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For parents head lice can be a very large annoyance coming from such small insects. The head louse moves from head to head infesting the human host's hair in very short order.

Once head lice have found a host and their hair and scalp they will breed very efficiently. The female head louse can drop between 3 and 6 eggs a day. As you can imagine the eggs themselves aren't very big at all... only about the size of a grain of sand.

The eggs (or nits as they are also called) take about a week to incubate before the new born lice (called nymphs) are introduced to the world.

After hatching the nymphs go through 3 stages before becoming an adult, during each stage they shed their exoskeleton to promote growth.

For children, the primary factor contributing to the spread of head lice infestation is because children support the head lice population just because of their day to day activities that they engage in. Younger children tend to be more social with fewer personal boundaries, and as such, the head lice can more easily transfer and propagate under such close contact conditions. And children at this age aren't aware of the warning signs when their heads begin to itch.

Kids between four and eleven in age are the most likely to carry and promote infestation. Again, this is because older kids begin to become more protective about personal space; and children younger than about four years old don't spend nearly as much time in close proximity to large groups of children.

Checking your child for infestation quite easily done; and should be undertaken if your child complains about their head itching or you notice them unknowingly scratching at their head more than what has been normal.

You can either purchase a louse comb from your local pharmacy and comb your child's hair with the comb, or perform a visual inspection. If you opt for the latter, you will want to look more for the small eggs (nits) that are attached to your child's hair follicles. The odds aren't in your favor that you'll initially see an actual head louse. This is because as you part your child's hair and shine some sort of light (which you'll need) the live louse will run for cover.

So, even though your child might not be happy with you running a fine comb through their hair or inspecting manually, it is certainly more desirable than having an infestation left to become worse.

If you do determine an infestation is present, the local pharmacy will have different types of head lice lotions, shampoos, and topical treatments.

These treatments will more than likely contain a mild insecticide; these types treatments will that take less time to work have as they contain ingredients.

Even after treatment it is important to check your child's hair with the 'nit' comb to make sure that all the infestation has cleared and that any dead lice are effectively removed.

One sometimes difficult aspect when dealing with children and head lice, is that even after you have managed to alleviate one infestation, you may find that within months or even weeks they have another infestation. This will probably be due to other children who may have head lice.

Because of this, a cycle can carry on for months depending on how proactive and diligent other parents are in addressing the head lice infestation.

The problem perpetuates when some parents either can't or are reluctant to use the treatments available. As such their children may have a prolonged infestation period. If you believe this to be the case and the school, daycare, or social group that child frequents doesn't appear to be proactive enough; you should remove your child from this particular environment until the recurring infestation has been effectively dealt with.