Parents spend a fortune on miracle-cure chemicals designed to kill lice, trusting that these expensive products will end their misery. Time after time, they're disappointed with the results. Often their initial optimism is dashed when they find lice within days of treatment; sometimes head lice don't reappear for two to three weeks.
Parents get no explanation for these failures, but they hear vague stories in the news about "resistant" or mutant lice, that is, lice that don't die the minute you zap them with chemicals.
At best we can be suspicious because some head lice seem to survive chemical treatment; at worst it's misinformation. We just don't know what's happening. We know the case of head lice is not being "cured" but we don't know why.
Finding out whether lice have genetically changed would take millions of dollars worth of research, and who's going to pay for that? Not the drug companies-they don't want to know if their chemicals are becoming ineffective.
Independent researchers can do a few field studies, but they can't raise much money because head lice are harmless and just aren't a research priority. But it's great if parents believe in resistant or mutant lice because that puts the blame on the lice, not the drug companies.
What's really happening is that treatments are failing. For whatever reason, the child still has head lice, so the treatment was less than perfect.
Why?
If you set out to cure a case of head lice by killing the lice, you have to be 100-percent effective. Every treatment has to kill every egg and every louse every time. Boy is that a tough challenge.
Oh yes, and it has to be harmless to everything else. Clever kind of poison, eh?
You see you can't nearly cure head lice, just like you can't nearly open a Coke or nearly get across the street safely. You have to succeed 100 percent or you fail totally.
Just one egg or louse that wasn't given enough poison or was in the wrong place where the treatment didn't reach, and you have failed.
Sure, they might be resistant, but it's just as likely they just didn't get the right dose. Either way, the result is the same: live lice.
A wonderful lady told me a story about when she went to college-her first time away from her rather strict parents. She and her new roommates headed for the drugstore and bought hair colouring and highlighting kits with peroxide for a girls' night in.
After several hours locked in the bathroom they emerged. And the results? "Not exactly like the Clairol ads" is all she would say.
This had made her think about all the head lice treatments that she had used on her kids that had failed. She realised that getting that colouring solution evenly throughout her hair needed skill.
It suddenly hit her just how difficult it was going to be applying a clear liquid or mousse head lice treatment to a squirming, reluctant child.
She realized that she was probably getting much more head lice treatment in some places than others. This is probably what happens to most of us, most of the time. We just miss some of the little critters. But, and this is a big but-how do we know? The packet just says "Check the hair after treating." How exactly do we check?
Without providing parents with a reliable method of checking the products' success (or failure), the drug companies just leave them guessing. Parents must wait to see if their children are lice-free or watch for the next generation of head lice to burst upon them in two or three weeks.
That just keeps them in the vicious circle of banishment/treatment/waiting, and offers no reliable, effective cure
Running a ultra fine comb with the NITMIX Wet Combing Aid through your child's hair will reveal and remove any stragglers, and ensure that re-infestation doesn't occur.
It's easy, and it's reliable-you'll know right away whether you've gotten all the lice and nits, and if you haven't, it removes them then and there.
Read more about this in the Frequently Asked Questions section at www.nitmix.com
Next want to let rip at the worst time-waster of them all:
Cleaning the house. HUGE Myth 5
]]>These are the few lice or eggs left behind when traditional pesticide lice treatments don't kill 100% effectively-which is most of the time. Even if you follow the maker's instructions and treat twice, a week apart, you're still left guessing if you got them all.
We have already explained how tiny baby lice are and how difficult it is to see them, let alone round them up. Remember, the baby lice you will be looking for popped out of those tiny egg cases, so they are even tinier than the eggs they hatched from.
Some parents have difficulty spotting the eggs themselves, let alone these even smaller baby lice. Oh, and of course they can now run around, making spotting them even harder!
So what happens is parents do a great job of removing or killing lice and eggs (nits), but they just don't get to the last few… the Stragglers.
There is nothing to see or feel while a few surviving eggs hatch out or a live louse grows to maturity. It takes a whole week for those few tiny critters to grow up. They have bitten the skin to feed a few times a day but you won't know it because your body just doesn't notice.
A week later they are adults and start to lay more eggs, six to eight a day each, but still this would take a lot of searching to find. No one will notice this level of activity.
After the second week these new eggs start to hatch. But they're tiny too-the size of sand grains-and their tiny bites don't cause any problems, either.
By the end of the third week the numbers are rising and fast! You suddenly have hundreds of big, medium and little lice, and your kids probably still haven't noticed a thing.
Have you seen this? Two to three week gaps between explosions of head lice?
Some parents have been trapped in this cycle for months and even years and all because they weren't told how to capture stragglers!
You can't nearly succeed in cleaning out stragglers. If you only succeed 99 percent at removing stragglers, you get 100-percent failure to "cure" your problem.
Parents get confused and disheartened with head lice treatments when they find themselves trapped in this circle of treatment/lice/treatment. Soon they start to feel they may never break out and get desperate.
That name should be writ up large on your refrigerator: Stragglers!
It's these guys that cause the misery, not some mythical mutant or resistant head lice.
You can read plenty of examples from our web site at www.nitmix.com, natural head lice treatment, how parents have broken out of this nightmare of multiple treatments and repeated failures.
Next we'll deal with this nonsense about resistant and mutant lice.. HUGE Myth 4
]]>In a recently published study researchers in France concluded there was sufficient evidence of a link between exposure to various household pesticides and childhood leukaemia to warrant further investigation.
While such studies are far from producing conclusive links between cause and effect of a specific chemical they are often an indication that all is not well. Scientists investigated the history of families of diagnosed cancer sufferers paying careful attention to the use of pesticides in the home, garden and head lice treatments during both pregnancy and early year’s development.
What emerged was a consistent pattern that more families with childhood cancers had also used pesticides in ways that could have contacted their children in the womb or in early life. In scientific circles this is far from proof but it did indicate that much more work needs to be done to understand the possible link.
Unfortunately this study had to rely on the families of over 280 children already struggling with a frightening disease to co-operate with them. To conduct further studies researchers must go through this again many times. That is an awful lot of children suffering before any clear conclusion is made.
What is immediately clear is that, in almost every case, the pesticide exposure to the children was the result of choices made by their parents. Household and garden problems in France don't involve any life threatening insects or parasites and therefore aren't so urgent or important that possibly life threatening chemicals must be used. Exposure to pesticides in the home is largely a matter of choice.
In the case of head lice there is no major health threat if children get this condition and certainly nothing to warrant voluntary exposure to pesticides such as pyrethroid, organophosphate or organochlorides. A simple removal program conducted by the parents would eliminate this possible pesticide exposure risk entirely.
As further work continues in this area the risk posed by pesticides in the home will become much clearer but in the mean time simple risk reduction should be the parent’s watchword.
The complete article should be read by anyone concerned by the issues raised in this brief overview.
Household exposure to pesticides and risk of childhood acute leukaemia. F Menegaux, et al. Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2006;63:131-134. © 2006 by BMJ Publishing Group Ltd
Now, can you imagine walking into that room with liquid poison and spraying it onto the pillow, the sheets, the mattress, the floor and walls? And then pouring stinging poisonous shampoo on that precious little head?
How have we gotten here? Outside pressure, that’s how.
When you think about it, we’re stuck back in 1960s thinking about head lice. Back then we believed science would provide a miracle cure for everything. If a guy in a white coat produced a new spray, we believed it was okay to use it. Not anymore-we’re becoming more and more concerned about the pesticides and harsh chemicals that come into our homes and gardens, and are looking for alternatives.
Combing works! Drag a comb through hair full of lice and they will come out in big heaps, if you just do it right. It is much easier than picking out individual eggs and bugs because you don’t need to spot them all individually. You just sweep them up and out they come. I’m not talking about dry combing or messing about with Vaseline or mayonnaise. These “remedies” only cover part of the problem. Here’s the real deal.
First, you must find out if you really do have a head lice problem. You might suspect lice because the kids are itchy, or you may spot a few little bits of something in their hair, but that isn’t a diagnosis-not a good one, anyway.
I’ve looked at thousands of heads over many years and have come to the same conclusion as many scientists: just looking for bugs in a kid’s hair is a waste of time. They’re too small, they move too quickly, they hate the light, and they can get confused with lots of other stuff caught in there.
In his experiments, Belgian scientist Jan der Maesener found that when just looking, one-third of parents who thought they had found lice hadn’t, while one in 10 parents missed lice when they were there. Scientists in Israel found that parents using combs to check for head lice were four times more likely to get the correct answer, and did it in half the time.
The message is clear: before you even think about treating for lice, you should be combing to get the correct diagnosis.
We at NITMIX have spent seven years making combing more effective and reliable in finding and removing head lice, while also making the process easier on kids and parents. NITMIX Wet Combing Aid is a special blend of essential oils in a sweet almond oil base that makes combing out head lice a realistic option for parents.
NITMIX has developed a special blend of mild essential oils in an almond oil base especially to captures every size of head louse in a slippery coating that prevents them from running away and evading your comb, while also lubricating the comb’s very fine teeth so that combing remains tangle-free. The blend of oils is critical to your success.
Using thicker products like conditioners or mayonnaise actually tends to glue the smallest lice right into the hair strands, making it more difficult to get them out. Parents usually find these products remove the adult lice, but they don’t see the baby lice jammed up in all that sticky conditioner caught up in the child’s hair.
You’ll also spend a lot less time combing this way, as you don’t need to prepare the hair by splitting it into bunches or clipping it up in sections. Once you massage the oils deep into the roots of your child’s dry hair, you can sweep the comb from root to tip and just drag them all out together.
No need to pick out individual critters-just drag them out as soon as they emerge from those little egg cases.
Every stroke of the comb will bring all sorts of confusing debris and rubbish out of the hair, and you’ll soon see the difference between lice and skin flakes, dandruff, cradle cap, and all the wind-blown bits that kids catch up in their hair. You will be amazed at how much junk you can find even in the cleanest hair.
And just wiping the comb on a tissue will show you your harvest: all sizes of lice, from the big ones waving their legs at you to the tiny ones that look more like multicolored sand grains. Many parents have never seen these critters before and are amazed at their size, and they also realize they haven’t necessarily been looking for the right things.
Once you comb them all out-the tiny eggs and freshly hatched lice along with the adults-you devastate the head lice population and are on your way to clean, healthy, lice-free hair.
We have helped kids with every kind of hair using this simple approach. Shirley Temple corks-crew curls, African American curls, Hispanic rich thick wavy curls all become easy to comb from root to tip. Just this important improvement to your combing technique will reap huge rewards in time and tears saved. Sounds too simple? Don’t you believe it!
To read how well this approach works for moms and dads all over the world follow this link to www.nitmix.com and read their stories.
In the next of our Seven HUGE Myths you will discover the menace of immature lice, we call them Stragglers.
She could be any mom, proud of her kid and hard working, bringing up a daughter on her own. She and her daughter are best buddies-you have to get along when it's just the two of you against the world, right?
Well, one day mom gets a call at work from her daughter's school. Her heart freezes-like all parents she dreads it being an accident or worse. "Your daughter has head lice" they tell her. What a relief, is that all? "You have to come and pick her up." They continue. "And she can't come back until she is clear." "But I can't leave my job, my boss won't just let me walk out, I'll come as soon as I can," Mom says. "No, now" is the reply.
At this point mom feels terrible. She can see her daughter in isolation at school, waiting to be fetched as unclean, and she can't get there to scoop her up and make everything right. If you think I'm just pulling at your heartstrings, we hear this time and time again. And it gets worse.
Mom finally works up the courage to ask her supervisor for time off, but they're in the middle of the store and she has to tell everyone her kid has head lice. Arriving at school, she finds her daughter in tears and the principal in full flow "No nits, no lice.... Chemical treatment..... Unclean.... Infestation.... She must stay at home until you get this sorted out.. " "But that's insane." Mom says. "I have to work, we need the money. We both have to live on my wages and we don't have health insurance."
And so starts her head lice nightmare.
She starts at her local pharmacy and explains that her daughter has lice. "We need help, and fast!" She staggers home with several expensive bottles of chemicals that make her slightly uneasy with their warnings and possible side effects, and starts treating her tearful daughter.
These foul potions smell, they sting, her kid says they hurt, and she has to open the window to catch her breath. "This can't be right, can it?" Mom asks herself. She also took the pharmacist's advice and bought the "Environmental Spray" or "House Treatment," with which she sprays the furniture, the carpets and even the bedding. She was even more uneasy about this, but he'd said, "Do you think they'd make them if you didn't need to do it?" So, yes, she just sprayed pesticide in her kid's bed.
After she puts her child to bed she starts washing the clothes and bedding, bagging up toys and pillows to go into the garage for two weeks, and vacuuming everything in sight. All the Web sites say good moms do this.
Finally, tired and very emotional, she crawls into bed. Next day, she wakes up bleary-eyed but hopeful, and what does she find? More lice! Big fat lice, sore skin and wrecked hair.
Mom and daughter both burst into tears. Of frustration or desperation? Probably both because they have to go back to the store and buy another bottle of organo-phosphate or permethrin to pour on the kid's now red, raw skin.
"That's the last time you should use that." the pharmacist warns. "Why," asks Mom, "You said it was okay for my kid?" "Well, sure it is, but it's only okay twice," he replies. "What do I do if this doesn't work?" Mom asks. The pharmacist's reply: "Go see your doctor for the seriously poisonous poison!"
And so she tries the process again, and she gets the same result! Money is getting short and her boss wants to know where she is-"Your kid can't be that sick, so get back in here or look for another job!"
In desperation Mom calls the school, but they state that it's Policy to keep lice-ridden kids away, otherwise the other parents will complain. "Complain about what?" Mom insists, "My daughter caught a harmless critter from someone else, she's the victim, not the perpetrator!" "No, stay away," they repeat.
And so it goes in thousands of schools all over the country. Please believe me when I tell you this is a mild case of the head lice nightmare. It can go on for months, even years for some families. Parents lose their jobs and kids miss huge chunks of their education, and teachers stand in front of half-empty classrooms.
Talk about insanity, and for what? Did a kid get saved? Was a disaster avoided? No, everyone just got hysterical about a bug the size of a sesame seed that never harmed anyone. Wasps and bees and snakes and scorpions hurt thousands of kids every year, but no one ever got hurt by a head louse-sure, they're gross, but they cause no physical harm.
Yet companies sell parents all sorts of pesticides and other poisons, and persuades health boards and pharmacies to go along with the nonsense, all because kids get a mildly irritating harmless condition that has been with humanity forever.
In short, panic over a few cooties has created a whole market that costs parents billions of dollars a year, and it's mostly nonsense.
Remember that secret I said I would tell you? Well, here it is:
Remove them.
Did you get that? Just remove them.
No need to zap, poison, or electrocute head lice. Just gently take them off and flush them down the drain.
Allow me to explain. Head lice only ever live on the human head-they aren't like bacteria that get inside you. Since they just rest on the surface, to "cure" your child you just have to brush them off.
Yes, the big secret is that simple. Disappointed?
Did you want a magic bullet, a secret potion to kill them all? No, you just want healthy, lice-free hair. And the best way to do that is to just remove anything that doesn't belong in there.
Let me give you an analogy. You're sitting outside and a tiny bug lands on your arm. What do you want to do? Do you pull out a can of poison and spray both yourself and the bug? Shoot it? Zap it with a stun gun?
Or would you just brush it off? Yes, you just brush it off.
Which option was easiest? Which causes the least risk of injury? Which is best for the environment? The simple brush-off works fine doesn't it?
Now imagine that bug has just landed on your baby. What are you going to do, reach for the spray or gently brush it away?
So what's different about head lice? Do you really need to reach for the chemical spray or poisonous lotion?
No, just getting head lice off is fine.
That is what we at www.nitmix.com do for you. We make removing head lice such a simple process that you need never consider poisoning lice again.
In the next of our seven HUGE myths you will learn the simple secret for getting rid of head lice without any one, even the head lice, getting hurt.. HUGE Myth 2
]]>How do you overcome bad advice? In this instance the
advice that head lice are present and spread via the
environment.
Here is the question-
Dear Sirs,
I signed up for your email letter series. I have not yet
purchased the product...I have questions. You say that
cleaning and laundering everything is a waste of time.
That these head lice are just that, "Head Lice".
But please explain to me then, how they can go through
a classroom at school at such an alarming rate?
My grand daughter has been suffering almost since school
started with head lice. I think mostly it is due to the
fact that her mother is not consistent in combing through
the hair, and perhaps with the cleaning too.
So when I read your letter I was stunned.
I do think the primary function in getting rid of them is
the combing...however, I don't see if they are so hard to
get off the head, how they can go from kid to kid so easy.
I sure would appreciate your help, thank you.
Sincerely, R*********
And here is our reply
Hi R*********
Thank you for your message,
I am glad to see that you are working your way through
the evidence and making up your own mind.
Let me offer you an example
Extract from the Korea Times today.
" Removing the nits from the hair is not sufficient. Mom
also must wash (in hot water) your sister's bed linens,
towels, clothing, hats, brushes, combs, scarves, coats,
toys, upholstered furniture and anything else she comes
into contact with. Things that cannot be washed should
be vacuumed and/or sealed in plastic bags for two weeks."
The Concord Journal
"Even after treatment, parents should continue to check
their kids twice a day to make sure all the nits are gone,
Richards said. She also recommends that parents wash all
bedding and clothing and vacuum around the house and in
the car.
Health24.com
"To eliminate all lice and successfully prevent re infection,
wash all clothing, towels and bed linen in hot, soapy water,
and dry them in a hot dryer. You can also disinfect bedding
and other items such as hats and clothing by placing them in
a sealed plastic bag for 14 days. The nits will hatch in about
a week and die of starvation. Brushes and combs can be
disinfected by soaking them in hot, soapy water for 10 minutes."
It is just cookie cutter journalism, they read it in one persons
paper them cut, copy-paste.
Never, ever do they cite their source for such "advice"
If you go to the correct journals via Medline or Google Scholar
and search for evidence in the professional literature for lice
in the environment you will find no evidence whatever that head
lice are present.
Try reading Richard Speare from James Cook University
http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/phtm/PHTM/hlice/environ1.htm
http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/phtm/PHTM/hlice/papers/counahan-2004.pdf
and the all time kicker
http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/phtm/PHTM/hlice/speare-2002.pdf
Head lice are head lice not house lice.
If you really want to know how they spread so easily just
watch a class of children for a day and count the number of
times they come into intimate contact with each other.
It is so common we fail to see it!
In 7 years of supplying NITMIX I have never ever had a parent
say " Boy, all that cleaning really did the trick!"
No, it never happens.
If you want to get rid of head lice, take head lice off
children's heads. Anyone who tries to make it more
complicated than that is quite frankly talking rubbish.
Hope that helps
Regards
John Owen
CEO NITMIX Ltd
]]>Here is our answer as best we understand it.
Yes and no!
Head lice have to be highly adapted to their environment if they are going to thrive.
This means they have to be able to scoot around easily in human hair.
The shape of hair strands differ between different racial groups and this effects head lice.
Africans living in Africa get head lice that are highly adapted to living in hair with strands that are oval in cross section. The differences are small but they are significant.
Caucasians have round hair strands and have head lice that are adapted to this shape.
In North America most head lice seem to come from the Caucasian strain and thrive in children with round hair strands, that is mainly Caucasian and Hispanic children.
There are some cases of head lice in African American children but the pool of these head lice seems to be very much smaller and so the incidence of head lice is much lower.
We get plenty of reports of bi-racial children getting head lice so we have to assume that their hair is suitable for at least one, maybe both strains of head lice to prosper.
That is how we understand the situation from 7 years of observing head lice.
]]>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
----- Original Message -----
To: "NITMIX"
From: "Kim *****" <******@optusnet.com.au>
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
]]>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
Now with any new offering from GOOGLE, I usually dive in and
try to find a funny or quirky side by putting in something
zany like " wugahumphtama" to see what it returns. This time
however I followed their lead and tried something scholarly,
a bit of research, no less.
I typed in our most common search phrase " head lice" and
looked carefully at the results. GOOGLE SCHOLAR returns
extracts from academic libraries and research resources
around the word in just a few seconds. If you have
ever done this kind of search for a college degree paper
you will know just how impressive that is.
Up came my results and I set about to analysing the first
hundred returns for my pet subject. It didn’t take me long
to see something very significant.
Return after return showed research papers relating to chemical
head lice treatments, failures and suspected failures of
poisonous treatments to eradicate head lice, comparison studies
showing multiple types of chemical treatments for head lice
achieving only partial success rates, 74%, 79%, 84%.
Problem after problem reported with these approaches to
eradicating head lice. Hardly conclusive results.
I reached for my pen and scribbled down the numbers of results
according to topic.
- Chemical treatments and their problems 65%
_ Research issues apart from killing lice chemically 25%
- Papers referring to the simple approach of removing lice. 10%
Wow, just one in ten serious academic papers returned on this
simple search even mentioned the fact that head lice
infestation can be easily and simply solved by removing head
lice from the hair.
Nearly 7 out of 10 were still hung up on the nonsense of trying
to kill head lice while they are still on a child's skin.
No wonder parents continue to get this nonsensical advice that
killing lice is the same as curing a case of head lice.
After 7 years of gently explaining that head lice are best
resolved by a simple removal process, not a chemical attack
fought out on a child's scalp, it would appear that the men
and women in white coats are still looking hard in the wrong
direction.
Even with wonders like the new GOOGLE SCHOLAR at their disposal
parents will still have to look hard at the search results to
find effective head lice advice. Parents can sign up to receive
the 7 Huge Head Lice Myths from the NITMIX web site at
www.nitmix.com or send their questions directly to the head lice
specialists at NITMIX.
And if anyone find the meaning of “wugahumphtama” do let me know!
Head lice treatment and advice from NITMIX.
The All Natural Head Lice Removal System,
F.D.A Registered too!
Natural lice treatments more effective than harsh chemicals
Head lice are nasty, itchy and move from child to child. Worse yet, they are invading our schools – this year one in ten UK school children will suffer from head lice.
Many experts believe that the head lice epidemic is fueled by the emergence of resistent strains of lice that cannot be killed by the common chemical lice treatments. Lice treatments failures are increasing as desperate parents use harsher and harsher “cures”. In the US, sales of lice treatments have skyrocketed to over $120 million – even though they often don’t solve the problem. Often the chemicals that kill adult lice don’t harm the nits (eggs) so a new generation carries on and the problem stays, stronger than ever.
Insecticides like malathion are commonly available as lice treatments although there is evidence that in some circumstances malathion may be linked with leukemia, kidney damange and even death (http://www.chem-tox.com/malathion/research/).
There are ample medical studies, including those from Harvard University, to show that head lice are growing resistant to chemical treatments – that chemicals are not getting rid of them at all, but making them stronger!
New test results suggest that a gentle, natural solution using essential oils, may be safer and more effective than chemical treatments.
Basically there are two ways to get rid of head lice – kill them, or remove them with a comb. As they grow stronger the chemicals necessary to kill them grow stronger too – what parent would want that anywhere near their child’s head?
What if you don’t want a kill-all approach – and many parents don’t! Many responsible parents won’t use pesticides and poison head lice treatments any more, and quite right too! For lots of parents they just don’t work, more and more just don’t trust them.
Removing them with a comb can be arduous unless you use the right aids, but much safer and gentler than chemical warfare in your child’s hair!
John Owen of NITMIX says “A lot of parents come to me distraught – they’ve bought one chemical treatment that half worked, then told they’re not allowed to use the same one more than twice because the lice will grow resistance to it.
There’s a lot of confusion and frustration – people don’t know what to do! They’ve been told all sorts of nonsense about cleaning linen and they end up spending so much time and energy doing things that don’t fix the problem when it’s really quite simple.”
Mr Owen recommends a natural comb-through remedy using a solution of essential oils. This removes the lice rather than killing them, and works effectively to remove the eggs, juveniles and adult lice equally. It is much less stressful on the child, and the lice cannot grow resistant to a comb! It doesn’t use harsh chemicals, harm the environment or hurt your child. It can be done as often as you want and the same solution can be used to keep children lice-free.
Removal agents coat the hair with a suitable oil solution, all you have to do is massage the oil solution into your child’s scalp, leave it for 15 minutes or so then comb through with the comb, and the lice come off on the comb. Buy a wet combing aid with a quality metal nit comb. The oils occur naturally and also provide a mild soothing effect and enhance skin care. The oil carries its own fragrance which is pleasing to humans but confusing to lice as it fools them into thinking the hair is a suitable home. The scents used in many wet combing aids are the same as used in perfumes and oil-based fragrances, so not only will your child be head lice free, they'll smell gorgeous as well!
If you can find a natural solution that guarantees its results then you have some comeback if things don’t work out as promised. Some essential-oil based treatments, such as NITMIX, give a 100% money-back guarantee if you don’t get rid of headlice “with no tears or tantrums, within 14 days”.
Now isn’t that what we all want?
John Owen
NITMIX Ltd
Head lice treatment and advice from NITMIX.
The All Natural Head Lice Removal System,
F.D.A Registered too!
By John Owen
Head lice have become a recurring problem for many parents. Many families have had them visit their children many times in a single school term. They have reached plague proportions in some schools!
One in ten children in the UK are infected every year. That leaves many parents scratching their heads, wondering how to make head lice homeless. And there is a lot of misinformation floating around about head lice.
Head lice myths
"Head lice are dirty"
Head lice can and will live on any hair, clean or dirty, long or short.
There should be no stigma in having head lice - happy healthy children with lots of friends will bump into head lice sooner or later, it's nothing personal.
"I have to exterminate them from the whole house"
Head lice can only live in human hair, better still, kid’s hair. They will not stay dormant in pillows, linen, or clothes, waiting for an unsuspecting head of hair - they would die.
Many parents have been told that their house must be unclean - they must clean all the linen, curtains - you name it! This is complete nonsense.
Washing everything in the house is a waste of time and energy and spraying pesticide in the house or on the bedding is an over-reaction and should be avoided at all costs.
"It must have jumped from somewhere else"
Head lice cannot jump from one host to another - they walk. They can only move to your child if their head is close to another child's head. This can happen when playing rough, but also when leaning over to read a book together or share a secret - any time their hair comes in contact.
Girls are more likely than boys to get lice, as they tend to have longer hair and more personal contact with each other.
"Lice can only be removed with harsh chemicals"
Lice are probably doing less harm to your child than some of the harsh chemicals recommended. NITMIX, which uses natural essential oils, make it easy to comb out existing lice and secondly to mask the hair's natural scent to stop lice returning.
One of the greatest dangers with head lice is using a cure that is potentially worse than the problem - your child's scalp is not designed to be subjected to harsh chemicals like organo-phosphates, which are nerve poisons.
"But head lice are dangerous - they carry diseases"
Head lice do not carry any other diseases - the absolute worst they can do if untreated is leave your child feeling, well, lousy - a headache and minor flu symptoms. They do not carry any germs or bacteria that can harm your child.
My child has head lice - what should I do?
Firstly - don't panic, they are harmless even if they seem yucky.
Secondly – don’t let anyone tell you that it is anything else than a simple removal problem.
Thirdly - your child isn't dirty, she has done nothing wrong, this is just one of those things.
Head lice isn’t a disease. Nothing has got into your child’s body. It’s just a little visitor on the outside that needs to be taken off, and the more gently you do that can do that, the better.
NITMIX is a completely natural head lice removal system that has a been around since 1997 and has worked for families in over 30 countries already.
It is registered with statutory medical authorities in the U.K and the U.S.A and comes with a full money back guarantee.
Even if your child has difficult to comb long, thick, curly or frizzy hair the NITMIX system will make short work of ridding them of these unwelcome visitors.
Even better......
How to make sure your child doesn't get head lice in the future!
When you wash your child's you can put NITMIX in the final rinse to leave a faint fragrance on your child's hair a perfumed that will disguise the scent in the hair and stop head lice returning.
A daily spray of diluted NITMIX keeps up the protection.
Head lice needn’t be a nuisance let alone a plague anymore.
John Owen
NITMIX Ltd
Head lice treatment and advice from NITMIX.
The All Natural Head Lice Removal System,
F.D.A Registered too!
Remove head lice with a natural solution that won't harm your child's head or the environment
by John Owen, April 2004
As we break into summer again and children become more active, head lice become a recurring problem for many parents. Head lice can cause itchy scalps or a pale pink rash on the skin - above the hairline near the back of the neck or behind the ears as well as unsightly lice or eggs being visible in the hair.
One in ten children in the UK are infected every year. That leaves many parents scratching their heads, wondering how to make head lice homeless. And there is a lot of misinformation floating around about head lice.
Head lice myths
"Head lice are dirty"
Head lice can and will live on any hair, clean or dirty, long or short. If anything they prefer clean hair, as it is a more pleasant environment! There is no stigma in having head lice - happy healthy children with lots of friends will bump into head lice sooner or later, it's nothing personal.
"I have to exterminate them from the whole house"
Head lice can only live in children's hair. They will not stay dormant in pillows, linen, or clothes, waiting for an unsuspecting head of hair - they would die. How many parents have been told that their house must be unclean - they must clean all the linen, curtains - you name it! This is completely unnecessary for the prevention of head lice. Washing everything in the house is a waste of time and energy and spraying pessticide in the house or on the bedding is an over-reaction and should be avoided at all costs.
"It must have jumped from somewhere else"
Head lice cannot jump from one host to another - they walk. They can only move to your child if their head is close to another child's head. This can happen when playing rough, but also when leaning over to read a book together or share a secret - any time their hair comes in contact. Girls are more likely than boys to get lice, as they tend to have longer hair and more personal contact with each other.
"Lice can only be removed with harsh chemicals"
Lice are probably doing less harm to your child than some of the harsh chemicals recommended. There are plenty of low cost gentle remedies available like NITMIX which uses natural essential oils to firstly make it easier to comb out existing lice and secondly to mask the hair's natural scent to stop lice returning. One of the greatest dangers with head lice is using a cure which is worse than the problem - your child's scalp is not designed to be subjected to harsh chemicals like lindane which is a nerve poison.
"But head lice are dangerous - they carry diseases"
Head lice do not carry any other diseases - the abolute worst they can do if untreated is leave your child feeling, well, lousy - a headache and minor flu symptoms. They do not carry any germs or bacteria that can harm your child.
My child has head lice - what should I do?
Firstly - don't panic. Every year 10% of UK children get head lice.
Secondly - don't spend a lot of money. The more expensive cures are not necessary and can often do more harm than good.
Thirdly - your child isn't dirty, she has done nothing wrong, this is just one of those things.
All you need to do is massage a wet combing aid like NITMIX right down into the roots of dry hair and leave it for 10-15 minutes. NITMIX is completely natural and gentle on your child's scalp - there is no need for anything harsher.
Then work through the hair with a fine toothed comb, wiping the comb on tissue paper as you go to remove the lice.
Large adult lice are about the size of a sesame seed and are all shades of reddish brown
Tiny juvenile lice can be as small as a grain of sand and all shades of brown, from very light to almost black.
Use your usual shampoo to get rid of any excess oil.
Just repeat this process every 2-3 days until the comb is clear after every stroke.
How do I make sure my child doesn't get head lice in the future?
When you wash your child's hair put a weak solution of an essential-oil based treatment like NITMIX in the final rinse. A few drops in a pint of water is ample. This will leave a faint fragrance on your child's hair, the equivalent of using a perfumed shampoo, but will disguise the hair sufficiently to fool head lice that it is not a suitable home.
Used this way the solution will last for months if not years and provide a cheap, gentle, safe way to keep your children free from head lice.
===============================================================
John Owen is the original head lice specialist. For more information about headlice and their treatments, see his website NITMIX, dedicated to a simple, natural, step by step solution to the problems of head lice.
Head lice treatment and advice from NITMIX.
The All Natural Head Lice Removal System,
F.D.A Registered too!
Remove head lice with a natural solution that won't harm your child's head or the environment
John Owen
As we break into summer again and children become more active, head lice become a recurring problem for many parents.
Head lice can cause itchy scalps or a pale pink rash on the skin - above the hairline near the back of the neck or behind the ears as well as unsightly lice or eggs being visible in the hair.
One in ten children in the UK are infected every year. That leaves many parents scratching their heads, wondering how to make head lice homeless. And there is a lot of misinformation floating around about head lice.
Head lice myths
"Head lice are dirty" ]
Head lice can and will live on any hair, clean or dirty, long or short. If anything they prefer clean hair, as it is a more pleasant environment! There is no stigma in having head lice - happy healthy children with lots of friends will bump into head lice sooner or later, it's nothing personal.
"I have to exterminate them from the whole house"
Head lice can only live in children's hair. They will not stay dormant in pillows, linen, or clothes, waiting for an unsuspecting head of hair - they would die. How many parents have been told that their house must be unclean - they must clean all the linen, curtains - you name it!
This is completely unnecessary for the prevention of head lice. Washing everything in the house is a waste of time and energy and spraying pessticide in the house or on the bedding is an over-reaction and should be avoided at all costs.
"It must have jumped from somewhere else"
Head lice cannot jump from one host to another - they walk. They can only move to your child if their head is close to another child's head. This can happen when playing rough, but also when leaning over to read a book together or share a secret - any time their hair comes in contact. Girls are more likely than boys to get lice, as they tend to have longer hair and more personal contact with each other.
"Lice can only be removed with harsh chemicals"
Lice are probably doing less harm to your child than some of the harsh chemicals recommended. There are plenty of low cost gentle remedies available like NITMIX which uses natural essential oils to firstly make it easier to comb out existing lice and secondly to mask the hair's natural scent to stop lice returning. One of the greatest dangers with head lice is using a cure which is worse than the problem - your child's scalp is not designed to be subjected to harsh chemicals like lindane which is a nerve poison.
"But head lice are dangerous - they carry diseases"
Head lice do not carry any other diseases - the abolute worst they can do if untreated is leave your child feeling, well, lousy - a headache and minor flu symptoms. They do not carry any germs or bacteria that can harm your child.
My child has head lice - what should I do?
Firstly - don't panic. Every year 10% of UK children get head lice.
Secondly - don't spend a lot of money. The more expensive cures are not necessary and can often do more harm than good.
Thirdly - your child isn't dirty, she has done nothing wrong, this is just one of those things.
All you need to do is massage NITMIX's Wet Combing Aid right down into the roots of dry hair and leave it for 10-15 minutes. You can get NITMIX through their web site where you will also find advice and support.
Then work through the hair with their Ultra Fine Toothed Comb, wiping the comb on tissue paper as you go to remove the lice.
Large adult lice are about the size of a sesame seed and are all shades of reddish brown
Tiny juvenile lice can be as small as a grain of sand and all shades of brown, from very light to almost black.
Use your usual shampoo to get rid of any excess oil.
Just repeat this process every 2-3 days until the comb is clear after every stroke.
How do I make sure my child doesn't get head lice in the future?
When you wash your child's hair put a weak solution of an essential-oil based treatment like PURE NITMIX in the final rinse. A few drops in a pint of water is ample. This leaves a faint fragrance on your child's hair, the equivalent of using a perfumed shampoo, but will disguise the hair sufficiently to fool head lice that it is not a suitable home. You can keep the scent topped up wih a daily spray of dilute NITMIX too.
Used this way the solution will last for months if not years and provide a cheap, gentle, safe way to keep your children free from head lice.
John Owen
NITMIX Ltd
Head lice treatment and advice from NITMIX.
The All Natural Head Lice Removal System,
F.D.A Registered too!