Head Lice Treatment

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You have gotten the dreaded phone call from your child’s school.  You have to come and pick them up because they have head lice.  Questions are running through your head such as “How did they get head lice?” “How do we get rid of it?” “What do I have to do to keep others in my household from getting it?”  All of these questions are common for parents when they are told their children have head lice.  Before you can effectively get rid of these little creatures, you need to know what they are, and their life cycle.

Head lice are tiny wingless insects that spend their entire life on human scalps and feed on our blood.  Humans and chimpanzees are the only hosts of this parasite however there are other species of lice that live on other animals. Like most insects, head lice will lay eggs on their hosts.  The eggs are laid on the hair shaft close to the scalp where it is warmest and most conducive for development.  It takes approximately 6 to 9 days for a head louse to hatch.  Head lice can be transferred from one person to another through direct contact. 

Personal hygiene is not a factor in who gets head lice.  In order to prevent an infection you would have to avoid direct contact with an infected persons head, hair, personal belongings and clothing. Most head lice infestations begin in a school setting because of the closeness of children while in groups or riding a school bus.

To treat head lice, you will need to treat the person infected, the family and the household they live in.   There are over the counter shampoos that contain lice-killing pesticides that you can use to treat the individual and all the family members.  You will want to do a treatment with the shampoo at least twice in order to kill the living lice and then about a week later to kill the lice that have hatched since the first treatment.  After each treatment, you can take a small comb called a “nit-comb” that will allow you to remove the eggs and dead lice from the hair shafts.  To treat the household, you will need to wash all the clothes and linens in the home in HOT water.  For items that are not washable, such as hats, scarves, gloves, etc. you should have these dry-cleaned. 

Check each family member 2 weeks after completing all the treatments to be sure you are all lice-free.