Lice are parasitic insects that live in the human hair, the most common type being head louse. These insects survive by feeding on tiny amounts of blood drawn out from the scalp. Having head louse does not mean a person has a disease, although it can be annoying and can become a problem when it causes severe itchiness. Lice in hair is contagious and sometimes hard to get rid of. Also, frequent scratching because of their itchy bite can cause infection. Still, preventing your kids from having lice is better than trying all the remedies out for getting rid of this insect.
How to Detect Lice
Lice are very small, but you can still detect them. Symptoms of lice include the appearance of lice eggs, also called nits. These eggs can be seen sticking to the hair strands, and they are yellow, brown or tan. Some nits, however, can be seen neatly lying close to the scalp. This location is warm enough for them to survive until they hatch up to 2 weeks after they were laid. When the nits hatch, they will look like white shells attached to the hair.
Nymphs are simply baby lice that are really small but are still visible when you pay attention. Like adult lice, they can be seen crawling on the scalp. New nymphs hatch in about every 3 weeks, so it would be better to treat head lice as soon as you detect them.
To check for head louse, simply part your child’s hair into small sections. Check for nits in the hair and watch out for those adult lice, too. They are easy to catch if you are alert. If your child constantly scratches their head, it is possible that they have head lice.
How do Kids Get Lice?
It is a relief to know that lice cannot fly and easily transfer from one person to another. However, they are really good at crawling and they do it fast. There are 2 ways head lice can be spread:
- Direct Contact
It is when your child stays really close with another child and literally “put their head together” - for example, when kids hug each other. Now you don’t want to be that mother who would freak out whenever your child hugs their friends, right? The only solution for this is to watch out for when your kids starts to constantly scratch their head. This way, you can quickly treat head lice.
- Indirect Contact
Head lice can also spread through the personal items of an infected person. Stuffs like combs, scarves, hats and caps can carry lice. Even clothes can be a way for lice to spread when they are kept in a shared closet.
To prevent your kids from contracting lice through personal items, let them have their own hair brush, hair pins as well as hair ties, and tell them not to borrow personal items from their friends.
Lice Home Remedy
It is important to treat lice as soon as you learn about them. You doctor may advise you to have a special shampoo for killing these insects. Below are two home remedies you can try to get rid of lice.
- Olive Oil Treatment for Lice
Olive oil treatment is one of the simplest and the most effective home remedy for getting rid of head lice. Harvard School of Public Health once conducted a study involving olive oil and head lice. They found out that lice die of asphyxia after being submerged in olive oil for two hours. When olive oil covers the lice’s skin completely, they are deprived of oxygen, causing them to die.
Simply apply a generous amount of olive oil to your child’s hair and scalp. You may also wrap your child’s hair completely in plastic wrap. After 2-3 hours, wash your child’s hair with shampoo and rinse. Use head lice comb to your child’s hair to clean it from dead lice. You may repeat shampooing your child’s hair until the olive oil is totally gone.
After this treatment, you may see a few head lice crawling on your child’s scalp. Simply remove them manually, because like any other treatment, this may not work perfectly for some. Also, manually remove nits from your child’s hair to prevent them from reproducing.
- Vinegar Treatment for Lice
Precaution: If your child has red marks on the scalp as a result of scratching, you must avoid applying the vinegar on the scalp.
Olive oil treatment is best for adult lice. Now, it is not proven to work on nits but don’t worry - vinegar does the trick. Vinegar treatment is best for killing nits and might also work for nymphs. So before you do this vinegar treatment, it would be wise to go for the olive oil treatment first and get rid of the adult lice before killing their babies and eggs.
Vinegar is very effective for head lice because it has a 5% concentration of acetic acid, which can dissolve the shells of nits. This way, they can no longer stick to the hair as before, so you can remove them by using nit comb. A lot of patience is required for this treatment.
For this treatment you can use 3 types of vinegar: white vinegar, wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar.
Apply pure vinegar to your child’s hair. Get as close to the scalp as you can and focus on the hair behind the ears as well as to the nape area. Now rinse your child’s hair with 50-50 water and vinegar. The next step is important: comb your hair with lice comb to remove the nits. Vinegar can only dissolve the shell of the nits so you have to remove them manually. Repeat this treatment on the following days until you can no longer see lice eggs.
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