- Most lice experts believe it’s likely that your child will get lice if he/she wears a helmet or hat directly following it being worn by a highly infected child. False!The entomologists (bug researchers) who study lice, (my favorite is Richard Pollack, PhD from Harvard) say it’s highly unlikely and there have been no documented cases of this, even though they have tried and tried in their lab to get a louse to leave a cozy warm scalp to move to a plastic helmet .It just doesn’t happen.Only an injured or dying louse would fall off into a plastic helmet.Otherwise, they are smart buggers and will only move from one hair to the next.Head-to-head contact is required.
- After you treat most of your family members because they have live bugs, you should carefully vacuum your carpet and couch and car.Basically anywhere the child frequently lays their head. False!Again, the bug guys are very clear: lice live on your head, not in your carpet.If they happen to fall off into your bed, carpet, etc., they are already dying.They may be moving, but they are close to death and are unable to climb back up to another scalp to feed.Skip the cleaning and start combing.Time much better spent in fighting the battle against lice.
- If the school nurse checks your child and declares them lice free, you are probably ok. False. I have nothing against school nurses and know they do a great job in identifying some cases of lice, yet statistics show that if you simply examine the head for nits and lice versus combing with a great lice comb (The Terminator), you will miss 7/10 cases.It’s nothing against the nurses, they are VERY familiar with lice, it’s just that I never hear of them combing to diagnose.Not sure why…perhaps there is some rule against it?At any rate, anyone, including myself, would miss the vast majority of the milder cases by simply picking through the hair.
- More children have lice in the Fall than any other time of the year.False. There is no one busy season for lice. The reason it seems to be more prevalent in the Fall is because kids are getting checked more often by parents, nurses, etc. The busy times are approx. 4-6 weeks after any break because it typically takes that long for a child to work up a good case of lice, begin itching and alarm someone enough to take a look.6 Weeks after Christmas I was crazy busy. Same for Spring break. Kids have more slumber parties, video game sessions packed onto a couch, etc., when they are off school.
