Preventing lice is difficult, especially for children in school or daycare. Lice can only be transmitted through direct contact and can be killed with over-the-counter medicated shampoos. To prevent lice from returning, wash personal items and clothing in hot water and vacuum frequently.
The odds of preventing lice, especially head lice, are on par with winning the lottery. If you have children and they attend school or daycare, chances are that sooner or later one or more children will come home with lice. Getting these pesky parasites has nothing to do with hygiene or cleanliness, and luckily lice don’t spread disease. The main steps you can take to prevent lice are educating children to avoid practices that will aid in transmission.
Lice do not jump or fly and only have a life span of two days when removed from their host. In fact, lice can only be transmitted by contact with an infested person. Head-to-head contact is the most common form of new infestation, although sharing clothes with a louse-infected individual can also occur. Lice can also be transferred via sofa cushions, bed sheets, towels, pillowcases, and even car seats. Therefore, to prevent head lice, steps can be taken to reduce the possibility of transmission.
First, teach your kids never to share combs, brushes, towels, scarves, or hats with their friends. Lice can only transfer to a new host through some sort of direct contact. Such contact is nearly impossible to control, and up to 12 million people, mostly children, get head lice each year in the United States alone. Those most likely to get head lice are children ages three to ten, with girls being more at risk than boys.
Lice can be killed with a variety of over-the-counter medicated shampoos that are perfectly safe for humans but deadly to lice. To prevent lice from returning, an all too common occurrence, you should engage in a series of simple procedures. Due to the short lifespan of lice when shedding them from a host, there is no need to fumigate an entire house.
After making sure your baby’s head is free of lice, you should wash all brushes and combs in a medicated shampoo. Another technique to prevent lice from returning is to soak these personal items in water that is hotter than 128 degrees Fahrenheit (53 degrees Celsius) for ten minutes. Wash all clothing, pillowcases, sheets, hats, and coats in hot water, then dry them on the hottest setting possible. Vacuum car seats, sofa cushions, pillows and bedding to pick up any lice that may still be alive and lurking. Last but not least, check your baby’s head every few days to make sure the medicated shampoo has worked and the lice haven’t returned.
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