Head Lice At The Pool

Summer is coming up and we are excited about it. Most kids look forward to summer activities with their friends and family. Whether they’ll be at summer camp or attending pool parties, there’s a pretty good chance they will be swimming a bit this summer, so let’s talk about head lice treatment from that angle. You may have some questions and concerns about head lice spreading at the pool As your leading lice treatment expert, we’re here to answer all those questions for you.

Are Head Lice Swimmers?

While lice can’t necessarily swim laps in the pool, they can, in fact, hold their breath under water for several hours. This means that giving a child a bath and having them soak their head under water for 30 minutes will not drown the lice. They will very much still be alive and crawling. The good news is, data and research show that lice are not very likely to spread in swimming pools because they cling onto human hair very tightly. And since they don’t really swim, you won’t run into one in the pool and face the risk of it crawling onto your head.

Can Chlorine Help Treat Lice?</h2

Contrary to popular belief, chlorine will not kill head lice. Head lice have become so resistant that they won’t even die from drugstore lice treatments that contain chemicals that were created to kill them. The good news is that your child probably will not get lice while in the pool, but if they do have head lice, don’t expect the chlorine in the pool to get rid of them. We wish it were that easy.

Towels And Accessories At The Pool Party

Good thing your child’s chances of getting lice in the pool are very low. But wait, what if they share towels and brushes and combs after they get out of the pool? That is the part you have to worry about. Head lice can spread through the sharing of products and accessories if an infested person has recently used it.

We recommend something simple for this: teach your children about some precautionary measures to take such as, bringing their own towels and accessories and not sharing theirs with others. This is a simple way to help prevent the spread of head lice.

We can all take comfort in the fact that it is extremely rare to get head lice from the pool, but we should teach our children how you can get head lice and make them aware of a few things they can do to prevent the spread. If your child does wind up with head lice, turn to the lice treatment experts and we’ll take it from there.