If you have children, it’s likely you’ve heard about head lice. This is one of my fears of the grade school years! They are extremely common in young children. Contrary to popular belief, head lice have absolutely nothing to do with cleanliness and hygiene.
Head lice are small, wingless, bloodsucking insects that live on the scalp and feed on blood from this area. An adult louse is about the size of a sesame seed. Their eggs are referred to as nits and these are extremely small, like a flake of dandruff. If you find that your child has head lice, it’s important to tackle the situation as quickly as possible. Here’s a little more information on the subject to help you to achieve this.
Identifying Head Lice
If your child is regularly scratching their head, complaining of itchiness, or claiming that it feels like their hair is moving, they may have head lice. You can determine this by combing through their hair and actually looking out for the lice and their eggs.
Removing Head Lice
If you find that your children do have head lice, it’s important to take action as quickly as possible. Lice Removal is a relatively complex process and may take a little time. The first method that you could try out is wet combing. Wash and condition your child’s hair and use a “detection comb”, which is a specialist fine-toothed comb, while the conditioner is still in their hair. Comb from the roots to the ends every few days for a couple of weeks.
Another option that you could try out is using medicated lotions or sprays. These will kill the headlice. Use the detection comb to remove dead lice and eggs.
Preventing Head Lice
Unfortunately, there is very little that you can do to prevent your children from picking up head lice. Medicated preventative scalp sprays are on the market. However, they really aren’t that effective. The only thing that you can do is to discourage your child from playing with other children’s hair and from putting their heads close to other children’s heads.
What to Know About Head Lice
Hopefully, this information will help you to deal with head lice as best possible if your children happen to bring them home from school! You should be safe and knowledgeable about head lice, rather than be caught off guard. Here’s hoping for a bugless childhood!
