Is Extra Cleaning Necessary After Head Lice?
Even though research shows that extra cleaning after head lice is not necessary, many parents still believe they must take drastic cleaning measures. Do your research, check out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) page and see for yourself. Extra cleaning doesn’t contribute much to preventing head lice because head lice die without a human host and an infestation cannot spread through a dead head louse. Lice are not spread through inanimate objects in any significant way so cleaning the house is much less important than treating the head. Although, we do have some suggestions for cleaning and laundry that we’ll touch upon.
Our biggest advice is to focus more on the head than you do on the house because that is where the problem is rooted. Completely eradicate the lice in your child’s hair and that is what will stop the spread to the rest of your family and to your child’s friends. Focus on the head first and then doing some cleaning afterward.
Check The Whole Family
It is also important to check the entire family for head lice instead of just treating the infestation that you noticed first. Don’t ignore the problem just because it’s a hassle. Don’t sink into denial either. Head lice will not go away unless it is properly treated. If left alone, it can stay for days, weeks, months or even years. In fact, if you bring your child to us for lice treatment, we can take all your stress away and effectively check and treat any infested member of your family. Let us give everyone a head check to give you piece of mind. And, with every child’s head treatment, we give a free parent head check. Parents sometimes forget about themselves because they are so busy selflessly taking acre of everyone else, but you may have gotten the head lice from your child as well.
So, make sure to treat the head first and completely eradicate the lice before even worrying about anything else. That is the most important part of the head lice treatment process.
Laundry After Lice
The CDS recommends machine washing and drying clothes, bedding and other items that the infested person may have worn or used during two days before treatment. They recommend using hot water and drying on the hottest temperature. Items that you don’t want to wash can be placed in the freezer in a plastic bag for 1-2 days. Doing laundry after lice is pretty similar to doing laundry any other day. Nothing crazy but making sure the temperatures are hot.
Cleaning After Lice
Cleaning is also nothing crazy. We recommend putting combs, brushes and any other potentially infested accessories in a plastic bag and then placing them in the freezer overnight. We recommend doing this instead of soaking the items in hot water. This has proven to be more effective since lice can hold their breath.
Vacuum the floor where the person with lice may have been. It’s important to know that head lice don’t survive more than 1-2 days without a human host so the chances of getting lice from the carpet or rug are very low but a little vacuuming never hurt anyone and it’s nice to feel clean after dealing with head lice.
Spending a large amount of time and money on cleaning the house after a lice infestation to avoid reinfestation is unnecessary. You don’t need to do anything beyond your normal house cleaning routine.
Remember: take care of the head before you worry about the house. Give us a call to take care of the most important part of lice treatment.