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Date: 15 Oct 1997 16:07:25 GMT
From: Ahimmelfar
Newsgroups: misc.health.alternative
Subject: Remedy for head lice -- cheap, safe -- olive oil
Someone was looking for a non-toxic remedy for head lice:
We solved our lice problem entirely by using olive oil. I placed by son in the
bathtub and poured olive oil on his head, worked it in, and repeated until his
hair was saturated. I kept his head leaned back so the oil would not get in
his eyes. When the oil appeared to be draining, I poured on some more. After
a few minutes of re-pouring, I noticed dead lice flowing out of his hair with
the olive oil and collecting around his neck and around his ears. I did not
use a shower cap, just kept a constant saturation in his hair. The total
procedure took around fifteen minutes, and I collected over 25 dead lice. The
stuff works by suffocating the lice - it blocks their air holes and they
cannot breath. After the 15 minutes, I shampooed his hair, which took off
most, but not all, of the oil. Then I found that the oil made nit combing
painless and easy.
I did a follow up shampoo about ten days later but saw not a single dead louse.
Have had no problems since then.
For really bad cases, I would recommend three successive shampoos over 5 to 7
days, more if needed, but hey - the stuff is totally harmless, so repeated
application should not be too onerous.
The following are some sites I found interesting and informative re lice a
couple of months ago, but none of them seem to be promoting entirely non-toxic
(and low cost) solutions:
http://www.cfc-efc.ca/docs/00000079.htm
http://www.headlice.org/faq/lousology.html
http://www.headlice.org/faq/manual.html
http://www.headlice.org/faq/egghead.html
http://www.headlice.org/faq/nochem.html
http://www.headliceinfo.com/program.htm
I learned of this method from a reference on one of these sites that Harvard
School of Public Health was doing research in this area, but could find no
published studies, so I decided to just experiment on our own.
Good luck and stay away from the pesticides - they almost certainly harm your
kids more than they hurt the lice.
Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 11:44:03 -0700
From: Carolyn Nowell
Subject: Thanks for the advice to cure Head Lice
I have been battling head lice with my daughter since she entered school
(k - 2nd). This has been a continuous battle every year. In
k-grade we fought it for 6 months and in 1st grade it went on all school
year. We spent days upon days, weeks upon weeks and months upon months
trying to eliminate this problem. It got to the point where my (now
7 year old) daughter told me she wanted to be "Someone Else".
I tried every over the counter treatment available, washed, vacuumed,
bagged everything, even through away all brushes and combs in my house.
Nothing worked and in most cases after treatment I was still pulling out
LIVE lice. The schools and doctors all told me "I was doing something
wrong" and "I did not clean everything she came in contact with". One
doctor even suggested cutting her hair length, which I reluctantly did
to no avail. I found it very frustrating that she was the only one in my
family (5 of us) who continued to get it and she shares a room with my
other child. My kids play close to each other and my older child was
fine (No lice No nits).
I found your web site about a week ago and read a case study
about a women who cured her son's head lice with only olive oil, I
decided to try it. I had my daughter put on her bathing suit and sit on
a towel in the bath tub. I poured 1 small bottle of olive oil on her
hair, making sure not to get it in her eyes. I would say that over 50
DEAD bugs came out of her hair. I am very happy to say IT WORKED!!! I
have been checking my daughters hair everyday since the treatment, no
bugs and the nits that I have missed in previous sessions are sliding
down the hair shaft into full view and are very easy to remove. I do
plan on a second treatment this week, but I am confident that I will not
find anything.
I wanted to thank you and the women who shared her story for this
information. Thanks to both of you my daughter is free of these pests
and I am not damaging her hair or her health.
Carolyn Nowell
Grass Valley, California
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