Preventing Lice
Every year, notices go home to parents in schools all over the country informing them that some students have had lice found on them. A panic usually ensues, with people telling their kids not to hang around dirty children at school, buying litres of chemical louse killer, and so on.
Head lice are incredibly notorious for their ability to spread, so prevention is by far the best method of controlling the numbers of these little pests. Unfortunately there is no real way to totally ensure that your child does not get head lice, but there are some routine measures which can be taken to catch a louse problem before it gets too large.
* Explain the situation to your child. The most commonly affected children when it comes to head lice are those in the preschool and early elementary years. This is also the age when kids are the most innocent, and most likely to share whatever they bring to school. This can mean hairbrushes, combs, and so on. Make sure that your child is aware of the importance of using only their own grooming equipment (obviously this is more important for girls than it is for boys!).
* Regular inspections. The only way to catch a louse problem before it grows to ridiculous proportions is to make sure that you are checking your child on a regular basis. If there is a lice problem at your school, then you need to check your child every single night. Do so with a fine tooth comb, and if you see any lice or nits remove them immediately. Live are very good at moving from one person to another, but they can not survive for very long outside of human hair. Getting the first individuals right away will mean preventing the rest of your family from acquiring a lice problem of their own.
* Clean! As with most insect pests, one way to make sure lice don’t spread is to make sure that you clean regularly. In the case of lice, this means doing daily laundry; any sheets and pillows which a child who has lice uses should be washed every morning, as well as the clothes that he or she wore the day before. It will probably mean a lot more washing than you are used to, but it will catch and kill any lice or nits which have found their way off of your child’s head won’t get back onto it, or anyone else’s!
As with all pests, we are never going to be rid of lice entirely. The key is in knowing how to keep the population in control, and with lice that means off of you and your family! Many people think that personal hygiene means no head lice, but in fact the opposite is true; lice love clean hair. Vigilance is the only way to come close to preventing your household from becoming infested with lice!