The 'back to school' special: head lice's arrival

So you’re back in the school year routine. You smile when your child brings home an achievement award in a subject they had been challenged by. Flyers come home about an upcoming field trip. Reminders to join the PTA. Pre-sale packages for the fundraiser. And then you get the letter: Your child has head lice. Life as you know it will never be the same.

Pediculus humanus capitis, or, as we know it: head lice. According to the Centers for Disease Control, an estimated 6 million to 12 million infestations occur each year in the United States among children 3 to 11 years of age. Head lice move by crawling; they cannot hop or fly. Head lice are spread by direct contact with the hair of an infested person. Personal hygiene or cleanliness in the home or school has nothing to do with getting head lice.

Recently the media has been talking about super lice. Unfortunately, in recent years, lice have begun to outwit the most commonly used of these insecticides, known as pyrethroids. Thanks to several resistance genes, called knockdown mutations, lice have rendered themselves less vulnerable to pyrethroids.

Prescription medications like Natroba and Ulesfia do appear to still work extremely well against them. OTC products like LymeMD, which don’t use insecticides at all, have shown some promise as a reliable anti-lice treatment. Contact your hairdresser for tried-and-true products. Because the treatment to get rid of these pests can be harsh, you might want to schedule a conditioning treatment for your hair once you’ve successfully gotten rid of the lice.

Treatment must include the carrier and the environment. Some experts recommend items that may be contaminated by an infested person and that cannot be laundered or dry-cleaned should be sealed in plastic bag and stored for two weeks to kill any lice that already are present or that might hatch from any nits that may be present on the items.

Experiencing head lice in your household catapults you into a special club. Like pregnancy, everybody has their stories. And like others, you will live to tell yours.