What To Do About Head Lice

Lice! They’re in your kid’s hair, growing and feeding on his blood. They come into your house through your innocent kid, asking about why his head is so itchy. If you suspect your child to have lice, be prepared to battle to the last surviving blood sucking parasite.

Treating lice has to start with treating the carrier. This is most commonly you kid. Shampoos are readily available in most drug stores to combat them. The shampoo will come with its own instructions on how to use them so be diligent enough to follow them to the letter. They are usually to be used in regularity for a given time, usually a week. These shampoos are usually applied to dry hair then rinsed off after being allowed to sit for about ten minutes. This may still not be enough though as some lice and lice eggs (known as nits) can escape chemical treatments. The only way to make sure that they are gone and do not come back to the scalp is to drag lice combs or tweezers through the kid’s hair. With the hair still wet, you’d want to divide the hair into sections that you can then run through one at a time, starting from the very base of the hairs to the very tips. Remember to wipe the comb clean of any insect or nit removed every time you run it through. Dispose of any removed lice or nit like you would infectious materials as survivors can easily start new infestations.

If you have more than one kid, treat them all as if they have it, even if only one of them is infested. Head lice quickly spread to those their hosts come into contact with. They may not be as obvious at first as it does take time for them to mature and multiply. It’s best to just be safe and make sure none of your kids are carriers or will become carriers.

The next battlefield is the house itself. Almost anything your kid has come into contact with will be potential lice hideouts. Although they are parasitic, needing a host to survive, they can survive for some time outside of the scalp. Beds can be cleaned with hot water or the 20 minutes in the hot cycle of a dryer. This can also be said of pillows. Those that can’t be machine washed can and should be sent to the dry cleaners. Any small plush objects like stuffed toys and the like can be stored in air tight containers for a few days to suffocate the lice potentially hiding in them. If your house has especially cold places, you can store the larger stuff in there for a few days and let the cold kill of the lice. Combs and anything that comes into contact with hair or heads should be soaked in disinfectant or thrown away. Your cars, furniture, and carpets all have to be vacuumed religiously. Remember, even a few surviving lice will start the infestation all over again.

Once the battle is over, you can start talking about better preventative measures. Your kids are going to be the usual entry point to your homes for lice. Talking to your children on how lice are spread through contact can be a big difference.

By: Sarah Stonebright

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Sarah Stonebright is a head lice specialist. For more great information on Treat Lice Infestations, visit www.headliceremovaltips.com/.