Hello Yarmouth Elementary School Families,
With colder weather brings thoughts of warm turkey dinners, hot soups, bundling in winter jackets, prepping snowblowers and tuning winter sports equipment.
Cold weather is also the time when lice appears in school settings
Anyone can get lice...mainly from direct head-to-head contact but also from sharing hats, brushes and other personal items. Lice are no cause for shame and no reflection on the hygiene of your home, but are definitely a nuisance!
Please complete lice checks on children with itchy heads, or known exposure to lice, (spending time with friends family or classmates with a known case of lice) and let Alison Thomson, School Nurse at Yarmouth Elementary School, know if your child has nits or lice. Together we can keep the cases to a minimum at YES.
Tips for Prevention:
1. DO NOT SHARE Hats, brushes, scarves or personal items
2. AVOID HEAD to HEAD contact, teach children to hug with heads apart and to be mindful of where their heads are while getting in lockers and reading groups, etc.
3. Keep long hair pulled up tight on head
4. DO not lie on beds, carpets, stuffed animals or pillows that have been in contact with an infested individual
5. Machine wash and dry clothing, bed linens, and other items that an infested person wore or used during the 2 days before treatment using the hot water (130°F) laundry cycle and the high heat drying cycle. Clothing and items that are not washable can be dry-cleaned OR sealed in a plastic bag and stored for 2 weeks.
Nits in hair Adult lice
How to Complete a Head Check
1. Find a well lit spot and include entertainment for your child
2. Use a magnifying glass if you have one
3. Start at the nape of the neck and and separate hair ¼ inch at a time looking closely at each section for lice and nits
4. Be sure to examine the whole head, and treat appropriately per CDC guidelines if live lice or active nits are found
For more information please reference the CDC https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/
And for details on treatment, please reference a blog written last year around this time here: https://yarmouthelementaryschoolnurse.blogspot.com/2017/10/lice-lice-lice.html
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