Health and Safety
Allergy aware
Be part of our allergy aware community
6 STEPS every parent or carer should take today
Food allergy continues to increase at alarming rates, 1 in 10 Australian infants now have a food allergy. The most common food allergies in childhood are cow’s milk, egg, peanut and tree nut. The foods that trigger 90% of food allergic reactions in Australians include cow’s milk, egg, peanut, tree nut, sesame, soy, wheat, fish and shellfish.
Below are six steps to make children/students/parents and or carers/teachers more allergy aware.
Head Lice
All about head lice:
Head lice have been around for many thousands of years. Anyone can get head lice and given the chance head lice move from head to head without discrimination.
- Head lice are small, wingless, blood sucking insects.
- Their colour varies from whitish-brown to reddish-brown.
- Head lice do not have wings or jumping legs, they crawl from direct hair to hair contact.
Life cycle of head lice:
- Egg is laid on hair shaft. Egg is called a nit.
- Louse emerges after six to seven days.
- First molt two days after hatching.
- Second molt 5 days after hatching.
- Third molt 10 days after hatching.
- Emerging from their third molt as adult lice.
- Female lays first egg one or two days after mating.
- Female can lay approximately three to eight eggs per day for the next 16 days.
Finding head lice:
Lice can crawl and hide. The easiest and most effective way to find them is to follow these few steps:
Step 1: Comb any type of hair conditioner on to dry, brushed (detangled) hair. This stuns the lice and makes it difficult for them to grip the hair.
Step 2: Comb sections of the hair with a fine tooth comb.
Step 3: Look on the tissue and comb for lice & eggs.
Step 4: Repeat previous steps 4 or 5 times. If lice or eggs are found in the child’s hair, the head should be treated. Head lice eggs are small and oval.
Treating head lice:
- Concentrate on the head – there is no evidence that you need to clean the house or classroom.
- NO TREATMENT kills all of the eggs so treatment must involve two applications seven days apart.
- If you are using lotions, apply to dry hair.
- Only treat rest of family if they have head lice.
- Only the pillowcase requires specific laundering; wash it in hot water (at least 60 degrees centigrade) or dry using a clothes dryer on a hot setting.
- There is no product available that prevents head lice; using the conditioner and comb method once a week will assist with detection.
Tying back long hair prevents the spread of head lice.