5 Steps to Staying Head Lice Free

This post is sponsored by NitWits

Head lice are something every parent has to deal with at one time or another. It only takes one kid to get them and the whole house is infected! To help you get on top of them we want to share our 5 tips to keep your kids’ nit free at school and daycare. Prevention is better than a cure and there are a number of things you can do to help keep them at bay.

Head lice myths

There are a number of myths about nits and how they are transferred, but research shows the only way head lice are transferred is from direct head-to-head contact. Nits are tiny insects. They do not have wings so they cannot fly. They have strong claws and crawl from hair to hair – they cannot jump.

Head lice need to spend their entire life on human heads to survive. They will die from dehydration within 8-24 hours when removed from the human head, depending on humidity and when they last fed, they cannot survive on hats, clothing or bedding.

It doesn’t matter if the hair is clean or dirty, if you have hair then you can get head lice. Long or short, thick or thin, coloured or chemically straightened, nothing stops them.

The female louse can lay between 50 and 100 eggs in her 35-day life span. That’s a lot of babies living in your hair!

Staying Head Lice Free

To stay nit free you need to keep on top of treatment. Here are our 5 top tips for you.

1 Check your child’s head regularly

Look at your child’s hair frequently. A weekly comb with a conditioner or a combing solution will help catch any fresh lice or eggs (nits). The conditioner helps make the combing process easier. If you wipe the comb on a tissue or paper towel the white conditioner will help you identify any live lice. Focus around the ears and the back of the neck; these are their favourite spots.

2 Treat head lice immediately

It’s incredibly important to deal with an infestation as soon as you’re aware of it. And by dealing with it, you only need to treat the hair. It’s a complete myth that you need to spray the whole house and wash the sheets. Remember, they can’t survive for very long away from the scalp.

There are effective, yet gentle treatments available, like NitWits All-In-One, which is Australia’s #1 Head Lice product.¹ A pyrethroid-free treatment, this product delivers a quick and easy way to kill head lice and their eggs, without the need for rigorous combing. This innovation is extremely effective with no need to repeat the treatment.

3 Check all head lice and eggs have been treated

Remember those 50-100 babies in 35 days? Well, if a couple of eggs are left and they hatch, the head lice cycle will start again. While head lice can be treated easily, it is important that thorough treatment is performed as per the product directions, to ensure all lice and eggs are eliminated.

4 Keep hair tied up and use a prevention spray

It’s a lot easier for head lice to crawl on loose hair so it’s essential to keep your child’s hair up and off their face to keep them away. Long hair should be plaited or in a bun to lessen chances of infestation. You can also use a repellent, such as NitWits Anti-lice and Detangling Spray. It contains tea tree oil, eucalyptus oil, lavender oil, and orange peel oil – to repel lice.

5 Stay in communication with your child’s school or kindy

If you child comes home with nits, make sure you let school or kindy know so that they can let the other parents know. The only way to really knock an outbreak on the head is for all the kids to be treated. Otherwise, it’s a re-occurring circle.

For more information on how to treat head lice visit www.nitwitsforkids.com