Guest Author - Jeanette Stingley

Every parent has a nightmare of getting a call to come get their child from preschool because the teacher has found head lice in their hair. Many parents freak out over an outbreak of head lice in their child's school. I have found the main reason for this is the stigma that people place on getting head lice. There are many myths about head lice that I would like to discuss to start off with.

1.) Head lice are a result of not being clean.

- This is a total and FALSE myth! Anyone can get head lice no matter how many times you bathe yourself each day, no matter what socioeconomic class you are from, no matter what neighborhood you live in. Children especially transfer head lice to each other via sharing combs, sharing hats, sharing bedding at naptime or having their coats next to someone’s who has lice. In fact many pediatricians will tell you that lice actually prefer clean hair, because they have difficulty breathing in the excess oil of dirty hair.

2.) Lice can jump from one person’s hair to another.

- Again this is false information. Lice cannot jump. They crawl. Head lice are about the size of a grain of rice and are typically a light brown color but can be white or dark grey. Lice are usually easy to spot either by the actual bugs or the eggs they lay on the hair shaft.

3.) Treating only the hair will get rid of the bugs.

- This is false as well. Lice can live off of the human body for about 24 hours. If your child is sent home with lice, you must remove their clothing, coat, scarf, hat, etc. and place these items in a garbage bag for 48 to 72 hours if you can’t launder them immediately. All bedding, teddy bears, stuffed animals; anything with fake fur or baby dolls with fake hair must also be bagged up and laundered for the same amount of time.

4.) If I get all the bugs out of the hair, the treatment is done.

- Many parents make this mistake then get angry the next day when the teachers call and say the child has to come home because the eggs are still in the hair. You have to make sure you remove the eggs as well. The main tool for doing this is a very fine toothcomb. These come with over the counter lice treatments. You can also ask a pharmacist if they have combs sold separately. The lice lay eggs on hair shafts all over the head but main areas to look in are where your child has warm spots such as behind the ears, the nape of the neck, the side they sleep on, and in little girls where you put barrettes and ponytails.

5.) I can use any kind of shampoo to get lice out as long as it cleans the hair.

- A shampoo with a chemical called permethrine in it is needed. This is a pesticide so check with your child’s doctor about any precautions that should be taken. Two popular over the counter shampoos are RID and NIX. I would also like to note here that if your child is under 2, pesticides cannot be used on their hair for lice treatment. These special shampoos usually only kill the bugs and some eggs. This is why combing the eggs (also called nits) completely out of the hair is extremely important. The eggs can be hard to remove. When my son had them, a nurse recommended saturating the hair with white vinegar and letting it sit for about 5 minutes before attempting to comb the hair out. The white vinegar is believed to loosen the glue lice use to attach eggs to the hair shafts. Other people have recommended using mayonnaise and Dawn dish liquid to loosen eggs.

While there is no sure-fire way to prevent head lice, remind children not to share hats, naptime bedding, combs, etc. Lice can occur anytime of the year but winter months seem to be predominate in breakouts. In the classroom it may be on the safe side to put dress-up clothes away until lice breakouts are done.

For more information on head lice and treating it, here are some websites:

HeadLice.Org

Center for Disease Control – Head Lice Infestation Fact Sheets
This site has some good picture illustrations!

Jeanette Stingley is BellaOnline's editor for the Domestic Violence Site and Women's Lit Site