Prevent Lice
Want to learn how to prevent lice during an epidemic? Maybe you just all-around don't want creepy crawlies in your head of hair? While the thought of head lice can be scary, they're usually less all-out threatening than we make them out to be. A few simple things will help you prevent lice so that you won't have to bother with treating the lice after they've cropped up.
Contents
Steps
Determining Symptoms and Avoiding Carriers
- Know the symptoms. As you might know, lice are little and can be white, brown, or dark gray. They're most common around the ears and the back of the neck, and feed off of human blood. They are much more noticeable on darker-colored hair.
- The most common symptom of head lice is itchiness in and around the back of the neck.
- In many children, lice don't produce any symptoms until weeks or months after they've moved in. For this reason, it's important to do regular visual check-ups with a fine-toothed comb in order to spot an infestation as early as possible.
- Doctors recommend combing for lice after the child has taken a bath/shower, while their hair is still wet.
- Teach your kids the importance of not sharing certain items. Because head lice commonly affect young children in school, it's important to be vigilant about situations in which children may share certain objects. Although you probably want to encourage your children to share certain things, you probably want to discourage them from sharing the following:
- Hats
- Headbands
- Hair accessories
- Pillows
- Combs
- Any other objects that promote direct head-to-head contact between a carrier and potential carrier.
- Be aware of lice carriers. Obviously, although lice are irksome, they're not to be avoided like an infectious disease. Instead, be aware of anyone who may have had lice or is being treated. Knowledge is power.
- If somebody had lice and was treated, but it has not been two weeks since their treatment, make sure you try to avoid contact with any of their fabrics. You don't have to be afraid of them, but casually avoid situations which involve contact with them, especially head-to-head contact.
- Get checked. Lice can commonly occur in schools or summer camps. If your school or camp doesn't give out regular checks, ask the nurse for one every once in a while. If the nurse is unavailable, schedule an appointment with your child's general practitioner to check for lice.
Using Practical Prevention Strategies
- Steer clear of fumigants and other chemical sprays. These sprays are not necessary to kill head lice and can do more harm than good if inhaled or ingested.
- Wash regularly worn or slept-in items if you suspect your child may have been exposed to lice. This includes:
- Washing children's sheets in hot water
- Washing any clothes the child may have worn in the past 48 hours
- Putting in the dryer for 20 minutes any plush toys your child may sleep with
- Soak hair care products in warm water, isopropyl alcohol, or medicated shampoo solution. Hair care products such as brushes, combs, hair ties, headbands, barrettes, etc. should be soaked periodically to kill any lice. If an item is in question, it's better to be safe than sorry.
- Use the correct hair products to repel lice. Whether it's the smell of certain products or an adverse chemical reaction, lice tend to stay away from:
- Tea tree oil. You can use a shampoo or conditioner with this ingredient to repel lice.
- Coconut oil. Coconut oil is known to deter lice.
- Menthol, eucalyptus oil, lavender oil, and rosemary oil. Most likely, lice dislike the smell of these strong oils.
- Hair products designed to repel lice also exist. Make sure you don't use lice killing shampoo unless you actually have lice, or else it is bad for your hair.
- Vacuum the floor and any upholstery that might support a colony of lice. Once a month, do a deep vacuum and hit any carpeted areas or upholstery where lice might breed or wait for human contact.
- Enjoy life! Don't live in fear trying to prevent something that might never happen to you. It's not worth being worried about lice until you appear to have a legitimate outbreak.
Tips
- Thinking about lice makes your head itch, so don't believe that if you happen to be thinking about the subject and your head itches that you have lice. It could be your over-active imagination.
- Wear lots of hair spray. Lice despise the stickiness of it.
- During the school year, do not use scented shampoos and conditioners (for example, cherry scented). This will attract more lice. Use shampoos that have no scent on schooldays, while for weekends, you could use scented shampoos. Coconut shampoo is the only exception.
- Airplane seats, movie theater seats, and bus seats often have lice. Take your jacket and put it over the seat before you sit down.
- If you do get treated for lice, make sure you follow through with the two week after treatment. This is to take out the dead lice and the eggs. If you do not follow up, the lice will live on.
- Remember to know which brush you used when you had lice, and either boil the brush in hot water, or buy a new one. If you use the same brush after having your hair treated, you will probably get lice all over again.
- Don't stay completely away from someone you know has lice. You can still see them, but you just can't come in contact with their head/hair.
- Always use tea tree oil for your hair. To prevent lice just wash your clothes that u wore that night with hot water and wash your pillows and blankets too! Stay away from other people so they won't get it too.
- You can use a regular comb as well. Just make sure it's teeth are fine enough, and it is washed.
- Is your head itching? Do a close check in the mirror. If you think you have lice, ask a nurse!
- If you find out you have head lice, use a dandruff shampoo and conditioner. You can also find lice killing treatments at any drugstore. Children should stay away from H&S, as it has a chemical not appropriate for kids. Adults can use H&S.
Warnings
- If somebody in your school or camp has lice, don't use scented shampoo.
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