Head Lice: Natural Treatment Options
"Head lice" is a term that strikes fear in the hearts of parents of school-age children everywhere. "What do I do now?" is their first thought. Take heart. Although head and pubic lice are now resistant to the common chemicals that have been used to kill them in the past, there are new alternative treatments that will rid your child of this annoying pest.
The most common alternative treatment for head lice involves covering the child's head with a thick oil or cream. Mayonnaise is a favored choice, although olive oil, conditioner, or vegetable oil will also work. The head needs to be covered with a shower cap and the oil left overnight. In the morning, the lice will have suffocated, and they can be removed with a lice comb.
Tea tree oil is another alternative treatment. This special oil comes from an Australian tree famed for its anti-fungal and anti-vermicidal properties. There are many commercial preparations of tea tree oil available. We recommend a conditioner with a high percentage of tea tree oil. As with mayonnaise, leave it sitting overnight and comb out the head lice.
Other alternative choices involve treating the child's diet with brewer's yeast and garlic. These two substances are perfectly safe, good tasting, and help make the child's skin and scalp an unpleasant environment for head lice. However, repeated combing of nits is necessary since brewer's yeast and garlic may only have a modest effect, and in fact, studies are ambivalent about whether they work at all.
Finally, we should mention the manual treatment. This treatment is highly labor intensive but has great results and is non-toxic. It involves repeatedly and thoroughly combing the child's hair for lice and nits. This process must be repeated daily for up to two weeks. It is not for the faint of heart, but for stubborn cases, it will do the trick. We should note that this treatment is far more viable when the child's hair is short.
Whatever method you choose to use to eliminate head lice from your home and child's head, whether traditional, herbal, oil-based, or manual, you need to remember that time and patience will pay off. Keep in mind that you need to sterilize all bedding, hats, carpets, upholstered furniture, clothing, and any other items in your home where nits may be hiding.
You son or daughter has brought home something new from school - head lice. This article explains how to cope with head and pubic lice and to get rid of them. In the last years, headlice have been developing a resistance to the most common chemical treatments, so we have some alternative methods to solve this problem. The child's hair and scalp need to be thoroughly coated with the chosen oil or cream and then covered with a shower cap and left on all night. By morning the oily substance will have smothered the lice which can now be eliminated using a lice comb.
Published October 25th, 2007
