New Head Lice Recommendations

Nothing strikes fear in the hearts of a parent like head lice. But recommendations on how to treat them are changing.

Believe it or not, the biggest new recommendation is to not keep your kids at home if they do get head lice.

For a parent, there isn't anything much worse than getting that call from the school nurse letting you know your child has lice in their hair. Not only do you have to treat them to get rid of the little bugs, but you also need to call the parents of any other kids they played with to let them know. And it used to be you'd keep them out of school until the lice were gone. But the American Academy of Pediatrics just released new guidelines, and the biggest change is a strong stance against school screenings for lice and as they put it "no healthy child should be excluded from or allowed to miss school time because of head lice."

Contrary to what many parents believe, lice infestations are not a sign of dirty hair or poor hygiene. Anyone can get lice. But pediatric experts also feel that with new treatments and a better understanding of the problem, keeping kids out of school isn't necessary. They also emphasis that homemade treatments, including bleach, acetone and even wd-40 applied to the hair cause way more harm than good.