Preventing Head Lice

I had a terrible time with lice when my son first started school, they were so bad I had to cut his hair to a quarter inch long! These three tips worked to prevent them.

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1. Wash your children's hair every night. Lice need approximately 24 hours to feed and lay eggs. This washes them out and you never get the eggs. Yes, I know children hate to wash their hair, but they hate lice treatments even more.

2. Use some kind of hair product on your children's hair. I used mousse and hairspray and they both work. Any kind works, I just used the dollar store ones. If you put it into wet hair it won't get stiff. Just make sure that the hair is fully coated. It takes a lot less product than you might think. This works to keep the lice from adhering themselves or their eggs to the hair shaft.

3. In winter, when you get the notices from school that lice have been found, have your children put their outerwear into the dryer for about 10 minutes every day after school.

I did all three of these things and my children never had lice after that first year.

Source: My son's K-4 school nurse.

By Jen from Lancaster, PA