Yuch...

Head lice...yuch.  You may be asking what would prompt me to do a post on such a gross subject.  Fortunately, I am not writing this post based on personal experience with my own kids (knock on wood).  Rather, this post is a result of this post about a super strain of head lice as well as the increase number of recent cases in my area.  As a mom, I thought I'd better educate myself a bit more on what it is, how you catch it and, most importantly, how to get rid of it.

Have you ever seen lice?  If not, take a look:

Makes my head itch just looking at it.  I don't want to re-invent the wheel here by going into an elaborate discussion of the basics of head lice, especially since you can find all the information you need here. 

Many families I have worked with in the past report that the over the counter lice kits often don't work as well as some of the homemade remedies.  In addition, there are some parents who don't like the idea of using lots of chemicals on their child's head.  As a result, I thought I'd share some homemade remedies that I have heard over the years:

• mayonnaise
• baby oil
• vinegar
• listerine

You can find more home remedies and the application process of the above here.  Do you have a home remedy to share?  Post it here!

Comments

[Ashley]

Hi there! I sent you an email regarding new BlogHer ads code. Would you get back to me about it? Or, of course, if you didn't receive it? Old ads are being shut off this week. Thanks!

[Jen@BigBinder]

I don't have any home remedies, but I was contacted by Lice MD which has natural ingredients to do a blog post. Thankfully, I haven't had to try it but I have a box on the shelf just in case; the post was from quite a while ago so I'm sure the stuff is in the stores by now.

[Daniel]

What a lousy situation to be in; these festive beasts through parties on our head without license, contracted without contract.

Actually I caught lice twice as a kid--both times for playing in the ditch. I didn't mind the itching so much, and I was impervous to stigma, but my mother told me to tell nobody I had contracted lice.

I think children are not so concerned with these "shames"--that they must be quarentined from their friends because they are dirty and diseased--but react to the parent's of the friends who raise a nose about the lousy kid.