Well it is that time of year again the kids are back at school and coming home with more than just their home work! Yes, it is the dreaded nit, or cootie as I believe it is called in the USA. In fact head lice are tiny wingless insects that are grey-brown in colour. They are the size of a pinhead when they hatch and 3mm long (the size of a sesame seed) when fully grown.
Head lice cannot fly, jump or swim. They are spread by head-to-head contact and climb from the hair of an infected person to the hair of someone else which is shy children get them so easily as they get their heads together at school over their work and projects.

A female head louse lays eggs by cementing them to hairs,often close to the root where they will be kept warm by the scalp. The eggs are pinhead size and difficult to see.

When the baby lice hatch 7 to 10 days later, the empty eggshells (nits) remain glued in place. Nits glisten white and become more noticeable as the growth of the hair carries them away from the scalp.

Head lice feed by biting the scalp and sucking blood through it. They take 6 to 10 days to become fully grown. Once mature, a head louse can transfer from head to head.

Yuck!

Yes nasty Little critters these. After mating, a female may start to lay eggs as early as the seventh day after she has hatched. So to break the life cycle and stop head lice spreading, they need to be removed from the head before the sixth day after hatching.

Children are most commonly affected by head lice, although anyone with hair can catch them.
Children are often affected by head lice because they tend to have more head-to-head contact while at school or during play. Head lice are most common in children between 4 to 11 years old. Schools will normally flag up when there is an outbreak although in my experience, there is not much you can do to prevent it, just deal with it when it occurs!

OMG the trouble we have had in our household with head lice! You just seem to get one of the kids clear when another one comes in with the dreaded itch.

Luckily head lice can be effectively treated using medicated lotions or by wet combing, using a specially designed head lice comb that has teeth small enough to trap the eggs and comb them out of the hair. You can also ask your school nurse, health visitor, GP or pharmacist if you are worried about head lice or you want more advice about how to treat them which we have had to do as with five kids the infection during school time seems never ending!

Some of the preparations on the market at the moment are pretty good, but we have had to learn to relax over this in our house, it is impossible to prevent the kids getting it and pointless to panic when they do!