Preevntion following are steps that can be taken to help prevent and control the Efrective of head lice: Avoid head-to-head Effective lice prevention contact preveention play and other Performance recovery supplements for athletes Eye-healthy antioxidant rich foods home, school, and elsewhere sports activities, playground, slumber parties, camp. Nits are the eggs of the lice. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Follow these treatment steps:. Is It Possible to Prevent Lice Eggs from Hatching? Repellents are solutions infused with scents that lice find repugnant such as tea tree oilrosemary, or lavender. How to manage head lice.

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Many medicines are left on for 10 minutes. Do not use more or keep it on the head longer than what is recommended. Wash the hair with regular shampoo. Do not use a conditioner. It can keep the lice medicine from working.

Rinse well with warm water and towel dry. Do not use the towel again until it has been laundered. Use a regular comb to get out any snarls. This comb will need to be treated later see Environmental Control below. Wear gloves and apply lice medicine only to the scalp. Avoid getting the medicine on other parts of the body.

If it gets in the eyes, flush the eyes with water right away. Stay with your child while the medicine is on the hair. Sometimes it will be easier to remove the nits if you wet the hair with white vinegar while you are combing the nits out.

Vinegar helps loosen the "glue" that holds the nits to the hair. Separate and comb small sections of hair at a time. Use a nit comb to remove the nits.

Metal ones work best. Combing can take more than an hour, depending on hair length and the number of nits. You may have to pick out the nits with gloved hands if other methods do not work.

Place nits and lice in toilet and flush or place in a small plastic bag. Seal the bag and throw it away. If lice are still active and no dead lice are found, call your health care provider. These lice may be resistant to the medicine. Do not use more than one head lice medicine at a time without asking your doctor.

Do not rewash hair for 1 to 2 days after the lice treatment. It may reduce the effectiveness of the lice medicine. Continue to check hair and use the nit comb to remove nits and lice every 2 to 3 days for 2 to 3 weeks. This process should be done for as long as nits and lice are still found on the head.

Many lice medicines recommend a second treatment in 9 to 10 days. This will kill any new nymphs that have hatched since the first treatment. Do not treat a person more than 2 times with the same medicine without talking to your doctor.

If all nits are not removed, they may hatch into live lice. The hair will be re-infested and you will have to start the treatment process all over again. There are two types of medicine that you can buy without a prescription.

At times, the medicine does not work. If the lice do not die after treatment, you can suspect resistance. Nix Cream Rinse® permethrin based product This medicine is put on hair that has been shampooed and towel dried.

After 10 minutes, the medicine is rinsed off. Nix Creme Rinse® kills lice, but not the nits. It is the favored medicine because it may continue to kill newly hatched lice for a few days after treatment.

A second treatment is needed on day 9 to kill newly hatched lice. It can be used on children 2 months of age or older. It kills lice and not the nits. A second treatment is needed on day 9 or It cannot be used on children younger than 2 years. In addition, it should not be used by people who are allergic to chrysanthemums or ragweed.

Pyrethrin based products could cause a serious allergic reaction. Avoid using mayonnaise, olive oil, tea oils, petroleum jelly, margarine, or butter. These alternative treatments aim to suffocate the lice. They have not been proven to be effective and may be hard to wash out of the hair.

The doctor may order a prescription lice medicine if the over the counter medicine does not work. A prescription medicine might be needed for treating lice in a very young child. These medicines have chemicals that are different than the over-the-counter medicines.

The directions for using them may be different. Some may require only one treatment. They often cost more and may not be covered by insurance.

If using the prescription medicine Ovide® Malathion , do not use a hairdryer after treatment. Malathion has flammable ingredients that could set the hair on fire. Machine-wash in hot, soapy water then dry. Use the hot cycle of a dryer for at least 20 minutes.

Wash all washable clothing including hats, scarves and coats and all bed linens, towels and washcloths that have had contact with your child in the past 3 days.

Vacuum all carpets and furniture, including beds. This will remove any hairs that might have nits attached that are still alive. Do not spray insecticides on carpet and furniture nor hire a pest control company to treat your home. It is not necessary and could expose children to harmful chemicals.

Pillows, stuffed animals, clothing and other things that cannot be washed may be dry-cleaned. Or you can put them in a tightly-sealed plastic bag for 3 days Picture 1. Any nits or lice on these things will die in 2 days.

Check the hair and scalp of all family members every 2 to 3 days by combing the hair until no live lice are found for 10 days.

It is not necessary to treat anyone unless they have lice. Treatment that is not needed increases resistance to the lice medicine. Tell parents of your child's closest friends that their children may also have lice since the children play together.

Tell the school nurse at your child's school. It found that, while tea tree oil did cause some repellence, the compound and the botanicals failed to prevent lice. A study in Turkey took head lice samples from school children and tested them in Petri dishes. They put drops of essential oil extracts, including rosemary, lemon, lemongrass, and geranium, on the lice samples and took measurements for 24 hours.

The researchers found that rosemary was more effective than the other oils in treating lice. However, the limitation is that this was an in-vitro study, which means it was done in a lab rather than tested directly on humans.

If you or your child has lice, rosemary oil may still not be effective enough to treat it. Interestingly, an older study found that a topical product with slow-release citronella was more effective than a placebo at treating lice on children. However, the scientists only included participants, and 95 took the placebo.

Another in-vitro study found that eucalyptus could be helpful against lice. However, there have yet to be conclusive human studies and or any indication of the best topical form and at what concentration it would be effective.

Based on this research, essential oil spray may not be a good choice for preventing or treating lice. While most sprays and do-it-yourself formulations on the market contain essential oils, some products use other ingredients.

One of these is N,N-diethylmethylbenzamide, commonly known as DEET. This is an active ingredient in many repellent products. However, the evidence for it is questionable.

For example, one study found that DEET did not prevent lice. The researchers argued that, while lice growth slowed, this was because of the slippery nature of DEET and oils used in the study rather than their capability to defeat and prevent lice growth.

Another option is caprylyl glycol , or octanediol. This ingredient is common in skin care products. Some sprays and products labeled as lice prevention contain a higher amount of caprylyl glycol as their active ingredient.

However, the data is minimal. Piperonal is an organic compound commonly found in fragrances. Finally, some lice prevention products contain ethyl butylacetylaminopropionate, or IR, a repellent, as their main ingredient.

A study tested a spray product containing IR on lice and found it to be effective at killing them. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention CDC and the Food and Drug Administration FDA , there are ways to reduce the chance of getting lice, but it has more to do with behaviors than products.

There are many lice-prevention sprays available. Most of these either contain essential oils or other chemicals like DEET. However, there are not enough studies to conclude that these sprays are effective.

The best way to protect yourself and your family from lice is to apply behaviors that make it difficult for lice to grow, such as properly disinfecting hair tools and toiletries. Our experts continually monitor the health and wellness space, and we update our articles when new information becomes available.

Read about how coconut oil may be used to treat head lice. Learn about over-the-counter and prescription medications that can stop a lice outbreak. Lice are definitely not the sort of guests you want in your home. You may only have a few head lice. How many lice and lice eggs may depend on how long they've been there.

The color of a nit lice egg can tell you how close it is to hatching. Learn what the different colors mean. The tools and techniques you use to get rid of lice can make a big difference in the effectiveness of combing. Here's what you need to know.

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