Tips on How to Eliminate Lice

• If one of your kids has lice, it is best to examine the heads of the rest of your children (and the entire household for that matter) especially share pillow cases, towels, or sleep on the same bed. If found to have nits, household members should also be treated.

• Change all sheets, bedding's, towels, and pillow cases as these can also be infested with lice. Dip hairbushes in hot water, and cover them with pediculicide for 15 minutes. Play areas should be cleaned and vacuumed to make sure there are no stray hairs with live nits and eggs.

• Some mom may go into a panic and chop off their child's hair. There's no need to trim your tot's hair because the live adult lice and nits are those that can be found on the scalp on the hair near the scalp. Your basis for knowing if your child is still infested with lice would be to check for nits on the hair shaft. If they are beyond one centimeter away from the scalp, then that means the nits are no longer fertile. But if you find live adult lice on the scalp, this confirms that there is still an active infection. The most common treatment for lice would be pediculicides in the form of permethrin shampoo. Massage the scalp with permethrin shampoo for about 15 minutes and rinse thoroughly. Repeat treatment one week after if needed.

• Use a fine toothed comb (Note: even if the lice are killed, they stay stuck on your child's hair strands). Use your lice comb or mechanically remove them with your fingers and comb every three to four days for two weeks to make sure you have removed all lice.