Lice advice

Especially after summer vacation these little animals can suddenly live on your kids’ heads. Don’t panic. We had’em. And we did get rid of them. It was a little effort but it could’ve been worse by far.

This is how we proceeded.

1. I’d recommend you to check out your children’s’ hair on a regular basis. It’s a good thing to discover lice before they’ve build up a whole city.
2. You’ll rarely actually see a louse sitting between some hair. They will never be sitting still so you’d rather find out about their existence by glancing at nits. Nits are the lice’s eggs. They look rather similar to dandruff, but may be grayish/silvery. Also, a nit’s shape reminds you more off a very little pearl where dandruff is rather flat. To be sure you can try to wipe the particle away, using your finger (you won’t die doing that . Everything that can be wiped away is NO NIT. Nits stuck. And that’s exactly why nits suck so much.
3. Well, you apparently found nits. Or even living lice. Then you should run to the next drugstore and buy a liquid against lice. There are liquids based on pesticide. They’re not very nice to your hair but effective. I’d rather not apply them on little children’s heads. Also, there’s a variety of oil-based mixtures. They will kill the lice by suffocation. Some of these liquids can be even applied on baby’s head. I made the experience that oil-based mixtures seem to be efficient enough to kill all lice. Furthermore they’re resulting in smooth hair. So I’d recommend them. But you should always ask a chemist or doctor to be sure.
4. The lice host has to endure the whole procedure in any case. I did check out every single head in my family and when I found a single nit or the person was complaining about itching I also put the liquid on their heads. But I didn’t choose the pesticide version for that.
5. While the liquid is soaking in (between 10min and 8hours, depends on the product you chose) you replace every single sheet, bedclothes etc the louse head contacted. You should also replace the sheets etc. of all family members.
6. Remove stuffed animals and things like that. Everything soft and cuddly that could’ve been contaminated.
7. Pick up all brushes, hair ties and things like that.
8. Don’t forget caps, pullovers (especially hooded ones), jackets and scarfs.
9. EVERYTHING has to endure one of the 3 following procedures:
a) Wash with a min. temperature of 60degrees celsius for at least 10 min
b) Put into a plastic sac, really good closed for 4-6 weeks
c) Put into a plastic sac and into the freezer for 2days
d) For clothes that require cold washing you can buy a special liquid that is added to the soap.
10. You think you already had fun? Now, that will make your day:
You’ll need a special comb for nits. Then you have to examine every single wisp of hair and remove the nits. They won’t be loosened by the liquid you applied and they maybe won’t be dead inside. So you have to remove them. All of them. You’ll usually find them approx. 3 cm away from the scalp. You have to peel’em off using your fingernails, ’cause the comb will only be able to catch grown up lice. That’s much fun and can last on for hours.
11. Afterwards you’re clean. All of you. You can immediately start to join social groups again.
But
12. You have to redo everything 7 days later. So you can catch surviving baby lice before they’re old enough to make their own little nits.
13. Afterwards you’re done. In every way possible.

Good luck.