Yeah, I know, lice. It’s a gross topic. But once you have kids, chances are they’re going to come home from school, at some point, with lice. And winter seems to be high-time for those little lice buggers to populate kids’ heads, what with hat sharing and all.

First of all, keep in mind that if you kid has lice, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad parent, or that your kid is dirty. If anything, it means your kid’s hair is too clean! Lice like squeaky clean hair because they can grip it better. Oily hair that needs a good washing? Not so much a lice favorite.

Also, your kid does not need to be quarantined or kept home from school, despite the letter your school nurse sends home. Even the National Association of School Nurses does not believe that a child should be excluded from school, just because he/she has lice.

Now, onto getting rid of the lice. You don’t have to spend a fortune taking care of the problem or make yourself crazy my going out and buying all new bedding. According the American Academy of Pediatrics, lice cannot stay alive for more than 48 hours once they are off your child’s head. So once you’ve removed the problem, you’re one step closer to getting rid of the lice. How do you go about getting that removal started? Here are three tips to lick lice.

1. Wash all of your child’s recently worn clothing and bedding in hot water and then run through the dryer on hot. (It’s the one time I break my frugal rule about no hot-water washes or long dryer cycles.) Take any stuff animals your child may have come into contact with, and seal them in a garbage bag. You’ll keep them this way for at least two weeks to kill any lice that may be on them.
2. Apply something to your child’s hair to kill the lice. I’m not a big fan of the expensive over-the-counter lice treatments, especially because they are chemical-laden and don’t always work the first time around. Plus, some lice have become immune to these treatments. That’s why I’ve used the olive-oil-and-shower-cap treatment to much success when treating lice. Basically, you douse your child’s hair with olive oil, enough so that it’s sopping wet, and work it through to the scalp. Then you put all of that olive-oil hair up under a shower cap and let him/her sit like that for four hours. (Keep a towel nearby to wipe away any dribbles.) The olive oil works to either smother the lice or make the hair so slick that they can’t “grab on” anymore and slide off. After the requisite time period, wash out the olive oil and shampoo/condition as you normally would. You can also find free, non-toxic ways to get rid of lice on the Hair Fairies website here.
3. Be prepared to nitpick. You’ve heard that phrase, right? Nitpicking? Well, with lice that’s exactly what you need to do–pick out all the nits of lice from your child’s hair. You’ll need to invest in a nit comb, which has very tight teeth, and comb your kid’s hair through, almost strand by strand, over the entire head. Keep a magnifying glass nearby to look at anything white and suspicious on your child’s hair. If you can’t slide the nit off the hair, use a pair of small scissors and just snip that strand below where the nit is. Don’t worry: you don’t have nits on so many strands of hair that your child will end up with a bald spot. Have your child sit on the floor in front of you, preferably while watching an engrossing TV show, so you can nitpick undisturbed.

We’ve had lice once in our house and by following these three steps, we never had to worry about it again.