Although I generally enjoy my writing assignments, this one came with a downside. Each time I sat down at my computer to work, I began to itch, and it did not stop until I was done working. For most of us, the mere mention of lice invites an itching sensation that’s hard to suppress. I remember as a kid reading a list of cute quirks within the English language, such as “Why do Americans drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?” Another was, “If the plural of mouse is mice and the plural of louse is lice, then what is the plural of house?” Before you shout out either houses or hice, I would like to pose the following question: Is there ever just one louse?
Lice Are Not So Nice
Lice are small, wingless, parasitic insects that need to live in warm places, making the scalp a perfect habitat for them. Covered by hair, the lice are warm, and receive ample nourishment by biting through the skin to suck small amounts of blood. It’s this biting that causes itching and irritation.
Mature lice are the size of a sesame seed and can be very hard to spot. Lice are usually gray or brown and are most often seen on the hair behind the ears or at the nape of the neck. They lay their eggs, called nits, on a strand of hair close to the scalp. Nits are small, light-colored, oval-shaped eggs that look like dandruff, but dandruff brushes off easily and nits do not. Once a nit has hatched, an immature mobile nymph emerges. After two or three weeks, it begins to lay its own eggs on the hair.
It is hard to distinguish between nits that have hatched and nits that have not hatched. Brown or tan while the nymphs are inside them, the nits are clear once they have hatched. Nits that are closer to the scalp along the hair shaft are likely to be live eggs, while nits further up the hair shaft are more likely to have already hatched.
How Do People Get Lice?
Lice cannot jump or fly but get around by crawling. People catch lice when they come in close contact with someone who has lice, or by using items that have nits or lice attached to them. It is important to mention that lice are not necessarily a sign of poor hygiene or being dirty; anybody can get lice, and all ethnicities and socioeconomic classes are affected . As a matter of fact, although there is no scientific evidence, an old wives’ tale has it that that head lice prefer clean hair!
Lice can only survive for a couple of days away from its food source, the human body; nor can nits hatch at the lower temperatures away from the scalp. Because direct contact is needed to spread lice, those most often affected are small children and their caretakers, as children play in close proximity and share objects that are likely to have nits or lice on them. Lice are not dangerous and do not spread disease, but they are quite a nuisance, and intense scratching can lead to an infected scalp.
Prevention
To avoid catching lice, teach your children not to share objects like pillows, headbands, brushes, and hats. Avoid touching the fabric items belonging to someone who has had lice within the past two weeks. If you suspect that you (or your child) were exposed to lice, comb your hair with a nit comb and wash items that are likely to attract nits or lice. Wash in hot water, and dry the sheets and clothing in the dryer; dry plush toys in the dryer for 20 minutes.
Many people recommend treating hair with vinegar or rosemary oil as prevention for lice. There is not much evidence that these methods work, although there is not much to lose by trying (aside from smelling like a salad, of course).Due to its acidity, vinegar can actually be beneficial in loosening the “glue” that attaches nits to the hair.
Treating the Lice
If your child comes home from school with the dreaded message that she has been found to have lice, aside from running away from home, what do you do next? We asked some experienced professionals in Lakewood for their advice.
Hindy Kaplan has been checking hair for eight years. “People are often embarrassed to tell others that a family member has been found to have nits or lice,” she says, “which means that people won’t know to check for infestation in their own family.” This is not to say that you should panic if you have been in the same room with somebody with nits or lice; unless you have been in direct physical contact with them, you probably do not need to worry. It is quite possible for an infestation to occur in only one family member and not get passed along to siblings at all.
Hindy’s method for cleansing nits involves using copious quantities of Pantene conditioner smeared onto dry hair. Any conditioner will help the nits and lice slide off easily and condition the hair for smooth combing, but Pantene is the thickest conditioner around. Using a special lice comb, such as Niska or Aussie 2000, Hindy then combs the hair layer by layer, starting from the bottom. After washing out the conditioner, blow-drying the hair, and rechecking, the infestation will hopefully be gone, although Hindy checks again a week later to be sure.
On the home front, Hindy recommends washing and drying whatever you can, but cautions that there is no need to ruin anything or go overboard. “You do not need to use strong chemicals in the laundry or use the drier for things that should not be dried. You only need to wash clothing that has been worn, not everything in your house.” Hindy does recall a family with seven long-haired girls who came to be checked; the mother of those girls, all of whom were infested with lice, found it easier to go to a laundromat.
PA Weiner has been checking for nits since she was 12. “Most people do not know what they are looking for,” she warns. One playgroup morah PA Weiner dealt with called her to do a precautionary check after all 15 parents had checked their kids and declared them clean. PA Weiner sent home no less than six kids, with their lice taped on a piece of paper for the parents to see.
Most professionals are more than happy to teach proper combing to anyone who comes to them for a cleaning, and PA Weiner advises that a novice learn from a professional, who will teach the proper way to hold a comb and the proper method for combing. “I’ve had countless parents call me for a quick check after hours of combing, only to find that they missed something in the hair. Or they do not call at all until two weeks later, when they are back to a full-blown infestation after having missed a few live nits. I usually find something in 90 to 95 percent of the people who come to me after having done their own checking, but as a professional, I can guarantee that when my final check is done, they are clean.”
Research indicates that, over time, lice have become more resistant to the lice shampoos sold in drugstores, so a thorough combing is imperative even after using a shampoo. “Even if the shampoo kills most of the lice,” notes PA Weiner, “any bugs that are left will lay more eggs, and any live eggs can still hatch. Before you know it, you can be back at square one.”
After the Battle: Preventing Recurrence
To stay lice free, comb hair with a lice comb every couple of days to find new nits or lice. Because nits and lice cannot survive for long away from the human host, treating the head is far more essential than treating the house, making combing crucial.
Soak all brushes and combs in lice shampoo or hot water. Wash any linen, pillows, towels, or clothing that may have been affected in hot water and dry at high heat. Vacuum beds, couches, and carpets to get rid of stray lice.
Anything that may have lice or nits but cannot be washed should be placed inside a garbage bag and tied securely. Leave it closed for 10 days, after which time all nits or lice will be dead.
When playgroups, schools, and families check for lice regularly, more cases can be caught before they escalate. For those who are comfortable combing on their own, it would be prudent to comb out hair any time there has been specific exposure to nits or a widespread outbreak of nits. The busiest seasons for nit checkers seem to be spring and late summer, especially after camp, so increased vigilance and combing are particularly important then.
Although our lice surely don’t hold a candle to the kinim in Mitzrayim, anyone who has experienced the discomfort of lice can use that as a starting point to envision the suffering inflicted upon the Mitzrim!
Three-Day Yom Tov Woes
After Pesach cleaning, dealing with lice is probably the biggest upheaval a balabusta can think of. If it should occur erev a three-day Yom Tov, like the ones this year, it is definitely traumatic. Consider Esther: A meticulous housekeeper, Esther did not give too much pause to the note that came home with her girls two days before Rosh Hashana. True, the school had found some cases of nits, but her girls had been checked only two weeks before, so surely she could wait until after their Yom Tov baths to comb them out as a precaution. Esther never made it that far, since the lice crawling on the washcloth her daughter used to wash her hair left no doubt about the situation. Although many mothers of young children find it hard to feel the spirituality and depth of Yom Tov while playing with toddlers and changing infants, Esther’s story surely takes the cake. Her main recollections of that Rosh Hashana involve combing for lice again and again and again. Surprisingly, although the halachos differ for the Shabbos attached to the two days of Yom Tov, there was a fair amount that Esther was allowed to do on Yom Tov to remedy the lice infestation, and by Shabbos, day number three, her daughters were lice-free!
Here’s hoping that you never need the information in this article, whether erev a three-day Yom Tov or any other day of the year.â—†
Reprinted with permission from The Lakewood Voice..
