Common Sense Myth #1: To get rid of head lice, you must really clean your house and launder (or store away) your clothes, pillows, stuffed toys, and bedding.
Radical Research: Head lice are not a virus that infests your home or belongings. A louse is a bug that lives on the human head. Research has shown that extensive house cleaning or laundering makes no difference in the fight against head lice.
Why I want you to know this: It breaks my heart to talk to parents (mostly mothers) who are getting only 2-3 hours of sleep every night because they are constantly vacuuming, washing the bedding, bleaching the floors, packing up the toys, etc. I know the panic that head lice can cause in a household and I understand our desire to do everything we can to get rid of it. However, all this vacuuming and laundering is just giving you a false sense of security. It isn’t actually doing anything to get rid of (or prevent) the problem of head lice and it is using up precious energy that you could be using to actually focus on the head and deal with the problem effectively.
