Explaining lice to children

Mom, what’s crawling on my head?

Does your head itch? Then your parents should take a closer look.

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If your head has been itching for a few days, you may have lice. These are very small animals that simply make themselves at home on your head. Read on to find out how they manage to do this unnoticed and what you and your parents can do to prevent them.

These little creepy-crawlies love to be cozy and warm and therefore love the human head of hair. They can make themselves really comfortable there and lay their eggs. They also like adventures and like to move from head to head. This works particularly well with small children because they often "put their heads together" when playing in kindergarten or at school and their hair touches.

Then some of the clever little creatures crawl over to your friend quickly and unnoticed. Fortunately, they cannot jump or fly. If necessary, they can take a small detour via your clothes to reach their destination - your head.

A little bloodsucker
Once they have arrived and made themselves comfortable, they quickly become hungry: With its proboscis, the six-legged louse, which is about three millimeters in size, then pricks the scalp of "its" human about every two to three hours and sucks blood. It has to do this, otherwise it dies within 24 hours.

Small, but pretty mean...

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Normally, however, you won't notice anything of this feeding. However, it does inject a small amount of saliva into the scalp during its meal, which can cause itching on the head, but doesn't have to. Scratching sometimes causes tiny wounds that can become infected.

Up to 300 offspring in one month
A head louse lives for around 30 days. A female, or "Mrs. Louse", lays around 150 to 300 eggs during this time. She often sticks them to the hair in the temple and neck area and behind the ears - where the temperature is best for development.

After six to ten days, a nymph, i.e. a young louse, hatches from such a nit. You could call it a lice baby. After three weeks, these larvae are considered "adults" and lay eggs themselves. This means that there can be a lot of lice on a head in a very short time.

The annoying crawlers can be removed with a special lice comb.

(Bild: Andrey Popov/stock.adobe.com)

Washing and combing

If the head is itchy and small crawlers are visible, your parents will use a (metal) lice comb with very narrow teeth. They will then comb your hair strand by strand from the scalp to the ends. There are also products available from the pharmacy that can be used for this purpose.

Your parents should wash bed linen, clothes, towels and other textiles at 60 degrees to be on the safe side. "Lice-infested" hoods, cuddly toys, etc., which should not be washed so warmly, can be "starved" in a tightly closed plastic bag for at least 14 days.