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They’re creepy, crawly and they’re gross. And, (shudder) they’re embarrassing.
But guess what: no child, no matter how well-heeled or hermetically sealed is immune to pesky parasites and icky illnesses.
Medical conditions with a high yuck-factor, like lice, pinworm, impetigo and scabies infestations are more common than parents think.
“Parents should not be embarrassed but should understand the ease of transmission among children since they are so touchy-feely,” says Johnnie Frazier, MD, a pediatrician and associate professor of pediatrics for The University of Texas Medical School at Houston. “Early detection is important, because all of these ailments are highly contagious.”
Here’s a rundown of some yuck-o-logical critters and conditions common in kids, and how to get rid of them.
Head lice is very common among preschool and elementary school children and these persistent little bugs aren’t picky. Little girls with clean, shiny hair are just as likely to have lice as preschool Pigpens. Children catch lice from contact with an infected child’s head, or occasionally from sharing brushes, hats or towels. Itching from lice infestation can be intense.
Eww...what's that?
Because lice move so quickly and are so small—adults are smaller than a sesame seed—they are easily missed. If you suspect lice, thoroughly search your child’s hair with a comb for nits (lice eggs), nymphs (recently hatched lice) or adult lice.
Get rid of it!
Over-the-counter medications containing pyrethrin or permethrin treat most lice infestations. More persistent lice infestations may require a prescription drug such as malathion. Lindane is sometimes used to treat patients who have failed other therapies but is rarely prescribed because it can be toxic to the brain and other parts of the nervous system.
Retreatment with medication after nine to 10 days is usually recommended to kill any surviving lice before they lay new eggs. Patients using malathion should only retreat after seven to nine days if they find crawling bugs.
Home remedies for lice include applying the cleansing lotion Cetaphil or mayonnaise, olive oil or petroleum jelly to the scalp and leaving it in for several hours to smother the lice. While some parents swear by these methods for getting rid of lice, Frazier cautions that little research has been done on their effectiveness.
“Lice are actually difficult to suffocate,” she adds. “These different techniques may ease up the infection for awhile, but might not cure it.”
Since lice spread easily from person to person, the entire family should be treated for lice infestation. To kill lice, wash hats, scarves, pillowcases, bedding, clothing and towels worn or used by the infested person using hot water and dry them on a hot air cycle. Vacuum furniture and floors to remove hairs that might have nits attached.
“Pinworms are probably the parasites we see most frequently, because they are common in this part of the country,” Frazier says. Like most infections, kids contract pinworms from playing with other infected kids. Here's a common scenario: an infected child playing in the sandbox scratches his bottom and get eggs on his fingers. He puts his fingers back in the sand. His friend in the sandbox scoops up the sand and gets the eggs on his fingers, which he then puts in his mouth. Presto, he now has pinworms.
That's just the beginning of the pinworm's journey through a child's body. Each night, while the infected child sleeps, the female pinworm travels out of the intestine, through the anus and lays eggs on the surrounding skin. It sometimes also crawls around the vaginal area and enters the vagina. The eggs make the skin around the bottom or vagina itch. Your child also may feel irritable or have problems sleeping if she has a pinworm infection.
Eww...what's that?
If you think your child has pinworms, get your flashlight ready and keep your eyes peeled. You're going on a pinworm hunt!
“When your child is asleep, go into her bedroom with your flashlight and shine the light between her buttocks,” Frazier says. “The pinworm looks exactly like a grain of rice. When it sees the light it will scamper back into the rectum.”
If you see the pinworm, find some Scotch Tape or ask your health care provider for a pinworm kit, which contains a stick or paddle coated with adhesive. After your child goes to bed, apply the tape or the paddle to the area around the anus. The eggs stick to the tape or paddle. Your doctor or health care provider can send the sample to a laboratory to be identified under a microscope.
Get rid of it!
Once identified, a pinworm infection is treated with either a prescription (Vermox) or over-the-counter drug (Pin-x). Both medicines require two doses, given two weeks apart, to work. Because pinworm eggs spread easily, doctors often treat the whole family for pinworm infections. Bathing your child regularly in the morning also helps wash away pinworm eggs.
Keep the ickies away:
Encourage your kids to wash their hands often for the length of time it takes to sing one verse of “Happy Birthday.”
Ringworm is not a worm at all, but a fungal infection. It looks like a red ring on the skin and can be scaly. When the scalp is infected, ringworm can cause hair loss. Kids contract ringworm from the skin of other infected children, adults and pets with dermatitis and bald spots caused by ringworm. Ringworm also is found in other animals, so petting zoos can be a source of the parasite.
Eww...what's that?
Ringworm causes itchy, red, raised, scaly patches that may blister and ooze. The patches often have sharply defined edges and are redder around the outside with normal skin tone in the center. This can create the appearance of a ring. Your child's skin also may appear unusually dark or light. Ringworm on your child's head will cause a bald spot if that is the site of the infection.
Get rid of it!
Most cases of ringworm can be treated at home with antifungal medications, and do not require a trip to the doctor if caught early.
“Sometimes scalp ringworm can be misdiagnosed as seborrhea or a bad case of dandruff, so parents treat it with dandruff shampoos,” Frazier says. “Delayed diagnosis causes the infection to get worse, and in the case of scalp ringworm, it can cause severe hair loss.”
Over-the-counter powders, lotions or creams that contain miconazole, clotrimazole, or similar ingredients are often effective at treating ringworm on the body. Scalp ringworm requires a visit to the doctor for an anti-fungal medicine to be taken by mouth. “Oral medicine is a must to cure scalp ringworm,” Frazier emphasizes.
In addition to medication, keep your child's scalp clean and dry and wash sheets every day while infected.
Keep the ickies away:
Advise your kids to wash their hands and wash them often, especially after playing in the dirt or sand, or after visiting a petting zoo.
You can't see these little monsters, but they make your child itch like crazy! Scabies are microscopic mites that burrow under the skin. They spread rapidly under crowded conditions in which skin-to-skin contact is common, like child-care facilities.
Eww...what's that?
Signs of scabies include intense itching and pimple-like irritations. Also, look for a rash or burrows in the skin: especially in the webbing between the fingers, skin folds on the wrist, elbow, or knee, the penis, the breasts, or shoulder blades. Constant scratching may cause sores, which can sometimes become infected.
Get rid of it!
Like lice, scabies are treated with permethrin (Elimite). For best results, Frazier suggests giving your child a bath, massaging the medication over his or her entire body and leaving it on for eight to 14 hours. Family members also should be treated. To prevent further spread, wash linens and clothes in hot water and dry on the hot cycle.
Keep the ickies away:
As with lice, advise your child to avoid sharing personal items with children known to be infected, or skin-on-skin contact with infected kids.
Do your kids roll their eyes when you yell at them to wear shoes outside? Tell them about hookworms and nag no more. These opportunistic worms lay in wait for a bare foot to “hook” into. Once they have penetrated the skin and entered the bloodstream, they begin a weeklong journey that takes them to the lungs, through the respiratory tract to the mouth, where they are swallowed and then reach the small intestine. In the small intestine, the larvae attach themselves to the intestinal wall. They can grow up to a half-inch long.
In severe cases, hookworm infestation causes anemia and protein deficiency from blood loss. Children continuously infected by many worms may suffer from retarded growth and mental development.
Eww...what's that?
You are unlikely to see the hookworm, so watch for itching and a rash at the site where skin touched soil or sand. Light infection may cause no symptoms. A child infected with many hookworms may have anemia, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and loss of appetite and weight loss. A hookworm infection is diagnosed with a stool sample.
Get rid of it! Your doctor may choose not to treat a light infection of hookworm disease if your child has few symptoms and the chance of reinfection is likely. If the stool sample contains more than 2,000 hookworm eggs, your doctor will assume your child is anemic and prescribe the medications mebendazole or albendazole to treat the infection, and possibly an iron supplement to treat the anemia.
Keep the ickies away:
Have your children wear shoes when outside. When that's not possible, encourage them to avoid soft, moist soil, or soil contaminated with feces, when barefoot. Hookworm disease is spread only through direct contact with the worms or infected soil or sand.
A nasty case of this infection turns your child's skin into an itching, oozing, mess. Impetigo begins as a simple cut, scratch or insect bite. Then it takes an ugly turn when it becomes infected with bacteria—usually by staphylococcus (staph) bacteria or group A streptococcus bacteria.
Eww...what's that?
Red or pimple-like sores that itch surrounded by reddened skin are the first signs of impetigo. The sores then fill with pus. After a few days they break open and form a thick crust.
Get rid of it!
See your pediatrician immediately if you suspect your child has impetigo, or has a bite, scratch or cut that seems to be getting worse, or turns into a boil. Most cases of impetigo caused by staph or strep bacteria can be treated with antibiotics. However, infections that don't respond to common antibiotics, called Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infections, are now common in healthy children and adults. If not diagnosed and treated early, some MRSA infections can be deadly.
“We are having quite an explosion in the community with soft tissue infections caused by resistant staph,” Frazier says. “It can be pretty scary because any time you get a pocket of pus, it can cause an abscess, which can not only infect the subcutaneous tissue but also infect the muscle and the bone. The infection can be quite invasive and get into the bloodstream and cause more serious complications.”
Keep the ickies away: Your child should avoid direct contact with other infected kids. Discourage your child from scratching sores, because scratching helps spread the bacteria. Clean any open wound and bite well with soap and water, alcohol or hydrogen peroxide and treat with an antibacterial first aid ointment.
“I can’t overemphasize the importance of hand washing and good hygiene,” Frazier says. “You can't wash your hands enough. If you don't have access to water, use hand sanitizer. These particular organisms (MRSA) can survive on inanimate objects for hours.”
If you’ve managed to hang in there until the end of this article (we spared you the disasters of nose picking), remember that parasites and micro-organisms are equal-opportunity creatures. If your child brings home these unsavory pests, just consider it a rite of childhood passage...that passes.
Last Updated: 9-04-2008Editorial Board | Legal Disclaimer | Privacy & Security | Contact Us
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Dr. Johnnie P. Frazier is an associate professor of pediatrics at the UT Medical School.
Packing Bag Lunches Safely
If you pack lunches for your child to take to school, be careful that you do not accidentally expose them to foodborne illness.
Bagged lunches, especially those containing perishable foods, need to be packed and handled properly in order to keep the food safe. In general, perishable foods should not be left at room temperature for more than two hours. If left out too long, the temperature of the food can enter the danger zone where bacteria grow most rapidly, which is between 40 and 140 degrees Fahrenheit.
Below are some tips to help families pack bagged lunches safely:
Before eating lunch or snacks at school, make sure your child washes his or her hands with soap and warm water for at least 20 seconds. If your child's school does not have a handwashing program in place, encourage them to adopt a such a program, as handwashing is one of the best ways kids and parents can protect health and stop the spread of germs.
