Head Lice Treatments

This is a great article about the hazards of over the counter or prescription medications to kill head lice. Although you may be tempted to rush out and buy a quick easy albeit not inexpensive treatment, please be aware of the potential dangers of such action.

Children are such tiny bodies.  They cannot stand much intake of toxins.  And please, do not communicate to your child that head lice is a dirty disgusting thing.  Do not make them feel that they are less because they picked up a nasty bug.  As you will read in this article, head lice like clean hair. At the end of the article I put in the link for natural cures.

Sharon

Eliminate Lice Safely - How to Choose a Head Lice Treatment

When a child is sent home with head lice or arrives with the dreaded head lice notice, all mothers feel the same panic rising from their pit of their stomach. Couple this with a little anxiety and some good old fashioned guilt, a bit of wondering how on earth this could happen to them and you have a parent primed to do whatever it takes to get rid of head lice, no matter what it is.

If you are anything like us, you’ll wonder how they contracted these parasites in the first place thinking, “But we’re not dirty, how on earth could we get lice?!”

Well we found out fairly quickly after a call to the pharmacy where the pharmacist informed us that head lice actually prefer clean hair, but will live anywhere. Dirty hair just makes it a little harder to move around that’s all. This is followed by the mandatory over the counter treatment of the day which is almost certainly a pesticide based preparation. Cha ching goes the cash register and out walks another drop to add to the 100 million dollar bucket, and that’s just in the US alone.

What most parents do not realise (just as we didn’t) is that these chemical products contain the same pesticides used in rat poison, lawn treatments, fly spray and other chemical agents which affect the central nervous system of both the pest, and unfortunately the host as well.

These chemical agents have the potential to do serious harm, even if used 100% as directed.

To make matters worse, our children are especially at risk because they have a higher percentage of scalp surface per kilo of body weight, so they absorb more of the chemical. Children’s immune systems are not as developed and don’t deal with toxic chemicals as well as adults, making them particularly vulnerable to toxic threats.

Parents need to be aware that just because they are prescribed or bought over the counter they may not be safe, in fact they may have the potential to cause serious harm, even if used as directed.

If you absolutely HAVE to use an over the counter or prescription pesticide for whatever reason, please use the following as a guide to choosing the safest possible treatment for use on your family.

Read the instructions through carefully and adhere to them strictly. When I was speaking to people to research my book I spoke to mothers that had left their chemical based head lice products on their children overnight. I read about one lady who had left it on overnight then woke in what felt like a brain fog with extremely sore muscles. She had felt extremely unwell, like she had been poisoned. Carefully follow the instructions and do not deviate from them in the slightest.

Avoid Lindane based preparations as though your life depends on it, as the case may very well be for your child. All pesticides are poisons, but Lindane has been proven to be carcinogenic (contain cancer causing agents) and cause brain tumours as well as a host of other problems, including blood disorders, damage to the liver, kidney, nervous and immune systems and DEATH. Although banned in 52 countries, this toxic chemical is the working ingredient in over 2 million prescriptions for head lice and scabies in the US.

   If the label says to not use the product more than once a fortnight, then do not use it more than once a fortnight. This one is very important as using pesticides more frequently than is required can be fatal.

   Do not use conditioner with head lice treatments as they reduce their effectiveness.

Head lice treatments were never meant to be used as a preventative measure. Do not simply treat your children for head lice because they may have been exposed to them. Besides being an overwhelmingly drastic measure and an unnecessary exposure to toxic chemicals they simply do not work in this way.

If a product does not work once, it is not going to work twice.    In fact, the lice that are not killed by that preparation reproduce into a super breed of lice almost totally resistant to that chemical. Instead, return the product to the store and report the chemical to the NPA – a not for profit organization for the safe treatment of head lice.

You may find this warning on the chemical head lice treatment: “Do not use if you have any cuts, scratches or inflammation…” such as that caused by head lice. Some also warn they should not be used if you have a pre-existing condition such as epilepsy, asthma, any immune dysfunction or allergies, also take care the chemical is not used on anyone who is sickly or weak.

If your child is under 3, do not use a pesticide based product on them PERIOD. The surface area of their heads and the absorption rate is off the charts as well as having almost NO resistance to the effects. The same goes if you are pregnant or nursing. The chemical is transferred through the placenta or breast milk directly to your baby.

Pesticide head lice treatments are for heads only, they are not for use on eyelashes or eyebrows. Use Vaseline and a cotton bud to cover these sensitive areas and smother the eggs and lice.

 When washing out chemical preparations, do it over the sink to reduce absorption from the rest of the body. Hang the head over the sink so the water washes down and hold a flannel over to protect the eyes.

Keep ALL pesticides out of the reach of children, including those for headlice. Some can be fatal if ingested.

The ONLY safe way to get rid of headlice permanently is to use a totally natural alternative to the chemical preparations. Try to choose a natural remedy containing Neem Oil as this renders the lice unable to breed, therefore making it impossible to build up a resistance.

Lesley Huntley is the loving Aunty of 2 beautiful children and the Author of [http://www.livelicefree.com]'Live Lice Free - The Head Lice Handbook.' She lives in New Zealand where she runs her [http://www.livelicefree.com]head lice treatment website and spoils her niece and nephew rotten. For more articles and information on our totally safe [http://www.livelicefree.com]head lice home remedy that kills head lice fast please visit our website.

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Now, want to know about a natural cure.

Three Natural Cures