Sharing hats can transfer head lice.

That cursed Santa Hat

Children love to get into the spirit of Christmas and that sometimes means wearing a Santa hat. Unfortunately, that Santa hat can transfer lice to many kids when it gets passed around. This actually applies to any hat for that matter – be it the Santa hat or a baseball batting helmet. Any head garment can give lice to others.

Lice are an Equal Opportunity Hat Lover

How many times do you see people trying on hats in the store? What about kids sharing batting helmets or baseball hats?  It happens all the time. Just last week I treated a girl who had a mild case of lice. After treating her I told the parents that she had had lice for about 10 days or so and they looked on the calendar to discover that was the day of softball tryouts.

Tips

Do NOT share hats with anyone! Here are some quick tips on lice prevention hat etiquette:

-       Do not pass around the Santa hat. Your child looks cute in it but it’s better to just leave the hat at home.

-       Be careful with plays or shows that multiple children aren’t wearing the same wig or hat (or any costume piece for that matter).

-       Buy your own batting helmet and don’t let others borrow it. This applies also to any sport that uses a helmet, such as hockey or horseback riding.

-       Don’t share bike helmets with the neighborhood friends.

The holidays are a time of giving and receiving. Just don’t give lice to your friends. They won’t thank you for it. And believe me, you don’t want Santa to bring you lice – it’s worse than getting coal in your stocking.

Better check for lice before putting your kids on that bus!

Are you finding lice notices in your child’s backpack almost on a daily basis? Does is seem like there’s lice everywhere right now? You are not alone. Either your family has it, or it’s in the school, or someone you know is struggling with these little pests. Now is the season for lice!

Lice outbreaks tend to spike during the fall when children are returning to school. It has nothing to do with weather and everything to do with proximity. Kids are kids. They sit on carpets together, have cozy reading areas in the class, share brushes after PE, and weekend sleepovers. You name it. They are close together for hours on end so lice are bound to spread like wildfire.

Summer

Summer is the time for relaxed routines and vacations. No one is thinking about lice during the summer. So when the fall comes around and kids return to school, the children that had lice during the summer return to school with more lice and nits than hair! They are crawling with bugs to share with their friends at school. All it takes is putting heads together during a small group, sitting on the sofa in the reading nook, or sharing pennies during soccer practice and shazam – the next child has lice!

Creepy Crawly Bugs

Lice do not hop or fly, only crawl. So when kids put their heads together, lie on the carpets, or share brushes, bugs can easily transfer from one child to another. It doesn’t have to be direct contact, merely contact with a surface (ie couch, carpet, brush, clothing, etc) that touched the infested child. Bugs crawl off the infested child and are waiting to move onto the next head.

It’s usually the big, fat, juicy bugs that go from child to child. They are the pregnant females and waste no time making a home on the new head they’ve found. A pregnant louse can lay 4-6 eggs per day. Those hatch and before you know it, another child bites the dust.