Lice Remedies
How to Get Rid of Them – Lice Remedies
There are many theories about what the best lice remedies are. Some are full of strong chemicals, some are all natural. The people who use the natural treatments believe that lice have built up a resistance to traditional treatments. The people who use chemicals believe there is not a resistance problem, and treatments that fail do so because the parents don't use the formulas correctly.
The main lice remedies usually involve the use of a head lice shampoo, such as Nix or Rid. And then diligently and carefully using a lice comb to remove nits (eggs). If you use this method, be sure to follow all the directions that the manufacturer prints on the packaging. If your child only has a light infestation, or if you don't want to use the anti-lice chemicals, you can try to remove the nits and live lice manually.
If your child has had a heavy infestation, you may find nits on your child for a period of days after you treat them. This doesn't mean the treatment failed – these are probably empty shells from nymphs that were killed. If you find live lice after treatment, re-treat.
For a more natural treatment, you can use mayonnaise as one of the more effective lice remedies. Get an unrefrigerated jar of mayonnaise and work it in all over your child's head. Be sure to get anywhere where there is hair, like behind the ears and on the neck. Cover the child's head with a shower cap, and leave it sit for a short while. Rinse and repeat.
You can also use Vaseline if you don't want to use mayonnaise. This works well, but the Vaseline is hard to get out of your child's hair. You will have to saturate the hair with baby oil and rub it in all the way, and then wash the hair at least twice with dish soap and water. Make sure you leave the dish soap sit every time, so it has time to work.
You can make another of the natural lice remedies by using olive carrier oil or coconut carrier oil. Add about five drops of tea tree oil to this, along with five drops each of peppermint oil, lavender oil, eucalyptus oil and rosemary oil. To this, add a bit of regular shampoo and then put that all over the hair. Leave it on for about an hour, after wrapping the head with a towel. Rinse the mixture out and then wash and rinse the hair normally.
After you shampoo, you can rinse the hair with vinegar, which will loosen the glue that binds the nits to the shafts of hair. Rinse with water that is as hot as your child can tolerate. You can then comb out the nits with a nit comb, and keep your eyes open for any further developments.