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Children, especially when starting school, pick up a few diseases from contact with other children. They also get infested with head lice by contact and the lice spread to adults. While other diseases are a medical problem, lice infestation is not. If you find your kids infested with lice, do not panic. Lice do not spread any diseases and are not carriers of viruses or harmful bacteria. They just prefer human heads with hair and human blood is their sustenance.

Although lice won't spread diseases, they certainly cause suffering since they cause continuous itching and also the embarrassments because of it. And the problem is that it is not easy to get rid of them. Not only the adult lice, but their eggs, or the nits also cause serious itching. The average shampoo or any amount of soaping is useless against lice. So, how to get rid of lice? Fortunately, there are few things that can be done to completely remove these head lice.

You can do a manual search to locate head lice and nits and kill them. It is a time-consuming and laborious job though. There are medicated shampoos that work well.They are also known as nit combs and are more effective than medical treatment, as scientists say the lice are increasingly getting immune to chemical treatments in some parts of the world.You can use fine-toothed combs called lice combs on moistened hair to remove the lice and nits.

After combing using the lice comb, remove all debris from the comb and wash it by holding it under running water, preferably warm water, and dry thoroughly. You can use your hair blower to blow hot air on it from a slight distance. Wash and dry the head and repeat the whole routine of combing. Just combing once is not enough and you have to repeat to ensure all the nits and head lice are eradicated.

How do you avoid a renewed infestation? Wash anything that can be washed- towels, bed linens, clothing, et cetera- in hot water and dry them in a hot dryer (heat kills lice). If they cannot be washed, then they must be sealed away for at least three days- longer than lice can survive without the nourishment they find in human blood. Make sure that clothes and anything else in contact with the infested person are treated in the same way.

Next, clean all the combs, brushes, hairpins and other such things that can come into contact with the head. Tell your children about the importance of not using combs, brushes, hats and caps belonging to other kids. Allocate separate combs and brushes for each person, easily identifiable by different colors. Do not let any child lie on pillows belonging to another. The whole process has to be repeated at least every week for a month. This is to make sure infestations do not occur after a couple of weeks, as the lice have a life cycle of three weeks.