HOW TO KNOW IF MY KIDS HAVE LICE
HOW to know if my kids have LICE
No itching....no head lice: right?
Sorry, not true. While one of the main tell-tale symptoms of head lice is itching, not everyone itches from head lice. Whether you are itchy or not, depends on your sensitivity to the lice bites. This is why head lice detection in your kids can be so challenging.
What are the symptoms of head lice?
When head lice get onto your head, they feed from the human scalp; head lice need human blood to survive. The bugs feed three times a day and like mosquitoes, there are maybe little bites on the scalp. When a person is sensitive to these bites, he/she will scratch. The scratching inflames the bites and the head becomes itchier. In some cases, the child is not at all sensitive to the head lice bites and will show no symptoms of head lice at all. In those cases, a person may have the bugs and nits in the head for months before detection. There may be thousands of bugs and nits in the hair. OMG!!!!!!!!
The most common scenario for a child with head lice is that at the beginning (first couple of weeks) the child will show no symptoms of head lice. As the lice reproduce and the bites become more prevalent, the child will start to become itchy. Moms often feel guilty for not noticing that their children have head lice until there are quite a few bugs and nits in the hair. We often reassure parents that their child probably did not start scratching until there were already several lice and nits in the hair.
Regrettably, other symptoms of head lice are more difficult to detect.
A child with head lice will have sesame seed size eggs in the hair. These eggs are called (nits) are translucent and round on one side and pointy on the other.
They are stuck to the hair and must be pulled off; they do not flake off. Every NIT must be removed from the hair or you have not eradicated the case of head lice. Unless you are specifically looking for nits in the hair, you will likely not see them as they often camouflage. Finding a live bug in the hair is difficult to do. The lice move very quickly when the hair is moved. They scoot away from light. If the case is advanced, you may see a louse crawl out of the hair.
WHAT SYMPTOMS TO LOOK FOR IF YOU THINK YOUR CHILD HAS BEEN EXPOSED
If your child has been exposed to head lice, keep an eye out for scratching but don't rely on that symptom of head lice. Bring the child outside and look for nits in the bright light after:
If you find that your child has a case of head lice, DON’T PANIC, DON’T BE EMBARRASSED 90% of kids get Lice at some point in their school life.