Don"t Panic If Your Child Has Head Lice Or Nits!
Has your child come home from school with nits or head lice? If it's the first time for your child, you're probably feeling a little bit panicked.
Don't worry, it's completely normal to feel horror at the thought of creepy-crawlies making their nest on your precious child's head! But, before you get too distressed, take a deep breath.
Remember head lice and nits are perfectly normal.
They certainly do NOT indicate your child is "dirty" or "unclean".
In fact it's quite the opposite: head lice actually prefer clean hair.
My 5 year old girl has had head lice three times in her life.
I learned that "head lice" refers to the adult animal and "nits" refers to the eggs laid on the hair shaft.
You can usually see the nit about 1 to 1.
5 cm above the scalp.
It can be pinched and pulled/slid off the hair with your fingernails.
Here are some other things I have learned: Discovering Lice/Nits Early If you discover a single adult head lice with only 30 to 40 eggs, then you have most likely discovered the problem early...
i.
e.
before "hatching" begins.
That's because the female lice lays 7-10 eggs per day and it takes approximately 7 - 10 days for the eggs to hatch.
Those baby lice then take another 7 to 10 days to grow to adult size and lay more eggs (called "nits").
If you have discovered the nits before hatching, that's great! You do need to be aware however that the eggs could hatch at any time, so you must remain calm and remove the nits using your preferred treatment.
Late Discovery Fortunately for me, I have never had to deal with this problem, but I have seem children at school with this late stage infestation.
If there are more than 5 live head lice crawling over your child's scalp, then obviously some of the nits (i.
e.
eggs) have begun to hatch.
If your child began with just one adult lice, then it's quite possible after two-three weeks for 30 or 40 live head lice to be found in the hair.
What to do? You can choose to use a home remedy or to buy a specialize pharmacy or drug store product.
Specialized products usually are available as chemicals or natural essential oils.
An alternative and effective home remedy is to simply smother your child's dry hair with a thick conditioner.
Whatever product you choose, you need to smother the hair with product until every strand of hair is wet.
Then use a fine-tooth comb to comb through the hair and remove all the live head lice.
You might find the comb is also fine enough to remove some or all of the nits.
In my own experience, my daughter's hair is so fine that I need to manually remove each nit using my fingernails to pinch and slide the nit of the hair.
This is not difficult, but it's time-consuming and you need good eye sight! I also recommend treating he hair this way for 2 to 3 days in row, and then once again about 5 days later, just to make sure there is no chance of more eggs hatching.
Just remember, don't panic! Head lice is a normal part of growing up.
Don't forget to tell your child's school teacher so he/she can send a note home to parents and help stop spread of head lice around the class room.
Don't worry, it's completely normal to feel horror at the thought of creepy-crawlies making their nest on your precious child's head! But, before you get too distressed, take a deep breath.
Remember head lice and nits are perfectly normal.
They certainly do NOT indicate your child is "dirty" or "unclean".
In fact it's quite the opposite: head lice actually prefer clean hair.
My 5 year old girl has had head lice three times in her life.
I learned that "head lice" refers to the adult animal and "nits" refers to the eggs laid on the hair shaft.
You can usually see the nit about 1 to 1.
5 cm above the scalp.
It can be pinched and pulled/slid off the hair with your fingernails.
Here are some other things I have learned: Discovering Lice/Nits Early If you discover a single adult head lice with only 30 to 40 eggs, then you have most likely discovered the problem early...
i.
e.
before "hatching" begins.
That's because the female lice lays 7-10 eggs per day and it takes approximately 7 - 10 days for the eggs to hatch.
Those baby lice then take another 7 to 10 days to grow to adult size and lay more eggs (called "nits").
If you have discovered the nits before hatching, that's great! You do need to be aware however that the eggs could hatch at any time, so you must remain calm and remove the nits using your preferred treatment.
Late Discovery Fortunately for me, I have never had to deal with this problem, but I have seem children at school with this late stage infestation.
If there are more than 5 live head lice crawling over your child's scalp, then obviously some of the nits (i.
e.
eggs) have begun to hatch.
If your child began with just one adult lice, then it's quite possible after two-three weeks for 30 or 40 live head lice to be found in the hair.
What to do? You can choose to use a home remedy or to buy a specialize pharmacy or drug store product.
Specialized products usually are available as chemicals or natural essential oils.
An alternative and effective home remedy is to simply smother your child's dry hair with a thick conditioner.
Whatever product you choose, you need to smother the hair with product until every strand of hair is wet.
Then use a fine-tooth comb to comb through the hair and remove all the live head lice.
You might find the comb is also fine enough to remove some or all of the nits.
In my own experience, my daughter's hair is so fine that I need to manually remove each nit using my fingernails to pinch and slide the nit of the hair.
This is not difficult, but it's time-consuming and you need good eye sight! I also recommend treating he hair this way for 2 to 3 days in row, and then once again about 5 days later, just to make sure there is no chance of more eggs hatching.
Just remember, don't panic! Head lice is a normal part of growing up.
Don't forget to tell your child's school teacher so he/she can send a note home to parents and help stop spread of head lice around the class room.
