The Best Head Lice Home Remedies

If you have a need to get rid of lice using the best head lice home remedies to kill head lice, then be serious about the job and make sure you do it right. When considering a commercial lice shampoo to get rid of lice, you may want to rethink whether you want to put those toxic chemicals on your child's head or not.

The American Academy of Pediatrics endorses the use of the commercial Nix shampoo product as the most effective treatment for head lice, but are you aware that if you do, you are putting toxic pesticides on you child's scalp.

Because of society's typical disgust that is frequently associated with an outbreak of head lice, many parents knee jerk reaction is to go looking for the fastest way they can find to kill the nasty little parasites. There are other parents however, who choose a safe and responsible approach by looking for better alternatives that will not put their child's health at risk.

For sure, you want and need to get rid of all of the lice and all of their 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.

Probably the most simple and time tested home remedy to avoid the pesticides would likely be to manually remove lice and their eggs (called nits) from the person's hair with the use a fine tooth metal nit comb. This combing is time consuming and needs to be done each day for at least two or three days. Even if you use lice shampoo, the tedious process of carefully combing the lice and nits out of the hair is still necessary.

Some people follow a 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 substance is left on overnight under a shower cap which keeps the mess contained - then this method of treatment works very 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 following the process and cleaning up the hair afterwards, it effectively removes the lice and the nits all at the same time. When using this method, it is advised that you should rinse the hair with Vinegar in order to dissolve the remaining grease and by doing this it makes it harder for any remaining lice eggs to stick to the hair shafts.

There is a non-pesticide treatment you may want to consider using. It 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 Ulesfia, the hair should be saturated and the medication left on the hair for ten minutes before you wash it out. This product needs to be re-applied after seven days in order to kill any newly hatched nymphs from any nits that might have been left behind. This medication basically works by suffocating lice.

Additional home remedies can be used that have been reported as valid ways to rid the hair of lice. These would include treatments made from herbs, spices and essential or aromatic oils. Likely the most popular of these other treatments is the tea tree oil remedy but these methods like other home remedies are claimed effective by many who have used them but most have not been scientifically tested and thus proven to be effective.

On the preventative side of things, you should do some research and become familiar with how to identify adult lice, nymphs (young lice) and nits in the hair. Also, it is advisable to periodically inspect young children, especially if they have much contact with other children. With knowledge and frequent inspections you can avoid any unnecessary inconvenience of treating children for lice when there is not a need to do so. Taking preventative measures helps to 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. It is wise to make sure your children are informed about the lice cycle. Lice are only transferred by direct contact between individuals. A louse has no wings and does not have the ability to jump from one host to another.

Teach the children to try and minimize activities that cause direct contact with each other like climbing on or wrestling with one another. They should also avoid sharing combs, hair brushes, hats, hair ties, bows or any other item that might have had direct contact with the hair or scalp of another person.

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