Tips and Tricks for Lice Treatment for Kids

In this post, I’m sharing my OWN personal experience with effective lice treatment for kids when my own daughter had lice, how we discovered lice, how to treat head lice, how to clean your home after having lice, how to clean brushes with lice as well as preventive tips we learned to help avoid lice infestations in the future.

The word that EVERY parent dreads hearing and a word that will make you INSTANTLY itch all over: LICE. We all know lice is common and that it’s almost a childhood milestone experience. We know it spreads easily and that schools are commonplace to catch lice.

As parents, we worry that someday we’ll get that phone call from school letting us know our child has lice or that letter sent home in their folders making us aware that a child in their class has lice.

Crossing fingers that our experience will just be a funny memory and one that will NOT be repeated as well as an experience that can help others when they are faced with hair lice.

Discovering Your Child Has Lice

My youngest daughter, Tess, is seven years old and in second grade. She had mentioned to me that her head itched a bit but it was cooler weather out and she’d been wearing a hat over the weekend so I assumed that it was just the cold temperature making her scalp a bit dry or the hat-wearing making her scalp itch.

I did an initial check-in on her hair and didn’t see anything white (anyone else under the false assumption that lice are WHITE?). I did, however, notice little black specks in her hair and thought it may have been from the liner of the hat she wore (I later learned that lice eggs are black flecks).

I went so far as to buy her some nicer conditioner to help relieve dry scalp. If you know me at all or have ever read my blog then you know I’m a pretty hardcore due-diligence kinda mama.

I thought I did all the right steps to follow up with her itchy scalp complaints and then I didn’t worry about it.

Then Tess came downstairs one evening after bath time and said “Look Mommy at this bug I found in my hair!”

I knew instantly that we were in trouble.

She was SO calm and just showed me the little bug on her finger. I was confused because the bug was brown. Was it fleas? Flea bites itch but aren’t often in the scalp.

We do have an outdoor cat that we allow to sleep inside at night, but the cat always sleeps with my husband and I and never with the kids so it would be odd for Tess to have caught fleas from the cat when they aren’t in close contact.

I thought surely it had to be lice…but isn’t lice white?

I did a google search and found this image that confirmed our daughter had lice. A quick look at her hairline also revealed another lice bug crawling around.

Yes, hatched lice. LIVE LICE crawling in my child’s hair. EEEEEEK.

What to Do When You Find Lice on Your Child

Most importantly when you think your child has lice – STAY CALM.

After our personal experience, I’ve talked to tons of people who have experienced lice and so, so many ADULTS are still traumatized from their childhood lice experience.

It is so important to me to handle tough things with my children in a way that will provide them with coping skills and tools and help them to remain calm and not have any longterm issues days, months or years later.

My husband, Zach, and I both try our best to remain calm and keep the environment relaxed during crazy, stressful, typical “parental freak out” kinda moments.

We laughed. We joked around. We kept it fun and upbeat while Zach filled a bowl with water and got a pair of tweezers to go through Tess’s hair with great care and to remove any head lice live that he could find.

Obviously, this was our first experience with lice head covered concerns and we did not have any sort of lice shampoo or nit comb or any kind of lice medicine on hand. He focused on doing a head check and getting all the lice he could off her hair and scalp while I started googling like a madwoman.

Home Tips for Treating Lice

One result I read was to cover a child’s head in Vaseline as this traps the lice and suffocates them and helps to kill them.

At this point, it was well past her bedtime (Isn’t that when these things ALWAYS happen?! When any sort of health care provider is already closed and it’s too late in the evening to run out and get any sort of over the counter treatment!).

We decided the best route to take was to smother her hair in vaseline (I have also heard mayo is recommended) and have her sleep in a shower cap for the night in hopes that we could figure out a better solution by the morning and that it would help to soothe her head as well as kill as many of the nits and newly hatched lice and any other live lice we missed when checking through her hair.

Tess was SUCH a trooper. She never complained or cried or anything. I know all children are different and have a few myself who would not have been as drama-free as she was in handling the whole event but she was awesome about it all and was totally happy to rock her shower cap to sleep and came down the next morning smiling.

I contacted her teacher via email as soon as we discovered the lice so the teacher could notify fellow classmates as well as the school nurse and take any proper steps on the school side of things to prevent it from spreading as we all know head lice spread like wildfire.

I also let her know Tess would be absent from school the following day and allowed Tess to sleep in as long as she could.

I had her bring down her blankets and pillows and other bedding items so I could get rolling on laundry while we figured out the next steps.

I cannot say if the vaseline helped in any way but one thing I did not consider when lathering my child’s head up with petroleum jelly is that it was a BEAST to get out of her hair. OOPS.

I had her soak in a long bath and then had to google like crazy about how to get vaseline out of hair. I found that a combo of both dawn platinum dish soap as well as baby oil helped tremendously. I also let the shampoo sit for awhile to really soak in.

I washed her hair over and over and got it to a decently clean spot but I wasn’t sure if all the vaseline would ever fully come out! After 40 minutes of trying I just called it done!

Why You Should Get Professional Lice Treatment

As soon as we realized the bug in Tess’s hair was lice I remembered a family from church who had experienced lice and they had mentioned a local professional lice treatment location.

It was one of those things that when I heard about it I tucked it away for future reference just in case and I’m SO glad I remembered about it!

By FAR the best head lice treatment for kids is to seek out professional help. We live in a rather rural community so I am beyond thankful (and impressed) that we even have such a facility nearby.

Our local professional lice removal clinic is called Family Hair Clinic, but you can check the Lice Clinics of America website to find in-clinic professional lice treatment services near you.

When I looked up the lice treatment clinic in our area I found that their website has a simple way to contact them, any time of the day. Even though it was almost 9 pm at night I filled out the form and received a phone call as well as a follow-up text soon after about scheduling an appointment for the next day.

It was a HUGE stress relief to know that we had a game plan and a solution and that my little girl would be in professional hands to make sure the lice would be GONE.

They included all the info I’d need to know as well as even a check list of things to make sure I handled around the house.

What to Expect at a Lice Removal Clinic

When planning to have head lice treatment done professionally at a lice removal clinic they should provide you with instructions. I was told to bring a clean shirt in a bag for each of us.

They also highly recommended that our entire family visit the clinic to have a head lice screening done on each of us to inspect the head and scalp to stop the spread throughout our home!

I checked the older kids out from school for their lice screenings and also had the staff check myself and my youngest son too.

My husband ran by on a break in his workday to have his checked too. At our time of visit they charged $10 per person for the scalp check screening but the fee was waived if any lice were detected.

It was a very quick check and thankfully I and my sons (as well as my husband later in the day) were all lice-free!

I contacted everyone I could that we had been in contact with (school, church, friends, family) to let them know and to encourage them to go into the clinic to have the lice screening done.

For just $10 each, we could really make sure to STOP head lice from continually spreading around our community and close contacts!

Unfortunately my oldest daughter, Britt, also had lice. She was not yet showing ANY symptoms and didn’t have any itching at all.

It made me even more thankful that we went into the lice clinic as we would have been focusing all of our lice removal efforts on Tess and had done ALL that housework to eradicate the lice from our home only to have them still be living and breeding and spreading on Britt’s head to the rest of the house and family!

If you or your child has to have a professional lice treatment service done be warned that it is an EVENT. They told me to plan to be there for two hours and I was very thankful my sweet mother in law was able to take my preschooler so he could have his lunch and nap and not have to be running around the clinic while I waited on the girls to have their treatment.

I was not surprised that Britt had lice, and I was honestly more surprised that none of the rest of us did, especially the preschooler.

We are a very affectionate family and Tess is THE most cuddly one she especially loves to cuddle with her baby brother!

The girls are VERY close and are always together and often even sleep together so it’s natural that the lice spread would occur from Tess to Britt.

The staff told us that most likely Britt caught lice from Tess due to sharing brushes as sharing hair brushes is the number one way that lice is spread to family members.

What WAS shocking was that when I heard from the school nurse later in the day that NONE of the other students in their classes had any lice during the school head check for lice. Crazy right?

We trusted the professionals when it came to treating lice and they use a very effective head lice treatment called AirAllé®. It is a three-step full-service treatment that has a success rate of over 99% and ensures no follow-up treatments will be needed.

They even offer a 30-day re-treatment policy! And a discount in the unlikely event that a second treatment is ever needed.

I thought the lice stuffed animal was hilarious and I’m debating getting this lice Christmas ornament to always remember the year we experienced head lice haha.

We arrived to the appointment with dry hair which is preferred in order to do the screening. When starting lice treatments they first washed the girls’ hair using special shampoo and then they used this heating tool that looked like an old school vacuum attachment (you can see it in the first picture above). They placed the heater on a section of the head for a set amount of time and it kills lice on the spot.

This method doesn’t use any pesticides or toxins or other chemicals. The heating device is effective because it kills head lice and their eggs through dehydration.

The clinic had a TV set up and the girls watched movies during the entire procedure. Tess never cried or complained but Britt had a harder time with the process.

The heating element can be a bit uncomfortable and the amount of time it has to sit can feel warm on the skin. I kept reminding her it was worth it and that it’d be over soon and that we’d have a lice-free celebration!

Once the heat treatment was done they worked through the girls’ hair in sections to comb out all of the dead lice, nits, eggs etc.

Britt’s bowl barely had anything in it as we caught her head lice VERY early! She literally only had ONE louse on her scalp and it was so funny when they found it!

Again, I’m SO glad we took Britt to get checked. Zach had even checked her head himself the night prior and didn’t see anything and she showed NO symptoms.

If we hadn’t had her checked we would have been dealing with this mess alllll over again as hers spread!

Tess’s had quite a few findings but they said they have seen much, much, worse.

They told me that usually, the MOMS end up getting it the worst because they don’t detect it as early and tend to assume they don’t have it and work so hard to help the kids get rid of it but then forget about it themselves.

After the process was finished they washed and dried their hair and did another check to make sure they were both free of ANY lice or lice remains!

I was extremely impressed with the entire process from start to finish. The clinic was VERY clean and they are appointment only and treat just one family at a time which was very nice too.

They had lots of books and toys and such for kids who needed to wait and they were very kind and it was also clear that they take pride in their work and do a very good job!

While I hope this was both our first treatment as well as our last time needing treatment and that we’ll never, ever be back I will recommend Family Hair Clinic to EVERYONE!

Between checking all of our heads for lice inspection (6 of us) and the two lice treatments I spent over $350. Whew.

BUT it was SO worth it to have the experts treat lice and kill lice and ensure we won’t be dealing with any more lice moving forward.

I am SO proud of how well both girls handled the entire experience. It was a bit of discomfort and a little complaining but nothing that either of them shed tears over or were overly upset by.

They both were TOUGH and battled their head lice and came out victorious 😉

Preventing Kids from Fearing Lice

It was SUPER important to me to make sure this experience was one that we’d all be able to laugh about instead of carrying any long term fears or anxieties over.

I personally never had head lice as a child but after hearing so many traumatic stories about hair lice from friends I really was mindful to keep it casual and calm for my kids.

Because the lice treatment is so effective both girls COULD return to school THAT day. They received paperwork confirming they were lice-free at the treatment clinic and they were permitted to return to school. However, it also counted as their excuse for missing school that day.

Since my mother-in-law had the preschooler settled in at her house I let the girls miss the rest of the day and instead we had a big brunch in honor of being lice-free before heading home to tackle the home cleaning process.

It’s important to try to wrap a tough experience around happy experiences as much as possible and I felt that by taking the time to take the girls out to a special brunch that they’d look back on the day as a fun mental health skipping school day and hopefully not have any lingering concerns over the lice situation.

The staff at the clinic was very passionate about NOT making a big deal about lice as well. They were all friendly and upbeat and kept reminding me that the girls were now LICE FREE and that I didn’t need to go overboard worrying about it and to just follow their simple instructions for home care to ensure our house would be rid of any remaining lice and not to overly obsess or stress it either.

They did say that Tess had a pretty severe case and had several “hot spots” on her scalp and that she may continue to itch for a while and feel some discomfort but do not be alarmed about it. Tess handled it all so well that she NEVER complained again!

How to Clean House After Lice

My mission was to commit one full day to treat the head lice infestation in our home and on our babies and then be DONE.

I didn’t want this to become an endless cycle of reoccurring issues. I didn’t want to spend any further time, energy, money, or effort. I didn’t want my kids traumatized from reoccurring lice infestations.

I am a pretty “hardcore” kind of person so I decided to go ALL IN and devote the entire day to the LICE ATTACK and just do allll the things I could to make sure it’d be the ONLY day I’d spend on the situation.

I followed both the advice of the lice clinic as well as many tips I read online and gathered from friends and followers on Instagram. I did ALL the things and then I was DONE.

While head lice can live up to 30 days, they cannot survive for more than 2 days away from the human scalp. They will literally die within 24-48 hours if not feeding on human blood. Knowing that (and reminding myself of it) helped minimize my freak-out mode a bit.

It is very important, however, to properly clean your home to ensure reinfestation doesn’t occur!

The first thing I did was to strip ALL bed linens in our entire house and gave everything I could a machine wash and then put everything possible into the dryer on the high heat drying cycle setting.

This included sheets, comforters, pillowcases, pillows, mattress toppers, and all stuffed animals that my kids sleep with too. (Which for the girls was a LOT).

I did this for ALL six of us. I didn’t want to take any chances so I figured why not set aside the day and just get the whole house super clean! Yes it took a lot of time but it was also worth it to not have to go through any future head lice treatments.

For comforters or other items that may not fit in the washer, or shouldn’t be washed (like some of the stuffed animals) you can also place in the dryer on the highest heat setting for 45 minutes.

Anything that can’t be washed, or that you don’t need access to for a few days, can be placed into trash bags and stored in a garage, carport, or (for us) front porch for 48 hours.

Nothing lets the neighbors know that your house has lice like a huge pile of trash bags at your front porch, right? 😉

Because I was committed to keeping all my lice household duties in one day I washed everything in the order of most likely infested. Tess’s bedding, Britt’s bedding, and so on down the list.

I also washed all towels, jackets, hats, washcloths, pajamas, and anything else I could think of that touched anyones body in the last 48 hours.

Whatever couldn’t be washed and dried that day I then just put into the trash bags.

A few of our kids have top bunks that aren’t used often so those bedding items wouldn’t be needed for a few days. My kids have a massive collection of stuffed animals that I also placed in the bags to set outside.

I also gathered up all decorative pillows around the house and placed them in the bags as well. Better safe than sorry!

While the beds were stripped I took the opportunity to sprinkle baking soda on them to help clean them. I let it sit awhile and then came back in with both a lint roller brush as well as a handheld vacuum.

You want to thoroughly vacuum every mattress and use a sticky roller brush as well to ensure all lice are removed. Be sure to use Clorox wipes to also wipe down all bed surfaces. I let the girls work on that task while I did the mattresses!

It’s also crucial to vacuum all cloth surfaces like couches and chairs and carpet and rugs. Remove all pillows and either do what I did and stick ’em in a trash bag outside for a few days or throw them in the dryer on the highest setting for 30 minutes.

A note to remember about vacuuming: Once you finish up with the vacuuming be sure to empty the canister or bag and remove it to an outdoor trashcan. Do not empty the vacuum inside the house or in your kitchen trashcan!

In addition to vacuuming and wiping down all surfaces, cloth furniture and household items I also purchased this mist spray that helps control the spread of lice, bed bugs and dust mites.

Again, I have no clue if it helped or worked but it didn’t require any sort of special attention or extra time on my part so why not spray everything down as an extra precaution measure, right?

Something I would NOT have thought of if I hadn’t visited the hair clinic is to be sure to vacuum the inside of your car – especially the roof!

While at the lice treatment center the staff gave me a lint roller as well as a plastic covering to wipe down the car seats and cover with the wrap to ensure lice that may be living on the car seat didn’t travel back onto the girls’ hair after their treatments.

It’s also important to wipe the seatbelts, on both sides, as well as any car seat straps with both the lint roller brush as well as the Clorox wipes.

We have extra sets of car seats for our kids to use in Zach’s truck when he takes them to school so we just swapped out the car seats and let the ones that go in my van to sit for a few days!

Try to really think through your kids’ schedules and items they use on a regular basis, especially those items that have direct head contact.

Any soft surface try to wash and/or at least dry on high heat. For hard surfaces use Clorox wipes to wipe everything down the best you can.

Anything that isn’t a “must use” item can be stored in a garbage bag or set outside but I tried to clean as much as I could to minimize the number of items we’d have to put away after the 48 hour period.

One item that can be easily overlooked is headphones! If your kids have headphones be sure to give them a good wipe as well.

This is also an excellent opportunity for your children to clean out their book bags. I had all of my kids go through their book bags and other school items.

I wiped down everything I could and then put the book bags (and lunchboxes if your kids don’t buy school lunch) and ran each of them through the dryer for 30 minutes.

Since Tess was the family lice infestation human host we wanted to really do all we could to ensure she stayed lice-free and that her bedroom also had as long as possible without any humans entering since we learned that lice will die within 48 hours without a host to live on.

Therefore we had Tess spend the night on Kye’s (my oldest son’s) top bunk for two nights. Not only did this keep her out of her own room but it also kept her separated from Britt on the off chance that they’d reinfect each other.

Britt also has a top bunk in her room so we had her sleep there for two nights to give her mattress plenty of time to also air out and avoid human contact in case any lice continued to live in the mattress.

The kids never mind a chance for a sibling sleepover – especially on a school night!

How to Clean Brushes with Lice

As previously mentioned probably THE most common culprit of a case of head lice outbreak in the home is due to sharing hair brushes.

A very important step in total lice treatment in your home is to be sure to clean any hair brush, hair comb, or hair accessory that is used by anyone in your home.

It does not take much time and is actually a good idea to do on a regular cleaning basis as these cleaning methods are not only great at ensuring lice die but also at preventing any future live louse from living in your hair.

For your hair brushes use a comb to comb through the bristles of your brush from top to bottom. This will pull out all the hair attached and wrapped in the brush.

This is probably the most daunting task of the entire brush cleaning process.

Once all hair is removed, soak all of your hair brushes and hair combs in a mixture of 1-2 cups of bleach with soapy hot water. Allow them to soak 30 minutes to an hour.

After they are done soaking rinse well and let fully dry before placing in a plastic ziplock bag. Place the bag in the freezer overnight or for 24 hours.

When it came to my personal experience I went the longest time amounts on everything. Why not let the brushes soak a full hour? Why not freeze them for a full 24 hours? If it helps to make sure we don’t have another case of head lice in our home I’m down!

Any hair accessory items that can be washed in the washing machine and dried on the highest heat setting is the best way to ensure positive results (and the easiest cleaning method for them) but it is also fine to place hair accessories and hair ties in plastic baggies and freeze them as well.

In my better safe than sorry efforts, I washed all of Britt’s MANY scrunchies that she loves to wear on her arms and in her hair with her other clothing items in the washer and dryer.

I then took all of the other hair accessories that my daughters own and placed them all in plastic bags in the freezer.

QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE FOR HOW TO CLEAN YOUR HOUSE AFTER LICE

• Wash and/or Dry on Highest Heat Setting: Linens, bedding, comforters, blankets, pillows, stuffed animals, hair accessories, jackets, hats, hoodies, pajamas, book bags, any washable items that have come in contact with anyone in the household in last 48 hours

• Wipe Down with Clorox Wipe: Bed frames, school work, seatbelts, jewelry, headphones, leather seats in the car, any items that have come in contact with anyone in the household in the last 48 hours.

• What to Vacuum: All carpeted areas, bedrooms, living rooms, mattresses, pillows that can’t be washed, cushions, clothed chairs, the roof of the car, car seats, cloth seats in the car, any cloth surface that has come in contact with anyone in the household in the last 48 hours

• How to Clean Brushes with Lice: Use 1-2 cups of bleach and soapy hot water to soak brushes and combs. Soak for 30 min to 1 hour. Let dry then place in a plastic bag overnight or for 24 hours in the freezer along with any hair accessories as well as hair ties.

• Anything that cannot be vacuumed, washed/dried, or sanitized: Place in a sealed garbage bag and set outside or as secluded as possible away from living areas for 48 hours (including car seats) OR store in the freezer for 24 hours.

• You can also download this FREE Lice House Cleaning Check-List!

What If I Don’t Have a Lice Clinic Near Me?

We live in a small town but were super fortunate to have a lice treatment clinic close by. However, I know many are not as fortunate and may be scrambling trying to figure out how to best treat for lice QUICKLY and efficiently!

How can you treat lice on your kids when you DON’T have a lice hair clinic in your nearby area?

Thankfully there is an at home option to treating lice in ONE DAY with a personal lice coach (yes, it’s a thing!). Check out My Lice Advice Videos for the tools you need with a 100% money-back guarantee too!

Click here to learn more about My Lice Advice and the one-time purchase to treat your whole family quickly and efficiently in one day!

Additional Lice Prevention Tips

It is a common misconception that a lice infected person is somehow dirty of that lice outbreaks happen in homes that are lacking good personal hygiene practices. In actuality, the hair of an infested person with lice is usually clean.

It makes sense why Tess is the one in our family to be the lice-infested child because she has the finest hair that requires the most frequent washing.

The good news is that you don’t need much to help give you peace of mind nor do you need to take up extra time when you’re trying to get out the door in the mornings in order to help keep lice away from your babies and your home.

One easy step to prevent head lice is to simply spray a bit of hair spray in your child’s hair. It doesn’t need to be much, just a light spray each morning on the way out of the door to school will help minimize the chances that the school nurses will be calling you about another head lice infestation!

It was also recommended to lightly spray the tops of the shoulders as well to help prevent any stray lice or lice contact from breeding and spreading.

Another tip is to have your child wear their hair in a ponytail or in braids or other up hairdo styles as often as possible.

Again, place the child’s hair in a hair tie and then mist with hair spray and they are good to go! And hey if your kids don’t like taking frequent baths or showers they are in luck because adult louse do not like dirty hair 🙂

With our family having three ladies living together I took the additional step of investing in individual hair brushes for each of us.

We’ve always shared our hair brushes but it now that we know sharing brushes is how the adult lice spread from Tess to Britt we are trying to do better at paying special attention to using our own hair brushes.

I bought each girl her own color of brush to keep it easy to tell whose is whose. Britt uses the pink Wet Brushes and Tess uses the purples ones! Lucky for me there are even sets of Wet Brushes, like this one, that come in two colors in a bundle.

I buy several and recommend keeping brushes in several areas of your home as it’s about the only way to ensure their hair actually gets brushed each day 🙂

I had many, many people recommend this lice prevention shampoo and conditioner to me. I actually did not decide to purchase it myself but I know that for many mamas using it regularly when washing their kid’s hair helps give them peace of mind and I’m all about doing all the things if it can help!

Being that this was our first time having to get rid of lice I did purchase some lice prevention spray to have on hand and use for the girls before school.

As a note: Tess did develop a bit of a rash down her neck and along her chest a few days after we exhausted all treatment options for her lice experience. I’m not sure if it was an allergic reaction to something but it cleared up on its own and I simply gave her a bit of Benadryl.

I am not sure what caused the rash but my hunch was that it was from using the lice prevention spray so I discontinued using that moving forward. Britt never got any sort of rash!

Can Cats Get Lice?

As I previously mentioned, we have a pet cat. She was a stray cat we found as a kitten. She mostly lives her whole life outdoors but does come in every night to sleep and sometimes during the day to visit as well.

As pet owners when I first saw the bug Tess found in her hair I didn’t even think about it being human head lice. I assumed the cat’s fur had been infested with fleas and the fleas spread to Tess’s head through direct contact with the flea infected cat. To be fair, to the naked eye lice look like fleas!

Now that we are pet parents again we do use monthly flea prevention topical treatments for the cat and the cat hadn’t seemed to have any sort of skin irritation or vigorous scratching so I was surprised to think that she had fleas!

Once we realized the small insects Tess found and the itching she’d been experiencing in her hair were actually symptoms of lice we then stopped worrying about the flea idea and focused instead on getting control of the lice problem.

As I got the kids lice-free and the house cleaned I did wonder about the cat. Can cats get lice? In all of our cleaning efforts could the lice affect cats and would the species of lice that live and thrive in human hair also cling onto the hair shafts of cats and therefore cause our house to be re-infested once we let the cat inside?

Thankfully flea products and flea shampoos and monthly applications not only help prevent fleas from getting into cat’s hair but are also usually tick control products as well as prevent the presence of lice for indoor cats or outdoor cats.

Really the best thing to do in preventing human lice from affecting cat’s skin is to just keep up with the regular use of flea and tick preventives.

I did learn, however, the bad news that cat lice infestations are possible and that the transmission of lice can occur between humans and almost any type of animal you may have as a family pet – including your family dog.

Long-haired cats are more likely to suffer from cat louse infestations (cat lice is known as “felicola subrostrata”). Cat lice is also most common in older cats who may struggle to properly clean and groom their long cat hair.

Cat lice infestations can often show symptoms like hair loss, cat itching, skin irritation or even small wounds from biting and itching, and little white specs in the cat fur.

If you think your cat may have lice it wouldn’t hurt to take them to the vet or local animal medical hospital as often a magnifying glass is needed to detect the lice in their hair.

Treating lice in cats is very much the same as treating fleas and isn’t a big deal, but is something to be dealt with as if it goes on too long lice can cause poor health for your beloved pet.

If your cat has lice it’s important to follow all of the home cleaning steps as well as cleaning the cat’s bedding or any other toys such as cat trees or grooming tools.

I didn’t overly worry about our pet cat during our lice adventure as she is young, healthy, short-haired and didn’t show even the first sign of lice!

Final Thoughts

I feel like I know more lice facts than I ever wanted to know after this lice experience as a family. I am thankful we were able to find such a quick and effective lice treatment and that my girls were able to be rid of their lice and know with confidence that no head lice survive the simple one step AirAllé treatment.

While I never want to have any sort of lice experience again, I am thankful for the excuse to do a very deep house cleaning and that we could sleep at night knowing that the combination of the effective lice treatments as well as the products and cleaning methods would ensure we were lice free!

You haven’t really lived as a mama until you’ve battled lice, right? I’m so proud of the girls and how well they handled the situation and I’m thankful that we have not yet had any recurrence as well as any long-term trauma from the experience.

Hopefully this will all just remain a funny story we laugh about as a family and I’m thankful that I feel well equipped in the event that we do face it again in the future!