I was visiting a parenting site and the topic was lice. How do most children get infected other then school?

Question

I am the eldest child and went to regular school for 12 years and in Dorms for 4 years, my younger siblings were home schooled before High school for different reasons that made public school unbearable. Regardless we never had lice infections. Now between all us we have 7 kids. 1 in a private pre-school for the deaf and the 4 older ones are home schooled, and 2 babies.

For anyone with any experience in this, how do you know if your kid has lice, how do you keep it contained from jumping onto to other kids, Where do these lice live? I know you can be the cleanest person in the world and your child can still get infected so I only want help I am not going to think badly of anyone who answers, just the opposite really!

Since we

Answer 1

most kids get them from school or day care, anyplace you come in close contact with others, especially kids. but you could in all reality get them just by walking past someone at the store as well. they CAN jump, i know people say they cant but i have seen them do it....i watched one jump from my cousins head to her brother sitting on the porch swing when we were kids.  they live in your hair, but if you put a little bit of tea tree oil in your shampoo/conditioner before you use it they wont get  on you, ive used this for my daughter  ever since she started school and she has yet to be infected (knock on wood). but to keep them off other kids,  you just have to get rid of them, period, go to the drug store and get medicated shampoo for it, or whatever they have now, it used to be a shampoo type medicine, im not sure anymore, and theres a spray for furniture and stuff too big to go in the washer. but you have to clean EVERYthing really well. or they just come back,.

Answer 2

Our children have never had lice, but I am extremely paranoid about them so I make sure my girls ALWAYS wear their hair up to school, church, anywhere they are going to be in close contact with other children. I do know that lice live on the scalp and like warm places like behind the ears and the base of the neck. They are extremely hard to see but you can see them and the nits (eggs) in sunlight. I was told too that it is better to NOT wash your child's hair every day because lice actually attach better and easier to cleaner hair. So, I don't wash my children's hair but 2-3 times per week. If your child becomes infected with them, you have to really treat the whole family and make sure noone else has them or their eggs. Any fabric such as curtains, carpet, stuffed animals, etc... must be treated as well as bedding in very HOT water and dried in the dryer. I know a family that kept getting them and the poor mom was so stressed out and I swear I thought she was going to just burn the house down one day because they were so difficult to get rid of. I have just really tried to educate my children about not letting their heads ever touch another child's head, never sharing sweaters or brushes and hair supplies like headbands. So far, its worked!

Answer 3

they live in your hair and eat your scalp they have medican at the pharmacys its called rid or something the they have spray to spray you house down then you need to wash all blankets pillows stuffed animals etc. put pillows stuffed animals in the dryer for like 1 hour and a half and the heat will kill them