Most parents must be able to realize if dry scalp has already been on their children since newly born to teenagers. In general, Dry scalp is an illness which has various causes. Head lice, tinea capitis and scabies are well-known causes of infectious dry scalp in infants and children as explained below.
Head lice
Head lice is a very regular thing in Dry Scalp and must always be present in a child who suffers from itchy scalp. It infects particularly in school-age children and in the beginning often shows as pruritic or itchiness with no visible wounds right on the scalp. Nevertheless, with deep inspection, people may find head louses. The louses is only less than 2 mm and commonly present on the back of the head, precisely in neck hairs and behind the ears.
Head lice also leaves eggs at the root that become stuck to the hair shaft. The eggs are well-known as nits and will not go off from the hair shaft, it is a major aspect to differentiate tiny white flakes of dandruff and these tiny white spots in kids.
Several children who have been overrun by head lice for a longer period of time are going to have scabs or broken skin areas on their scalp after scratching. Lymph node magnification can happen as well, notably cervical node adenopathy.
Tinea capitis
Tinea capitis is a scalp fungal infection. It is a general cause of scaly scalps in children and is virtually under diagnosed. Fungus or molds types which affect the superficial skin of the scalp can derive from other children, or even it can be from animals, particularly cats. Trichophyton tonsurans is the one and the most known thing that causes “ringworm” of the scalp.
Similar to Dandruff, Tinea capitis comes in the form of mild scalling, it may present with red bumps with white centers or pustules and thick flat plaques with a red base scattered throughout the hair follicles. Moreover, children with tinea capitis may get flaky scale with kerion which is considered as a deep, solid red area accompanied by oozing and hair loss.
Small circles of hair loss may be other findings that can be found in infants and children with tinea capitis, famous as alopecia, with flaking skin and pustules as well as augmented lymph nodes right at the foundation of the scalp on the nape of the neck. The large lymph nodes which is also known as posterior cervical adenopathy, are visible in sufferers with a notable inflammatory response to the fungal infection in their scalp.
Scabies
Children (Infants or toddlers) will have a big chance to get scabies, reddish lines on the scalp or skin that usually causes itchy. However, scabies are not only able to contaminate the scalp in children, but also any person with an endangered immune system. Scabies usually take places on certain areas like arm pits, wrists, belly buttons, breasts and the webs between the fingers.
These several types of dry scalp need topical treatments and/or oral medications. It is necessary, if you have children, to get your children quickly diagnosed whether they have a scalp problem so that the situation can be treated properly. This can be done to avoid more complex conditions such as secondary bacterial infections, hair loss, and transmission of the scalp problem to be bigger.
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