It seemed no amount of vacuuming, brushing or foaming shampoo was enough to beat the third-grade head lice plague that struck McBrien Elementary School two years ago.
HEAD LICE TREATMENT* Before using special shampoo or rinse, clean all articles that might have lice or nits. Clothes, towels and bed linen should be washed in hot water and detergent or dry-cleaned. Stuffed animals or items that cannot be washed or dry-cleaned should be sealed in a plastic bag for at least 14 days. All eggs and adult lice will die during this period.* Remove nits with a fine-toothed comb or, if necessary, by hand.* Put on clean clothes after shampooing. Lice can live up to 48 hours off the human body; nits can survive up to 10 days.* Instruct your child not to borrow personal items such as combs, brushes, hats, clothing and towels from other people.* Every day for seven days, vacuum carpets, upholstery, pillows and mattresses that have been exposed to infected persons. Be sure to discard the vacuum cleaner bag. Using a lice spray is not necessary if you have vacuumed.* Source: Hamilton County SchoolsREPORT SUMMARY* No healthy child should be excluded from or allowed to miss school time because of head lice. No-nit policies for return to school should be abandoned.* Instructions on the proper use of products should be carefully communicated. Because current products may not kill all eggs in a single treatment, applying the product at least twice, at proper intervals, is recommended if permethrin or pyrethrin products are used or if live lice are seen after malathion therapy.* Manual removal of nits immediately after treatment with a pediculicide is not necessary to prevent spread. In the school setting, nit removal may be considered to decrease diagnostic confusion.* School personnel involved in detection of head lice infestation should be appropriately trained. The importance and difficulty of correctly diagnosing an active head lice infestation should be emphasized. Schools should examine any lice-related policies they have with this in mind.* Head lice screening programs have not been proven to have a significant effect over time on the incidence of head lice in the school setting and are not cost-effective. Parent education programs may be helpful in the management of head lice in the school setting.Source: American Academy of Pediatrics
Parent Cita Halloran remembers sealing her children’s stuffed animals in plastic bags for weeks, hoping to suffocate any lice that may have been hanging on.
“It was really bad that year. It was an epidemic,” she said.
And the culprit, she says, was at least one family who sent their bug-infested children to class without properly treating their clothes, furniture and house. After Halloran’s daughter got rid of the lice for the first time, she came back to school – only to be reinfected a week or so later.