If you have kids, then chances are, at some point, they are going to come home with lice. You will have to figure out how to get rid of lice naturally or not, depending on what lice treatments you prefer. There are actually salons that will prefer lice removal services for you so that you don’t have to worry about the lice treatments that you’ll have to do. This one time service is usually enough to get rid of the lice once and for all. However, the best thing to do is avoid is as much as you. Here are a few tips that might help you avoid the lice dilemma with your children.

Don’t Share
You’ll need to teach your kids that sometimes sharing is not the best possible. It seems that head lice affects mostly young children while they are at school. This is usually because children want to share certain items that should not be shared. While sharing in general should be encouraged, teach your children that they should not share hats, any hair accessories, pillows, combs or anything else that would allow for direct contact between the carrier and your child. If they can stay away from these things, you might be able to avoid the drama of lice treatments for a little while.

Use Preventative Measures
Make sure that you always wash pillowcases and bed sheets in hot water. Stuffed toys usually attract them as well so these should also be regularly washed and dried on a hot setting in the dryer. There are various sprays and shampoos that you can use that are a deterrent to lice although you want to be careful about those. Some can be quite toxic and harmful if inhaled. Some more natural options would be tea tree oil, coconut oil, menthol, lavender, rosemary and eucalyptus oil. All of these are known for keeping lice away.

Keep Their Hair Up
When you child goes to school, make sure that their hair is in a tight braid or bun. Leaving their hair down or in a ponytail gives more opportunity for even one strand to come into contact with someone who has lice. That is all that is necessary in order for someone else to catch it. If the kids are allowed, you could even have them wear hats or caps to school in order to further protect their scalp and hair.

Know the Symptoms
It’s important to be able to recognize the symptoms when someone needs a lice treatment. Teach your kids to be able to tell when someone has it so they can avoid that person. Show them pictures of lice to encourage them to be more careful and less free with their hair. Let them know that the main symptom is itchiness, so if they see someone constantly itching their head, usually around the back of the neck, then there is a possibility that they might have lice. You don’t want your child to single this person out but let them know that it’s okay to quietly avoid the possibly infected person. You should also be aware that even after someone is treated, it can take up to two weeks for the lice to be killed off entirely. This means that you still don’t want to come into head to head contact for that period of time.

No Head to Head Contact
It doesn’t matter if a person is infected or not, your children shouldn’t be rubbing heads with anyone else. This is a bad habit to get into in case they do end up having a friend that has lice. It’s better to be in the habit of not touching heads with their friends. This includes leaning on their shoulders.

You don’t need to use lice shampoo unless you actually have lice. These shampoos are extremely strong, sometimes toxic and are bad for your hair. Only use these if you have lice and the naturally remedies are not working for you. Sometimes just one wash with a strong, harsh shampoo and combing out with a nit comb is all that is going to do the trick. However, if you get the lice soon enough, a more organic and natural solution will be just as successful at catching and killing all of the lice.