Bad head lice advice gets around faster than good advice.
This is a short correspondance between NITMIX and
a school nurse charged with updating the schools
approach to the old head lice problem.
Trouble is she is questioning the existing wisdoms
and is having a hard time getting parents to
question what they are doing.
My favourite experssion for this situation is
” When you are in a hole, stop digging!”
But do they? Even when firnished with objective
evidence to help them see beyond repeating
the same stuff that hasn’t worked?
We will see. Here is the exchange as it is occured.
“Hi, John,
This lice treatment is currently circulating though our
schools and I understand even some of our physicians
are giving it to their patients. According to information
on your web site, it won’t work.
1. Soak hair in vinegar for 20 minutes. (1 tsp./ 1 qt. water)
rinse.
2. Comb out with fine tooth comb (to get rid of nits or pick
them out with your fingers.)
3. Rinse.
4. Put olive oil or cooking oil on hair and cover with shower
cap overnight.
5. In morning wash out with shampoo.
6. Repeat in 1 week - Make sure hair, clothes, bedding etc.
is cleaned.
7. Please contact your physician if any problems arise.
Our latest head lice victim is a month old girl. I am running
into a lot of resistance and disbelief when I tell our moms
and our staff it is not necessary to scrub the house, spray
the furniture and wash the bedding.
Instead they should concentrate on heads. They look at me
like I am stupid.
I guess that, with these kinds of attitudes, head lice are
guaranteed a secure future.
Helen S*********, RN
Early Head Start
Health Services Co-ordinator
Hi Helen
Vinegar over 5% acetic acid and 8% formic acid appear
to weaken the bonding of head lice eggs to the hair
shafts, Prevention and treatment of head lice in
children, Mumcuoglu, KY, Paediatric Drugs, 1999
Jul-Sep; 1(3): 211-8.
The dilute solution being proposed will make the
kid’s skin sting and nothing else.
Smothering head lice with oil is very unreliable
as a way of killing them and does nothing to harm
the eggs, head lice can suspend breathing for
several hours.
You will also have no idea if you have succeeded
in killing all the lice by suffocation so you will
still need effective removal procedure.
I don’t recommend any child to be left with a
covering that can withstand oil overnight. If it
keep oil in it will also keep air out. No child
should be left overnight with a suffocation hazard.
An article, covering this bedding thing, from the
James Cook University’s Head Lice Research Group
at the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.
(Speare R, Cahill, Thomas G, Head Lice on Pillows and
Strategies to make a Small Risk Even Smaller,
International Journal of Dermatology 2003 Aug 42 (8): 626-9 )
concludes that the chance of an individual head lice
transferring to the pillow of an infested child approx. 1 in 1000.
Put another way, you might need to sleep in the same bed
every night for 3 years to be likely to spread your
head lice this way. Possible but not a huge priority.
And the house cleaning nonsense is dealt with very
conclusively.
“14,000 head lice removed from children in a single
day and not one found on the floors of their classrooms”
by Rick Speare of the School of Public Health and
Tropical Medicine, James Cook University, Townsville,
Queensland Australia. (AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND
JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH 2002 VOL. 26 NO. 3.
Brutal point
Your parents and physicians are following this advice
and they still have their problem.
We have thousands of customers who took our advice and
read these articles. They don’t have their problem.
See head lice treatment sucess testimonials
Makes you think huh?
Good luck with your task of pushing water uphill against
the wind, we have been doing it for 7 years but it’s fun!
Need any more ammo we will go find some.
Regards
John Owen
NITMIX Ltd
Head lice treatment and advice from NITMIX. The All Natural Head Lice Removal System, F.D.A Registered too!