Kutus

“Nits are doing the rounds once more. Please check your child’s hair,” read the sign at kindy the other day.

This was followed by a newsletter of similar nature from the school.

Right, time to kick into high-alert again.

A year or two ago when nits were prevalent when my oldest was at pre-school I thought we’d have nothing to worry about. I’d managed to escape head lice throughout my childhood so we were invincible right?

Nup.

I began to notice a lot of head scratching going on with Master then-four and put on my glasses to inspect. Was I imaging it or was his hair alive?

I got mum to take a look – she’s a teacher and an expert at spotting them.

She confirmed my fears and provided me with a school print out on how to handle the situation. Then I popped up to the shop to buy the required paraphernalia.

Upon telling the lady in the pharmacy my plight she immediately began scratching her head. (By the way, are you feeling itchy?)

I arrived back with a couple of combs and both non-chemical and insecticide treatments, and we got to work.

There was definitely an awful lot of activity going on in there and I soon became the pro nit-picker.

Myths abound as to whether head lice can swim, fly or jump. Supposedly they can’t but I’d like to know how they disappeared off the comb so quickly.

“You’d better check the twins’ hair too,” mum said.

Surely not - they were only babies! But I checked nonetheless and was shocked to find several lurking.

“Gosh, I’m beginning to feel quite itchy,” I commented to mum who replied that it was probably just psychological.

That night, exhausted after shampooing and combing the kids’ hair and changing all the bedding and towels, I was about to fall into bed when I thought I’d run the comb through my own hair.

Horror of all horrors - I discovered a giant KUTU!

How could this be? Not only was I a hygiene freak but I washed my hair every night. Actually, come to think of it, head lice thrive in clean hair so they would have been loving it. That did it. Not keen to prolong the contact, a mad frenzy of eradication ensued.

I jumped back in the shower, this time applying the treatment to my own hair. The next morning I got out the hair straighteners to fry any remaining, plus their eggs. Then I purchased hair dye, just in case everything else hadn’t worked. (I’ve since learnt while researching for this story that all these methods combined are not recommended).

That first night was the worst. I felt like they’d ruined my life and lay awake stressing … and itching.

According to the instructions we were to wait several days before re-treating to give the eggs time to hatch. That was the hardest part. I have trouble killing even an ant but this was kutu central and I couldn’t wait to get rid of them.

Despite not being able to see how we would ever get on top of them, within a couple of nightmarish weeks we were.

In the following months the childrens’ heads were religiously sprayed with diluted tea tree oil before leaving the house and checked literally with a fine tooth comb when they returned.

No nits have dared come near our hair again and they’ll rue the day they do.

(P.S. Are you scratching yet?)

# Notify your child’s school or pre-school if head lice are found. Some provide information and natural treatments.

Fact Box:

# Headlice is a common problem around the world. They are small flat insects about two-three millimeters long that breed all year round;

# Their colour ranges from beige to grey but they may darken as they feed;

# Headlice cannot jump, fly or swim and remain on the head after swimming, bathing or showering;

# Female lice lay about seven – ten eggs each night while the person is still. Eggs are firmly glued to the hair and laid close to the scalp. Hair grows about one centremeter a month. Therefore any eggs found more than one centremeter from the scalp will have hatched and died;

# The eggs (nits) are small and hard like a grain of salt and are typically cream/brown or grey in colour. After hatching the nits (empty egg cases) are white;

# Eggs hatch in nine days and a louse will live for up to 40 days but only up to two days off the human body. Headlice found off the head are usually sick, old or injured and do not lay eggs;

# Common places they are found are around the hairline at the back of the neck, behind the ears and on the crown.