How to get rid of head lice for good and this is based upon lots of experience with head lice and head lice eggs also known as nits, in my own children's hair.
Head lice appear often in younger children's hair.
This is because they do lots of group play activities and sit on a mat in the classroom listening to the teacher.
Head lice do not fly, they are passed from child to child by direct contact with the hair.
So to prevent head lice one of the first things I would suggest if you have girls it to plait their hair for school.
Less swishy hair means they are less likely to brush their hair against a child that already is infected.
Head lice are brown or reddish coloured depending on when they last fed, and they feed on the blood from your child's scalp.
They leave a chemical once they have fed and this is what causes the itching as well as the head lice and their wee tickly legs.
The eggs are brownish and stick to the hair shaft.
Even when dead the eggs or nits can be difficult to remove and sometimes you will just need to use your fingers and pass the egg down the shaft of the hair onto something that you can then throw away or shake outside.
Removal of head lice is not for the squeamish.
The nurses all say use a nit comb, use tea tree oil and to use chemicals.
However this is the fail safe way to get rid of head lice but it will take a lot of your time over 7-10 days, if you slack off for one day then you may have weeks of head lice ahead of you..
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so do it properly.
First of all if you see nits or live ones go to your nearest pharmacy and buy the lotions full of chemicals to kill the live ones.
No chemical on the market will guarantee to kill all the eggs and that is the problem that needs fixing.
Go out and buy online the Nitty Gritty head lice comb.
It is absolutely brilliant as the combs do not break, they get the live head lice AND the eggs/nits and if at anytime it does break ( mine is now 4 years old and perfect) it will be replaced free of charge.
So a lifetime guarantee.
It is around £6.
50 but worth every penny.
It is something you should have in the cupboard if you have young children as the chance of you escaping head lice is slim, very slim.
Day one, treat your child with the chemicals following the instructions on the box.
Check other people in the house too, if it is a bad infestation with lots of live creatures then I personally think the whole house should be treated to prevent contamination from other members in the house.
Following the chemical treatment whilst the hair is wet or with lots of conditioner, as the Nitty Gritty comb does not work on dry hair, go through section by section your child's hair with the comb looking for the nits and live ones caught in the comb.
You will probably find some that the chemicals have not killed.
It is imperative that between day 1 and day 10 every day you wet your child's hair with either water or conditioner to help the comb slide through ( I repeat the comb will NOT work on dry hair) as you will find some of the eggs hatch during this time and it is essential that you find them before they reach the age of 5 days and are able to breed.
The comb will find these new hatchlings if you have bought the Nitty Gritty comb.
Wipe them onto tissue and then dispose of them down the toilet.
It is time consuming if your child has long hair and if you are working and juggling a family it can be very stressful but 10 days of your time is better than 10 weeks.
You MUST on day 7 use the chemicals again.
This is to finally destroy any hatchlings that have now hatched from eggs that the original chemicals did not destroy.
There won't be any new eggs if you have been combing each day as the hatchlings take around 5-7 days to become mature enough to breed.
Do not miss out this day 7 chemical treatment.
Between day 7-10 carry on with the wet combing in the evening or daytime, sunlight or a bright light is needed to check the comb after each sweep.
After day 7 you are very unlikely to find any more hatchlings or head lice and certainly no more nits.
Your child will now be free of head lice! So remember buy the nitty comb as it is strong and can find the eggs.
Plastic nit combs are absolute rubbish.
Buy the chemicals, this is a time when you don't need to be fretting about chemicals.
You use mosquito spray in the house, you smother your child with suntan lotion.
Use the chemicals..
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Wet comb everyday for ten days and find the bugs that have hatched from the eggs the chemicals did not kill.
The babies need to be KILLED before they start breeding and the cycle continues.
Repeat the chemical treatment after 7 days.
All the live ones will now be dead but continue wet combing for another 3 days just to be absolutely sure, particularly if your child had a bad infestation.
Religiously check for 2 weeks that they and other members of the family are clear.
If another member of the family has them then there is a strong chance their head has touched another family member and the horrible cycle will then continue..
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good luck.
There is hope.
By year 4, the time your child is 8 head lice incidents are much rarer.
Head to head contact is decreased as children don't sit on the floor so much in the classroom and their out of school activities are less likely to see head to head contact too.
Less time on playgrounds and soft play areas etc.
Head lice can survive submerged in swimming pools without any problem.
They basically cling on so swimming in pools will not get rid of head lice and neither will it cause your child to catch them.
The head lice will just cling on..
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they are really good at doing that.
They are also programmed to climb, so if one is knocked on the floor they will climb until they find a head of hair, clean or dirty, clean is easier for them to climb on.
So kill all live creatures you find down the toilet to be sure they won't find a host.
They can survive around 36 hours without blood.
I used to wash my children's pillowcases each day when they had an infestation to be sure there were no eggs that had been left waiting to hatch etc.
Just made me feel better.
Good luck!