Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:07 Hello and welcome to a Wonder Care podcast, formally known as Wonder Baba podcast. I'm Sheena Mitchell, pharmacist and mom of three. I combine healthcare and practical advice to support you on your parenting journey. This week I'm gonna be talking all about head lice. Mm, lovely. I'll be talking about how they spread, how you detect them in your child's hair, and most importantly how you get rid of them. If this episode doesn't get you scratching your head, I'm pretty sure nothing will
Speaker 1 00:00:41 Headlights. One of those things that everyone remembers getting the head pulled off them with a knit comb during their school going years. I'd like to say that we've moved on a lot from that, but unfortunately many of the treatment options remain the same as when you and I were little. Right. Brace yourself. Here comes the description. Head lice are tiny grayish, six legged wingless insects, which hatch approximately the size of a pinhead and grow to around the size of a sesame seed. They live in human hair and feed on blood by biting the scalp and sucking it out. Yep. Disgusting. But unfortunately they are really common. They can't fly and they can't jump and they certainly can't swim. So enough misconceptions about acrobatic headlights, they're not able to jump. They do live for about 25 to 30 days and the female lays around 10 eggs per day.
Speaker 1 00:01:40 The eggs are known as knits. There does seem to be a lack of information about how common headlights are, and there can be a lot of suspected cases incorrectly treated where a live infestation is not actually present. They do seem to be more common in children, especially between four to 11 years of age, mostly because kids spend more time together up close and personal, but they can happen in adults as well. The peak age is seven to eight years old. There is a general thought that headlights spread in school, but actually they can spread anywhere that close contact occurs, so it often passes from one child to another in a household or from close friends, whether they're in school or not. One of the biggest misconceptions that I have come across repeatedly is that headlights prefer clean hair and I'm afraid they don't discriminate. A scalp is a scalp to a head, lice clean or dirty.
Speaker 1 00:02:33 So how do headlights spread? Head lice can actually only spread by direct head to head contact because remember, they can't jump. It is possible but uncommon for people to catch them off. Items of clothing or towels of someone who has an infestation. They prefer to be on human scalp and so the frequency of them leaving the scalp to go live in a pillowcase is very low. As I said earlier, they feed off the blood by biting the scalp. If you have suspicions that your child has head lice, they're coming home from school and all of a sudden you notice their little hand is going up and they're scratching their head a lot, then it might be important to figure out how to detect them. It's good to know that the itching, which is associated with head lice is actually caused by a sensitivity to their saliva on the scalp.
Speaker 1 00:03:17 Itching can of course be a sign of infestation, but it doesn't always mean there is one. So the only way to be sure is to find a live headli on your child's scalp. It's not recommended to routinely treat your child for headli if they're not actually infested. There are other things that could be causing the itchy head. These include dandra for dermatitis, and if you treat a child with sensitive skin for headlights and they don't have it, you're actually risking their scalp unnecessarily, making the problem worse for them. Another thing to remember is that headlights are sneaky. They could be there for four to six weeks before you get any itching. So the only way to be sure your child doesn't have it is by checking for infection regularly, and if you hear someone in the class or their friend group or family has it, then really ramp up your detection.
Speaker 1 00:04:11 Combing. The most common place that headlights like to hang out on the scalp is behind the ears and at the nap of your child's neck, you can use either dry or wet combining to detect head lice, but only wet combining can be used to remove them effectively. How do we wet comb? Well, wet combining can be used to detect head lice or to remove them, so you can do it with or without head lice. Products like lotions or sprays, which I'll talk more about later. So you're gonna wash your hair with normal shampoo and then apply lots and lots and lots of their normal conditioner when the hair is still wet. Before washing the conditioner out, use a comb to detangle the hair, so just a normal comb and once all the knots and tangles are gone, then switch to a fine tooth comb. This comb should have teeth spaced 0.2 to 0.3 millimeters apart and can be purchased in pharmacies.
Speaker 1 00:05:06 We also have them on our website Wonder care.ie. And a good example of one can be found by searching I VAK comb on my website, so that's IV or a, what you do is you systematically work through small sections of your child's hair using the comb. Start by touching the comb off the scalp and work your way right down to the ends. Examine the comb for live lice and remove lice by wiping or rinsing the comb in between every stroke. I find the easiest way to check the comb and to remove any LI is by having a kitchen roll to hand, so every time you brush the comb down through the hair, wipe the comb on the kitchen roll, and because it's the kitchen roll is white, you'll be very clearly able to see what's there. It's really, really important that every single section of the scalp is gently but thoroughly worked through. Once you've done all of this, you rinse the conditioner out of their hair and then you repeat the process. You need to do this on days 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 if there is an infestation so that young lis are removed as they hatch. Ugh, sorry. I will try and stop making that noise. <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:06:26 Okay. Dry combining Dry combining is completed using the same technique on dry hair. Once you find a head lice when you're dry combining, you can choose to treat the infestation using a wet combining technique. Or alternatively, you can use a head lice product, what product you might ask. I just want to take a little break for a second to say that I'm delighted to partner again with one of my all-time favorite products. Salon Plus, this is the world's first a hundred percent natural dry salt therapy device. It's clinically proven to relieve a wide range of allergens in respiratory conditions. The salt therapy method has been trusted for generations and is now hugely popular worldwide. As more and more people recognize the superb results achieved from a natural and non-invasive method, this device will help you breathe easier and sleep better. Hopefully, I can summarize the main ones for you now so that you know what to reach for if an outbreak occurs.
Speaker 1 00:07:26 Things that you need to consider are if your child has asthma sensitive skin or dermatitis. If your child has any of these conditions, do not use an alcohol-based product. You need to use a water-based one. An alcohol-based product could burn an irritate sensitive skin or cause a flare up of asthma. If you are using an alcohol-based product, make sure to use it in well-ventilated rooms and away from heat or flames. Remember, only use a headly product if live lice have been detected. If your child is under six months of age, you're gonna have to go to the doctor for advice on treatment. I definitely recommend having a read of the instructions of every product before you use them because they really vary between different products on how long they need to be in the hair fur and whether you're applying them to wet or dry hair.
Speaker 1 00:08:16 But I will go into them one by one a bit more. Now there are a couple of options products to choose from and traditionally, a product which contains Phin or permethrin, which are chemical insecticides known as pyrethroids, would've been first choice. These kill the lice and can be reapplied after seven days to ensure that any lice hatched from eggs which survived the first treatment or killed due to issues with lice, sometimes developing resistance to these products, newer preparations tend to be recommended first. The new products contain silicone based products such as DME and they act by physically suffocating the lice rather than killing them chemically. I managed to get through that bit without saying, Ugh, <laugh> almost. When choosing a product, I would recommend you use a lotion or a spray. There are mooses shampoos and cream rinses available on the market, but I am not confident that they saturate the hair and scalp thoroughly enough and they don't make good enough contact with the scalp to always be effective.
Speaker 1 00:09:22 So it's a spray or lotion that I recommend. Always use enough lotion to spray or cover the full scalp and right through to the ends of the hair. If you have a child with very long hair and there's persistent headlights in the classroom, this may make you rethink that, but yeah, hopefully that won't happen. I'll give you some tips on avoiding headlights in a few minutes, but I'm just gonna go through the products first, right, so products, the first one I'm gonna talk about is like clear cream rinse. Do you remember I was saying some contained insecticides and some of the newer ones do not like clear cream. Rinse is an older product and it does contain Perrin 1%, and this is a chemical insecticide. You apply it to wash and tiled dried hair, you leave it in for 10 minutes and it's suitable from six months of age.
Speaker 1 00:10:13 Next up, we have full mark solution. It contains cyclone meone, which is a silicone active ingredient. It needs to be left in for 10 minutes, but it's only suitable from two years of age and most importantly, red alert, it contains alcohol, so really avoid the full marks range if your child has sensitive scalp. It's exactly the same for the Full Mark solution spray. Then we have the head and range. Most of the head and range contain an active ingredient called Active idl and it's 5%. This works in the same way as the silicone based products and it comes in a range of different options. So you can get the treat and go lotion, we can get the treat and go moose. You can also get a jewel pack which has the treat and go and protect and go in it. I'll explain the protect and go in a minute.
Speaker 1 00:11:05 There is also Hedron once, which is a detic cone based product. The treat and go hedron range needs to be applied for eight hours or overnight and then repeated after seven days. So that is a bit longer than some of the other treatments and sounds like more hassle, but actually you can throw it in your child's hair and send them to school with it because it's not greasy and it can be used for children six months and older and they are water-based, so no alcohol in this. So it's good for those sensitive scallops. Again, I'm gonna say if you have a choice, try go with the lotion over the moose. The hedron once is slightly different cuz it has that DME cone in it. You leave it in for only 15 minutes and it is alcohol free and suitable for six months. So it's got a much more convenient timing on it.
Speaker 1 00:11:59 You don't have to leave that one on overnight, which is quite handy if you just want to get the job done quickly. Hedron also do a protect and go conditioner, so you can apply this to wet or dry hair and it isn't a treatment, it's actually a preventative product so you can use it at least twice a week. You can apply it to wet dry hair and there's no need to rinse it, you just comb it through. A lot of people like to use the nitty gritty spray and unfortunately that's not available at the moment. People like to use that as a repellent to head lice. It is a more natural product, you know, so it's maybe lacking some evidence, but anecdotally, headly do not like things like tea tree oil and blends of essential oils and that is what nitty gritty contains. Unfortunately, I did reach out to the supplier and it will be another few months before that's back in stock.
Speaker 1 00:12:53 Hopefully that makes the products a little bit easier to understand. But I will link them all in the show notes and you will be able to have a look at their descriptions there if you're still confused. So some tips on how to treat and avoid headly. First things first, do use that piece of kitchen roll or white paper when you're combing your child's hair to wipe the comb on. It does make it so much easier to detect anything that's coming off the comb. While it's really important not to just routinely treat everyone in the household, if one person has it, it's definitely recommended to do your detection routine. So check all your family's hair and let close friends know if you have detected any lice. As I said, while lives are gross, there is no shame in them. It's not to do with having clean or dirty hair or any hygiene reason.
Speaker 1 00:13:46 It is just part of growing up. Unfortunately, it's important that the source of the infestation is treated. So if you have suspicions that another child is having a persistent case of head lice, which is causing your child to catch them over and over, it's best to try and have that child treated too. Otherwise reinfection will occur. For the record, I am not suggesting you start rubbing a bottle of hedron into other people's children's head. I'm just saying maybe have a diplomatic conversation with the school child minder or if you're good friends with the parents, you can have a little chat with them. This can be done really easily if you're in a WhatsApp group, just be like, oh, hey guys, look and everyone just make sure and check their kids' hair cuz you know my little darling keeps coming home with head lice and I've been treating it so I do think that someone in the class still has it.
Speaker 1 00:14:40 So maybe if we all coordinate our treatments, it can be done. You really don't need to lose friends and alienate any potential babysitters or nice people in your life. So do try and be kind, but do try and get the source as well. You could even give them a recommendation of the product that you're using saying you're finding it's great, it is clearing them, but maybe they should try it. I'm gonna leave the politics to you after you treat your child's scalp. Do wash their bed clothes on a wash over 60 degrees or on a normal wash followed by a 15 minute tumble dry. This ensures that any live lice are removed from bedding even though it's unlikely for them to spread this way. If you hear a single whisper of head lice in your child's classroom or school, implore your child to wear their hair up.
Speaker 1 00:15:26 Best way is in a plat or a bun so that hair is not falling down from their faces when they're standing over a desk doing projects or art or whatever with other kids. Because once all those heads go down to look at the amazing art they're creating, it usually brings their heads very close together. And you know, if hair is touching then it means that headlights can move from one head to the other. Definitely ask your child not to be sharing any hats or scarves or superhero masks or hairbands or even tiaras, <laugh>, once you've treated your child, it's no harm to routinely wash all of the bed linen at 60 degrees and Hoover the house and car, including the car seats. So did you get through it? Did you get through it without scratching your head? It's very hard in the pharmacy. As soon as someone comes in just to buy a headly product within seconds we're all scratching our heads.
Speaker 1 00:16:25 It's just hard to avoid. The paranoia really kicks in very quickly and I've been working in community pharmacy for 16, 17 years and I still can't resist a scratch when I'm selling a bottle of Hallmark Solution. Anyway, thank you so, so much for listening. If you found the information helpful in this podcast, I would be so grateful if you could review the podcast and give a little follow, like, share all of those things on your podcast streaming platform, whether it be Spotify or Apple Podcasts or whatever. It really helps me to reach more people, which enables me to deliver more free accessible healthcare to parents. Keep an eye on my Instagram page for question boxes, which pop up a few days before I release my next episode to make sure that I get all of your questions answered in the episode this week. There was a lot of questions about sensitive scalp and how to treat it and really, as I said there, you're avoiding the alcohol based full marks products and you're probably better to stick with the Hedron aqueous, so water-based products. Okay, thanks everyone for joining in and thanks again to my sponsor, salon Plus. Hi.
