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Head Lice Treatments
Before you begin any treatment for head lice, be sure that your child has them. You cannot treat a child with lice treatment to prevent them from becoming infected. You child will have live lice scurrying around their head and nits found close to the scalp. Be careful your child is not misdiagnosed with head lice. Treating children that do not have head lice only increases the resistance to known head lice shampoos and make it more difficult to get rid of the lice.
If you are going to use an over-the-counter pesticide shampoo, be sure you follow label instructions! Do not leave the shampoo on longer than recommended, it will not help and could be dangerous. You are using these pesticides on your child’s head. Use the shampoo and rinse in a sink not a shower. This will keep the shampoo from touching other parts of the body and causing other health problems. Do not use on small children or infants.
Once you have completed the treatment and your child is still scratching, this does not mean the treatment did not work. The scratching can be caused by the lice bites that occurred before the treatment. Treatment should be repeated in seven to ten days.
Home remedies include using mayonnaise, Vaseline, vegetable or olive oil, and margarine. This will probably not kill the lice but will slow them down so you can use the combing method to pull them out of the hair. You should also know that these products are hard to wash out of the hair.
One of the most common home remedies is the condition and comb method of treating head lice. Sit the child in front of you and soak the hair in conditioner. This will take a lot of conditioner so be prepared with enough on hand. Separate the hair into sections and clip them back from the area you are working on. The conditioner should make it easier to use a nit comb to pull the nits off the hair strands and make it easier to slide the comb through the hair.
Work on one section at a time and do not go to another section until your comb comes out clean from the hair you are working on. Keep a paper towel or tissues handy to clean the comb after each pass through the hair. When you don’t find any nits or lice on the comb, you can go to the next section.
Aromatherapy has not been proven effective in preventing or treating head lice. Tea tree oil and other essential oils also have not been proven as good methods for getting rid of lice. Never use gasoline or kerosene. These products are dangerous and easily burst into flame. Vaseline is also flammable and many survivor courses recommend a cotton swab doused in Vaseline as a fire starter.
You will want to vacuum the house, the carpeting, furniture and bed of the infested people. Although head lice cannot live away from the host head for more than 48 hours, stray hairs, nits and dead lice need to be vacuumed. Empty the sweeper bag when you have completed sweeping. Nits do not hatch at room temperature but you will still want to treat such items such as bedding, pillowcases, hats, scarves or plush toys.
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Mon 6 Oct 2008 09:28:35 CST | |