What is scabies?
Scabies is a common skin condition caused by tiny insects called mites. Scabies can be unpleasant but they do not cause disease. Having scabies doesn’t mean someone is not clean.
What are the symptoms?
The mites that cause scabies dig deep into the skin. This leads to a rash that is very itchy and red. Itchiness is usually worse at night. The rash usually appears between the fingers, in the groin area, between toes or around the wrists or elbows, but it may be found anywhere on the body.
In children under 2 years of age, the rash can appear on the head, face, neck, chest, abdomen, and back as white, curvy, thread-like lines, tiny red bumps or scratch marks.
How does it spread?
Scabies spreads from person to person by touch or contact with the clothes or other personal items of someone who has it. The mites can live off skin for up to 3 days.
Mites that are on clothing die when you wash them in hot water and dry them in a hot dryer.
How is it treated?
Scabies is treated with a cream or lotion that is prescribed by your doctor. You may need to do 2 treatments, 1 week apart.
Your child may still be itchy for a few weeks. It doesn’t mean that the mites are still there.
To prevent scabies from coming back, everyone who lives in your home will need to be treated at the same time.
What can parents do?
- Call your doctor if you think your child has scabies.
- Wash your child’s bed linen, towels and clothes in hot water and dry in a dryer at the hottest setting.
- Store things that can’t be washed in an airtight plastic back for 1 week to kill the mites.
- Your child can return to child care or school once you have applied the first treatment.
More information from the CPS: Scabies management
Source: Well Beings: A Guide to Health in Child Care (3rd edition)
Reviewed by:
CPS First Nations, Inuit and Métis Health Committee
CPS Public Education Advisory Committee
Last updated: June 2008
