Head Lice

The kids have all gone back to school and with that comes close contact with others bringing colds and parasites. Yep! September is Head Lice Prevention month.

We've already taken a hit with our first grader so her preschooler brother got it too. The buzz cut took care of his but hers is another story.

When my girls were little, they got it too. The oldest only once. That was my first experience. I was furious about bugs being on my child. I had no treatment for it and no experience with it. I don't recall me or my sisters ever getting it.

I washed her hair with Head & Shoulders shampoo, leaving it in fully thickly lathered for 10 minutes. I rinsed her hair and took the cat's flea comb and went through every single strand of hair. That got it all and she never had it again.

My second daughter got it from both school and day care. We used an over the counter shampoo that I cannot remember the name of, but I never see it anymore either. It's a shame because 1 treatment is all it took. Today's products aren't as good. I, personally, don't know anyone who had used RID and didn't have the lice come back.

We bought this from Walgreen's. The ratings are high and so are our hopes! I would have thought the chemicals in the pool would have killed them on my granddaughter but they didn't. They kill every other bug that gets in the pool.

For more information on head lice and treatment, go to www.headlice.org. Make sure you read all the FAQ.

Some very old-fashioned head lice treatments are:

1. To saturate your child's hair with kerosene and put the child in an empty tub for 10 minutes (a safe place). Then shampoo and comb out.

2. Saturate your hair with mayonnaise; cover the hair with plastic so the mayo doesn't "dry". Comb each strand of hair with a nit comb. Wash thoroughly. Today you can accomplish near the same with a thick coating of hair conditioner. This loosens the nits from the hair and enables you to more thoroughly comb them out.

3. I found this one on yahoo answers:

Homemade Head Lice Shampoo

2 tablespoons Tea Tree Oil

6 ounces Dawn Dish Liquid (Dawn ONLY)

2 ounces white vinegar

Mix the ingredients in a large squeeze bottle, such as an empty dish soap bottle. Use as regular shampoo, leave in hair for 5 minutes before rinsing. Use hair conditioner to detangle hair before combing with a lice-comb.

•Put on clean clothing after treatment.

•Comb dead and any live lice out of the hair.

•Use a Head Lice and nit Comb to remove nits and lice from the hair.

•Check and comb, and remove nits and lice from the hair every 2-3 days.

•Repeat the treatment within 7 to 10 days.

•Recheck for 2 to 3 weeks until all lice and nits are gone.

4. Essential Oil in a Carrier Oil

Essential oils effectively kill head lice, but they are very potent and should not be used undiluted on the skin or scalp. Dilute essential oils in a carrier oil such as olive oil. Two essential oils that work best for head lice are neem oil, which comes from the neem tree that grows in India, and tea tree oil, that comes from a tree native to Australia. Both are available at health food or natural food stores.

Add one teaspoon of neem oil or tea tree oil to a cup of carrier oil and mix thoroughly. Coat the hair and scalp with the oil, cover with a shower cap or plastic wrap and leave on for 2-3 hours. Then wash the hair with shampoo. While it is still wet, comb the hair thoroughly with a fine-toothed metal lice comb or flea comb to remove the nits and dead lice.

5. Vinegar and Listerine

Wet the hair thoroughly with white vinegar, cover with a shower cap, and leave on for 1-2 hours. Rinse with warm water, and then saturate the hair with Listerine mouth wash. Cover and leave on for an additional 1-2 hours. Then wash with shampoo and comb out with a lice comb. This treatment can be combined with the oil or mayonnaise treatments for particularly bad cases of head lice.

6. Lice are believed by some to be repelled by Coconut. You can try using a coconut scented shampoo.

*some of these remedies were found on associated content.