How To Ward Off Lice.

Okay it's that wonderful time of year when I open up the girl's backpacks to find the notice that I despise. Lice is in the school. Then my daughter informs me they did a head check at school. Reflexively I begin scratching my head. The mere thought of them makes me feel ill and itchy all over. My girls have very long hair so if they ever got lice it would be a huge pain in the you know what. Not to mention they would totally freak out. So what can I do to keep those little critters away from my girls hair? Well a few years ago I spoke to my pediatrician about it because the note came home and I panicked. I thought if I treated her hair with the anti-lice shampoo they sell at CVS that would prevent the lice from infecting my girl's hair. They told me immediately not to do that if she didn't have lice because if she did come down with it the shampoo would not be as affective and it would be much harder to rid her of it. So this left me with the question of what I could do to prevent lice. Well they had a few syggestions for me. First off contrary to popular belief lice do not like dirty heads. They told me to load her head with hair spray, mousse or gel. Also to keep her hair in pig tails or braids and not to let it hang down and loose. Lice is spread from head to head touching or if things like hats and combs are shared. Okay so my children left for school today with the youngest one sporting a tight braid sprayed heavily with hair spray and the older one with mousse on the top and then a pony tail sprayed heavily with hair spray. Then I gave them a quick talk on not touching any one's head and not putting on a hat or using anyone's comb. Okay fingers crossed they don't get it. I have done everything I can think of to prevent it so hopefully all will be well.