Monday 9 April 2012

A-Z Challenge H is for......

Head Lice
For the first time in 8 years, head lice or nits are paying us a visit. This is what Wikepedia says
Head lice are wingless insects spending their entire life on human scalp and feeding exclusively on human blood. Humans are the only known hosts of this specific parasite



I first noticed Little Man scratching his head while out on a walk yesterday and once I realised this was being repeated continually I decided to check him, and there they were tiny black specs on the crown of his head and to my horror I saw 1 moving – urggghhh!

This is my first experience of them, thankfully I could only see 5 or 6 tiny specs, so as soon as we got home I text a friend whose daughter suffers with them and asked her advice, bearing in mind it was Easter Sunday and everywhere was shut. Luckily I hoard things and was given a nit comb when Little Man started nursery, so I dig that out, found the conditioner and got to work.

After de-nitting Little Man, my own head felt like they were crawling so I set to work on myself and my skin is crawling as I think I have them as well – I can see Little Man is clear now although I will keep checking for the next week or so to make sure I didn’t miss any eggs. As I have long hair and very thick hair, I am about to go and get in the shower and re-do myself. My head was stinging by the time I had finished yesterday so I imagine it will be a little delicate today!

4 comments:

Sarah Mac said...

It happens to the best of us RP - we had a persistent problem for several years and I actually became quite blase about the whole proceedure in the end.

Best advice is conditioner and combing every other day (I found it works best to comb while the conditioner is still in and rinse the comb in a bowl of water) for a week or so and then just give him a look over each day when he gets home from school.

Get as close to the scalp as possible then comb pulling the hair away from your head to avoid the comb scratching your scalp, those things are really sharp on the ends!

Hopefully it's just a one off x

Susan Gourley said...

It's tough to get rid of them when someone in the school has them. The little kids seem to pass them back and forth.

Nancy S. Thompson said...

EWWW!! Glad I never once had to deal with them. *shivers*

It's nice to meet you. I'm a new follower via the A to Z.

BNM said...

bugger if you texted me I think my phone is off!

We swear by frontline or the stuff that sounds like frontline coz I think thats cat stuff(! - sorry bit hungover!)

BNM