There are times when an outbreak of lice is obvious. A letter may be sent home from school with your child detailing a case or several cases in the classroom. You may be dealing with an ongoing problem and efforts to rid your home of lice have been unsuccessful. In either of these cases, if you see something that looks like lice on your child’s head, it is easy to be confident you are dealing with a lice outbreak.
However, there are situations where you may think your child has contracted lice and it turns out to be something totally different. The ideal way to avoid this is to use a natural product that deters lice. This way, if you know your child is protected from lice, the bugs in her hair must be something else.
If you have not begun using preventative lice treatments, and your child has signs of lice but has not been exposed to anyone with the bugs, there is a chance what you are dealing with is not lice. First, do a thorough lice check. Even if there are no bugs, your child may have a head full of nits waiting to hatch. If something is still off and you are pretty sure the problem is not lice, there are a few other problems you may have on your hands.
What is in your child’s hair may not be bugs at all. A day at the beach, even after several hair washings, could leave grains of sand that could be mistaken for lice. The same is true for dandruff or flakes of hairspray. Look closely at your child’s scalp when examining for lice. If you see scalp flakes, they could be the problem causing the appearance of lice.
Other bugs can get into the hair and give the appearance of lice including ants or aphids. While you still have a creepy-crawly problem to deal with, it will not be contagious, and once you get the bugs out of the hair, the problem is solved. Bugs other than lice will not attach to the hair shaft and they are unlikely to lay eggs.
If your child has a head full of something, be sure it is not lice before dealing with other problems. You can eliminate a lot of the stress of dealing with lice by being proactive and ensuring white flakes are never lice!
