HOW TO TREAT HEADLICE

Head lice are a common problem in school aged children, They can’t be prevented, but regular checking ensures early detection and treatment if necessary. Parents and carers should check their child/ren’s head/s once a week during hair washing using the following method:

Wet combing

This method of treatment involves thoroughly combing the hair with a special comb that is capable of picking out lice. Success will depend on how committed you are!

You will need your usual shampoo, conditioner and a detection comb – ask your pharmacist to recommend a suitable one. Remember, you are looking for living moving lice, the only evidence that your child is infected.

• First come through wet hair with an ordinary come to get rid of knots and tangles.

• Apply conditioner to make it easier to comb the hair with the fine toothed comb.

• Comb through every bit of hair, pulling the comb from the scalp to the hair ends.

• If you find lice, wipe them on to a tissue, or rinse them off the comb and down the sink.

• Work through the hair until you’ve gone through it twice.

• Rinse off the conditioner.

You need to do this every three or four days to make sure that you catch any new lice that have hatched since you last combed the hair. The aim is to break the life cycle of the lice. The idea is that by removing lice early on in their life cycle, you’ll stop them from becoming mature enough to lay more eggs. After about two weeks, all the lice should have been removed.

Continue until you no longer find any lice for at least two treatments in a row.