Question:
I hope someone can help me with a problem:
We are undergoing our second bout with head lice in our two young (about
2.5 and 4.5 years) girls. My friends say this is a common problem with
their kids, as do our day care providers. The only solution we have is to
use Nix shampoo, and to painstakingly remove every single nit from their
hair. The combs that come with Nix don't get all of them, you really have
to sit down and go over the whole head, snipping out nits with scissors.
Does anyone have any better solutions, e.g. a shampoo that is not as toxic
to people as Nix? (Apparently it is a realy bad idea to use Nix more than
once in two weeks, but one application doesn't nail the little suckers.
Also is this an epidemic of the nineties? I don't remember this hapening
when I was a kid. Thanks for any info.
Answer:
Our family went through a similar experience in 1992. I was meticulous
about picking each nit out of the hair shafts to ensure there would be no
reinfestation. After the third bout of reinfestation, I learned the nits
are killed by the Nix, and removal is only for your own satisfaction. I
also learned placing items in the garage for three to four days
would kill the lice, as they need human hosts to survive for longer than
three days. I thought this was an easier approach than
washing and disinfecting many items such as pillows. Interestingly, I found
that pets do not carry head lice. It is also infrequent for
African-American cultures to carry them.
