The kids have come home from school with head lice! before we start coating there hair with all sorts of chemicals is there a natural cure........That works?
Head Lice
- Thread starter Steve27752
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it takes about two weeks to get rid of them
first wet the hair
second apply several largish handfull of cheap Conditioner (Boots do a great one scented with apples) While you are Boots get a nit comb, (the metal one is best)
Cover the all of their hair with a thickish coating of conditioner, and comb carefully.
Do it every other day for two weeks and the hair will be smooth and both nit and knot free. Lavender and tea tree oil in their shampoo with help to keep them from coming back. They will come back; kids cannot help but get nits. (There will always be one parent who does nothing about their own kids nits)
Short of shaving heads,
Tadpoles advice is about all you can do.
And yes, they will come back.
Good luck
Ogri the trog
aaaaaaah nits....!
7 weeks of nothing, and i too have 3 infested heads to deal with within a week of them all going back
the conditioner works well, but full marks mousse is really worth using -i know it's chemical, but it's easy, and doesn't smell anything like the sheep-dip my mum used to use on me when i was a kid
(don't even mention the torture comb....)
7 weeks of nothing, and i too have 3 infested heads to deal with within a week of them all going back
the conditioner works well, but full marks mousse is really worth using -i know it's chemical, but it's easy, and doesn't smell anything like the sheep-dip my mum used to use on me when i was a kid
(don't even mention the torture comb....)
My mother-in-law insists that vinegar applied to an infested scalp will kill the lice and the eggs. Hmmm. My oldest daughter started school 2 weeks ago and so far she's nit free but the paranoia is running high.
I work with kids so pick up nits myself about once a year. I have one of those electric combs that has a blue tube (like the fly zappers you see in restaraunts) on it, you comb the hair and it fries any nits or lice it comes across. Might be a thought if you need to mount a long term attack on the little horrors.
Sad to say, vigilance is the key, and combing a lot! Keep the hair short or in braids etc and get your children aware of how lice travel - keep their heads away from others, don't share hats etc.
We're lucky to have a headmistress who is quite ouyspoken on the issue, which has helped a lot - but we still comb a lot.
:swordfigh
We're lucky to have a headmistress who is quite ouyspoken on the issue, which has helped a lot - but we still comb a lot.
:swordfigh
So far I have never had nits - 50 years nit free!
No kids to fear for and now rarely work with school kids so heres to my next 50 being equally nit free!
But - out of interest - I was always told that lice/nits only go for clean hair and long hair is most at risk: is this true?
Kids in school in my day rarely washed their hair more than once a week and had short hair....no reports of nits in my school...
No kids to fear for and now rarely work with school kids so heres to my next 50 being equally nit free!
But - out of interest - I was always told that lice/nits only go for clean hair and long hair is most at risk: is this true?
Kids in school in my day rarely washed their hair more than once a week and had short hair....no reports of nits in my school...
It makes me angry that schools can no longer send the smelly horrors that are infested with lice to the dreaded nit nurse. They cannot be singled out, it may make them feel bad. They can be sent home with a note telling the parents not to send their kids back to school until they have the nits problem sorted, but they can't be checked so the only way this will happen is when either the kid is scratching itself to death or the child is so infested that the nits are ganging up and knicking everybodys sarnies!
suburban bushwacker
Full Member
i've been told that the viniger cure works by disoloving the 'glue' that sticks the eggs to the hair. worth a shot.
Tea tree oil dilluted in water wash the hair in it head lice gone in about 1/2 hr
the clean v dirty hair thing is untrue sadly. Re teh essential oils, yes they do work, but be very very careful, there are almost no oils that are safe to use diluted only in water on children, even in base oils, you can usually only use one or two drops at most, so its very very weak. Triple check the safety data and dosing on any essential oil from a reputable source (the IFRA site for example) before painting young kids with it, I worked extensively with EOs whilst researching a book a few years ago and did my skin some serious damage even with my rhino hide and what I thought were proper precautions.
Yeah, me
Todays school will make it 800+ children I've seen this week. That said, not one of the schools appears to have *any* problem with the itchy horrors.
Sally, the electric nit comb thingie? where did you get it? I always kind of thought of those things as a bit gimmicky but if they work, it's awfully tempting not having to think aobut applying all those undesirable chemicals.
cheers,
Toddy
Yeah, me
Todays school will make it 800+ children I've seen this week. That said, not one of the schools appears to have *any* problem with the itchy horrors.
Sally, the electric nit comb thingie? where did you get it? I always kind of thought of those things as a bit gimmicky but if they work, it's awfully tempting not having to think aobut applying all those undesirable chemicals.
cheers,
Toddy
It was about £10 on ebay, I think Babyliss make them. It has seemed to work on the occasions when I've been sure I've picked up the odd critter, but how well it would cope with a heavy infestation I dunno, certainly means if I'm feeling paranoid I can give my hair a good combing through and feel satisfied that I've checked properly without debating whether I need to get the sheepdip out or not.
Yeah, me
Todays school will make it 800+ children I've seen this week. That said, not one of the schools appears to have *any* problem with the itchy horrors.
Sally, the electric nit comb thingie? where did you get it? I always kind of thought of those things as a bit gimmicky but if they work, it's awfully tempting not having to think aobut applying all those undesirable chemicals.
cheers,
Toddy
Toddy,
When our kids were younger we had one or two outbreaks and as has been said there was usually one tribe that failed to check and we went through a couple of bouts of repeated infestation so after a dose of chemical warfare with full marks the electric nit comb seemed to do an admirable job of mopping up any stragglers and newbies for the following few days if needed.
xylaria
Bushcrafter (boy, I've got a lot to say!)
We had an electric comb, we gave it away. It had problems with curly and big hair. I wet comb with conditioner more or less the same way tadpole does. If I get them I soak my hair in baby oil overnight and comb through the dead ones in morning , I find it more effective than conditioner but its very messy. It removes eggs better then the conditioner. I don't use any pesticide on the children.
K
Karr
Guest
There is a plant that can be used, don't know how effective it is though. Lice bane - Dephinium staphisagria, you crush up the seeds, mix with lard. Or infuse seeds with vinegar. Think it can be used for scabies as well.
Regards Sparrow.
Regards Sparrow.
Hm, I've got 'dragged through a hedge backwards' curly hair and it seems ok on me, but it does take a while to work through. One of those jobs to do whilst doing something mindless like watching something on TV
