welcome back to the show so it's a
somewhat uncomfortable topic but if
you're a parent of a school-age child
your household could be at risk we are
talking about lice pediatrician with UT
physicians and assistant professor for
mcgovern Medical School we have dr.
Kenya Parks who's joining us now with
more information welcome to the show
thank you for having me you know this is
such an interesting topic when we were
talking about this in our meeting about
head lice it seems like it's one of
those things that we should talk about
but nobody really wants to talk about it
what are some of the myths or actually
let's just talk about head lice what
exactly is it how do we get it so
there's a small insect that is really
spread by close contact and you see
usually like in children um those are
the age groups like the school-age
children and they hug each other here to
hear contact and that's the way it's
usually passed this is small percentage
that's also passed like maybe by
pillowcases hats and other things like
that oh wow and they look pretty gnarly
we're seeing it a version on our screen
now they actually feed on human blood
right a couple days a day so it sounds
really disgusting but it is something
not just kids can get it oh let's go get
it - results can get it but the primary
targets are will be children probably
because they have like a lot more close
contacts with multiple other children do
we have this source like where it's
coming from or how a child can get it so
it's passed by contact and so it only
takes one child to have contact with
multiple other children is passed
throughout the school and then sometimes
they said a little difficult to get rid
of so that child could be like a vector
for multiple the children in this school
getting the or off school friends or
individuals in the neighborhood now a
louse or lice collectively they they
just crawl right they can't hop they
can't fly it cannot hop they cannot fly
they can be left on like strands of hair
so they another method would be maybe
one a child as being a blown dry and has
that could be passed them down
maybe but for the most part is really
close contact sharing a bed school
friends they're just hugging each other
that may be like a like probably like
the most probable way that the children
would get it okay so and as Cortney
mentioned earlier there are some there
are a lot of myths I mean people assume
like Oh someone must be unclean if they
have lice
totally false right totally false that's
a total myth all socioeconomic
backgrounds all different countries
throughout the world so it doesn't
really have anything to do with hygiene
and this is really interesting and
estimated six to 12 million infestations
occur each year in the u.s. among
children 3 to 11 years old so the
missing happens it does it does happen
we've talked about what they are how
they live now how do we get rid of them
doctor so actually a lot of the
over-the-counter medications like rid
and Nick's are pretty effective
what people don't know is the proper way
to use them so the important thing is
not to use like conditioners when you
are applying them because it blocks the
effectivity of the medication and also
to reapply but in about nine days so and
doing that combination and maybe also
using the combs what actually is pretty
effective so if that doesn't work
definitely go to your pediatrician
physician and they could recommend some
prescribed medications that are also
pretty effective but really the
first-line medications are effective if
used properly well and key here doctor
is not just about getting a louse or the
live lice that are in someone's hair but
the eggs they adhere to the hair shaft
right and so that can be one of the
problems with like a reinfection right
because if you don't get all those eggs
out they can hatch and you can have a
lot of people see is actually the empty
casing so a lot of people look at that
and say oh my goodness this such an
infestation but a lot of times they
already are they've hatched they've
hatched and they'll sort of more visible
the ones that are actually alive they
sort of camouflage themselves
can't see them as well oh don't mind
little Tex he's just sniffing at your
feet they're totally normal okay and as
Cortney mentioned if it is I mean you
said that there's like there are some
places that you can go to like the lice
Ranger right um so I would recommend
just using the overt encounters first
and if that doesn't work go to your
physician if you wanna they do all the
work for you and but they can be a bit
pricey and when you could really cut the
cost by just using over the counters
which are not so pricey but sometimes
parents opt for that especially if they
have like multiple children that are
infested and I want to get rid of them
so definitely I understand let's bust
some of the myths if they are even myths
out there I've heard like using tea tree
oil or a spray as a good deterrent for
lice so there are no studies but there
they are mentioned you could try it and
it wouldn't hurt but there's no studies
that actually prove that these work
they're currently some methods are being
studied and to include tea tree oil and
they have like a couple others that are
sort of natural methods of getting rid
of them but none of them have up to this
they've been actually proven by a
scientific study alright well dr. Kenya
Murray Parks thank you so much for
stopping by there's some info on your
screen right there
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