If you have a need to get rid of lice using the best head lice home remedies or other methods to get rid of lice in your home, take the job seriously and do it right. As a parent, thinking about a commercial shampoo to kill head lice, you may want to rethink whether you want to put those toxic chemicals on your child's head or not.

It has been stated that the American Academy of Pediatrics has recommended the Nix shampoo product as an effective treatment for head lice, but do you want to be putting those chemical pesticides on you child's head?

Because of society's typical disgust that is frequently associated with an outbreak of head lice, many parents just want to use the surest, quickest way they can think of to get rid of the nasty little insects. There are some parents though who will take a better thought through course of action by finding alternatives that will not expose their child to the commercial toxins.

For sure, you want and need to get rid of all of the lice and all of their eggs. If your child has allergic reactions or if you are concerned about using possibly toxic chemicals on your child, then you will be looking for better alternatives.

Perhaps the most simple and proven home remedy to minimize the need for 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 can be a time consuming process that needs to be done every day for several consecutive days. Even when you use a commercial lice treatment, the time taking process of combing out all the nits and lice still has to be done.

Some people follow a common home remedy that uses a substance like mayonnaise, Vaseline or Olive Oil which is applied to the hair in order to smother the lice. When you leave this greasy mess on overnight under a shower cap which keeps the mess contained - then this method of treatment works very well. Although this is a messy process, many experts think that part of the reason this works so well is because by cleaning up the hair afterwards, that process actually removes all the parasites and the eggs 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 this also makes it harder for any elusive eggs to stick to the strands of hair.

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. 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.