Have you ever heard of expression "nitpicking"? If you never knew what "nit" meant, it's the egg of the head louse. If anyone in your family has ever had a case of it, you'll know what it looks like to nitpick - carefully trying to get the eggs out of someone's hair. If you look out for your children's general health, you can bet on it; if they like normal activities at school or at camp, there is little chance that they will be spared a case or two of the head lice over the period of their childhood. If you are contemplating sending your children to camp now or ever, here are a few healthy hair tips to keep the headlines the way.
Here's the way it is - about 10 million children get head lice each year. Those wretchedly tiny little vermin can very easily move from head to head over a pillow on a bed, through communal hats, clothes and other articles. Certainly, no one is ever going to get sick because of head lice; but for a relatively harmless affliction (it itches horribly, and having it can be a source of social stigma), it certainly attracts fanatic and passionate hatred from parents. Getting rid of lice is a billion-dollar industry in this country. First line treatment doesn't really cost that much; but head lice can be very stubborn, and those cases can be very expensive to get rid of. What options you have to get rid of children's head lice.
To begin with, if your child seems to have a case of head lice, make sure that it isn't dandruff. The two look "remarkably similar if you are not careful. Here's how to check - if it is dandruff, you can easily brush ot off any hair shaft. If they are nits, no amount of brushing will move them.
The drugstore is full of louse-killing shampoos; they aren't expensive either - maybe $10 a bottle. And you'll have excellent results with them. They'll clear the lice right out of your child's hair. So why is there such a market for expensive treatments? Here's the rub - shampoos get rid of lice; they do nothing about the nits though. So once the nits hatch and new lice come out, you'll have the same problem all over again. Effective healthy hair tips for head lice will not worry as much about the lice - it's the nits they will be after.
There are natural alternatives too. How about olive oil, or mayonnaise for instance? If your child happens to have a case of pesticide-resistant lice, these sticky substances are believed to suffocate the lice. There's another choice in a Cetafil helmet. Of course, the natural alternatives are a little more labor-intensive. You'll still need to nitpick and use a tooth comb to drive out the lice.
What if you're worried about not just about healthy hair tips for your family? What if you are worried that the lice can get all over your house and attack your pets too? Not to worry. These are lice are not bedbugs. If they don't have a head to live on, they die in a couple of days. And head lice that attack humans are allergic to pet blood. So all you need to do is to pay attention to a few healthy hair tips, wash all the lice out after the louse problem is gone, and you're good to go.