Head lice are epidemic, as all of you know who have received those dreaded letters from the school saying: "There has been a case of head lice reported in your child's class. Please check your child's head and ask your GP about treatment."

The problem is that parents don't know how to find head lice. Many children are treated with potentially toxic chemicals even when they don't have head lice, while others remain untreated because their headlice go undetected.

Belgian doctors believe they have found the "gold standard" for lice detection: wet combing. Systematic combing through wet, well-conditioned hair is a more effective means of lice detection than traditional scalp inspection, according to a report in the British Medical Journal.

Traditional scalp inspection of a dry head and hair leads to a falsely "positive" diagnosis in one-in-three cases, leading to unnecessary treatment. It also misses one-in-10 actual cases of head lice, contributing to the epidemic.

Other research has found that using a lice comb to remove nits is more effective than insecticide shampoos. So how do you comb your children's hair without making them scream? Try using plenty of conditioner and keeping hair trimmed to a manageable length.