My sister was shocked to see some active lice and nits stuck to the shaft of her girl’s best friend’s hair the other day. The girls had been playing in the bedroom the whole day when she found out!
Without hesitation, she sent the girl home and notified her mom about the lice infestation.
On the way home, my sister stopped at a pharmacy and bought a can of lice repellent spray for her girl.
Guess how many hours she took to clean her daughter’s room and the living room? About 3 hours!
Luckily that the girls had been in the bedroom most of the time. If the infested child had been in the kitchen, the dining room or even the master bedroom, my sister would have had to clean the whole house.
Here are some useful tips on how to clean your house when your child has had close contact with an infested child in your house.
1. Remove sheets, pillow cases, blankets and bedspreads from bedsteads where the child with lice infestation has been and replace them with clean bedding.
2. Wash and dry all bedding and washable toys at hot setting with detergent.
3. Put pillows and non-washable bedding, non-washable clothes and toys in dryer for 30 minutes or hang in direct sun for 6 to 8 hours or seal in plastic bag for 14 days. As an alternative, you can send the non-washable bedding and clothing to be dry cleaned.
4. Vacuum all mattresses and bedsteads. Empty or change the vacuum bag.
If you have a new bedding set, great, just use the new one when reassembling the room. You know, some of the lice may survive the washing machine! Lice can only live up to 48 hours off of the human body, so within two days the washed bedding should be free of living lice.
Many people think that lice outbreaks only occur when school starts each fall, well, wrong. ^.^
Lice outbreaks also occur in spring. This is the time when you see students sharing sporting equipment, such as baseball caps and batting helmets. Active lice and nits tend to be transferred from head to head if such gear is shared.
The key to stopping a lice infestation isn’t just a clean head. It’s a clean house that keeps the lice off your child’s head, mattress and bedstead.
It’s true that there are many lice bombs and lice pesticides available to get rid of lice, but according to the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, these products actually do little to remove lice from mattresses and bedsteads. On the contrary, they expose your family to unnecessary chemicals.
Updated on March 13th, 2011: If your child has had a full blown infestation, try combing through his/her hair with a regular lice comb or an electronic lice comb.
Of course I would suggest having your child’s hair shaved if your child is a boy. Save you the money, right?
But if it’s your girl, well then, you need a Robi Comb Head Lice Detector and Remover
Here are some interesting lice facts that I found out online – Lice like long hair over short hair, girl hair over boy hair, younger over older and clean over dirty. Ha, what do you think?
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