How to Check and Treat Your Children For Head Lice

For whatever reason, you need to check your child for lice. Maybe there was a note sent home from school saying one of the other kids has it, or you found out a sibling or friend has it, or they are just itching their heads. Having lice will not lead to any other disease, nor does it mean that children are dirty. Unfortunately, it's a common occurrence in school age children, so don't panic.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Comb (optional)
• Head lice shampoo
• Head lice spray
• A good eye
• Two clean towels
• Regular shampoo

1. If you have a comb it is easier to separate the hair but you can use your fingers just fine. Start separating the hair behind the ears and on the back of the head. You are looking for tiny brownish bugs (parasites) about the size of a pin head; they will look black when they are full of blood. And they will be even smaller when they are just babies. If it is just a minor or new case of lice they may be very hard to spot so keep looking a while before you give up and do a joyous dance that your child wasn't one of the ones who got it.

2. 
    
   Head Lice Nit (egg)

   If you don't see any lice you want to look for other evidence. Look for red patchy areas (feces), little tiny black dots where they have bitten and small white eggs (nits). The eggs can look like dandruff. The way you know it isn't dandruff is that it sticks to the hair. Pull it off of the hair carefully and place it on your fingernail. Squish it flat with your other fingernail. If it pops it was an egg. If it just went flat it was dandruff.

3. AAhhhh, so you found lice. You're going to be ok. Go to the store and get some lice treatment shampoo. My personal recommendation is Nix brand because frankly it does what it is supposed to. With other brands I have found that they just didn't kill all the lice and the very next day the child was itching. You're also going to want to get some spray. It will be right there with the shampoo in the medication section. I haven't found that any particular brand is better with this. You just spray the car, couches or anywhere the kids have been. I like to spray the bedding even before I wash it.

4. 
    
   This is what the hair should look like if it's saturated in the shampoo enough.

   Once you have the shampoo wash your child's hair with regular shampoo and no conditioner. I use baby shampoo but it doesn't matter what kind you use. Dry the hair with a towel and then apply the lice shampoo. Rub it in as well as you can. Make sure every hair is saturated in it. The directions say to let it sit no longer than 10 minutes. I found that when I washed it out after that there were still living lice. Leaving it on for 15 minutes seemed to do the trick.

5. 
    
   Combing out dead lice.

   Rinse out the shampoo extremely well and dry with a new towel. At this point the lice and eggs should be dead but most of them are still on the scalp and in the hair. The shampoo comes with a comb. Use it to comb out the hair using long full stokes. You want to make sure the hair goes all the way to the back of the comb to catch the eggs and lice. Hairs get pulled here and your child isn't going to be happy about it. It seems to pull the hair less when it's dry, but it's harder to tell which hair you have combed if you wait for the hair to dry. Once your done combing the hair you're done for now. Repeat entire process in 7 days to make sure there is no re-infestation. Make sure to wash all bedding, coats, dirty clothes, hats etc...

Tips & Warnings

• Make sure to tell people that have been around your child in the last few days about the lice so they can check themselves.
• To check yourself for head lice use a white towel and vigorously brush your hair into the towel. You will shake a few lice into the towel if you have it. If you don't see any but still feel like you might have lice, have someone else check you.
• Make sure to wash clothes, bedding and other compromised cloth in hot water. It needs to be at least 120 degrees. And dry it on hot for at least 30 minutes to kill the lice.
• Don't worry about lice that falls off of a person and onto floors or cracks. It can't live for more than 24-36 hours without sucking our blood. Just vacuum and forget about it.
• Lice don't jump, fly or hop. They are spread by direct person to person contact. So to avoid head lice in the future don't share brushes, combs, hats, coats, bedding or hair clips.
• Don't shave your pets just because they rolled around in the back yard with your child, head lice only suck human blood.
• Don't get the lice shampoo in your eyes; if you do flush it with lots of water.
• Use gloves or wash your hand directly after applying the lice shampoo.
• Getting rid of lice is challenging if you don't follow the directions. You don't want to have to repeat the shampooing more than you need to.

Resources

• Best Lice Shampoo

[rorsich]

on 12/20/2008 GOD I hate lice! I had them once when I was younger..got them from some stupid kid that lived next door.. I had to use Nix to get rid of them..And trust me, that HURT.

5*s!

[GigiFab]

on 12/17/2008 Great tips and very detailed my sis in law called last month about her girls getting lice at school and she was soo ready to just clip them bald lol!!! 5*****