LICE TIPS

Lice have become so commonplace in school that parents are really afraid that their kids will pick up a case from another student. It is not an unreasonable fear, given that head lice affect a reported 12 million school children each year.

Adults can get head lice even if they are not in direct contact with children. Louise, a single woman called us at LiceDoctors two weeks ago from Multnomah County and she was upset and perplexed. She had been quite itchy on her scalp over the past couple of weeks and finally went to the dermatologist, thinking that she had some kind of dry skin situation.

This woman with the long beautiful hair looks happy and even carefree. No way does she have lice, right? Not so fast. There are plenty of people out there with lice who have no idea that they have it.

Many people start out with the expectation that they will be able clean all of the lice out of their child's hair. After all, they reason, how difficult can it be?

How many times have you been told not to rely on the Internet when looking for diagnoses or solutions to medical issues. You probably have disregarded that advice (haven't we all?) and may have even scoured the Internet looking for advice on how to treat head lice; if you have done so then you know there is plenty of conflicting advice about lice.

To quote Mike Myers as Linda Richman, "Can we talk?" Let's be honest...no one wants to find lice in their hair. We really don't like to think about those yucky critters residing on our child's head! The fact is that lice are very common today and many people, including millions of school children, are diagnosed with it each year.

This, of course, is an important question when deciding how to tackle a lice infestation. In fact, Cleveland mom, Lindsey W., called us this morning with that very question. To make is simple, we have compiled a list for you:

While we at LiceDoctors never comment on other companies, we do tell you what we do and we feel confident that you will not find better service anywhere on Long Island. First of all, and this is key, we guarantee our work. That means if we treat you and we do not successfully eliminate the lice and nits, we will come back and re-treat you at no charge; we have successfully treated over 100,000 families.

The reality is that the incidence of head lice is on the rise and lice are very much a part of life today, especially among school-age children.

We received a call the other day from a mom in Buffalo who was concerned that her daughter was putting herself at risk for getting head lice from"selfies" or self portraits, often done with a friend or 2 in the photo, taken with a cell phone camera.