head lice....coconut oil????

[Willo]

So my 4 year old seems to have brought home some friends from playschool. I checked his hair today to discover he has head lice. There have been a few reported cases in his school already.
So I bought a lice comb and pesticide free treatment and did his head. However I am still worried about the chemicals in it and decided to research more natural methods of irradicating them.
I came across some stuff online that said coconut oil can be used to treat them and as it is all natural was thinking it might be a good idea to treat us all to be sure they are gone.
So has anyone used coconut oil for head lice? Was it effective? Any tips or pointers?
Thanks.

 

[beetroot]

My son had them twice and I didn't use any chemicals or shampoos. I just put loads of conditioner on his hair (he had long hair though) and used the Nitty Gritty NitFree Comb. It's not cheap, about £12 but it really works. When he was in nursery/reception I would use it once a week, even if he didn't have them, just because they were rife in school at that age. HTH

 

[Rachel_C]

Eeeeek crawlies make me shiver. I'm dreading when I find them in LO's hair, which I know I will at some point!

I haven't used coconut oil but have read it works, and I've also read that using soapnuts as shampoo helps too as it repels nasty little critters. I'll be giving that a go if needed, you can just boil some soapnuts in a pan for 20 mins until the water is brown then use it as shampoo (you can use some cornflour to thicken it if you want) or maybe just use it as a final rinse.

 

[lily28]

I hear that all kinds of oil (olive oil for instance) will work, but it is hard to get it off the hair.
Remember to rinse with vinegar after every washing it really really works!

 

[Willo]

I saw that Nitty Gritty nit comb and was thinking.of investing in it. I find some of the other ones just don't get the eggs out at all.
Thanks for the tip about the vinegar. Will give that a go as ds loks like a drowned rat atm even after lots of washes. I'll put some in his hair next time and see if that helps. He has long hair too. Mine is very very long so gonna be a lot of work to get through. My Mum had a look yesterday and didn't see anything but they can be hard to spot too, especially with all the hair I have. A bit of coconut oil and a good rinse actually soulds like a bit of a treat to me now.
I've not heard about the soap nuts thing but it's handy to know. I don't have any at home though so I'll prob try the coconut oil first as I have a big jar I just bought.

 

[SerenityNow]

Combing is the best way to get rid of them because you need to get the nits out. When my kids had them I started with olive oil but then just used conditioner because the oil was so hard to wash out. I also found a saline gel for lice that worked wonderfully to kill the adults and made our hair really shiny and nice.

If you have a hair straightener and you child will sit still for it, the heat will kill the nits and make the whole ordeal end a lot sooner.

 

[MrS. MaBrEy]

When I was a kid my parents couldn't afford lice shampoo. My mom would slather my head with Vasaline, leave it on for 24 hours with a shower cap, and then wash my hair 15 or 20 times with dawn dish washing liquid followed by a good comb with a nit/bug comb. I imagine that coconut oil would work just as well as long as you get ALL the nits out.

 

[summer rain]

Tea tree oil shampoo followed by loads of tea tree oil conditioner, stick some extra tea tree oil in there for good measure (no more than about 5 drops though). Leave the conditioner in as long as possible, preferably overnight (may have to put a hat on him) and then comb it out with a fine tooth nit comb before rinsing. There have been some studies that tea tree oil isn't good for pubescent boys as it can do something to mimic female hormones and cause them problems if used regularly but in younger boys and as hopefully a one or two off nit treatment it should be totally fine. Boots used to do a really good tea tree shampoo and conditioner for only a couple of quid but sadly they don't seem to sell it anymore. My sister had really bad headlice several times because she went to a school where none of the parents checked and she had really lovely thick curly hair, but this really worked where dangerous organophosphate shampoos had failed. One time there were handfuls of dead headlice in the sink, disgusting but showed it clearly worked! My mum only had to repeat the treatment once as there were unhatched eggs and obviously they hatched; but only 5 lice came out that time xx

 

[lovemyDD]

I agree with the conditioner advise, I had read that you can do it by putting lots of conditioner massaging to hair and scalp then choose a starting point and brush with a nitty comb in one direction and remove the excess by using a towel(white is recommended so you can see if lice are being removed.) After that repeat the procedure , on every section that you made. Hope this helps!

 

[qpaulina42]

I'd be careful about tea tree oil just because it's so strong and has a strong smell (it's essentially about 40% camphor or turpentine like substance. I personally get very sick from the smell and kids are supposed to have a more sensitive olfactory system than us.

That being said, when I had lice my grandma covered my head with kerosine and made me sit with it for hours on a train ride home. The brushing afterwards was very memorable agony. I'm amazed my scalp did not dissolve...

 

[Willo]

Well at the moment we seem to be lice free. YAY!!!

I didn't have to do my lo's hair or mine however I was advised by my local health food shop to be careful with using tea tree products on my lo as he has eczema and tea tree can be a little harsh on skin.

I'm still thinking of using a tea tree oil based spray on my older son's hair (just a couple of drops diluted in a spray bottle) before he goes into play school as it is supposed to be a good repellent. I have a feeling that there are kids that are not being treated properly, so there is a chance he could get re-infected when he goes back in otherwise.

Fingers crossed that it works. Will be checking his head regularly to be sure.

Thanks for all the advice and I will be using coconut oil and nit combs if we are unlucky enough to have the visitors back again.

 

[Rota]

We use the 'conditioner and comb' method and then we bought a 'repellent spray' (water and teatree oil spray) which we spray on DD hair and so far so good *crosses fingers*



But now im sitting here scratching away like a mad woman, to the point where i had to get the comb out to check

 

[AnneD]

Have read the whole thread and am itching now. Better memorize all the tricks for any future times of need.