Lice - What is it & How to Prevent it
Worldwide lice is more common than the common cold. Lice affect people of all ages and social classes. Lice occurs most commonly in school-aged children between the age of three and eleven. Personal hygiene and social class are not related to the likelihood of developing head lice. Lice prefer clean scalps contrary to popular belief that ‘unclean’ people get lice.
As a mom, the thought of head lice is terrifying! Classrooms and daycares are breeding grounds for the white, itchy, bugs that give all of us the heebie-jeebies! Despite all of a parent’s best efforts, the icky truth is that it can happen to your kids. Here are some helpful tips and tricks to combat these little critters.
What are nits and head lice?
Nits are the term given to the eggs of head lice, which stick to the hair close to the scalp.
An itchy scalp is the first symptom that we notice and a closer inspection may reveal live lice crawling close to the scalp or eggs (nits) stuck to the hair shaft.
From the time when the egg is laid until the live insect dies is about 33 – 35 days, and during that time they go from nymph to mature louse.
Head lice are transmitted by crawling from head to head or through sharing things like hairbrushes or hats – they can’t jump or fly, as the six-legged lice have no wings.
Prevention:
To avoid the time-consuming, stressful, and often expensive chore of getting rid of lice, here are a couple of simple tips for prevention:
Use defense products. There are certain scents lice don’t like including rosemary and tea tree oil. At DooLittlez we carry Fairy Tales Rosemary Repel® products and Paul Mitchell’s Tea Tree Oil, all of which protect against lice. Use these products once a week to prevent lice. If your child was in contact with someone with lice, use these products daily until contact is discontinued.
Talk to your children. Promoting good habits when it comes to all the sharing that goes on during school, camp or other activities. Make sure they are not sharing items that touch hair including hats, brushes, combs, headbands, clips, and even clothing such as sweatshirts, jackets, and scarves.
Eliminate:
Don’t panic. DooLittlez carries a line of chemical-free products to get rid of lice. Fairy Tales Lice Good Bye® is safe, natural, and clinically proven to remove lice and their eggs (nits).
This lice treatment must be applied to all parts of the hair, ideally with great tension, doing it in sections and applying close to the scalp.
No head lice product or insecticide currently kills all eggs, but is likely to kill the live lice. A complete head lice treatment consists of two or more treatments, a week apart. The first treatment kills the climbers, and the second treatment kills the juvenile lice hatched from the eggs over the intervening week.
Also remember lice have claws on their legs, which make them perfect for holding on to human hair – fortuntately the critters cannot live for more than one day off of a human host.
Cleaning:
If your child was diagnosed with head lice, after treatment you should:
Do a mental inventory of places your child has been or where they might have shed lice or nits: couch, carpet, beds, car seat, etc.
Dry all linens, hats, coats, clothes, and stuffed animals on high heat for at least 40 minutes. TRICK – if it is dirty, don’t wash it. Water doesn’t kill lice; it is the high heat of the dryer that does it.
Non-washable items can be placed in a sealed plastic bag for 48 hours. Small items can be placed in a plastic bag in the freezer for 12 hours.
Vacuum all carpets, couches, and car seats and wipe down all hard surfaces with a disinfecting wipe.
The best treatment for items and living spaces is isolation. Lice and nits die without a human host after 48 hours. If there are areas of your home you can vacate for this time, vacuum them, and tape them off for a minimum of 48 hours.
Boil hairbrushes for 20 minutes or run them through the dishwasher on the sanitize cycle.
Have pets? No need to worry – animals cannot get human lice!