Tips for avoiding and dealing with head lice

With summer camps over and school beginning it’s time to have THE chat. Lice. It makes you itch by the mere mention of it. Rarely harmful, except for infections caused by scratching, learning your child has lice is met with great dread. It is common. It does not mean you are dirty. Lice does not discriminate and neither should you!

The best advice we can give is to be diligent. Check your children’s hair each week. Look especially in the nape area, as the thicker hair is a preferred burrowing site. The sooner you find it, the less likely it is to spread to the rest of the family or to classmates.

Here are some preventative measures from Mayo Clinic.

• Ask your child to avoid head-to-head contact with classmates during play and other activities.

• Instruct your child not to share personal belongings such as hats, scarves, coats, combs, brushes, hair accessories and headphones.

• Instruct your child to avoid shared spaces where hats and clothing from more than one student are hung on a common hook or kept in a locker.

Head lice treatment

There are a lot of websites claiming “natural remedies”. We have never heard of these working. Save your money and follow the CDC’s treatment plan. Don’t skip steps or you’ll just keep repeating your efforts.

We have been asked if we can treat an infected person. We cannot. We must protect all clients and therefore can’t treat or provide service to anyone with head lice.

Hopefully you won’t need the information provided, but if you do, know you’re not alone!