Child Health
When it comes to your children’s health, we all want to make sure we are doing the best for them. Our highly trained colleagues are here to help, offer advice and support on how to best treat your child’s condition or illness. We’ve listed a few of the most common conditions for children.
Call into your local LloydsPharmacy for more advice.
Head lice
What are head lice?
Head lice, small grey or brown insects, can be found in your hair on your head. They lay eggs near the root of your hair. They can cause your head to very itchy but not everyone will suffer from this symptom. To determine whether your child has head lice, you can purchase a ‘detection comb’ from your local LloydsPharmacy. Use the comb to brush small sections of the hair to see if you can locate the head lice.
How can you catch headlice?
Head lice can be caught from other children, or adults. To avoid catching head lice, you should not share any combs or brushes, as well as hats or other similar items of clothing.
How can you treat headlice?
Our highly trained colleagues can help advice you on the best medicated lotion to treat head lice. Treat all the family members at once and repeat treatment a week later, to ensure all eggs are killed.
Chickenpox
What is chickenpox?
Chickenpox is cause by a virus and is extremely contagious. Chickenpox appears as red spots that will later turn into blisters. The spots and blisters will then scab over. Other symptoms can include a rash, temperature, loss of appetite and aches and pains Chickenpox is infectious from 1 to 2 days before the rash appears until after the blisters have all crusted over.
How can you treat chickenpox?
Most children with chickenpox recover after a week of symptoms appearing, without needing to see a GP. Our highly trained colleagues can advise you on the best medication to treat chickenpox. There are a few things you can do to help treat the condition:
Dress your child in light clothing. Keep them hydrated. Bath them in lukewarm water. Place socks on their hands at night to stop them scratching. Help relieve the symptoms of pain through recommended medication.
Complications
Complications of chickenpox are rare in healthy children.
These can include: Skin infections - when spots or blisters become infected with bacteria. Lung infections - like pneumonia. Inflammation of the brain.
Keep children with chickenpox away from:Pregnant women. People who have serious health conditions. Childcare facilities like creches and childminders.
Threadworms (Pinworms)
What are threadworms?
The threadworm is the most common worm parasite that infects children. It is estimated that up to 40% of children under 10 years of age may be infected with threadworms.
The worm’s eggs are laid around the anus and an allergic reaction to the substances in the eggs causes the itch. It is worse at night as this is when the female worms emerge from the anus to lay their eggs in the surrounding skin. Persistent itching can cause a secondary bacterial infection causing weeping. This needs to be referred to a doctor as an antibiotic may be required.
Always confirm worms are present – itching without worms may be due to an irritation from a soap or due to scabies or a fungal infection. Worms are white coloured thread-like objects about 10mm in length and less than 0.5mm in width. Worms can be seen moving and sometimes can be found protruding out from the anus.
What are the symptoms of threadworms?
Perianal itch (in particular at night-time). Appearance of worms in the stools. Perianal bacterial infection – broken skin, weeping. Vaginal itch in girls.
Here are some of our top tips when suffering from threadworms:
If the person doesn’t respond to the recommended OTC treatment and has recently travelled abroad, please refer to a GP as other worm types must be considered. Treat all the family even if asymptomatic to prevent reinfection. Cut fingernails short to prevent reinfection. Wash hands and brush nails after using the toilet and before preparing food (hand to mouth transfer of eggs is common). Children should wear pyjamas and underwear can prevent scratching bare skin Shower each morning to wash away any new eggs.
How can you treat threadworms?
The over the counter treatment for thread worms is a medicine called mebendazole. Please check with any of our highly trained pharmacists regarding the correct use of this medicine and for any possible reasons why you shouldn’t use it.
More Information
For information on how to keep Healthy, check out our latest blog articles.
Keeping you safe in store
During the current coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic we are working hard to ensure that our pharmacists can provide services, care and advice to you safely. Here are some of the things we are doing to keep you safe.
We're providing the service in line with the Government guidance on social distancing.
Our colleagues will be wearing PPE.
We will be aiming to limit the time you spend in contact with our pharmacists in our consultation room.
We will clean the consultation room before and after every appointment.
