Getting rid of head lice
Submitted by: Kevin Chertkow

Lice happens. If you have a child who goes to daycare or around other children the odds of your child getting lice increases. Let’s face it, that many children all playing and sleeping close together it's not very hard for lice to travel from one head to the next. If you notice your child itching his or her scalp a lot, small red bumps on their scalp, neck and shoulders or what looks like dandruff on the hair folicals and it's hard to remove. You could be dealing with a lice problem. Lice are hard to see, so you'll need to bright light and maybe even a magnifying glass. Part the hair all the way to the scalp in small sections at a time. Look for both moving lice and/or nits. The most common place to locate lice is around the ears and top of the neck.

Lice do not have hind legs to hop or jump and they do not have wings so they cannot fly. Lice are shared usually from head to head contact. Even if you wash your child's hair every day, they are still susceptible to catching lice, as a matter of fact they may be more vulnerable. Lice prefer clean hair to nest in. Lice glue their eggs (nits) to the hair shafts and a clean follicle allows easier attachment. However, just because one child gets lice doesn't mean every child in the class or in your home will get them.

Lice are selective. They are drawn to different hosts because of favorable living environment as well as blood type and Rh factor. Believe it or not, lice are considered to be intelligent creatures. They seem to have a sharp sense of smell and excellent eyesight. They know what they need to survive and rarely leave outside their environment. If they do happen into an environment not suitable for them to live in they will leave immediately. A Louse can live up to 30 days and usually cannot survive more than 24 hours without a host. You can kill the adult lice, however their eggs will hatch in 7-10 days and it will take another 7-10 days for a louse to mature and start laying eggs.

If you find out your child is unfortunate victim, you're in for an unpleasant couple of weeks. Your child will probably be sent home from school or daycare and you'll have a lot of cleaning to do. Now, you can take your child to the doctor and they can prescribe a hair treatment or you can try to save some money and get rid of the problem yourself.

You can go to just about any store like Wal-Mart and pick up lice shampoo. You'll need to get enough so everyone in your household can be treated. Even if there aren't noticeable signs of lice on others in your house, it won't hurt to treat everyone just in case. It would probably be a good idea to pick up a bottle of lice sheild shampoo too, to try to keep them from spreading further. Killing the adult lice can be easier than removing their eggs. The nits are glued firmly to the hair follicle making them very hard to remove even with a nit comb. There are certain products that make it easier to remove nits but if you want to save yourself some money, some dish washing detergents can help dissolve the "glue" that makes the nits stick. Another method is to rub olive oil in the hair or run the metal nit comb through beeswax. Metal nit combs are more effective than the plastic ones. You'll need to continue to check and treat for at least two weeks because that is how long it takes for the eggs to hatch and if you happen to miss any you could be going through this process longer until they are eradicated. Don't worry about your pets, lice are a human parasite and they cannot survive on animals.

It would also be a good idea to pick up bed bug/lice spray. Put all stuffed animals in a trash bag, spray them down with the bed bug/lice spray and tie it air tight for two weeks. Start washing all blankets, cloths, sheets and pillows in hot water with detergent. Don't forget to spray down matrices, couches even car seats with the bed bug/lice spray. You may have to do this every day until the problem is gone.

Having lice get into your home does not mean you or your children are dirty, even though it can be embarrassing to think about. It just one of those unfortunate things that can happen and you just have to deal with it.

If you would like to learn more about lice and how to get rid of them, check out these links and good luck!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001843/

http://www.headlice.org/

http://www.licesolutions.org