Category: Lice

Please Note: Even though head lice may be a nuisance, before checking or treating your child it is helpful to remember they don’t cause serious illness or carry any diseases.

What are head lice?

Head lice are tiny insects. They are about 2 mm to 3 mm long. Their bodies are rectangular shaped and usually pale gray in color.  Head lice feed on tiny amounts of blood from the scalp.  Lice typically survive less than a day if not on a person’s scalp.

When a child has lice, the first thing you may notice is itching, especially in the nape of the neck or behind the ears.  If you look, you will probably see nits – these are tiny white eggs and shell casings that are attached to the hair.  Nits are oval or teardrop shaped and attach to the hair via a sticky substance that holds them firmly in place. After the eggs hatch, the empty nits remain attached to the hair shaft until they are physically removed.  It is also possible to see lice moving on the scalp, but more commonly parents see the nits first. Read More

Nothing gives our favorite Connecticut parents the heebie jeebies like a case of head lice! Head lice (pediculosis capitis), while relatively harmless to children, causes great anxiety and stress to families who find themselves dealing with a lice infestation.

Before we get into the “nit-ty” (pun intended) gritty, there are two things we’d like to remind our Willows Pediatrics patients of: (1) that head lice is not a sign of poor hygiene and (2) head lice do not carry disease. Read More