No child or parent ever wants to deal with the problem of head lice. The tiny parasites are notoriously difficult to get rid of, and they can spread quickly if they go unchecked. There are treatments available that will kill the lice and their eggs, but many of those require prescriptions, and those that can be bought over-the-counter can still be pretty expensive. They also contain poisons that can be harmful to some children. Some of the ingredients used in most lice treatments have been banned for use on crops as insecticides, and many of them are flammable. In short, some lice treatments are much like spraying a child with a can of Raid. Any parent should be able to recognize that this is a very bad idea, yet many parents use the equivalent when their child comes home from school with a bad case of head lice.
Fortunately for anybody who has ever had a problem with lice, there are plenty of safe and inexpensive ways to kill head lice that are just as effective as any prescription-strength lice poison on the market. Here are just a few remedies that are worth a try.
<b>1) Mayonnaise</b>
One great way to get rid of head lice is to smother them in mayonnaise. All you need to do is grab a new jar of mayonnaise that hasn’t been refrigerated and smear a few handfuls into the child’s hair. Make sure to rub it in all over the child’s head, including behind the ears and down the neck slightly. Cover the child’s hair with a shower cap to keep the mayonnaise and the lice in the hair for about two hours. This will smother the lice and the developed eggs. Once the two hours have passed, remove the shower cap and throw it away. Have the child wash his or her hair thoroughly with shampoo. The hair may need to be washed a few times in order to get rid of all the mayonnaise.
This can be a very effective and safe way to get rid of most of the grown head lice in a child’s hair. However, it should be noted that you should be using mayonnaise; Miracle Whip simply will not work.
<b>2) Vaseline</b>
Much like mayonnaise, Vaseline can be used to smother lice and developed eggs in a child’s hair. This remedy is actually very similar to the mayonnaise method in that you should be taking handfuls of Vaseline and rubbing it all over the child’s head and covering the hair with a shower cap. Vaseline has an advantage over mayonnaise in that it can be left in a child’s hair overnight. Mayonnaise starts to spoil and become toxic if it is left out for too long, which is why it should never be left in anybody’s hair for longer than a couple of hours.
The only problem with using Vaseline to kill head lice is that it is much more difficult to wash out. The only way to wash Vaseline out of hair is to saturate the hair with baby oil and squeeze out as much of the Vaseline as possible. The hair should then be washed thoroughly with Dawn dish soap three times, with the soap left in the hair for a few minutes each time.
<b>3) Natural Homemade Lice Shampoo</b>
If you aren’t keen on slathering your hair or your child’s hair with mayonnaise or Vaseline to get rid of head lice, it is possible to make a natural shampoo that will get rid of head lice. Start with five teaspoons of either olive oil or coconut oil. Add five drops of the following essential oils: tea tree, peppermint, rosemary, eucalyptus and lavender. Finish the mixture off with a little bit of regular shampoo and add the final product to your child’s hair much like with the mayonnaise or the Vaseline. Keep the shampoo in the hair for an hour underneath a shower cap or towel before rinsing it out. After shampooing, rinse the child’s hair with vinegar to loosen any eggs that may remain and comb the hair thoroughly with a nit comb, a small comb intended to remove lice eggs.
It should be noted that this natural shampoo shouldn’t be used for children under five years of age. The respiration of such a young child can be slowed down or even stopped by the scent of the peppermint or the eucalyptus oil, so reserve this remedy for older children.
Source:
http://lacetoleather.com/ridlice.html