Have you ever thought about how awful lice actually are? Tiny, white insects that have horrible little pincers and mouths living in your scalp. They can make you itch so badly that your body breaks out in sores and your hair falls out. But, it’s not a foregone conclusion that you’ll ever get lice. This can go for your kids as well. That’s why today, we’ll be discussing school year lice prevention. We’ll go over what lice are, and how you can keep them from spreading.
School Year Lice Prevention: Overview
To begin with, the louse is the parasite itself, though it’s more known by the plural form of its name. Lice attach themselves to human hair and feed on your blood. The most prevalent of these parasites is the head lice, though there are other kinds. It’s estimated by the CDC that up to twelve million infestations of lice occur every year. And with females that can lay up to six eggs a day, it’s not hard to see how they become so prolific.
But, there are a few school year lice prevention tips that can help you, or your children, avoid spreading this parasite. Kids, especially young ones, are going to play at school and in childcare settings. That play isn’t something you can really prevent. However, you can take a few steps to make the infestation spread less likely.
For one, make sure your children don’t share items that touch the head of others. Towels, combs, and other things like that are prime suspects. Also, avoid letting your children partake in head-to-head contact. It’s different in a setting such as a wrestling class where the kids are taught from early on how to keep themselves from spreading skin disease and other things. But there’s no real way to make sure your child’s friend doesn’t have headlice in a casual setting.
And finally, make sure to teach them to keep their personal belongings separate. Using a personal locker or other such container is good practice to stop the spread of more than just lice. You can never know if someone else’s bag has something even worse, like bedbugs, in it.
What to do in case of infestation?
Medicine and precautions may not always be foolproof. And if the school year life prevention tips don’t work out for you, you could have a full-blown infestation on your hands. In that case, you’ll want to call a pest control specialist. Try your best to find one that uses natural methods of pest control, since chemical pesticides are unabashedly dangerous- especially when used around children.
