Banishing head lice

With the school year back in full swing, so too are the ominous nit notices your child may be bringing home with them.

Head lice (louse) are a tiny parasitic insects, about the size of a sesame seed, that live in the hair, close to the scalp. One or more a day they pierce the host's skin to feed on blood. The females lay about 8 eggs a day (also known as nits or cooties).

Lice are wingless insects and pass from head to head by direct contact. Outbreaks are increasingly common in young children and like any epidemics, over the years lice are becoming more resistant to the insecticides used to eradicate them.

Can having lice harm you?

Lice don’t carry diseases and while the bites themselves are barely noticeable, constant scratching can introduce a secondary infection. If your child is run down and has drawn blood on their head from scratching the scalp it is possible the broken skin could become infected, even to the point of the glands (at the back of the neck or under the chin) being raised.

How do you know if you have head lice?

While most people have in itchy head as a symptom of a lice infestation, even if your child is not obviously scratching their head, its best to regularly check them for nits, the egg of the lice. The eggs are small and white, usually found on the hair shaft within 1.5 cm of the scalp. Use a strong light and a fine tooth (nit) comb to search for nits. A magnifying glass is also useful to help you hunt for them.

You can do your initial search when the hair is dry or covered in conditioner. Because the eggs cling to the hair shaft, using conditioner is an easier way of checking. Slather the conditioner onto dry hair, detangling with an ordinary comb first if the hair is long, and then get to work with the nit comb. It really is a case of painstakingly combing the head from scalp, and wiping the comb on a white tissue or piece of paper with each sweep to examine for insects. Pay particular attention to the nape of the neck and behind the ears.

This is a long, boring process and it can be trying to get a small child to sit still for so long. Try to be as relaxed as possible when you do it - chat, play a talking book or dvd to keep the child distracted.

Natural lice treatments

A minor infestation often responds well to doing the conditioner treatment. Remember to start the comb though as soon as you apply the conditioner. Finely comb every part of the scalp five times each time you treat. You need to do the full conditioner comb through three times a week until no live lice have been found for 10 days.

Some persistent outbreaks may require an insecticide. The problem with the chemical insecticides is that they are not always effective and they are also potentially toxic. The Victorian Health Department warns that the commercial chemical treatments should be used with caution:

If you are pregnant or breastfeeding

In children less than 12 months old

In people who have allergies, open wounds on the scalp, or asthma.

While most naturopaths would agree that the alternative treatment using essential oils is less toxic when used at the recommended dose, I would suggest that the conditioner only treatment is best if you are pregnant or the child is under 1 year old.

If you have an allergy prone child, treat the essential oil treatment like any other topical product and do a test patch first on the inside of their arm. If they have no reaction on the skin after 12 hours, then it should be safe to use on them. The oils used in this treatment are not known to trigger asthma.

Be aware that an allergic or asthmatic child of any age might react to conditioners that are full of cheap scent. If you need another option olive oil used on its own, instead of conditioner, is also an effective smothering agent and is easily washed out of the hair. Just use the cheapest brand as this is not a job for extra virgin olive oil.


Lice treatment essential oil blend

For added assurance, this is a tried and true combination to kill lice.

Good quality essential oils can be expensive and it may seen tempting to buy the cheapest ones you can find. Scented oils or oils that are sold diluted in a carrier oil are to be avoided. Fortunately the oils used in this recipe are relatively inexpensive.


Use equal quantities of eucalyptus, lavender, tea tree and rosemary oils. Combine the oils together in a clean, preferably dark, glass bottle with an airtight lid.

Children 2-5 years old: 20 drops of the essential oil combination in 100 mls olive or macadamia oil.

Children over 5 yo: 40 drops of essential oil combination in 100 mls of olive or macadamia oil.

Massage oil blend thoroughly into dry scalp and hair. Comb through with the nit comb and leave overnight. You can protect your pillows by covering with a towel. (If any oil does get on to the linen add a couple 1 ml of eucalyptus oil to the wash).

The next day apply shampoo directly to the hair before wetting the head. Work into a lather and rub well into all areas of the head, including the nape of the neck and behind the ears. Rinse well with water.

You can also add the essential oil blend to the final rinse.

It is important that all bedding, clothes and hair accessories are washed in a hot water wash. You can add 40 drops of the essential oil blend to the final rinse. While not the most ecologically sound option, the high heat of a clothes dryer can also help eradicate lice from clothes and bedding.

Remember to check everyone in the house for head lice every week.

Realm of the senses - aromatherapy

Aromatherapy has probably been around since the beginning of civilization. Most indigenous cultures have used herbs rich in volatile oils for ‘smoking’ and smudging for both medicinal and spiritual purposes. Hippocrates (460 – 370 BC) prescribed baths and massages with aromatic herbs for a variety of conditions. Yet, even centuries later Western Medicine is a little perplexed regarding the validity of using essential oils as a viable therapy.

Smell is one of our most primitive senses. We can react to aromas without thinking. It is presumed that essential oils work directly on the limbic system in the brain via the olfactory nerves. The limbic system has a lot to do with ‘the feel-good’ factor and our emotions generally.

The connection between our ability to detect odours and the health of the brain also has an interesting diagnostic application. While there are many benign reasons why our sense of smell can be affected (like temporarily loosing it during a cold) our ability to identify certain aromas, or not, is a part of a promising new way to pre-diagnose conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, Parkinson’s, schizophrenia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.

One of the most unusual medical applications of using smell therapeutically includes an Eastern tradition of wafting an old shoe under the nose of an epileptic at the beginning of a seizure. This anecdotally was shown to reduce the length off an attack, so much so that Western Science has conducted experiments to try to identify the aroma of ‘shoe-smell’. As for how effective shoe therapy is the researchers concluded, “The neurophysiology of olfactory stimulation from "shoe-smell" reveals a sound and scientific reasoning for its remedial efficacy in epilepsy”.

The safest way to use aromatherapy is to firstly only buy pure essential oils (not fragrances or diluted in other substances). These can be expensive, as many kilograms of a plant are needed to extract small amounts of the volatile oils. Always use only a couple of drops (less is more) preferably in an electric essential oil burner (an astounding amount of house fires are caused by candles including those used in oil burners). While a drop or 2 of oil can be pleasant in a bath or in a carrier oil for massage, there is an increased chance of having a topical reaction, such as hives. Citrus oils and cinnamon are common oils to react to in this way. I remember a lecturer telling us 20 years ago, how he added too much peppermint oil to a bath once and how it chilled him to the bone. Always remember these substances are very potent.

Although there is a specialised branch of medicine using pure essential oils of various herbs through ingestion (taking internally), this will not be discussed here. Essential oils can are extremely potent and potentially toxic when used in this way. Aromatherapy looks at the use of these oils through inhalation (through a burner, bath or steamer) or via the skin in a diluted form through massage (as well as compresses and baths).

Which brings us to the use of aromatherapy in pregnancy. While much is repeatedly reported about the dangers of essential oil use in pregnancy little, if any, is derived from evidence based medicine. We’ve spent many years attempting to track back to where the common contra-indications have come from and the consensus (other than from the use of oils internally which should never be used in pregnancy) is an assumption that if it dangerous to ingest a medicinal herb while pregnant then it will be equally as toxic to even smell it. A common misconception surrounds chamomile. This relaxing, gentle digestive herb often appears on the list of herbs to avoid in any form once pregnant. In truth, this stems from an uncommon allergy that some people have to members of the daisy family. If you have had a cup of chamomile tea in the past and not reacted, then there is no demonstrable reason to be concerned about smelling the essential oil of the flower at any time. In fact, chamomile is one of the few essential oils that has been researched during labour and instead of being avoided there is evidence that it may reduce anxiety while giving birth.

While most popular oils are now considered safe to be exposed to in pregnancy at concentrations of 1% or less, it is best to avoid sage, rosemary and camphor.

That is not to say that all oils are safe to use by all people, all of the time. There are numerous contraindications for birch, thuja and wintergreen oils. Check the link below (under contraindications) for more information.

Therapeutic uses of essential oils include:

Anxiety: chamomile, lavender, sandalwood
Antiseptic/antibacterial: tea tree, thyme
Migraine: chamomile, lavender, rosemary, sandalwood (there is a nifty roll on applicator of a similar blend of essential oils on the market)
PMS: clary sage, neroli, chamomile, geranium
Scars and stretch marks: (topical) lavender, geranium
Sinusitis: cedar, basil, eucalyptus, pine, tea tree

Gill’s pick of essential oils:

If you can afford just one oil to begin with, try lavender. Even the best quality lavender oil is relatively inexpensive. It is a great aroma to help calm us down and sleep. It is also an antiseptic and general skin healer. Lavender helps repel most insects but can ease the sting of a mosquito bite if you’ve forgotten to use it earlier. This makes lavender a versatile oil with a wide variety of uses. Have a little sniff of it first before buying or using. Does it smell right to you? If you don’t like it, don’t use it. After all, the nose knows best!

Links

Some ways of using aromatherapy

Some smells can make us sick, such as volatile organic compounds (VOCs) – as in the aroma of a new car. Love it or hate is – it is best to try to avoid it.

Another look at essential oil contra-indications and dangers.

A guide to therapeutic uses of aromatherapy.