Summer break – staying at home or summer camp?

Summer break – staying at home or summer camp? To be or not to be… the eternal question J The end of school is near and with that, there will be fun activities and camps.  One thing you don’t want to pack with you is HEAD LICE!.

Lice is more common than you might think as there are more than 3 million cases a year. Don’t let you or your child be one of them, whether you are staying home or sending them to camp screen your child before and after the break to avoid outbreaks at home and have peace of mind!

Staying at home

Since we live in Southern California most of our summer time is spent outside or in the water. We are lucky enough to live by the ocean and have these beautiful beaches and many people might choose to spend the summer taking advantage of our beautiful nature surroundings. But what about head lice? Many think that the lice would be killed if they spent enough time in the water. Unfortunately, that is not the case as head lice can be under water for more than 6 hours! Even if we were able to drawn the bugs, the nits (lice eggs) will still be there. Those nits like to stick to the hair like glue which is why you may need a professional to help remove them from the hair. LCA San Diego is focused and committed to make your summer bug free so you can enjoy your fun in the sun!

Summer Camps

Adventure camps, science and music camps, day camps… there’s so many choices! If your child likes one of the fun activities, they have they are going to enjoy being at a summer camp doing the thing they love and sharing it with other children. One of the #1 ways to spread head lice is by head to head contact so the more children the more possibility to get head lice. If your child’s summer camp doesn’t offer screenings have them give us a call, we’ll do it at no cost!

We specialize in treating and helping families with the nasty bug by performing a one of a kind non-toxic and no pesticide treatment. Summer should be a time of excitement and relaxation don’t interrupt your vacation with an itchy head. LCA San Diego offers and treatment that is one and done so you don’t have to keep coming back for checks and best of all the entire process is done in our safe, clean and friendly environment.

How to screen for Head Lice?

How to screen for Head Lice?

How to screen for head lice is probably one of the most common asked questions we hear at our clinics. You are supposed to screen your child once a week between the ages of 6-11 but, what’s the best way to do it?

There are different ways to properly screen for head lice:

Sectioning the hair

Sectioning the hair in small pieces will help you be more precise at making a right diagnostic. We want to start on one side of the hair and use a wood stick, fine comb or pen to section the hair. We will start from top to bottom creating vertical lines, and looking for nits (lice eggs).

Looking for moving louse will be very difficult as they crawl and move really fast. Instead we look for their eggs which are white-brownish close to the scalp, attached to the hair shaft and look like a small sesame seed.

Once we have visually examined the first section, we create another vertical line with the aid of the tooth pick about an inch apart of the first one and we examine again top to bottom. We repeat this until we have gone from side to side. Then, for an extra layer of caution, we can re-examine the areas that are usually the most humid where head lice will lay more eggs: behind the ears, on the bottom of the neck and the crown of the head.

How to screen for head lice? Sectioning

Using a Lice Comb

Using a Lice comb is a very effective way to screen for head lice. Please make sure every time you use the comb, there is no debris (especially if there was an infestation previously) so that we don’t confuse ourselves with dead and old eggs.

Start combing the hair – dry or wet- from top to bottom. We recommend to comb the hair on top of a white sink or a clear colored furniture so that we can see clearly if anything falls off. In addition, have a white paper towel handy to wipe the comb every so often and see if there’s anything coming out.

How to screen for head lice? Lice comb

If you see nits or lice don’t hesitate to call us so we can help you find the best treatment option for your child. We have a treatment option for every budget and are professionals when it comes to head lice removal. At LCA San Diego we will kill head lice and their eggs in just one treatment using our medical device, the ! Find out more at: lcasandiego.com/treatment