Safely Kill Lice With These Head Lice Home Remedies

When you are the one that must implement good head lice home remedies to kill hair lice, then take the task seriously and do it in a thorough and correct manner. When considering a commercial lice shampoo to get rid of lice, consider carefully the toxins that you would be exposing your child to and think about whether you really want to do that.

The American Academy of Pediatrics endorses the use of the commercial Nix as a good treatment for head lice; however you may want to consider that advice carefully before exposing your child's sensitive system to those chemical pesticides.

Because of the societal disgust that is frequently associated with head lice, many parents knee jerk reaction is to go looking for the fastest way they can find to kill the nasty little parasites. Some parents however, will choose a safer and more responsible path by looking for better alternatives to get rid of the lice - ways that do not put their children's health at risk.

Clearly, you want to get rid of all the lice and all their nits or eggs. If a child has known allergic reactions or if you just do not want to use toxic chemicals on your child, then you will begin looking for safer options.

The most simple and time proven home remedy for getting rid of lice and avoiding the commercial pesticides be to use a fine tooth nit comb and manually remove the lice and their eggs (called nits) from the person's hair. This combing is time consuming and needs to be done each day for at least two or three days. Even for those who use lice shampoo, the tedious process of carefully combing out the nits is still necessary.

There is another common home remedy that involves using something like mayonnaise, Vaseline or Olive Oil which is abundantly spread on the hair to smother all living lice. By leaving this greasy stuff on overnight under a plastic shower cap (to keep the mess contained) then this remedy works quite well. While this is a messy way of getting the job done it works well. Many experts are of the opinion that it is because when washing, combing and cleaning up the hair afterwards, the process removes the lice and the eggs all at the same time. When using this method, it is usually helpful to rinse the hair with Vinegar. This helps dissolve any remaining grease that was used and by doing this it makes it harder for any remaining lice eggs to stick to the hair shafts.

A prescription treatment you might want to consider using is a medication named Ulesfia. If you wanted to try it you would need to get the required prescription from a medical doctor. When using this product, the hair needs to be saturated with the product and it needs to be left on for ten minutes before being washed out. Whoever uses this product needs to be sure to see that it is applied again in seven days after the first application. This ensures the killing of any freshly hatched nymphs from eggs that may have been remaining. This medication basically works by suffocating lice.

There are also other home remedies that are effective in getting rid of the head lice. These treatments would include remedies composed of herbs or spices and essential or aromatic oils. Likely the most popular of these other treatments is the tea tree oil remedy but remember that these treatments like other home methods have not all been scientifically proven effective and they also are not regulated by the FDA.

To help prevent future infestations, do your homework and learn how to identify adult lice, nymphs (which are young lice) and lice nits in the hair. Also, it is advisable to periodically inspect young children, especially if they have much contact with other children. With a little knowledge and careful and regular inspections, you can usually avoid any unnecessary need to treat for lice. By taking preventative measures you can usually avoid the problem altogether.

For girls, if they wear their hair up and put gel in it, they will reduce the chance for lice to be easily transferred from one child to another when they have casual contact. Teach your children about the lice cycle. The transfer of lice from one person to another only happens with direct physical contact. A louse has no wings and does not have the ability to jump from one host to another.

Teach your children to try and avoid activities that could cause direct contact with each other like climbing on and wrestling with each other. Kids should also avoid sharing hair brushes, hats, hair bows, helmets or any other item that might have direct contact with the hair or scalp of someone else.

By teaching your children to take these important steps, the probability of another "attack" of lice is significantly reduced. Through education, awareness and good personal interaction habits, you are taking the best preventative steps to avoid having to deal with this lousy problem in the future.