Everything wakes up in spring, trees and grass become greener, animals get out of hibernation, you start feeling more excited. However, head lice wake up in spring, too, and that may become a real problem for the parents. Head lice outbreaks are quite common in spring. As children start playing outside more, they spend more time together. If one child is infected, head lice will spread quickly from one person to another, and in no time, everyone will start itching. Fortunately, there are simple steps to prevent and deal with head lice infection. If you’re a parent, check out this article and find out everything about emergency hair care for toddlers.
1. Cut It Off
Now, this is probably the most drastic solution to a lice problem but it is always effective. Toddlers can be fussy, so this is a solution to that problem. In an ideal world, toddlers would sit still, while you check their hair for lice and comb through thoroughly. This is not what happens for most parents, so chopping off hair will make things easier. If your toddler doesn’t sit still in a salon, you can easily do it yourself at home, just make sure you have some professional shears. We recommend Scissor Tech Yasaka Shears for the job.
2. Check Hair Every Day
If you have a patient toddler and a lot of time then you should check the hair every single day. We suggest you get a lice comb to make things easier. This will allow you to check the hair of all your family members regularly. You should look for:
Lice eggs – large, light-colored eggs are usually found close to the scalp. They look like little sticks. Eggs are attached to hair shafts with transparent cement. You can see it well through the comb grid.
Lice nits – these are tiny and dark, very hard to see with the naked eye. Nits are laid on individual hair strands, not on strands as a whole. You should look for them close to the scalp, and not in the hair ends.
Lice as adults – after you find lice eggs or nits, check the scalp again to see if there are any adult lice or nymphs, which look very similar to nits. Watch out for small gray bugs moving among the hair strands.
The presence of lice – check for red spots on your scalp, which is a typical sign of bites. Also, check your child for a scaly scalp, which is another common head lice symptom.
3. Combing Is a MUST!
The easiest way to fight head lice is to find and kill them before they lay eggs or multiply into a huge colony. Of course, this is easier said than done. You will still need to use a good lice comb to get rid of those stubborn insects. If you don’t have one yet, buy it as soon as possible! The best tool to destroy lice is a fine-toothed comb designed specifically for this purpose. You can find that at any drugstore. It is made of plastic or metal (with teeth in metal combs being slightly sharper than in plastic combs).
Do It Yourself or Call a Professional
You can try to comb your hair yourself or take your kid to a professional who will do it for you. If you decide on the second option, make sure that you’re going to a reputable professional who has plenty of experience dealing with head lice. We suggest you choose a child-friendly salon where toddlers can play while their parents get their hair done and where the stylist will use special products for a head lice treatment. If your child has head lice, it’s likely that other children at their school have them as well. So, it’s best not to use standard products for kids’ hair at home or anywhere else but only those that are specifically aimed at fighting head lice.
How often should you comb your child’s hair?
There’s no exact answer to this question since this depends on many factors, some of which might be the season of the year, whether your child has been outside during the day, etc. However, we believe that combing every two days is enough if you want to be on the safe side. If you notice something suspicious on your child’s scalp, check with a fine-toothed comb every day until you find out for sure what kind of insects are living in their hair!
Don’t forget about your own hair!
If your child has head lice, it means that they have been in contact with someone who was carrying those insects. So, check your own hair regularly so you can prevent an outbreak in your home!
4. What are your options if you find out about head lice?
If your child gets an infestation of head lice, they will most likely have to be out of social activities for at least five days. Just in case if someone in their class from school also has it! You can treat head lice at home using two different kinds of products. The first is an over-the-counter medication and the second being prescription medications. The choice depends on the severity of your child’s case and what symptoms they are experiencing that go beyond just itching. If there are no other symptoms, we suggest starting with over-the-counter products first and then move onto prescription medications if needed (don’t forget to consult your pediatrician first).
Over-the-counter treatment products
Over-the-counter products are easy to clean and use, just apply them on the dry hair and leave them on for 10 minutes before rinsing off with water. We recommend LiceMD leave-in treatment spray, it was named one of the best lice treatments of 2021 because of its pleasant smell and lack of chemicals that may irritate the skin when applied directly to someone’s scalp (which is more important if you’re dealing with toddlers).
Prescription treatment products
We recommend using prescription treatments only after you tried over-the-counter products and didn’t get any results or if they weren’t used according to the instructions. These include products like Rid, Nix, and Natroba and all three prescription medications are similar. However, they can be used only by adults working with medical staff because they contain harsh chemicals that may cause severe side effects (in rare cases) if used incorrectly or taken by mistake by a child.
5. Prepare everything in advance!
This is one of the most important steps in emergency hair care for toddlers, make sure that everything is ready before the infestation starts! This will save you from unpleasant surprises during such a stressful time!
Summary
If you have a toddler, then you would know from your own childhood, that catching head lice is inevitable. I’m sure that you have plenty of memories of someone combing through your hair endlessly tugging and pulling the lice out. Thankfully, head lice medication has come a long way, and it is much easier to deal with these days than it was a few years ago. Now, if you are a busy parent you can opt to cut off your child’s hair or even send them to a professional who will get it done for you. If you don’t want to cut your child’s hair or spend money on a salon visit, there are other options out there for you too. There are so many different kinds of over-the-counter and prescription medication so make sure that you consult with your doctor or pediatrician first before attempting to administer the treatment yourself.
