Itchy & Scratchy - Your unwanted friends

If there is one thing all mother's dread when their children go back to school it's the return of the unwanted visitors. To all those new mothers who children are just starting school welcome to the world of nits!

Head lice are now a major epidemic problem in the UK, and it is estimated that this year over 3 million children will have head lice. Whilst schools can advise that children are removed from school, treated and not to come back until the lice have gone this can take up to 3 months with conventional treatment, and something most parent would not be prepared to consider.

Head lice cost the British public 30 million pounds a year with every one looking for the cure. The amount of toxic chemicals that are poured directly onto children's heads is unbelievable, and whilst poisoning children is not something that most caring parents would even consider, for many it appears the last resort. On top of which once the children have them then the chances are that you and everyone else in the family have also become infected.

The lice are the fully-grown adults that can be seen by the eye and run all over the head whilst the nits are the eggs that attach themselves to the hair and routinely require combing with a steel nit comb to despatch them from their perch. Due to the increased epidemic of headlice, conventional treatment has meant that headlice have in some cases become immune to treatment, but, natural products are at last making their mark on these dreadful creatures and are already being used successfully by the Europeans.

What are they?
Nits are correctly known as Pediculosis -these tiny insects live on the head and in the hair, they are highly infectious and pass when the heads come into close contact.

Flat, wingless and around 3mm long, black or brown they attach themselves to the hair. Then they lay a large number of eggs, it is these that are known as nits, and are seen as tiny white oval specks glued firmly to the hair, and close to the scalp.

One of the most common myths about nits is that they are a sign of dirtiness, but the opposite is actually true, although generally you may not be aware of them in your child's hair unless they are scratching frequently or the nits have hatched into lice, when they are quite visible.

When this happens most parents wash and condition their children's hair and then with a steel comb drag the comb through the hair collecting the eggs and lice, if they have hatched. The comb has teeth that are very close together, necessary to lift the eggs from the hair. Simply combing the hair will not remove all the eggs and the cycle of head lice is frighteningly frequent, they can live on the head for 30 day. It is necessary to treat the condition, however, to keep treating a child's head for this length of time by coinventional treatment will mean that your child's head can become overburdened with chemicals having direct access on to the skin via the brain and many parents have started to look for other alternatives. The United States Food and Drug administration (FDA) has recently announced updates to the labelling of products containing lindane (hexachlorocyclohexane) as there are concerns over the misue of such products and its effects. Chemicals can also produce sensitivity to the scalp causing irritations and in some cases can damage the roots of the hair and break the skin creating further problems and infections. Frequent use of the steel nit comb on long wet hair can also have adverse effects so it is worthwhile looking for natural products that offer herbal, organic extracts and natural products.

Aromatherapy oils are often used to treat head lice, you may commonly find tea tree in a product or larkspur and you may be expected to repeat the treatment for up to three times within a set amount of days. You can also expect to leave products on the hair for several hours before washing through. Aromatherapy products especially formulated for treating head lice are available in the health shops, pharmacies and supermarkets.