When You Find Only ONE Nit?

I would probably treat her with the shampoo and comb through and check daily for a week just to be safe. I would also change her bedding and wash her hats and hairbrushes.

Okay I will ask the obvious question, are you sure it was lice?

Okay, looking at the other answers, lice lay their eggs close to the scalp and lots of them. You have one object that looks like a nit, lower down on the shaft. Ya sure someone didn't tell a good joke and laughed a little too vigorously? I mean it would totally suck to put a school on lice lock down just because someone told a joke! Absent anything to back it up assume it is food.

I would treat it as if she has lice. Check everyone in the house too.

If it was just one bug, and no signs of anything else, I wouldn't worry too much...

But for there to be an egg, that means here had to be a bug first, and it was there long enough to lay an egg. Where there's smoke, there's fire...

I would get some tea tree oil, and put that in everyone's shampoo for at least a few days. It repels lice, so if she does have a light infestation it should take care of that, and prevent it from spreading to anyone else in the family.

Also, notify her teacher and anyone your daughter regularly plays with. The bug that laid the egg came from somewhere, and it would be in your daughter's best interest to find out where so THEY can take care of the issue as well.

Though... If there was only ONE egg, and no signs of other bugs or eggs, are you sure that's what it was? Usually, they are laid close to the scalp, especially around the ear/nape of neck areas, and not too far down the shaft of the hair... Especially considering that they do not slide easily at all. It could have been a piece of dandruff, some dried food, or any other miscellaneous substance that just happened to stick a small drop in her hair. My family got lice 4 summers in a row after summer visitation at my mom's, and with 3 girls (and a step mom...) sporting long hair, we very rarely found eggs more than an inch or two down.

If there is an egg, the egg came from a Lice.
You also need to tell the school.
Schools typically have rules about Lice and when/if a child can go back to school once lice is found on them.

I would also, look up lice prevention and eradication.
And check all bedding/hair brushes/car seats/pillows/anything that came in contact with her.
Examine yourself too.
In families, lice may affect all family members and, siblings.
So check the siblings too.
All family members should be checked.

I know a family, who's child had lice. Then ALL family members, got it.
And they had to keep checking themselves, everyday, for over 2 weeks.
Look up the life cycle of lice.

NO!

Lice lay their eggs right at the scalp. The nit you found is old old old old. If it happened to be black inside then it was new and the critter that planted it might have been transferred from a person sitting next to her and it didn't have time to climb the hair shaft.

But over all, if the nit was white through and through it could be a year old. Don't stress out, it's no big deal.

She does not need to be treated, if there were no bugs in her hair or on her scalp then just check every day after washing her hair in normal shampoo and conditioner. Leave it pretty wet and check it closely. Water stuns the bug, they breathe air after all, and they are pokey slow. Easy pickin's...lol.

If you find anything else then treat her with some lice MD. Otherwise she's fine and you just found an old nit.

You need to wash her hair with the chemicals you can buy and the thing that gets rid of them is the combing out. They can be very hard to see so if there's one there may be more. In order to create the egg you have to have at least one lice to lay that egg. So if the egg is there then the lice is there, and ready to lay more. So wash it and comb it with the chemicals. And be sure to notify the school nurse and the teacher. Usually the school nurse will check the scalp before letting the child back to class. Trust me, those nurses can spot eggs a mile away! You're also going to want to wash all bed linens and bag up all stuffed animals for 2 weeks. Vacuum the car and seats, furniture and rugs and toss out the bags or wash the canister thoroughly.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

deep breath,

this is a little freaky to me since I also found ONE on my dd just this am and yes it was not in the typical place, it was right on the crown but about half way down. I did a thorough check and I mean super super thorough check, nothing else, she got lice back in the fall and we treated everyone and took care of all of it. so I have been on the look out just in case. and I do really thing this was a n egg, as I couldnt' slide it off and it was tear shaped.

What I am going to do tomorrow, is to do the cetaphil treatment, where you put the cetaphil on the hair and blowdry it all dry and shiny. That way I don't have to worry about chemicals even though I would use the chemicals if I saw live lice. it doesn't take too long and it will make me feel better about it. and I will keep checking everyone and rechecking.

our school allows kids to come if they have eggs, they can't have live lice but eggs are ok, I 'm not 100 percent sure I'm ok with that but it might help put things in perspective for you. actually I should phrase it as they wont' send someone home for eggs, but if they find live lice then they do have to go home.

Treat as if it's full blown. And I think it's awful that a school will allow a child with nits! No wonder mine have brought it home twice! Mine only return when they're 100% clear!