argh! head lice!

debs626

My 9 year old daughter gets head lice roughly once or twice a year. The head lice comb lives at the side of the bath and on every hair wash I condition her hair and while the conditioner is still in I comb through for five mins. If I do discover any lice or nits then I comb morning, after school and before bed until the comb is clear. I have tried all the potions but the best yet is just the combing with the conditioner still in.

culpepper

A friend at work told me once,his mum used to cover his hair with parrafin if he had lice! Dont know what that would do to your scalp but he said it worked on the lice.
Ive also heard vaseline rubbed in is good.
When my son had them we bought a bottle of treatment from the chemists,we had to do our own and my daughters hair as well .I think it was called full marks or something wierd like that, they did go very quickly though.

frizz_head

Ditto Curry Queen. My daughter was plagued with them about 18 months ago, and we tried everything. I did so much research on t'internet, that I became an expert. Everyone has their own theories and success stories, but this is what worked for me.

I believe the theory that headlice are attracted to a certain scent, hence the reason why out of a class of 30, the same handful of children will keep getting it.

My daughter has asthma, so chemical based treatments were out of the question. I then found a website called http://www.nitmix.com which sells a 'kit' which consists of a bottle of Almond Oil (a carrier oil), and a smaller bottle of essential oil (lavender, eculyptus and geranium oils) and a long handled metal tooth comb. If you have an infestation, mix a few drops of essential oil with the almond oil, and apply to childs hair. Leave for 30 mins, but which time the lice are drowsy and can be combed out easily. The oil also makes the nits (lice eggs) comb out easily - and this is the important part - if you don't kill/remove the nits, the cycle begins all over again in a fortnight when they hatch.

People often mistakenly think their child has been reinfested, but what has really happened is that the nits were not removed in the first treatment - and then go on to hatch a fortnight later.

Once you know your child is clear, they advise you mix a few drops of the essential oils with water in one of those spray bottles, and lightly spray the hair every morning, to get rid of that 'attractive scent' - like Steak and Chips to Lice.

Combing is the only way to detect lice, if you wait for the tell-tale scratching - your child will be infested by that stage.

N9eav

My wife uses parrafin on the kids hair too, it stinks to house out, but she recons it works. I try to avoid the subject. I would rather do the dishes or hoover.

pickle

I read a newspaper article a while ago which reckoned that if you use white hair conditioner that this killed lice, there is some chemical in it which does this apparently. Don't know if it works as i don't have kids.

Quackers

Anyone else scratching their head as they are reading?

frizz_head

You will be now. :eek:

frizz_head

Seriously though, this is a good picture for those of you not sure what you are looking for. Although the headlice are shown in the piccie above as black - they are in fact transparent - which makes them so hard to spot, unless they have 'fed' and they will have a black line down their bodies.

I hope no-ones eating!!!!!

Squidgy

thanks everyone, thought I'd tell you all that I sent baby to nursery this morning after spraying her hair with a solution of water and tea tree oil, combing through and tied in a pony tail. I've also sprayed and combed her hair when we got home this evening. I will be doing this for the next two weeks at least. My mum is going to condition and comb her hair tomorrow night (as hubby and I are away for the weekend for our 1st wedding anniversary). I also changed all our bedding and towels and checked mine, hubbys, mums and dads hair (they live next door and baby goes round all the time).

Thanks again for all your input.

Squidgy

sjpkgp

You do smell like a south mediterranean dish, but olive oil applied liberally, left on under a shower cap for about half an hour, worked for both me and my little girl last year. This was after we had done all of the usual treatments (at great cost). You have to wash your hair a couple of times, then condition and comb like others advise, but at least you have the enjoyment (?) of seeing them come out dead (unlike chemical treatments where they just seem to come out in a bit of a daze)

Apparently it drowns them because it blocks their airholes, and many other more expensive remedies based on oil work on the same principle.

I am sure the animal rights brigade may be up in arms about this nit-murdering remedy, but for me, they can head the same way as I would like wasps to...... extinction.

What a <scratch> lovely <itch> subject for my first <scratch> post !