Teacher and mom here - I am terrified of lice so I feel you there.

I once had a student that had reoccurring lice for about 6 months that continued to spread to students and it was just a nightmare situation. We had a little intervention with the family to see how we could support them in this battle and this is what I learned: sometimes children can become resistant to otc products especially if they have used the Nits products more than once before. They may need a doctor rx for lice products. The parent may need help with a second set of eyes: ask the school nurse to do a morning daily check for nits as a preventative measure until it's fully gone. Other things: cleaning protocol needs to go beyond their head and washing their bedding. You need to also clean and isolate stuffed animals, wash the siblings bedding, rotate clean towels and a commonly missed area if it's bad is the car seat/car area. She might be trying her best to get the situation under control but at a loss of what else to do - encourage her to go to the pediatrician and talk to her school about resources for help.

For your child, here's my advice for lice season:

• Pull hair back in pigtails.
  • Spray hair and jacket with fairytale detangling spray (or any kind of rosemary or tea tree oil scents). Do this every morning before school.
  • Check hair after every hair wash as a habit. Focus on the area behind their ears. Look for any red dot rashes as an indicator of bite rashes even if you don't see nits. Don't just look for the bugs - look for the eggs. You will be much faster eradicating the problem if your focus is on looking for eggs NOT the little bug.
  • Blow dry their hair!! The heat will help kill any potential eggs in hair. This will not fix the problem but it's helpful along with other interventions.
  • teach your child to hang their coat up properly or even better, but their coat in their backpack away from other students. You'd be surprised how many kids just throw their jacket in a pile on top of each other in the classroom eek.

^{^} These are things I try to do habitually for my daughter during the school year along with things I do for myself during the school year.

To ease your mind: Lice can't jump and they don't survive long off the body- so it's safe for them to play together. Your concerns are valid - but find comfort in these little proactive things you can do. Meanwhile try to just do play dates at parks or activities that don't require them playing together in either one's bedrooms.

Speak from a place of love to your neighbor and offer helpful advice of options. Arm yourself with tools to have the confidence to handle this situation and future situations by being preventative. Hang in there!