At first I thought I was allergic to the shampoo. I just recently switched to a new brand and my hair looked great, but I now had an itchy ring around my skull as if someone had put a poison crown on me. When I couldn’t work because of the itching, I reluctantly went back to my old frizz-promoting hair care methods.
Then my older child started scratching.
It turns out that about half of his class has head lice. At home, when I looked closely, I found that there were insects flying on both of my scalps. We began a huge adventure of combing and shampooing our hair. It lasted for weeks, causing at least one meltdown per person, and the bathroom was filled with creepy metal combs and half-empty bottles of slime.
Our experience is a rite of passage for young children and their families. Lice not only cause anxiety on a psychological level (I don’t like the term “blood meal”), but they can also cause intense itching. Another recent patient, Logan, age 5, described his recent symptoms to me as “super, amazing, big and extremely itchy.”
Lice are often a source of shame and anxiety for families. Dawn Nolt, a pediatric infectious disease physician and lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ 2022 recommendations on lice, said the insects “have historically been associated with poor personal hygiene, homelessness, or “It has been associated with certain socio-economic statuses.”
But there’s actually some evidence that they prefer clean hair, Kate King, an Ohio school nurse and president of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN), told me. And although this insect infests people from all walks of life around the world, children and caregivers are the most susceptible.
Lice are not dangerous, they’re a nuisance, and they don’t spread disease, Nolt said. But some school districts, including where I live in New York City, ban children from classrooms if lice are found. For my child, that meant spending the day in front of the TV instead of going to kindergarten.
Experts say that no-lice policies and in-school lice testing in which nurses and other adults check entire classes for lice have not actually stopped the spread of lice, and that school districts have been forced to reduce the incidence of chronic absenteeism since then. He says that this is a particular problem in the fight against the coronavirus. of Covid-19. “Since the pandemic, we have really appreciated the benefits of in-person education,” Nolt told me. “Head lice are not a reason for a child to miss school.”
In fact, the CDC has recommended not sending children home for lice for more than a decade. However, the redesign of the website has sparked renewed interest in the policy at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year, with some seeing an increase in lice outbreaks after the pandemic subsides.
Rather than panic, experts say families and schools alike should treat lice for what they are: nuisance insects that try to eat us, but that can be repelled with the right tools and the right attitude. argue that it should.
As Logan told me, “Don’t give up.”
The truth about head lice
Head lice are about the size of a sesame seed and can survive on a person’s head for about a month by sucking blood. During that time, they lay eggs called lice, which attach themselves with glue to the hair shaft right near the scalp. These eggs incubate for about 10 days before hatching and developing into new lice, Nolt said.
The itching characteristic of a lice infestation is actually caused by the insect’s saliva, which can cause a mild allergic reaction in humans. Nolt says this reaction takes four to six weeks to develop, so once you start scratching, you’re already infected with lice for a while.
Lice have no wings and cannot jump, but they spread by crawling from one person’s head to another, usually by head-to-head contact (this is because lice like to hug and ravage). (a common occurrence among young children) and usually stand up and look at each other). Lice can be spread through shared hats and clothing, but that’s much more rare because lice can’t survive very long away from a source of warmth and food, Nolt said. said.
For some children, the most difficult part of having lice is getting rid of them. Typically, an adult washes the child’s hair and uses a special lice comb (included with many commercial lice shampoos) to locate and remove all lice eggs. Depending on the length of your child’s hair, this process may take several hours.
“The combing was really painful,” said Thomas, 7. His parents let him play video games to distract himself, but “it still really hurt,” he says.
Logan’s 2-1/2-year-old brother Byron called it “stinging.” It might be helpful to add some mythology. Logan and Byron informed me that their family used “Knit Destruction Warrior” combs that were “made with lasers.” (Fact-checking reveals that some knit combs are allegedly made using “laser technology.”)
Further complicating the problem is the fact that lice appear to have evolved resistance to pyrethrins and permethrins, the active ingredients in many commercially available lice shampoos. Some studies have shown that dimethicone, a sticky polymer that basically suffocates lice, is still effective. After several failed attempts at permethrin-based products, this is what finally worked in my house. It is also very oily and takes a long time to wash off.
All of this is stressful enough without adding in school interruptions. Nolt said that once children develop symptoms, they often have been suffering from lice for several weeks. Sending children home for a day or two will do little to reduce the spread of infection, but it will take away important learning time from children. Like the CDC, NASN and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that children not be sent home for lice.
Experts say that in-school lice testing (a mainstay of my Millennial generation and still a reality in places like New York) is also ineffective. “No real results have been produced,” said King, the NASN president. “It’s very humiliating and embarrassing for the students as well.”
If a child contracts lice at school, Ms. King will contact families with information about treatment options and provide free lice shampoo upon request. “Our main focus is to be helpers, not punishers.”
Ultimately, experts say schools and families should treat lice not as something shameful or scary, but as a part of childhood, a nuisance and yes, but normal and not necessarily avoidable. , states that it should be considered. “Head lice are like the common cold,” Dr. King said. “Sometimes it just happens.”
A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine says myopia is on the rise among children around the world, likely as a result of increased “close work” such as reading and writing. That’s true. Smartphones and other screens are still unknown). To counter this trend, the report’s authors recommend that children should have two hours of outdoor time each day, at least one of which should occur during school hours.
Another report found that students with disabilities lack access to college preparation programs, even though they are entitled to such assistance under federal law.
Tens of thousands of children are home from school in the aftermath of Hurricane Helen, with no idea when they will be able to return to the classroom. In some parts of North Carolina, even distance learning is not possible due to internet and power service disruptions. “This is not COVID-19 distance learning. This is nothing,” a professor studying the effects of Hurricane Katrina told the New York Times.
At my house, we’re reading Bill Bryson’s A Really Short History of Almost Everything. Warning: Because of this, I had to spend a lot of time explaining the Big Bang and the shape of the universe. This is a topic that can be quite cognitively taxing at bedtime.
I’m thinking of writing a scary story for Halloween. As a fan of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Goosebumps, I’m curious about what kids these days are reading (or watching) to get scared. If you’re an adult, I’d also love to hear about your favorite scary story from your childhood, or the story that gave you nightmares for weeks. If you have any observations about past or present creepy children’s content, please let us know at anna.north@vox.com. Your spooky recommendation (or warning) could soon be featured in our newsletter.
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