How to Prepare Your Child for Treatment:

(AKA: Preparing Yourself)

Let's face it, lice is not fun. But the treatment doesn't need to be a horrible experience for you or your family. If you act embarrassed, ashamed, or stressed, your child will pick up on those feelings and be "embarrassed, ashamed, and stressed". From my personal experience, I have found that the children I have treated have been totally okay with their condition as long as their parents seemed calm. The parents are always more "embarrassed" or "grossed out" than the kids. Because of this "shame factor", parents are often reluctant to tell their community (classmate's parents, school nurse, etc.) about their family's case of lice. This only makes the lice infestations worse.  If no one told you that your child had been exposed to lice, why would you check for it? Without a "heads up" from school or another parent, you won't find lice on your child until he/she is showing symptoms and seriously infested. Without proper communication between school and parents, kids will pass lice back and forth to each other for an entire school year! So, unless you want lice as long term family pets, start talking and e-mailing. But I digress....

Treat lice as a normal part of childhood, like losing teeth or a scraped knee. Put the head checks, comb-outs, and treatments on the family calendar just like recitals and soccer practice. Make it a "normal" thing that you do like any other activity. Try to make it fun - have comb-out sessions with friends and family in your community that have also been dealing with lice. It's a great way to share information, and lighten the mood.

During a recent outbreak, some friends and I had take-out dinner and head-check night once a week . My daughter called it the "Lice Club". After dinner, each child and any infested parent got a comb-out style head check (method 2). The kids got to watch a DVD during their comb-out, and picked a piece of candy out of a candy bowl when they were done. The kids actually looked forward to it and thought of it as a play date.

Go to Treatment.