faster. Remember head lice can infest anyone and are nothing to be ashamed about.
Hopefully, being embarrassed about lice does not deter a person from taking the high road and informing others who they may have inadvertently exposed to lice. Informing the school nurse is also important.
Students diagnosed with live head lice do not need to be sent home early from school; they can go home at the end of the day, be treated, and return to class after appropriate treatment has begun. Nits may persist after treatment, but successful treatment should kill crawling lice.