Children who are in school are prime targets of head lice.  These things are easy to prevent but hard to treat.  Kids between the ages of three and twelve are most likely to get these pesky critters because of the exposure to many other children in daycare, camp, sports groups, and school.  These kids also love to share personal things like hairbrushes, hair clips, caps, jackets and other things.  This makes it easy for lice to spread, although they do not fly or jump.

Lice are also not characteristic of bad ,hygiene as is popularly believed.  In fact, the cleaner the hair, the better off the louse is.  He can grip the strand more easily.  They also do not spread disease.  They do, however, make you itchy and annoyed, and can even cause inflammation or infection from scratching skin.

Here are some helpful tips for child head-louse treatment that will help clear your kids of these annoying pests:

1.  There are three major steps in effectively getting rid of lice.  These include killing the adult lice, removing the eggs from the hair, and treating the belongings and environment of the person with head lice.
2.  Butter, petroleum jelly, olive oil, and even whole-fat mayo are great because they smother the lice.  The nits will still need to be removed from the hair.  Out of these, olive oil comes out of the hair easier; however, you may still have to shampoo several times.

3.  When your kid’s hair is wet, the lice stop moving.  This makes it easier to get them out.  Using a flea or lice comb with teeth that are close together is a great idea.  Although a flea comb will work, never place any flea-killing product on a human.  Three-tenths of a millimeter is as far apart as the comb’s teeth should be.

4.  For child head-louse treatment to work, you must not only clear the child, but also the environment of lice.  This includes other people in the family who may have lice.  All bed linens, blankets, terry towels, clothing, and other things that lice may be on should be washed in water that exceeds 130 degrees Fahrenheit.  Also, you will want to dry them on the highest temperature for at least half an hour.  Throw pillows, rugs, toys, or other things that cannot be washed should be sealed into an air-tight bag for at least 14 days.

5.  Shampoo, cream, or lotion that contains medicine to kill the lice may be suggested or prescribed by your pediatrician.  You can also purchase items over-the-counter if home remedies do not work or if there are too many lice to kill in this way.  Experts do agree that lice are becoming resistant to the chemicals in over-the-counter medications, so you may have to utilize a different method of treating them.  Do not use a blow dryer after applying treatments that may be flammable!

Asking your doctor for children that are under two years old is a good idea.  Over-the-counter medications are too strong for their skin and scalps.  Also, it is not a good idea to shave the hair of your child in order to get rid of head lice.  Short hair may, however, prevent lice infestations more easily.

Although lice can be easily prevented, they are difficult to get rid of once you are infected.  Before you could rush out to your drugstore and purchase medicated shampoos and creams, people relied and trusted home remedies for getting rid of annoying, irritating pests like lice.

Being conscientious of your hygiene, including avoiding other people’s personal things such as hairbrushes and hats, can help you prevent lice.  You may also want to share with your children what can happen if they do use other people’s items.  Here are some home remedy louse treatment tactics that you can make yourself from things that you already have in your cupboard or fridge.

1. An equal mixture of vinegar and olive oil can be applied to the hair generously.  Ensure that all parts are saturated and place a shower cap on the head.  After one hour, wash the hair the way you typically would.
2. Lather old-fashioned, whole mayo on the hair and the scalp.  Be sure to get all areas and strands.  After an hour, rinse very well and then wash as normal.
Petroleum jelly can be lathered onto the hair as well.  Like mayo, it is difficult to remove from the hair, but it does suffocate the lice.  Try sprinkling powder or flour into the hair before trying to wash this out.

3. Garlic paste and an equal amount of lime juice should be applied to the scalp.  After 30 minutes, you can shampoo your hair.  Similarly, almonds can be ground and mixed with a bit of lime juice and left on the hair for 30 minutes also.

4.  Essential oils are very useful for getting rid of lice, including rosemary, geranium, anise, ylang ylang, and more.  These should be diluted before they are massaged into the hair.  After 30 minutes of allowing these to soak under a shower cap, the hair can be rinsed and washed.

5.  Shaving lotion can also be applied to the hair and the scalp and allowed to sit for 30 minutes.  The chemicals in the lotion kill the lice as well as the eggs.  You should condition the hair afterward to restore oils and moisture.

6.  Even beer works!  Mix with cloves and basil leaves into a mushy paste, then apply to the hair and scalp.  After 30 minutes, rinse and wash your hair.
Isopropyl alcohol should be utilized to soak all hair accessories, hair brushes, and combs.  If you’d rather, simply throw them away and purchase new ones.

While there are many different louse treatments that will effectively get rid of lice and eggs, in order to keep them from coming back, you need to be diligent and persistent.  Although they are mostly just annoying and frustrating, lice can infest an entire house and the occupants, as well as your child’s school, in just a few days!

Lice do not discriminate!  You can be infected with head lice regardless of your age, your background, where you live, or how much money you have.  Although many people believe that lice like dirty and greasy hair better, the truth is that they prefer cleaner hair.  Their eggs stick better to hair that is clean, and they are able to grasp cleaner hair more easily.  Lice can be picked up through physical contact or by using items of a person that has lice.  This might include a brush, hat, hair accessories, bedding, or even towels.

Pesticides and insecticides are two of the most common treatments for lice.  Most of the products and shampoos you can purchase at the drugstore either contain malathion or phenothrin.  People with asthma should not use these forms of treatment, as they can cause an allergic reaction or irritation.  Pregnant women should, of course, consult their physicians before utilizing any head lice products, and parents should do the same before treating young children.  Experts agree that lice may be growing resistant or immune to some of these common lice-fighting chemicals, rendering them useless.

Many people are also turning to natural methods of fighting lice infestations.  While in some cases the process may take a bit longer than using the store-bought medications, there are some benefits.  For example, most natural methods are safer and non-toxic.  Lavender, geranium, and even tea tree oils are all believed to be great lice treatments.  These would simply be massaged into the scalp after being diluted, and the nits and lice come out easier and quicker.

Outside of these common treatments, there are many home remedies that lots of folks swear by.  In fact, they are quite efficient at getting rid of those pesky critters.  Some examples of these home remedies include lathering shaving lotion on the head to kill lice and their eggs, utilizing antiseptic mouthwash to shampoo the hair, and mixing baby oil and vinegar to use on the hair.  While covering the hair and scalp with petroleum jelly suffocates the lice, it is quite a mess and you may have to shampoo the hair many times before all of the residue comes out.  Regular flour or baby powder can help absorb this residue if you sprinkle it on before shampooing.

Another of the most common louse treatments is to simply comb through the hair with a special comb.  The comb should be a fine-tooth, preferably metal comb with teeth that are no more than three-tenths of a millimeter apart.  This will help grab each strand of hair so that no louse or egg is left behind.  Just one being overlooked can result in re-infestation in a matter of a few weeks!

Flea combs work as well as a fine-tooth comb.  However, do not ever use flea or animal parasite products on a human to kill lice.  Some other things you should never do is place kerosene, gas, or alcohol on a human’s head in order to try to kill the lice.  These are all extremely dangerous and could result in serious injuries.

If you have noticed an intense itching in your pubic area, and especially if there are small red bumps or welts present, you may have pubic lice.  Pubic lice, commonly called crabs because of their shape, are typically transferred through sexual contact.  If a sex partner has pubic lice, when their pubic hair gets close to yours, you can contract them as well.  They are very hard to see, so if you’re not sure that you have pubic lice or something else, you may want to visit the doctor.  Here are some tips on pubic hair louse treatments.

Treating the Body -

To treat the body, you will need to wash the area with an insecticide formulated for pubic lice.  You can get these from your local pharmacy.  Usually this will involve washing with a shampoo that you allow to sit on the pubic area for around 10 minutes.  After this, you will rinse the area and search for the pubic louse eggs or nits in the pubic hair.  These are usually found at the base of the pubic hair close to the skin.  You need to remove all of these nits, and often you will need to retreat the area within a week to kill any newly hatched lice.

Treating the Clothing -

To prevent yourself from becoming infected with pubic lice again, you will need to treat your clothing.  You can do this by washing all of your clothing in hot water and then allowing them to dry on high heat.  Repeating the high-heat cycle in the dryer will ensure that they are dead.  You will also need to treat your bedding as well, and you can do that in the same way.  Take special care to treat the underclothes, as these are the clothes that the pubic lice are most exposed to.

Sexual Partners -

Because pubic lice are transferred through sexual contact, your sex partner will probably also need to be treated.  If he or she is not and you become intimate with them again, you could become re-infested with the pubic lice.  Both of you may need to retreat the area within a week to ensure that all newly hatched pubic lice are dead.  It is a good idea to refrain from sexual intimacy until both of you are completely cleared of the pubic lice.

This can be a very embarrassing thing to deal with, but also very common.  If you’re not sure what to do or if the store-bought medication is not working, you should visit your doctor.  He or she will be able to recommend what to do next.  The tips and ideas in this article will help you get rid of pubic lice for good.

Treating head lice and body lice can be very frustrating.  The first thing you should know is that they are not due to poor personal hygiene as some people might think.  They are actually only transferred by person–person contact, or through contact with accessories of a person that is infected with lice.  They can be a pain to get rid of, but it can be done.  Here are some valuable body-louse treatment tips:

Clothing –

Body lice do not actually live on the body!  They live and lay eggs in the seams of clothing.  They do come out onto the skin, but only when they are feeding.  Then they return to the seams of the clothing.  For this reason, many doctors do not recommend actually treating the body with any sort of medication.  Simply washing and drying your clothes in a high-heat dryer for an hour should do the trick.

Body –

One thing you should know, even if you do not actually treat your body with medication, is that body lice itch.  This is one way to tell if you are infected.  However, you can continue to itch even after you have successfully gotten rid of the body lice.  This is due to small allergic reactions to their bites.  Rubbing on a cortisone cream or anti-itch lotion should help with this until you are fully over the reaction.

Taking hot showers for a few days until the body lice are clear should help.  You will also need to treat your bedding and unlaundered clothing.  Washing them in hot water and then drying them for two cycles on high heat should be all that is needed to get rid of the body lice on the clothing.  If you are still having issues, you may need to buy a medicated treatment.  There are lotions, shampoos, and creams at your local pharmacy, and you can ask the pharmacist which one you should use.  Read all directions before using.  If you notice bumps on your skin that contain puss, dark patches on your skin, or if your skin has a bad smell, you should visit the doctor.  This could indicate a skin infection that will need prescription medications to clear up.

Pubic Lice –

Pubic lice are a form of body lice that live in the pubic hair.  If you have lice present here, they are completely different from body lice and typically do need

to be treated with medications.  They are typically treated with a pubic shampoo that is similar to head-louse shampoo.  They are also usually spread through sexual contact, so sex partners usually need to be treated as well.  You can tell if you have pubic lice by intense itching and small red bumps in the pubic area.

Although any form of lice is frustrating, body lice are generally easier to get rid of than head or pubic lice.  Simply following the tips above or the advice of your health care professional should get you moving in the right direction to get rid of body lice for good!

There are many things that you can do to get rid of head lice.  While this is a very frustrating situation that can leave you feeling a bit embarrassed and itchy, there are many different products and tips that can help you get rid of lice and their eggs and keep them off.  Here are some great free tips to rid you of head lice!

Free tips for the hair -

When you are removing nits or lice from the hair, soak the hair in conditioner or olive oil.  This will make it more difficult for the lice to hold on to the hair strands, and it is said that it smothers and helps kill them as well.
To keep your child from getting lice in her hair, talk with her about borrowing other people’s hair brushes, hats, or other hair accessories.  Explain to her what can happen if someone else has an infestation and why to avoid using other people’s things.
Pull the hair back and braid it.  Even using a bit of hairspray will reduce your child’s chances of getting head lice.

Free tips for preventing another infestation –

You will need to treat your child’s bedding and other things as well.  This includes stuffed animals that they sleep with, pillows, hats, scarves, hair accessories, and hair brushes.  Place all bedding and stuffed animals in the washer.  Wash in hot water and dry on high heat.  You may want to let them go through two cycles of drying.
Soak your child’s hair brush and plastic or metal hair accessories in boiling water with a small amount of bleach for 30 minutes.  Allow them to dry and ensure that they are fully rinsed.
Wash hats, scarves, and other clothing in the same way you washed the bedding and stuffed animals.
Change your child’s sheets every single night that you are treating them for head lice and follow the washing directions each night, as well.

Free tips for products -

If you are using a store-bought product, please follow the directions very carefully.  They do have very potent chemicals in them, and leaving them on for an extended period of time can be very dangerous.  Be sure to read the entire label before using.
When using mayonnaise, petroleum jelly, or olive oil, which are all products that have been effective in treating lice, use a shower cap.  This way, your child doesn’t have to sit in one place for hours.  Let them run and play and even sleep with the shower cap on.
To get petroleum jelly or baby oil out of the hair, sprinkle the hair with baby powder first.  Then, wash the hair with a grease-fighting dish detergent.  You may want to condition after doing this.

Getting rid of head lice can be a royal pain in the neck, but you can do it.  Stay focused and you can utilize these tips to rid you of head lice for good.

When you are seeking treatments to rid yourself of head lice, you can become frustrated and aggravated quite quickly.  For one, you have probably found aisles with scads of items for treating head lice, but don’t know which one to choose.  You may want to try an alternative method, but again, don’t know what to choose.  This article provides a wealth of invaluable tips that you can utilize when you get ready to treat yourself or someone else in your family for head lice.

What You May Have Heard -   

There are a million myths and advised treatments when it comes to getting rid of head lice, and some of them, if listened to, can be very dangerous.  One of these potentially dangerous treatments is kerosene.  Never place kerosene, gasoline, or lighter fluid on your child’s head.  Aside from being highly flammable, they can actually cause damage simply by absorbtion into your child’s blood stream.  No matter how desperate you are to rid your child or yourself of lice, do not use these items.

You may have heard that you should treat everyone in the household if one of your children comes home from school with lice.  That is absolutely not true, as you can actually help build their resistance to medications designed to kill them.  You may also risk side effects to your family that are frustrating, irritating, or even seriously damaging.  Check the hair of your other family members. If you see active lice, you want to treat that person.  Otherwise, only treat the afflicted members of your family.

Using Store-Bought Lice Medications -

No matter how frustrated and desperate you are, follow the directions on the bottles of treatments to rid you of lice.  If you are only supposed to leave the treatment on for 10 minutes, leave it for that amount of time only.  Don’t think that you are helping kill them better because you leave it for 15 or 20 minutes.  All you are doing is increasing the risk of side effects and damage.  Leaving a product on longer than you are supposed to does not increase its efficacy.

Alternative Treatments to Help Rid You of Lice -

If you are planning on using herbal treatments, make sure you are not taking other regular medications.  Herbs can interact with prescription medications in the same way that other prescription medications can.  Also, do not use an essential oil on the hair, skin, or scalp without diluting it.  If you don’t dilute it there could be very serious reactions.

Most people do not know this, but you do not actually have to place anything on the hair of the afflicted person.  You can remove the lice and nits by the combing method.  All you need is some olive oil or conditioner and a nit comb.  You can get this at your local pharmacy.  Simply saturate the hair with one of these things and separate it into sections.  Then, comb each strand and section to remove the live bugs.  After rinsing the hair, comb again and then separate again.  This time, pick out all the nits you see from each and every strand of hair.

Lice is a frustrating and even sometimes embarrassing thing.  Hopefully you will find helpful tips above to help you get rid of the situation quickly.

Just taking a peek at the warning labels on the most popular medical treatments for head lice will make you want to seek natural treatment.  In fact, some of those chemicals have been proven to be toxic to the nervous and immune systems.  That is not something you want to put on your child’s head.  The question is, do natural treatments work?  That is what we will address in this article so you will know what your options are when it comes to treating head lice.

Anise and Ylang Ylang Test -

A recent study was done where researchers divided infected children into two groups.  In one group, researchers treated the children with anise and ylang ylang essential oils, both of which have antifungal, antiviral, and insecticidal properties.  The other group was treated with the common drugstore chemical shampoos for killing lice and their eggs.  In both groups, the percentage of children who were treated and cleaned of head lice was 97%.  However, the anise oil and ylang ylang oil do not carry the hazard of potential side effects that have been reported with the chemical shampoos and sprays.  Obviously, this treatment works and without the damaging effects of traditional shampoos.

Bug-Busting Method -

This method is for parents who do not want to risk applying anything to their children’s hair and involves frequent combing and bug removal.  You start by using ‘nit combs’ to remove live lice.  You can use a bowl of water to put them into as you find them.  This will show you how many you have found.  Simply go through each section of the hair a couple of times and remove each and every live louse you can get – you will also need to remove as many of the eggs as you possibly can.  A bit of olive oil worked into the hair does make it easier to get the bugs and nits out.  You will need to perform this busting method every four days to ensure that you get the lice that have recently hatched.  You will also need to wash your child’s sheets every night for a week – this way, any lice that fall from your child’s head to the pillow or sheets will be removed in the wash and not able to reproduce.

Why Choose an Alternative Louse Treatment?

The chemical-based shampoos and rinses are full of dangerous chemicals.  There are reported side effects like rash, skin infection, trouble breathing, and even damage to the central nervous system.  Many parents do not want to place this on their children’s heads, so they opt for an alternative louse treatment.  Many of them are just as effective as the chemical ones without the risk of side effects that come with the store-bought or prescription lice removers.

Ensure that you check every person’s head who lives in the house with you or who comes over frequently.  Tell your child not to use someone else’s hair brush, comb, hats, or other hair accessories.  This will keep your chances of getting head lice very low.

If you have discovered a head louse issue in your home or with your children and do not want to use chemically laden shampoos and sprays, there are other choices.  Many different things have been utilized to remove head lice and their eggs, and this article will investigate many of those things.  The goal of this article is to help you find an alternative head-louse treatment that works.

Smothering Methods -

Many parents who do not want to place chemicals on their child’s head have used different products to smother the lice.  This typically involves placing some sort of substance on the child’s head and saturating their hair with it.  You would then place a shower cap on the child’s head and allow them to sleep all night with it on their hair.  The next morning, you would wash the child’s hair out.  This is supposed to smother the head lice and kill them.  You would have to repeat this process within a week to kill any newly hatched lice.  Then, of course, you need to remove nits with some sort of comb.  The most common products used to smother the lice are full-fat mayonnaise, petroleum jelly, baby oil, and even olive oil.

Researchers say that this method can actually work, but you should be warned – it is very messy.  You may also have to wash the child’s hair several times to remove oily residue.  For things like petroleum jelly, you can sprinkle baby powder into the child’s hair and then wash it out with a grease-fighting dish detergent.

Insecticides -

Want to get those bugs out without the chemicals?  There are natural products that are insecticidal in nature without being full of dangers for your child.  Some of these products include anise, ylang ylang and citronella oils.  They should be pure essential oils in order to work, but they will need to be diluted.  Undiluted essential oils can be very skin irritant, so what you would need to do is mix them into a base liquid.  One of the best working bases is ooil.  About ¼ cup of olive oil and five to seven drops of essential oil should work just fine.  Leave this on your child’s hair for 30 minutes to an hour and then rinse or shampoo with regular shampoo.

Removing Nits and Eggs -

No matter what alternative head-louse treatment you utilize, you will still need to remove the nits.  Most schools will check for nits before your child is ever allowed back in.  A very fine-toothed comb will be effective at removing these nits.  You may have to pop a movie in for your child, as this can be quite time-consuming.  You will need to remove each and every nit you can find, going strand by strand.

Warnings -

You may hear or read a lot about alternative head-louse treatments; however, you need to use your own judgment for some of them.  Never put gasoline or lighter fluid on your child’s hair.  Both of these things are extremely flammable and can even poison your child when it enters the blood stream through absorption.  This is not only a bad decision to make, you could end up seriously injuring your child.  Utilize the tips and ideas above for alternative head-louse treatments.

For those of you who have experienced a head-louse infestation, you know how frustrating and even embarrassing it can be.  One thing a lot of people do is try those chemical shampoos and sprays.  While they may work for some, lice have a very interesting immunity built up to most of those products.  In this case, a more natural treatment might just be the answer.  Olive oil is a great and natural thing that can be utilized for many different conditions, including head lice.  Here are some tips on how to use olive oil to treat your head lice.

Olive Oil and Anise Oil -

By using a ½ cup of olive oil and about four or five drops of pure anise essential oil, you can create quite an effective treatment for head lice.  Olive oil is said to smother these little bugs, as well as making it very difficult for them to grip the hair strands and lay eggs.  It also helps you to remove the nits or eggs of the head lice.  Anise is a great natural insecticide that will help to get rid of head lice.  Simply rub this all over the hair and scalp, remembering to cover each section of hair and the ends.  Leave this on for 30 minutes, and then wash the hair with a regular shampoo.  It may take a few different shampoos to get the oil residue out of the hair.

Olive Oil Overnight -

Another treatment with olive oil involves covering each section of the hair in olive oil and placing a shower cap over it.  Simply go to sleep with the olive oil still on your head and wash it out in the morning.  Of course, other things need to be treated as well, such as the bedding, hats, stuffed animals, or other things that come into contact with the head.  This treatment is based on the theory that olive oil smothers the lice and in turn, they come away from the hair shaft.  This is true for the eggs as well.  You can use a very fine-tooth comb to go through each area of the hair to remove any dead lice and their eggs or nits.  Many schools will not allow children to come back until each and every nit is gone from their hair.

Olive Oil and Conditioner Combing -

Because olive oil helps remove the lice and nits from the hair shaft, using it to help comb through your child’s hair is a good idea.  Simply slather his or her head with the olive oil. Then, after you have covered every part possible, take a generous amount of conditioner and place that on the hair in addition to the olive oil.  Wait one to three hours, and use a very fine-tooth comb to go through each section of the hair. This should help you to comb out any head lice that are on your or your child’s head.  After that, rinse and wash the hair a couple of times to remove the oil.

Using olive oil treatments can save money and help you control the situation.  It also helps you keep from having to put chemicals and potentially hazardous poison on your head or your child’s head.  Use the tips above to get rid of lice effectively and safely.