Let’s face it; lice are a hassle to deal with. Not only do they make your child’s head itchy, but they can be easily transferred to other people in the household.
While they are relatively harmless, that doesn’t make them more fun to evict from your home.
Here are some ways to effectively treat a lice infestation in your house.
Over-the-Counter Lice Medication
This is the first stop for most parents to get rid of lice.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to pick up an ineffective medication, costing you time and money in the process.
You want to make sure that you are picking out a product that will kill both the lice and their eggs; see Healthline for types of products.
All too often, medications will kill the adult lice, and you’ll end up with more of them in just a few days or weeks.
When picking out an over-the-counter solution, try to find something that works for “super lice.” Not only will this application kill both lice and eggs, but it will also get rid of lice that are resistant to other treatments.
Shave Your Child’s Head
While this may not be a viable option for all children, one of the most effective ways of getting rid of lice inexpensively is to destroy their habitat.
Lice need a host to live on, and if there is no hair, there’s no place for them to live.
Understandably, most girls may be hesitant about having their heads shaved. While boys will probably be more open to this solution, not all will want to part with their hair either.
Professional Treatment
Probably one of the best options on this list is to have your child seen by a professional. Places like Hero Lice Clinics offer effective, non-toxic treatments to get rid of head lice. Not only will they treat your child for lice, but they will comb through your child’s head thoroughly to remove dead lice and nits.
This means you won’t have to ask your child to have their head shaved. However, it will require a bit of patience since the appointments can run for about an hour. It’s completely worth it, though, to alleviate some of the stress from the lice removal process.
Smother the Lice
People often refer to the process of saturating the hair with oil and then combing out the lice and nits as “smothering” lice.
Whether or not it suffocates the lice is debatable, says Science Daily, but either way, it stops them from moving around so you can get them out with a comb.
The oil also helps when it comes to getting the nits off of the hair shaft.
This method is easy enough to separate the hair into sections and coat the hair with either olive or almond oil.
Things like mayonnaise or Vaseline can be challenging to wash out, so avoid using those oil-based products.
Go through the hair with a nit comb until you’ve entirely covered and combed the entire head.
Once you’re done, wash your child’s head with their regular shampoo.
You may need to do this twice to get all of the oil out.
Additionally, you may need to use this method more than once to see results.
Although lice are a nuisance, they don’t have to be incredibly difficult to get rid of.
Make sure that you buy the right medicine if you’re going to use an over-the-counter product.
Smothering the lice is also another viable option, but it may require many applications to be effective.
While shaving your child’s head is 100% effective, not all children will want to get their hair cut that short. Professional treatment may be costly, but it’s also guaranteed to be effective and will save you a ton of time and energy.