Check The Kids For Head Lice

School classrooms are perfect grounds for your kids to come home with the tiny, itchy bugs that give us the heebie-jeebies: lice! Despite how clean you are or how great a parent you are, the icky truth is 85 percent of all U.S. school districts report an outbreak of head lice every year!

Ask the kids not to share headphones or helmets, combs and brushes. Do your weekly head checks and look for hot spots on the back of the neck, behind their ears and of course, on their scalp. Common myths include lice like dirty hair. This is false! Lice like clean hair because its easier to attach to a clean hair shaft as opposed to a dirty one. Lice don't carry disease and lice die after 24-36 hours without a host.

Your pets cannot carry lice because they only feed on human blood. Be sure to wash pillow cases and sheets in hot water and dry on high heat for 30 minutes. And remember, it's not shameful to have lice come home on your child. The pharmacies have excellent lice killing shampoos with one application! An insider's tip: if you can blow it away, it's not a nit!