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:

  1. Egg is laid on hair shaft. Egg is called a nit.
  2. Louse emerges after six to seven days.
  3. First molt two days after hatching.
  4. Second molt 5 days after hatching.
  5. Third molt 10 days after hatching.
  6. Emerging from their third molt as adult lice.
  7. Female lays first egg one or two days after mating.
  8. 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.