Risk Reducing Precautions When it Come to Dealing With Lice

Those nasty little irritating buggers. If your child comes home from school scratching his head, lice may be finding a home in his hair. Anyone can get lice - especially your little angel - mainly because from head to head contact or sharing hats, brushes or headrests.

• Check all family for lice and nits (lice eggs) at least once a week. Only those infested should be treated. What are Lice? Lice are reddish brown wingless insects, nits are grayish white always oval shaped, and are glued at an angle to the side of the hair shaft.

• Be sure not to confuse nits with hair debris such as bright irregularly shape clumps of dandruff. Lice treatment is not appropriate for hair debris.

• Consult your pharmacist or physician before using lice treatment pesticides when the person involved is pregnant, nursing, has allergies, asthma or epilepsy. Never use a pesticide on or near the eyes.

• All lice killing products are pesticides. If you choose to buy an over the counter treatment, follow the directions carefully and with caution. Manual removal is always a safe alternative.

• Use product over the sink, not in the tub or shower. Always keep the eyes covered.

• Separate hair in sections and remove all attached nits with a comb, baby safety scissors, or your fingernails.

• Wash bedding and recently worn clothing in hot water and dry in a hot dryer. Combs and brushes may be soaked in hot water for 10 minutes.

• Avoid lice sprays. Vacuuming is the safest and best way to remove lice or hairs attached nits from upholstered furniture, rugs, stuffed animals and car seats.
  

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.
  

Facts about Lice

Does your little bundle of joy have lice or a member of the family? Here are some important facts about Lice:

• Hatched lice live for only a day or two without human host. So you don't need to seal the stuffed animals for two weeks at a time (two days is fine), vacuum daily or do laundry constantly. Just vacuum, and wash all hats, bedding and brushes once using hot water.

• They can't or jump through the air. (But they do crawl really fast).

• Head lice don't carry any disease and there aren't any medical conditions or infections transmitted by head lice. They're just a nuisance.

• Getting lice doesn't reflect bad hygiene. In fact, they prefer clean hair, perhaps because it's less greasy - so they can get a better grip.