How long nits stay in hair

The doctor also can prescribe a medicated shampoo or lotion. For very resistant lice, the doctor might recommend taking medicine by mouth. Whether the medicine is OTC or prescription, always follow the directions closely. Applying too much can be harmful.

Applying too little won't work. It is also an option for anyone who doesn't want to use an insecticide. And it is the only option for children 2 months old or younger, who should not use medicated lice treatment. To do this, use a fine-tooth comb on wet, conditioned hair every 3—4 days for 3 weeks after the last live louse was seen. Wetting the hair temporarily stops the lice from moving, and the conditioner makes it easier to get a comb through the hair. There's no need to buy electronic combs that claim to kill lice or make nits easier to remove.

No studies have been done to back up these claims. You also don't need to buy special vinegar solutions to apply to the scalp before picking nits.

Water and conditioner works fine. Though petroleum jelly, mayonnaise, or olive oil are sometimes used to try to suffocate head lice, these treatments may not work. If medicine doesn't work and you want to try these methods, talk to your doctor first.

A few important things to NOT do: Don't use a hairdryer after applying scalp treatments. Some treatments for lice use flammable ingredients and can catch on fire. Don't use pesticide sprays or hire a pest control company to try to get rid of the lice; these can be harmful. Don't use essential oils such as ylang ylang oil or tea tree oil to treat lice on the scalp. They can cause allergic skin reactions and aren't approved by the U. Don't ever use highly flammable chemicals such as gasoline or kerosene on anyone.

Head lice spread quickly from person to person, especially in group settings like schools, childcare centers, slumber parties, sports activities, and camps. They can't fly or jump, but they have claws that let them crawl and cling to hair. They spread through head-to-head contact, and sharing clothing, bed linens, combs, brushes, and hats. In the past, kids with head lice were kept home from school.

But now doctors don't recommend these "no-nit" policies. In most cases, a child who has lice should stay at school until the end of the day, go home and get treatment, and return to school the next day.

While they are at school, kids should avoid head-to-head contact with other kids. It can help to put long hair up in a bun, braid, or ponytail. As many parents know, fighting head lice can be an ongoing battle.

There's no doubt that they can be hard bugs to get rid of. If your child has lice 2 weeks after you started treatment or if your child's scalp looks infected, call your doctor. There are professional lice treatment centers that remove lice and nits for a fee. These services are effective but often costly. Remind your child that while having lice can be embarrassing, anyone can get them.

Having head lice is not a sign of dirtiness or poor hygiene. The pesky little bugs can be a problem no matter how often kids do — or don't — wash their hair or bathe. Cohen says. To properly treat head lice, you need to understand your enemy. Head lice can be found in one or more of these forms:.

All three generations of head lice need to be nonviable, or dead, to get rid of head lice for good. Head lice need a human host to survive. If the hair is gone, so are head lice. If your child already gets short haircuts, it may make sense for you to deal with head lice by destroying their habitat.

Your first line of defense against head lice is an over-the-counter OTC head lice treatment that typically comes in the form of shampoo. The main difference between various products is the active ingredient and which stages of head lice it kills. Some OTC head lice treatments use pyrethrins as the active ingredient. Pyrethrins naturally occur in flowers of the Compositae Asteraceae family like chrysanthemums, also known as mums or chrysanths.

If your child is allergic to these flowers, he or she may also be allergic to the head lice treatment that uses pyrethrins. As Dr. Parents may split one dose into several applications or otherwise deviate from the directions.

If you are still seeing live crawlers, then you may have missed a step or the treatment is not effective against the type of lice your child has.

Some parents turn to home remedies for head lice, such as tea tree oil, mayonnaise, neem oil, vinegar, saline spray and many others. Treatment for head lice is recommended for persons diagnosed with an active infestation. All household members and other close contacts should be checked; those persons with evidence of an active infestation should be treated. Some experts believe prophylactic treatment is prudent for persons who share the same bed with actively-infested individuals.

All infested persons household members and close contacts and their bedmates should be treated at the same time. Some pediculicides medicines that kill lice have an ovicidal effect kill eggs. For pediculicides that are only weakly ovicidal or not ovicidal, routine retreatment is recommended. For those that are more strongly ovicidal, retreatment is recommended only if live crawling lice are still present several days after treatment see recommendation for each medication. To be most effective, retreatment should occur after all eggs have hatched but before new eggs are produced.

When treating head lice, supplemental measures can be combined with recommended medicine pharmacologic treatment ; however, such additional non-pharmacologic measures generally are not required to eliminate a head lice infestation. For example, hats, scarves, pillow cases, bedding, clothing, and towels worn or used by the infested person in the 2-day period just before treatment is started can be machine washed and dried using the hot water and hot air cycles because lice and eggs are killed by exposure for 5 minutes to temperatures greater than Items that cannot be laundered may be dry-cleaned or sealed in a plastic bag for two weeks.

Items such as hats, grooming aids, and towels that come in contact with the hair of an infested person should not be shared. Follow these treatment steps:.