At first, I thought I was allergic to the shampoo. I recently switched to a new brand, and while my hair looks amazing, I’ve developed an itchy ring around the perimeter of my scalp, like someone put a poison crown on me. When the itching becomes so distracting that I can’t function, I reluctantly revert to my old, hair-care regimen.
Then my older kids started.
It turned out that about half of his class had head lice. At our home, a closer inspection revealed insects on both our scalps. We embarked on an odyssey of combing and shampooing that lasted for weeks, resulting in at least one meltdown per person and our bathroom filled with sinister metal net combs and half-empty bottles of goo.
Our experience is a rite of passage for young children and their families. Besides being annoying on a psychological level (I, for one, don’t like the phrase “blood meal”), lice can cause severe itching; Logan, 5, another recent sufferer, described his latest case to me as a “super, amazing, big, wild itch.”
Lice are often a source of shame and anxiety for families. Insects “have historically been associated with things like poor personal hygiene or homelessness or a certain socioeconomic status,” said Don Nault, a pediatric infectious disease doctor and lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics. 2022 recommendations about lice.
In fact, however, there is some evidence that they prefer clean hair, Kate King, a school nurse in Ohio and president of the National Association of School Nurses (NASN), told me. And insects affect people all over the world, from all walks of life, although children and caregivers are most susceptible.
Lice are an annoyance, not a danger, Nault said — they don’t spread disease. But some school districts, including New York City, where I live, bar children from the classroom if they have lice. For my kid, that means a day spent combing in front of the TV instead of going to kindergarten.
Experts say no-lice policies — and school lice checks in which a nurse or other adult combs an entire classroom for bugs — don’t actually stop the spread of lice and are especially problematic as school districts struggle with the chronic absence of Covid-19. “Since the pandemic, we’ve really appreciated the convenience of going to school in person,” Nault told me. “Head lice are not a reason for a child to miss school.”
The CDC actually recommends against sending children home for lice More than 10 years. But a Website redesign A led the resurrection of interest In principle at the start of the 2024-25 academic year, what some say is a Increase in lice cases After an epidemic calm.
Instead of panicking, experts say, families and schools alike should approach lice for what they are: pesky bugs that want to eat us, but can be defeated with the right tools and the right attitude.
As Logan told me, “Don’t give up.”
The truth about head lice
Head lice are about one size sesame seeds And a person’s head can survive for about a month, feeding on blood. During that time, they lay eggs called nits, which they adhere to the hair shaft very close to the scalp with a sticky substance. These eggs are consumed for about 10 days, Nault said, before the eggs hatch and become new lice.
The itching that characterizes a lice infestation is actually caused by the insect’s saliva, which can cause a mild allergic reaction in humans. This reaction takes four to six weeks to develop, Nolt says, so once you start scratching, you’ve already had lice for a while.
Lice don’t have wings, and they can’t jumpBut they are spread by crawling from one person’s head to another, usually through head-to-head contact (something that happens a lot with young children, who like to hug and romp and generally get in each other’s faces). They can spread through shared hats or clothing, but that’s much less common, Nault said, because lice can’t survive very long away from their warmth and food sources.
For some kids, the worst part of having lice is getting rid of them. Typically, an adult washes a child’s hair, then uses a special lice comb (along with many over-the-counter lice shampoos) to find all the nits and remove them. Depending on the length of a child’s hair, the process can take several hours.
“The scratch really hurt,” Thomas, 7, told me. His parents let him play video games as a distraction, but “it still really hurts,” he said.
Some kids don’t mind scratching — Byron, Logan’s two-and-a-half-year-old brother, calls it “tongly.” Adding some mythology might help: Logan and Byron told me their family used the “Net Destroyer Warrior” comb made by Laser. (A fact-check reveals that some knits are made using combs “Laser Technology.”)
Complicating matters is that lice appear to be present Some resistance has developed Pyrethrin and permethrin are active ingredients in many over-the-counter lice shampoos. some research shows that dimethicone, a gooey polymer that essentially suffocates lice, remains effective. This is what finally worked in my house after several failed rounds of permethrin-based products. It is extremely oily and takes forever to wash off.
All of this is stressful enough without adding school disruptions to the mix. Once children develop symptoms, they usually have had lice for weeks, Nault said. Sending them home for a day or two does not limit the spread, but deprives the child of key learning time. In addition to the CDC, NASN And American Academy of Pediatrics Also recommend against sending kids home for lice.
Checking for lice at school — a staple of my millennial childhood that’s still a reality in New York and elsewhere — is also ineffective, experts say. “It does not produce any real results,” said King, NASN president. “It’s very humiliating and embarrassing for the students.”
When a child has lice at his school, King contacts the family with information about treatment and provides free lice shampoo upon request. “Our main focus is to be facilitators, not punishers.”
Ultimately, experts say schools and families shouldn’t think of lice as something to be ashamed of or afraid of, but rather a part of childhood — annoying, sure, but normal and not always avoidable. “Head lice are like the common cold,” King said. “Sometimes, it happens.”
what am i reading
Shortsightedness is increasing Among children around the world, according to A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, likely as a result of the increase in “closer to work” such as reading and writing (the impact of smartphones and other screens is still unclear). The report’s authors recommend two hours of outdoor time per day, at least one of which should be during school hours, to buck the trend.
Students with disabilities Lack of access In college preparatory programs, Another report finds, even though they are entitled to such support under federal law.
In the wake of Hurricane Helen, Thousands of children Home from school, with no idea when they will be able to return to the classroom. Even distance learning is not possible in some areas of North Carolina due to interruptions in internet and electrical service. “This is not covid distance learning. It’s nothing,” said a professor who studied the effects of Hurricane Katrina told the New York Times.
In my house, we read Bill Bryson’s A really brief history of almost everything. Warning: This required me to spend a lot of time explaining the Big Bang and the shape of the universe, topics that are quite cognitively taxing while sleeping.
get in touch
For Halloween, I hope to write about scary stories. As a fan of Scary stories to tell in the dark And GoosebumpsI’m not curious what kids are reading (or watching) these days to drive themselves crazy. For adults, I’d also love to hear about your favorite scary stories from childhood — or the ones that gave you nightmares for weeks. If you have observations about ghost kids content past or present, let me know at anna.north@vox.com. Your awesome recommendation (or warning) could soon make it into a newsletter!
