Lice/Nits

[ZGT Mummy]

Quickly in and out here again! I hope to find the time to do some justice to this site! Anyway, just very quickly my son has brought a note home from school that nits/lice are going around at the moment so I thought it'd be a good idea for me to know what to do without using those poisons at the pharmacy as the letter suggested we do.

I have heard tea tree oil, but how do you administer it? We don't use soap or shampoo. I know of someone who said she mixes it with her shampoo but that isn't an option for us! I use baking soda for my hair, perhaps if I mix the tea tree oil with the baking soda for the kids' hair? And as an aside, should I even be using baking soda?!?!?!

Both the boys have pretty short hair, but my little girl's hair is just starting to sprout, though is extremely fine. And of course my own hair is thick and long!

So they don't have any signs right now but should I be doing something as a preventer? And what about if they actually do get it?

I have read all sorts of advice but I really don't want to be using chemicals to treat so thought this was the best place to find the "right" advice!

Thanks!

[Sarah]

We have had plenty of practice with preventing/treating lice, as we went through a stage where we seemed to have an infestation via the school every few months. Firstly, I found that my youngest daughter (7) tends to react to Tea Tree Oil if you put it directly on her head. There are natural sprays that you can buy which are just a mixture of different oils which I use on their hair, just a little spray, each morning. But from what I have read anything with a fragrance, lavender, calendula etc sprayed onto the hair will be enough to keep the little blighters away. Getting rid of them is the hard part and takes time. Both my girls have long hair, so it can take ages, should be a little easier with short hair. I just use a Calendula oil on their hair, then use a nit comb and go through their hair bit by bit to get rid of the lice, then cutting out strand by strand the eggs. You really need to do this every day for a week or the cycle will just keep going. As I said my girls have long hair, and last time, which was a couple of years ago now, I used a hair straightner to "fry" the eggs. Worked great and got rid of the eggs in one swoop, left the girls hair a little dry though so would not recommend on a regular basis. Good luck.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

some stuff from my hard drive:


TREATMENT FORMULA:

10 drops Eucalyptus Oil
10 drops Geranium Oil
15 drops Lavender Oil
15 drops Rosemary Oil

Add the above to 50ml Apricot Kernel Oil & shake to mix well.

Massage into dry scalp, leave for 2 hours before washing hair. As = incubation period is 21 days, repeat treatments are required.=20

PREVENTATIVE SPRAY:

Pour 50ml water into spray bottle.
Add 3 drops Sunspirit Soluabalizer
6 drops Bergamot Oil
6 drops Lavender Oil
6 drops lemon Oil

Shake and spray onto dry hair.

PREVENTATIVE OIL:

10 drops Bergamot Oil
10 drops Lavender Oil
10 drops Lemon Oil
Add to 50ml Apricot Kernel Oil

Shake & massage into dry scalp. Leave for 2 hours before hair is wet. = Small amount can be left in hair. Smell is not too bad and oils good for = hair.=20 Apply once a week for 3 weeks.

We find the combination of TREATMENT BLEND OIL & PREVENTATIVE OIL (1&3) = easiest to use.=20

These have proven very effective against head lice, and works better = than toxic alternatives.

another one:

100 mls vodka
Manuka oil 2 drops
Eucalyptus oil 2 drops
Aniseed oil 2 drops

do they work? No idea. never had headlice or nits to deal with.

[gilima]

NEEM OIL!!!

It really works!
3 years ago, we returned from a summer overseas with extra guests......:oops:
yup we had lice including my dd's with thick long hair...
combing is very important and should be done everyday till there are no more nits.

Neem oil has actually been studied and interferes with reproduction of the louse so that it breaks the cycle. It will probably not work in one day, but none of treatments do, even the ones that supposedly kill the lice, you still have to deal with the nits that hatch etc; etc;
I just added neem oil to every bottle of shampoo that entered my house and especially to conditioner which I would just leave in the little one's hair till the morning .
I forgot to add that neem oil is safe, can even be used on a baby and I've read that it has even been used for excema ;)

[Paper Cut]

I wonder why there seems to be an abundance of Nits now days? There doesnt seem to be a week that goes buy that one or another of the children in my husbands extended family (all primary age) are receiving "Nit Alerts" from school.

I had them ONCE as a child, (about 25 years ago!) and my younger brother and sisters haven't had them ever.. I also don't remember them being a major hassle at school, there was the odd offender (normally the really 'unhealthy' dirty looking kids) that seemed to always have them.. but that was it.

Whats changed? has all this chemical intervention caused super nits?

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

Yes, the nits are both more plentiful, and larger. A friend of mine in palmerston North comments that there were nit comes which zapped nits, but they no longer work on the super breeds.

[Seaweed]

I have always wondered if there is a nutritional or even genetic component to nits. I know with chickens some can have real bad poultry lice and some don't, even if they sleep next to each other on the perch at night. Certain breeds of chook, such as welsummers, are very susceptible to lice. The only time my kids got nits, i actually saw them crawling down dd2s parting. dd3 who hangs out with her. even sleeps in bed with her. had not one. I got rid of them with that moov stuff with aniseed oil mixed into it. We don't do the combs as we all have very long curly hair.

[Paper Cut]

Yes, the nits are both more plentiful, and larger. A friend of mine in palmerston North comments that there were nit comes which zapped nits, but they no longer work on the super breeds.


Super Nits! :hidee:

A friend of mine in Aucks does foster care for CYFS and seems these kids come with nits as standard issue. The combs I hear are actually quite painful (the zappy ones) they don't just zap the nit, they zap the poor kids scalp too.

[jul511riv]

I have always wondered if there is a nutritional or even genetic component to nits. I know with chickens some can have real bad poultry lice and some don't, even if they sleep next to each other on the perch at night. Certain breeds of chook, such as welsummers, are very susceptible to lice. The only time my kids got nits, i actually saw them crawling down dd2s parting. dd3 who hangs out with her. even sleeps in bed with her. had not one. I got rid of them with that moov stuff with aniseed oil mixed into it. We don't do the combs as we all have very long curly hair.

My friend swears that when she suppliments w/ vit c, nits dissappear.

no neem oil in Israel. :(

[ZGT Mummy]

Thanks for all this info. I went to the health shop and he gave me a tea tree oil solution to just rub through their hair each day. I didn't really want to make up my own as buying 3-4 different EO's would have cost a small fortune which I don't have.

Neem oil - we've got some of this in the garage I think that we spray on our citrus trees - is this the same thing? Obviously in a human prep form rather than a gardening one?

We definitely don't have them yet, but I am just such a mess with everything else going on I'd rather not have to go through the dramas of getting them so am just trying to prevent right now.

I never had them as a kid either, even though my best friend at the time had them a few times.

As for the vitamin C - well my kids get twice daily doses of SA so if that theory carries any weight then they'll be all good :-)

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

I wouldn't be using neem oil on my kids if they don't have nits.

[bluets]

The Robi comb! It's an electronic comb that gives a little zap to the nymphs and adults. Also, beyondpesticides.org has a protocol that suggests 30 minutes under a hair dryer will get over 90% of eggs and adults. (But who can get a kid to sit still for that long?) Tea tree oil will nab just around 85% of eggs.

We just went through this - and I was by far more affected than my buzzcut guys. I did a "drown them in oil with EOs" treatment for a few nights while I waited for the Robi comb to arrive on my doorstep. I was obsessed with laundry for a few days. Then when the Robi comb arrived, I started zapping. I've also added TTO to my shampoo and am regularly shampooing my hair for the time being. Once I've gone for a month without hearing a zapping sound, then I'll go back to my infrequent shampooing habit.

[Japonica]

One of my friends swears by the cetaphil lotion method. She had recurrent lice (ugh) at her house--four kids, three in public school, all reinfecting each other...basically everything she tried didn't work until she did the cetaphil. Her blog at the time was post after post of mutant tenacious lice. Only after the cetaphil method were they lice-free...

I found that someone wrote a letter to Pedatrics about it...

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/116/6/1612
Published online December 1, 2005
PEDIATRICS Vol. 116 No. 6 December 2005, pp. 1612 (doi:10.1542/peds.2005-2320)


When I published the preliminary results of my research on Nuvo lotion,1 I hoped that soon other researchers would independently evaluate and report on this new technique for treating head lice.2 The lotion is applied to the scalp, dried in place, and suffocates the lice. The reported results demonstrated a refreshingly simple way to cure head lice reliably: 96% effective, 94% long-term cure rate, nontoxic, and no extensive house clean-up or nit removal. The 96% cure rate reported for Nuvo lotion is superior to the cure rates most recently reported in the United Kingdom for permethrin (10%), malathion (17%), "Bug Busting" (57%), phenothrin (75%), and the newest pediculocide, dimethicone (73%).3,4 I have received >250 requests from health care practitioners from the United States and abroad for additional information about this treatment; however, no pharmaceutical company, university, or health care entity has stepped forward to perform such studies. I now have realized that practitioners who want independent information will need to try out the treatment themselves.

Here's the link with more info:

www.Nuvoforheadlice.com.

I have a bottle of cetaphil on hand in case we ever need it. We got four or five lice letters from school last year...

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

The Robi comb! It's an electronic comb that gives a little zap to the nymphs and adults. Also, beyondpesticides.org has a protocol that suggests 30 minutes under a hair dryer will get over 90% of eggs and adults. (But who can get a kid to sit still for that long?) Tea tree oil will nab just around 85% of eggs.

We just went through this - and I was by far more affected than my buzzcut guys. I did a "drown them in oil with EOs" treatment for a few nights while I waited for the Robi comb to arrive on my doorstep. I was obsessed with laundry for a few days. Then when the Robi comb arrived, I started zapping. I've also added TTO to my shampoo and am regularly shampooing my hair for the time being. Once I've gone for a month without hearing a zapping sound, then I'll go back to my infrequent shampooing habit.

NZ mothers report that our headlice appear to be a super breed not prone to zapping with the comb... :p

[bluets]

NZ mothers report that our headlice appear to be a super breed not prone to zapping with the comb... :p

glad i'm not there.

any thoughts about nutrition status and lice attractability?

[Seaweed]

any thoughts about nutrition status and lice attractability? you know i have asked this question before & no one has ever answered it. i know with chickens they can have loadsa lice & sleep next to another bird who has stuff all. Joe Salatin also bred susceptibility to fly warble i think it was out of his cattle so there is a definite genetic component. the only time my kids have had lice, i actually saw lice crawling down one's parting which is how i spotted them as no one had been itching. her hair was literally alive when i looked. the other had absolutely none & they used to hang out together & sleep together. both have long hair. oh & i know Pat coleby i think says lice in horses is a copper deficiency i think but i may have that wrong as it is from memory?

[bluets]

well, i got hit right after i took a whoppingly potent constitutional homeopathic remedy - the homeopath's goal was to clear out the psora (i.e. any lurking suppressed itch). my discovery of these fruit fly-sized beasts... well, it felt like it was a release of something. the few days prior to that discovery was very itchy with lots of flaky dandruff. nary a sign since (except empty egg cases still pasted onto my hair), and the dandruff is much improved even from well before the remedy.

[Momtezuma Tuatara]

You don't think of nits as something always there, and then released LOL

[Seaweed]

You don't think of nits as something always there, and then released LOL Shudder. NO!!!! Funny how parasites are the only thing which really freak me out.

[bluets]

silly... they weren't always there... but they could have been facilitating a release of something. but since it's not like we can do clinical trials or, really, even any further studies...