NITMIX

All too frequently we get messages saying that children
don’t want to go to school because they have been teased
about having head lice, even that the school staff have
made children feel bad about this very common condition.

We do our best to help solve the head lice problem quickly
and permanently however we realise that we are not experts
in child behaviour and that this anxiety about head lice may
be something that needs expert help.

A friend of ours thankfully specialises in helping children
with this sort of problem and opened out eyes as to the vast
number of reason why children sometimes just don’t want to
go to school. He has kindly provided us with this article on
the subject

School Refusal, by Dr. Noel Swanson

A reader writes:

“How do I get my nine-year-old daughter to school? She seems
to have tummy aches or headaches constantly, and misses
several days of school each week. Any suggestion that she
must go and she screams and cries and seems to be genuinely
afraid of going to school. What can we do?”

Situations like this require a firm hand. Do not be tempted
to wait and hope that she will eventually go to school by
herself. If left too long, she may never go back (seriously,
it can happen!).

At the same time, recognise that her anxiety and distress
are genuine. Getting angry at her will not work.

Try to work out if her fear is about going to school (school
phobia), leaving you or home (separation anxiety), or going
into crowded public places (agoraphobia).

If it might be the first, check if she is being bullied,
teased, embarrassed, or abused at, or on the way to, school.
Work closely with the teachers to identify and deal with any
problematic situations.

Take her to the doctor for a complete physical examination.
Tell the doctor the whole story and ask him to rule out any
serious illnesses.

Once the doctor has done this, believe him! Do not chase
after ever more expensive tests. From this point onwards
your assumption is that the child is well and so should be
in school. Give her firm and confident reassurance that both
she and you will be fine when she is there. If she complains
again of being unwell you then have two options:

The first is that you insist that she go to school unless
there is clear, measurable, evidence that she is sick, for
example having a temperature, obvious diarrhoea and
vomiting, etc. Just “feeling unwell” is not enough to miss
school, after all, many adults have to go to work with
headaches or other symptoms.

The second option is to “believe” her. Since she says she is
too unwell to go to school, then clearly she is too unwell
to be up and about the house. If she is sick then she is
sick, and so she goes to bed: lights off, curtains closed,
no TV, no special snacks. Ignore her and go about your
normal daily routine. Make sure that the option of staying
home is boring. If she is not sleeping then, ideally she
should be doing some school work. Certainly there should be
no friends or visitors to entertain her.

Along with this, set up clear incentives (rewards,
privileges) for getting to school.

You must be tough and firm, but also calm, about all of
this. Be clear that you expect her to be at school, but do
not get into a fight with her about it. The goal is for her
to want to get back as quickly as possible. Once there, and
she discovers that nothing does happen to her or to you
while at school, the symptoms of depression and anxiety
should rapidly resolve.

If none of this works, or if you are concerned about a
serious depression or anxiety disorder, seek professional
help through your family doctor.

But please, don’t just hope it will go away on its own. You
need to take some decisive action.

Dr. Noel Swanson, Consultant Child Psychiatrist and author
of “The GOOD CHILD Guide”, specializes in children’s
behavioural difficulties and writes a free newsletter for
parents. He can be contacted through his website:
Good-child-guide.com

Parents looking for good head lice advice often become
confused and dis-heartened by conflicting adice on head
lice. Here is a typical example from a our correspondence
files.

—– Original Message —–
To: “NITMIX”
From: “Kim *****”
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 8:31 PM

I am getting more and more confused with the conflictin
“reports” I am reading from internet websites and their
“cures” for head lice.

I found live and I mean “live” large lice on my daughters
long haired stuffed toy cat after 48hours of being sealed
in an airtight plastic bag after being left in the sun
(30C plus). IF they can survive this then why can they not
survive inside the house in normal temperatures and living
conditions.

I have however taken to your advice that the only way to
remove these crtitters is to remove them manually and I
am now sure that there is more than one way to “skin a cat”.

These are good questions and they need a clear answer,
here goes!

The sealing in an air tight bag thing is nonsense.
Lice aspirate very slowly. They are less than one tenth
of one cubic millimetre in volume and only a small part
of that are ” Lungs” so a bag full of air would last them
weeks !! A louse will not suffocate in a bag.

Lice can also suspend their breathing for several hours so,
so called, smothering techniques don’t work very well either.

Lice live happily on humans in every part of the planet.
Normal temperatures range from minus 10 degrees Celsius to
over 40 degrees Celsius in different parts of the world and
lice are fine. 30 Degrees is nothing to a louse.

Head lice die when off their humans hosts because they run
out of fluids, that die of dehydration long before they run
out of food or energy. In very dry conditions a louse that
had not fed before it left the body would die relatively
quickly, probably a few hours.

A well fed louse in relatively humid air could last for a
couple of days. It all depends on the conditions.

If you can get off the hook that you need to kill lice you
will save yourself a lot of heartache. JUST TAKING THEM OFF
is fine. You don’t need to kill them which is a tough thing
to do.

Sound to me like you are on the right track and asking the
right questions.

Good luck

John Owen

Head lice treatments don’t always bring instant results
but that is not the same as failure. When customers
contact us for re-assureance about NITMIX head lice
treatment it is often an opportunity to bring out some
information that will benefit other users too.

Here is an example from a mom in England.

Sent: Saturday, January 22, 2005
Subject: NITMIX SOLUTION

I brought some of your Nitmix products before Christmas
and may I say how quickly these items were delivered to me.

I was at my wits end, my daughter has had lice constantly
for months and now my son has also had them on and off.
I have used your Nitmix Combing Aid and have been astounded
by the results and the amount of lice that it removed in
the first go.

However, even though the amount of lice on the head have
reduced and I am spraying their heads each morning with the
diluted solution of the drops, they are still bringing
headlice home. It seems that the school constantly has an
outbreak of this, I was just wondering if I was using the
product correctly, or if other children are still bringing
them into school, I can’t really do much about it, other
than keep combing my childrens hair as I have been doing.

However, I would still like to state that your product has
most definitely been the best I have tried on my childrens
hair. Any further thoughts would be most gratefully
acknowledged.

Best regards

Amanda F

Here is our answer To A*****

Thank you for your message. We can work out what is
really going on from what you observe.

Because this method of combing takes out all sizes of
head lice in the hair it is like getting a snap shot of
the lice population present at an time.

For example. If you have very recently comb the hair as
we direct using the NITMIX Wet Combing Aid but then you
suddenly find adult lice in the children’s hair you can
be absolutely certain that these are newly arrived from
another chills head.

There is no way an adult louse slipped through the comb
and no way that a juvenile louse or a newly hatch louse
could suddenly jump to this size. Hence it is a new
arrival and the children’s friend are the most likely
source.

If you find tiny juvenile head lice a few days after
a combing session this tells that there were still a
few viable eggs attached the hair somewhere and these
have now hatched.

Juvenile head lice ( like tiny grains of sand) have
always been born on the head you find them on as it is
utterly beyond their capability to move from head to
head at this size.

Finding these baby lice is no problem because you will
scoop them out long before they can mature and lay any
eggs themselves.

If you find a mixture of sizes even after several combing
sessions it indicate both things are happening. That you
still need to remove the late hatchlings from the last
viable eggs on that head and that someone closer to your
child is topping them back up with new adult lice.

In this situation we recommend that you quietly and
gently carry on combing your child but also have a quick
comb of everyone else’s hair. You can be amazed who else
may unknowingly have head lice. So far we have discovered
it to be brothers, sisters, moms,dads, granny and the
child minder!

The great thing about combing out head lice with the
NITMIX Wet Combing Aid is that you are always making
progress towards your target of clean healthy lice free
hair and any discovery is a positive step toward your
goal.

Whatever you discover in your chills hair it is good
because you have removed it and it also helps you
understand just where you are in the removal process.

I think you are doing fine. Just space a few combing
sessions nor further than a couple of days apart and
you will be in the clear.

Keep up the daily spraying because you want any new
arrivals (head lice) to think that they have arrived in
a very unsuitable new home and hence don’t start laying
eggs or feeding. You will soon scoop them out and put
them down the drain where they belong.

It was a very good and sensible question to ask and I
am sure you will use the answer to polish of this problem
very quickly.

Regards

John Owen

Head lice advice guy