IT'S TIME to go back to school -and as well as sharing lessons, lunches and learning, plenty of kids will also be sharing head lice!

The way young children huddle together and touch heads enables lice to spread easily,as the tiny creatures ' only way of moving from head to head is by crawling from one hair shaft to another -they can 't fly or jump.

Feeding on blood from the scalp,the lice will then breed rapidly on a new head, reaching infestation proportions in just a few days if not treated early.

But many parents don 't know what they 're looking for,or how to best treat it - and it 's for that reason a new campaign is being launched.

The Once A Week Take a Peek initiative aims to limit head lice outbreaks in schools by making monitoring for bugs a part of family life,as a new survey of parents found that half check for head lice once a month or less,with one in 10 checking just once a year.

When asked why they didn 't check more often,46%said they didn 't understand the need to check regularly,33%didn 't know what to look for,and almost a quarter thought the school was checking.

The Medical Entomology Centre (MEC),which studies insects of medical importance,is supporting the campaign, along with the head lice treatment Hedrin and the School And Public Health Nurses Association.

Christine Brown,a nurse consultant at the MEC,says:"People don 't think about it until it happens to them or a member of their family.

"If parents are checking regularly,they can stop infestations before they get a hold."

She says live head lice,which are about the size of a sesame seed and range from tan to greyish-white in colour,aren 't easy to see because they move very fast.

They stick eggs with a strong glue to hair very close to the scalp,in particular at the nape of the neck and behind the ears.

Lice and their eggs can be seen through close examination of the hair,possibly helped with the use of a fine-toothed comb.

White nits ' are the empty egg shells.

The lice can 't live on bedding,and you 're unlikely to get them from using an infected person 's comb.

And you won 't always itch if you have them -it 's often just an allergic reaction to the anti-coagulant the lice pump into you, and many people don 't react to it.

If you see live head lice,they need treating immediately,and there are various shampoos and lotions available in pharmacies,most of which need re- applying after seven days.

However,lice have become resistant to the chemicals used in some treatments -in fact,it 's been estimated that 80% of the bugs are immune to over-the- counter lotions.

Brown suggests looking at treatment options on the Once a Week Take a Peek website (www.onceaweektakeapeek.com) or on a leaflet available by emailing mail@ onceaweektakeapeek.com,stressing:"I can 't really say what the best way to treat them is -it 's good that there are options, so you can choose the best one yourself.

"Treatments that are left on overnight have a better chance of working," she adds.

"People shouldn 't feel embarrassed if they or their family get head lice.It 's as easy as catching a cold and it 's no big deal -but get used to checking for them regularly."