How Do You Prevent Lice at Summer Camp?

You prevent lice at summer camp by keeping heads from touching, by sending your child with their own comb, brush, towel, hat and pillow instead of borrowed ones, and by looking through their hair before drop-off and again after pickup. The CDC’s head lice overview names head-to-head contact with a person who already has lice as the most common way lice spread. The rest of a camp prevention list is a smaller adjustment around that one fact.

Check Before Drop-Off Day, Not After the Phone Call

The step with the real leverage happens before the duffel bag leaves the house. Look through your child’s hair while you still have good light and no deadline, because a case that travels to camp travels into a cabin. Itching is a late signal: the AAP’s guide for parents says it may take up to four to six weeks after lice get on the scalp before the scalp becomes sensitive to lice saliva and begins to itch.

• Seat your child in a brightly lit room and part their hair.
• Wet the hair, then use a fine-tooth louse or nit comb and comb through in small sections.
• After each comb-through, wipe the comb on a wet paper towel and examine the scalp, comb and paper towel carefully.
• Repeat until you have combed through all of the hair.

That sequence is the AAP’s comb-out method. MedlinePlus adds that you may need a magnifying lens as well as a fine-toothed comb to find lice or nits, and that you part the hair all the way down to the scalp in very small sections.

Know what you are looking at before you start. The CDC says adult head lice are roughly 2 to 3 mm long, about the size of a sesame seed, and that finding a live nymph or adult louse on the scalp or hair is the best way to diagnose an infestation. The AAP says their bodies are pale and gray though color may vary, that a nymph looks like an adult but is about the size of a pinhead at 1.5 mm, and that eggs are oval, about 0.8 mm long and 0.3 mm wide, yellow to white, and sit within 4 to 6 mm of the scalp. The CDC says you will often see nits on hair behind the ears and near the back of the neck, attached firmly within one-quarter inch of the base of the hair shaft.

Expect the look-alikes. The CDC says misdiagnosis of head lice infestation is common and that nits are often confused with dandruff, hair spray droplets and dirt particles, while the AAP’s test is that nits are firmly attached to the hair and dandruff or dirt is not. Live lice are hard to catch in the act because, as the CDC puts it, they are very small, move quickly and avoid light. If you are not sure what you are holding, the CDC says to see your healthcare provider instead of starting a product. Two passes beat one, so look a couple of weeks before drop-off, while you still have room to act on your own calendar, and again in the last days before the bus.

The Camp Habits That Lower Exposure

The habits worth teaching are the short list the CDC publishes, and the first one carries the load: avoid head-to-head, or hair-to-hair, contact during play and other activities, including sports activities, the playground, slumber parties and camp. The CDC also says that to help control a head lice outbreak in a community or camp, you teach children to avoid the activities that may spread head lice. At camp that is not a lecture. It is one concrete conversation before drop-off, because your child is the one in the cabin making the call.

• Do not share clothing such as hats, scarves, coats, sports uniforms, hair ribbons or barrettes.
• Do not share combs, brushes or towels.
• Do not lie on beds, couches, pillows, carpets or stuffed animals that have recently been in contact with a person who has head lice.
• MedlinePlus adds the modern version of that rule: do not share items you put on your head, such as headphones, hair ties and helmets.

Read that list as a packing list. Label a comb and brush, a towel, a hat and a pillow so they stay your child’s own rather than landing in a shared pile, and send enough hair ties that borrowing never comes up. The distinction that matters is that the risk sits in the heads, not the furniture, which is the whole point of our post on how summer camp spreads lice head to head, not bunk to bunk. Hairstyles come up at every drop-off too, and we take that question apart on its own in do tight hairstyles actually prevent head lice.

Which Camp Worries Hold Up, and Which Do Not

The worries that hold up involve heads touching, and several of the others are smaller than they feel. The camp animals, the costume bin, the cabin floor and the state of the bunkhouse all come up in the same car-ride conversation, so here is what the CDC, the AAP and MedlinePlus say about each.

Head lice are a nuisance rather than a danger. The CDC says head lice do not transmit any disease and are not considered a health hazard, and the AAP says head lice do not put your child at risk for any serious health problems and do not carry any diseases. The one complication the CDC names is ordinary: sores on the head caused by scratching, which can sometimes become infected with bacteria normally found on the skin.

Pickup Day and the Weeks After It

Check again when your child gets home, then keep checking, because the life cycle outlasts a single look. The CDC says nits take about a week, in a range of six to nine days, to hatch into nymphs, and that nymphs take about seven days to mature into adult lice, with an adult female laying about six eggs each day. The AAP says the cycle can repeat every three weeks if head lice are left untreated. Something picked up in the last days of camp will not announce itself in the pickup line.

If you do find lice, widen the check. The CDC says to check all household members and other close contacts, and to treat all infested people, along with anyone they share a bed with, at the same time. MedlinePlus says the same thing in fewer words: all household members and other close contacts should be checked and treated if necessary. Looking at one head and stopping there is how a camp case turns into a household case.

The laundry is narrower than it feels. The CDC says to machine wash and dry the clothing, towels, bed linens and other items a person with lice wore or used during the two days before treatment, using the hot water laundry cycle at 130 degrees Fahrenheit and the high heat drying cycle, and to soak combs and brushes in hot water of at least 130 degrees Fahrenheit for five to ten minutes. Anything you cannot wash or dry clean can be sealed in a plastic bag and stored for two weeks, and the AAP says you do not need to throw those items away. Vacuum the floor and furniture where the person sat or lay. Past that, the CDC says spending much time and money on housecleaning activities is not necessary to avoid reinfestation.

Two things to skip. The CDC says not to use fumigant sprays or fogs, because they are not necessary to control head lice and can be toxic if inhaled or absorbed through the skin, and the AAP says not to spray pesticides in your home. The AAP also says not to use home remedies such as petroleum jelly, mayonnaise, tub margarine, essential oils or olive oil, because no studies prove they work, and never to use gasoline or kerosene or medicines made for use on animals.

Who to Call When the Comb-Out Does Not Settle It

Call your child’s doctor before you start a treatment. The AAP says that when your child has head lice it is best to call your pediatrician before treatment, that your pediatrician can help you choose an appropriate treatment option, and that head lice medicine should be used only when it is certain that your child has living head lice. The CDC says to see your healthcare provider if you are not sure whether someone has head lice, and to consult a provider before treating young children.

That call is worth more than another trip to the store. The AAP says head lice can be resistant to the active ingredients in over-the-counter treatments in some communities, that the likelihood of resistance varies across the country, and that over-the-counter treatments sometimes are not the most effective. It also notes that parents sometimes treat their children with those products up to five times before seeking help from their pediatrician. The CDC’s treatment guidance says both over-the-counter and prescription medications treat head lice infestations, that medications are generally safe and effective when used correctly, and to follow all provided instructions and use the medicine as directed on the box or label.

If you would rather not make that judgment yourself with a comb and a paper towel, our clinics will do the looking. A certified technician goes through the whole head, tells you what is there, and when lice are present treats them in one visit with an enzyme-based solution that is non-toxic and safe for all ages. You can find a Lice Lifters clinic near you and book a check for the week before camp or the week after it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can lice jump from one bunk to the next?

No. The CDC says head lice move by crawling and cannot hop or fly, and the AAP says the same, that they are crawling insects that cannot jump, hop or fly. A louse that ends up on a bunk frame or a floorboard also cannot feed, and the CDC says lice will die within two days if they fall off a person and cannot feed. Two heads leaning together is the event to care about.

Does the camp pool wash lice out of my child’s hair?

No. The CDC says chlorine levels in pool water do not kill head lice, and that head lice can survive under water for several hours while still being unlikely to spread in a swimming pool. So swim lessons are not the exposure to plan around. The shared towel at the edge of the pool is the part worth a reminder, since the CDC says not to share towels.

Should I use a lice shampoo before camp just in case?

No, because lice medicine is for a case that is already there. The AAP says head lice medicine should be used only when it is certain that your child has living head lice, and the CDC frames treatment as something you do for an active infestation. The CDC also says the drugs used to treat lice are insecticides that can be dangerous if misused or overused, which is a good reason to ask your child’s doctor first.

How long after camp can lice show up?

Weeks, which is why one look on pickup day is not enough. The CDC says it may take four to six weeks for itching to appear the first time a person has head lice, and that people may have no symptoms at all, particularly with a first infestation or a light one. Keep combing through the hair in the weeks after your child comes home rather than waiting for a complaint.

What are the first signs to watch for when my child gets home?

Itching, which the CDC calls the most common symptom of head lice infestation and attributes to an allergic reaction to louse bites. The CDC also lists a tickling feeling or a sensation of something moving in the hair, irritability and sleeplessness, and sores on the head from scratching. The AAP says most of the itching happens behind the ears or at the back of the neck, and MedlinePlus notes that lice are most active in the dark.

My child still has nits after treatment. Did it fail?

Not necessarily. The CDC says nits may stay in the hair after treatment and that successful treatment will kill crawling lice. It also says nits attached more than one-quarter inch from the base of the hair shaft are almost always hatched or dead, and that if the only nits you find are that far out, the infestation is probably old and does not need treatment. Live, crawling lice are the signal to talk to your provider.

Which campers are likely to pick up lice?

Younger ones, though the AAP adds that anyone can get head lice. MedlinePlus says children ages 3 to 11 and their families get head lice most often, because young children often have head-to-head contact while playing together, and the CDC estimates that 6 to 12 million infestations occur each year in the United States among children 3 to 11 years of age.

Find a Lice Lifters Clinic for a Pre-Camp or Post-Camp Check

A check you put on the calendar is a calmer thing than a check you scramble for. Our clinics offer same-day appointments when a case turns up, and our 30 Day Guarantee applies when the whole family is checked, which lines up with what the CDC says about household members and close contacts. Whether camp is three weeks out or the bags are already in the hallway, find a Lice Lifters clinic near you and pick the day that fits your summer.