How to treat Lice and NOT FREAK OUT!

Hey y'all it is LICE season

We got lice last winter, and this summer I helped a family get rid of a prolonged lice infestation they’ve had in their house for years. So I am starting to feel like an EXPERT!

1. Stay calm, it is not life threatening, they don’t carry disease, they are just annoying, no one is immune to getting them, no matter how clean you are, it’s totally normal and it is No big deal! So fight the urge to freak out!
2. Check or treat everyones hair for lice
3. Use coconut oil for treatments with lice combs, it works just as well, it is cheap, it doesn’t stink, it doesn’t have weird chemicals. 
4. Everything the person wears or touches with their head needs to a) be put in the dryer on high for at least 30 minutes (you decide if it needs to be washed first) b)set outside to freeze 3) don’t use items for 3 days or at least don’t let anyones hair come into contact with these items. Items you might need to think about is clothes, hats, coats, towels, head bands, backpacks, bedding, cloth couches or chairs, cloth toys, kid costumes, headphones. 

            So I switch bedding every day, when they come home from school coats and backpacks either stay outside on our back porch                  

            or go straight into our dryer, if we ride in a car with a cloth seat we put a new towel in every time we sit there. We make a rule 

            no sitting on clothe chairs or clothe couches or laying on carpet until the lice are gone. I also vacuum the floor in the rooms 

            they are active in daily until it has been resolved. We also stick all our hair bands and combs in the freezer in a ziplock or in 

            dryer or microwave before we use them again, we don’t reuse towels while we have lice, we use a new one every time

       5. We put all the girls hair up so that it isn’t hanging and touching things, and we tell them not to touch heads when they hug for  

           now

       6. We treat every 3 days for 15 days if the last 10 days there were no lice or nits we stop, if anything was found we go another 12 

           days. This is excessive so if you prefer to do it different nits can hatch every 10 days so you could treat once a week, you just 

           want to remember that after a clean pull where you don’t get any lice, nits could still hatch within 10 days so you will want to 

           keep doing treatments until you have had 2 clean pulls 10 day apart or more. 

           We try to make treatment time pleasant and a time to bond. We try to make sure the person with lice doesn’t feel shame or 

           have trauma from having lice. We want to send the message this is no big deal, we can handle this.

       7. We blow dry our hair, the theory is the heat may kill the nits, not sure if this is proven to be true but thats what we do.

       8. Be careful about what your hair and head touches. I make a signal with my kids so I can easily remind them to be cautious, 

           without having to give the whole speech every time, after a few days these behaviors begin to come natural to them and these         

           behaviors will also help them  not get lice from other people in the future. Again try to make the learning experience positive 

           and not traumatizing. 

Good Luck! Have Fun!