How To Avoid Head Lice This Winter

Winter is coming.

Which means many school nurses will be uttering the dreaded “l” word — lice.

Winter being a particularly active time for outbreaks, it’s a good time for some tips to help you avoid an outbreak of head lice in your home this season.

In school children, lice are easily spread due to close contact and sharing clothing layers. Lice need warm hosts to feed and reproduce. They are parasitic bugs that live only off of the blood of humans and not on dogs or cats.

It is important to check your school-age children regularly for lice as part of good grooming habits.

Nits are usually found close to the scalp, often behind ears and at the nape of the neck and are stuck to the hair.

Symptoms of lice infestation include:

• Intense itching
• Tickling feeling from movement of hair
• Lice on your scalp, body, clothing, or pubic or other body hair. Adult lice may be about the size of a sesame seed or slightly larger
• Lice eggs (nits) on hair shafts. Nits resemble tiny pussy willow buds. Nits can be mistaken for dandruff, but unlike dandruff, they can’t be easily brushed out of hair
• Small, red bumps on the scalp, neck and shoulders

If you find lice on your child, here’s what to do, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:

• Treat them with a medicated lice shampoo that can be found at any drugstore.
• After treating the hair (and any other infected family members at the same time) comb through the child’s hair to remove all nits.
• Wash all of your children’s clothing, stuffed toys and bedding items in a hot wash and dry
• Vacuum the mattresses, rugs and cars
• Items that cannot be washed in hot water, such as stuffed animals or hair accessories, should be bagged in an airtight bag for two weeks
• Lice that have fallen off of the head do not last for very long without a host
• All hair brushes and combs need to be boiled for 10 minutes

Tips to avoid getting lice:

• Never share jackets, combs, brushes, hats, hair accessories, sports equipment like helmets or jerseys
• Never play in another child’s bedding during play dates
• Check hair often and watch for signs of infections such as itching
• Some recommend using a tea-tree oil shampoo as a natural remedy to deter lice