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Community Corner

Battling Lice Can Be A Head-Scratcher

A doctor and dad of four, two Eastside moms and a professional "lice wrangler" share their tips for eliminating lice and preventing a new outbreak.

Lice. The word itself strikes dread into the heart of any parent. Lice are parasites that cling to the hair shaft near the scalp and feed on human blood. The adult lice lays up to ten eggs or nits a day and those nits hatch in about ten days, which then mature in just over a week and start the cycle all over again. The thought of spider-like tiny bugs crawling around and laying eggs in your hair and your child's hair is horrific. And the elimination process and prevention of a new outbreak is often frustrating and exhausting.   

During the fall and winter when coats are frequently piled up together in classrooms and younger kids sit close together in classroom, lice outbreaks can occur. But lice outbreaks can happen any time of year and not always at schools. Lice outbreaks can happen to kids who are members of sports teams and dance groups – any activity when kids may be close together or share helmets or apparel such as mesh scrimmage vests.

Getting lice also often carries an unfortunate stigma based on false stereotypes on who gets lice. Steven Hall, a doctor, has a family practice in the Tiger Mountain Center for Acupuncture office building in downtown Issaquah that combines both traditional and alternative medicine. The father of four also has, as he puts it, “personal experience battling lice.” Getting lice, Hall said, has nothing to do with “housekeeping or hygiene.” He tells his patients that come in for advice on how to deal with an outbreak “not to freak out.”

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“Lice are smart and get around,” he said, adding that lice can move from person to person and often travel on coats and in shared helmets and hats.

Hall is not a fan of chemical scalp treatments for lice and points out that these treatments are an insecticide and that it appears many lice are building a resistance to some of the most common treatments. So, as he put it, if you use a chemical treatment “you may be poisoning your kid for nothing.” An effective and safe treatment, but also more time consuming method, he has used himself is to suffocate the lice by dousing a child’s head each night with an essential oil such as lavender oil, and then tucking all the hair inside a shower cap.

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You need to do this every night for up to three weeks. And at the same time, he said, practice “environmental control” to get rid of any unhatched eggs. The nits hang out on fabric waiting to hatch and you want to eliminate them. Hall said put all “stuffies” into a bag and toss them into a freezer for a month (that way when the nits hatch there is nothing for them to live on and they’ll die), then vacuum everything and wash blankets, bedding, coats and rugs in hot water. Be mindful of the lice “life cycle” – you may have eliminated all the adults but still have live nits, and continue checking every person in the family for lice for several weeks and continue practicing  “environmental control” Hall said.

Heather MacMillian is a Bellevue mom of two kids under the age of eight who has successfully battled lice. She said growing up she was taught some of the false stereotypes about lice and is now an advocate of open communication. Staying silent she said only allows an outbreak to continue. She recalled calling her child’s whole sports team to announce her child had lice, to which parents responded gratefully as they did a lice check on their kids and found that several families on the team also had lice. Communicating openly within schools, and with sports teams and other activities that kids participate in is one of the most effective ways of shutting down an outbreak, she said. “Lice thrive in secrecy,” MacMillian said. She and her friends now have learned how to cross check each other’s children’s hair and are committed as a group to not pass on the stereotypes and stigma about lice to their kids. “Kids learn from their parents what kind of attitude to have toward each other,” said MacMillian when an outbreak occurs. She said it can be uncomfortable initially for moms to learn how to openly discuss lice. But MacMillian said: “We have to remind ourselves of the end result, changing the stereotypes and fewer outbreaks for our children.”

Jenn Elder, a Woodinville mom of two kids, has also battled lice – four times.  She said that she has become very proactive in her school community advocating that kids “maintain personal space and try not to sit head to head” and even successfully had the school remove some upholstered furniture that she suspected lice were hanging around on and using to move from kid to kid during outbreaks. She said it can be embarrassing at first but when your child gets lice, but the right thing to do is to “contact every single person you’ve come into contact with.” Many parents she finds “still keep it a secret because of the stigma” but she is proud that “I’m like a public announcement system now when we get an outbreak.” And she has now become a “mentor mom” to parents in her school community who feel overwhelmed as they deal with the lice the first time. “I tell them it is daunting at first, but you do become an expert and it is easier the next time, and remember it is better than getting bed bugs.” 

Both MacMillian and Elder have enlisted the services of Nancy Gordon, owner of Lice Knowing You. Gordon is a mom of two and known on the Eastside for her effective, non-toxic lice battling services. Lice Knowing You is one of the only trained and certified head lice removal experts in Washington State. She might be the only trained expert in the state. Her services are often covered by insurance and she guarantees her service. Gordon and her team travel to clients’ homes or clients can come to one of her several lice treatment salons including one on Mercer Island. In addition to helping clients eliminate lice, Gordon coaches people on how to rid their environment of any remaining nits. 

Gordon tells parents facing their first outbreak: “Don’t panic and don’t go crazy buying poisonous treatments. Lice is the second most common childhood ailment next to the common cold. It should be treated and dealt with, but it is not life threatening. Put it into perspective.”

She said future outbreaks can be prevented but lice also just like some humans more than others. “Teach your children not to share coats, hats, brushes or personal items. Check your kids frequently and use lice repellents. Put hair in ponytails or braids. Don’t hang coats next to each other or put them in piles.  Some people are more prone to getting lice. It’s just like why some people get bitten by mosquitoes more often. Experts don’t know exactly why, but think it is related to blood type,” she said.

Regardless of your school policy, she added, you should not send kids back to school until you are sure they are free of both the adult lice and the nit eggs. “I believe a parent should treat head lice much like a cold or a flu. Don’t send your child to school with an active infestation. Make sure all live lice, nymphs and nits are out of the hair. I like a no nit policy because it holds parents accountable for making sure their kids won’t be spreading head lice around by treating it correctly. There are no short cuts.”

Both MacMillian and Elder speak highly of Gordon’s services. Elder especially appreciated Gordon’s affordable “family head checks” which she said provide something you rarely hear of when battling lice – “peace of mind.” 

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