Don’t have head lice take away your children’s summer of fun!

Now that school is over you may think you have avoided head lice. Unfortunately, summer is one of the peak seasons for head lice. Lice are most commonly spread on children ages 4-11 and even tough they may not be going to school they still have contact with other children their age: on vacation, at summer camps or even with the family. A couple tips will help you prevent or spot an infestation, after all an infestation caught early is always easier to deal with!

– Keep your child’s hair on a pony tale or braided. This will avoid further contact with other children’s hair and there fore lice will unlikely crawl to their heads.

 

– Remind them to not use other children’s jackets, helmets, hats, etc.

– Screen them every week and look for nits (eggs). They may be confused by dandruff but they stick to the hair while dandruff will move or fly off. They will be, most likely, 1 inch or less from the scalp.

 

– Look for head lice symptoms: scratching of the head, sensation of crawling, problems sleeping (lice are more active at night), etc.

 

Most importantly, if you suspect you child have lice, bring them in so we can professionally screen their heads. Should they need a treatment, we will provide a safe, and highly effective 1 hour treatment using our device that dehydrates lice & nits through heated air. Find out more about our services & pricing.

5 reasons not to use over the counter products for Head Lice Removal

When it comes to head lice removal, it’s tempting to just go to the store and buy a do it yourself kit… but is that really a smart choice? Here are 5 reasons that you should know before making that choice:

1. Chemicals: most of the over the counter (OTC) products have harsh chemicals that can cause severe irritation on your eyes and skin.

2. Follow ups: because the OTC products are only effective with the adult bugs, they typically suggest at least two repetitions in order to kill the possible eggs that you may have left and that will hatch again.

3. Effectiveness: Head lice have become resilient to some of the products in the market.

4.Countless comb-out hours: as mentioned before, OTC don’t kill the eggs so you will have to spend hours combing the hair strand by strand and making sure you don’t miss any eggs (nits) as they will inevitably hatch and re infest you all over again.

5. Pricing: altough at first it may seem attractive (cheaper) to buy OTC products, if you think about the re-applications you’ll need and the time you’ll spend combing out and delousing the house after every treatment, the price ends up being much more than you first expected.

At LCA San Diego we offer affordable, effective and professional Head Lice Removal treatments. We use the medical device, , that dehydrates nits & lice in one hour! Find out more about our services here.

Life Cycle of Lice – when did my head lice infestation start?

Many of our customers wonder when the infestation started or want to know whether they caught in on time or not. Although it’s very hard to be 100% precise with the answers, the life cycle of adult lice helps us get an estimate as to when and how an infestation will develop.

All infestations start when a female louse crawls to the hair and lays a nit (egg). About a week (8-10days) after that egg is laid, it will hatch and a new louse – nymph – will emerge. Nymphs cannot reproduce and take three molts to reach the adult stage.The size of a nymphs compares to George Washington’s eye on a $1 bill. Once a nymph has reached the third molt it becomes an adult and can reproduce. It takes about 7-10 days for a nymph to reach the adult stage.

There are other facts that will help you understand head lice infestations. Female lice can lay up to 10 eggs per day! A female louse only needs to mate once and can continue to lay viable nits for the duration of her life.

If you suspect you have lice, it is important to take care of it professionally. Over the counter products don’t work for the nits that have to be removed manually one by one, missing one will result on them hatching and re-infesting the head all over again.At LCA San Diego we offer highly professional head lice removal treatments. We use the medical FDA-cleared device that dehydrates nits and lice in just one hour. Remove lice quickly and safely.

Selfies & head lice

According to a recent study published at CNBC, selfies are now linked to

the spread of head lice. And it makes sense. Head lice don’t jump or fly

but they crawl from head to head and they only need one hair to do so.

Most lice cases occur on children 4-11 years old due to the personal

spence they share. Children at that age are more prone to hug, play

closer and have overall less personal space within each other. Growing

up, that space grows with them and is less common for them to be infested

with head lice. The selfies phenomenon has brought back that closeness

between people along with a higher risk of head lice infestation.

Should we tell our children to not take selfies?

Much like making them aware of not sharing hats, helmets or jackets, it

is important to tell our children to be aware that head to head contact

is the preferred way for lice to spread and therefore they should be

careful to not get infested with head lice.

In addition, moms can keep extra caution by checking our children and

being alert for head lice symptoms such as itchiness or sleep problems

even when our children have left the “age of lice” behind.