If you are a parent, chances are you know head lice are a nuisance that you’d like to prevent if at all possible. These small, parasitic bugs that feed on blood under the scalp are especially common on the heads of children that range from about 3 to 12 years of age.
The most annoying symptom of lice is an itchy, irritated scalp. They can’t fly or jump, so they have to crawl to travel from one child to another, which makes direct head-to-head contact one of the leading causes of how they spread. The following are a few steps you can take in attempting to keep these pests away from you and your family.
Tell Your Kids To Avoid Head-To-Head Contact
Lice are so common among children because they are prone to come into contact with each other on a regular basis. This seems unavoidable if they’re to have any kind of social life. They may play after-school sports where physical contact is just part of the game, and they may pose for selfies with friends with everyone pushing their heads together so they all get in the shot. Just tell them to be aware and to try not to actually touch heads when doing such things.
Be Careful What You Put On Your Head
Whether it’s trying on a hat from a store rack or wearing a friend’s hat to see how it looks on you, sharing an infested person’s clothing is another way that lice spread. Lice can survive for a couple of days after falling off an infested person’s head, so there may still be live ones on that towel, hat or hoodie you’re thinking of using or on that pillow you want to take a nap on.
Don’t Share Head Phones
Lice don’t do well on hard surfaces like plastic, but they may survive long enough for you to pick some up when trying someone else’s earbuds on to listen to a song they’re raving about. You might want to skip listening to the song unless you want to risk sharing more than music.
Avoid The Comfy Seat
If you see a plush, upholstered chair or couch at the library or waiting room of a doctor’s office, you may want to think twice before having a seat. You don’t know who sat there before you and whether they had any passengers that they may have left behind. Lice or their eggs (nits) can survive for around 48 hours on rugs or upholstered furniture. A wooden or plastic chair is a much better option in the waiting room.
Doing Your Laundry Can Help Prevent Head Lice
In a situation where you may have been exposed to someone with lice, you should put your clothing, scarf, gloves, jacket and similar items into your washer. Use the hot water setting on the washer, and use the heat setting for the dryer. If an item can’t be washed, then put it in a plastic bag for about three weeks, which is long enough for any hatched nymphs to die from not being able to feed.
What To Do If Prevention Fails
Sometimes, no matter how careful you are to prevent this problem, a lice head check will reveal the presence of lice. Many parents believe finding effective head lice removal solutions is very difficult. If you’ve done any search for head lice treatment options, you’ll see there are over-the-counter products. Unfortunately, the toxins used in so many lice shampoos have been overused for decades, and most lice are immune to them.
Fortunately, if you’re in the Toms River area, you have a fast, affordable and effective head lice removal option near you. At Lice Lifters of Ocean County, we diagnose the presence of head lice with a lice head check and then kill the lice and their nits with 100 percent safe and natural products. The best part is that we can treat all of your infested family members at once, and our head lice treatment will have your family lice free after a single visit, so please don’t hesitate to call and schedule a head lice removal appointment.