For your home

In reality, getting head lice has nothing to do with how clean you, your family, or your home is, but once you have an active case of head lice, thorough cleaning of your home will help ensure you beat the lice and nits.

Lice can only live one or two days away from a human – and that’s plenty of time to crawl from one child, onto a pillow, and onto another child. Between clothing, upholstery, bedding, towels and shared areas, there are likely many opportunities for lice to spread in your home and among your family.

Head lice management in the home should include:

• Vacuuming all areas to remove lice as well as hair that’s been shed and may have nits attached.
• Washing bedding, stuffed animals, towels, and recently worn clothing in hot water and dry on high.
• Soaking toys, combs, and brushes in very hot water for 10 to 20 minutes.
• Bagging up items that may have lice on them but can’t be cleaned easily. Leave these in a bag for two weeks, until you can be sure your lice problem is resolved.
• Separating storage areas, such as the area where your children hang up their coats. Make sure coats can’t touch and possibly allow live lice to crawl to uninfested family members.
• Educating the entire family about how lice spreads and why you are taking these steps – if everyone is more aware of the problem, you can all work to prevent it in the future.

Don’t forget about other areas where items or space be shared, such as your car or office. Vacuum wherever you can or isolate and store objects that do not need to be used for a couple weeks.

If you follow the approaches above and use a non-toxic shampoo for personal treatment, your family should successfully get rid of head lice within a couple weeks – without the use pesticide treatments, sprays, or other chemicals!