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Lice are tiny insects (they are so small, that you can
barely see them with your eyes) about 2 – 4 millimeters
long. They like to stay in your hair and live by sucking
a little bit of blood from your body everyday. They
grow and multiply so fast that if you have one louse,
within a couple of weeks you’ll have tens of lice crawling
within your head.
Lice live by sucking blood from our body. They attach
their tiny claws in the skin to suck the blood. The
skin becomes irritated and feels itchy. Be careful,
for if you scratch your head too much, you may cause
more infection on your head.
Lice are insects that need the blood of a person to
survive. They can be found on anyone’s head. They tend
to spread more in kids as kids play together more closely
and stay together. Lice move from one person’s head
to another if it comes in contact with another person’s
head. They can also spread by sharing clothes, towels,
blankets, pillows, bedsheets, combs, brushes etc. These
lice then lay eggs called nits within your hair. Each
nit looks like a small white particle. These nits attach
to your hair close to the scalp and once hatched develop
into tiny lice. So you can see haw fast they can multiply.
If you are scratching your head a lot, tell your parents
to look for lice or nits in the hair. With a fine toothcomb,
nits and lice can be removed but it requires lot of
patience and time. Your doctor may prescribe a special
medicine in form of lotion, oil or shampoo to be applied
on your head. This medicine will kill the lice. The
treatment may have to be repeated after 7 to 10 days
to kill remaining nits before they hatch. Sometimes
you may have to take antibiotics to treat the infection
that occurs due to excessive scratching. You may also
need to wash all your beddings, hats, brushes and stuffed
toys in hot water to kill any lice living there.
As you also know by now that prevention is better than
cure, the best way to treat head lice would be to prevent
it. Try and avoid sharing combs, brushes, hair clips,
ribbons and other hair accessories. Remember, no matter
how much you try, head lice may still come and stay
in your head, but at least being careful would help.
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