How do I treat a Head Lice infestation?

You just found out your child or you have lice. Your first impulse may be to run to the pharmacy and get one of the over the counter treatments or use home remedies you found online or heard from a friend. We would like to save you time and money before you decide to remove lice by yourself. Trust us, we get many calls each week from moms that are going exactly through the same overwhelming problem. We understand you want to take care of your kid’s lice problem. It shouldn’t be too hard, right? Well it may not be very difficult but it is actually a very tiring and frustrating experience.

Recognizing lice and its symptoms

You first need to recognize what lice look like and what the common signs are. Scratching can be a symptom but not everybody scratches. Itchiness is an allergic reaction to the bug’s saliva and some children start scratching only after weeks from having the first bug. You may see some nits (lice eggs) that are firmly glued to the hair shaft close to the scalp (no farther than half an inch). The viable ones are usually dark brown. The white ones can be mistaken as dandruff, but the eggs cannot be as easily removed. Most likely you will find the nits first, adult bugs move really fast and are more difficult to spot.

Treating lice & nits

Now you are certain that there is a lice infestation. Be assured that the only way to take care of it for good is by killing the nits.  If you do this by yourself, you need to be absolutely certain you remove every single one of the tiny eggs. If you miss one, it will hatch again and recreate the infestation. Removing all nits is a tricky thing as there is a big chance of human error. You would need to be able to comb out the hair every day for at least ten days. Have in mind that long or curly hair will become even more difficult to comb out. You will have to apply dimethicone oil treatment every few days to suffocate any bugs before they lay eggs. Take in consideration that most over the counter treatments or shampoos have either toxic pesticides or chemicals and even the prescription pill doesn’t kill the nits. According to some experts, lice are becoming resistant to many treatments.

Our Head Lice Removal Treatment in San Diego

LCA San Diego uses the FDA cleared ™ device, the only treatment option available that is clinically proven to kill 99%+ of the nits. The treatment will kill lice in one single session, using non-toxic products and in just one hour!.

 

Delouse your house

Killing head lice is not only taking care of the head. Your house, car and other belongings might have some lice and may cause you or those around you to be infested or even re-infested! Taking care of your house is very important to complement your head lice removal treatment.

Heat is one of the most effective ways of taking care of lice: Wash all the clothes, hats, jackets and linens and place them in the dryer in high heat for 30minutes. You can also place stuffed animals, pillows and other fabric items in the dryer to kill the lice. In addition, boil all the combs, head bands, clips and hair accessories.

All the other items that cannot go in the dryer or boiled should be placed in a plastic bag and left air tight for over 48h. Lice cannot survive for more than 48h off a human head. Vacuum all carpets and couches and clean your house to take out any louse that may have been left behind. Remember to vacuum your car seats.  Also you can use a sticky roller to take care of leather seats, and a wipe to clean your plastic child´s car seats or car raisers.

Make sure you take all this precautions after you have been treated so that no re-infestation is possible! Call us if you have questions and we’ll help you delouse your house.

5 Interesting Facts About Lice

1.      Lice don´t JUMP… or fly… or hop…they crawl. Unlike many people´s beliefs, lice don´t jump from head to head. They are really fast crawlers and just being shoulder to shoulder, or a strain of hair is enough for them to travel from one head to another.

2.      Lice don´t DISCRIMINATE. They don´t care about age, race, economic  background or even hygiene. They actually prefer clean (!!) heads.

3.      Human Lice don´t spread to animals. Pets have their own lice. Don´t worry about your dogs, cats or even hamsters getting lice 🙂

4.      Lice have been around since the caveman. They are not a new infestation but they are more resilient than before and they are not easily killed!

5.      1 on every 20 kids has lice. U.S. children miss 12 to 24 MILLION days of school each year due to head lice.

Killing head lice can be a nightmare.  Killing adult lice is way easier than removing the nits that according to some experts, are becoming resistant to most of the chemicals used in several of the over the counter treatments.  If you miss a few nits, these will hatch and start the infestation again.

At LCA San Diego, we offer a pain-free, fast one time appointment to kill head lice. Our medical device is FDA cleared and has clinically proven to kill over 99% of lice eggs through heated air. It´s one and done, just in one hour and we have a policy!*