Head Lice Treatment During Pregnancy

During pregnancy a woman has to be cautious of the ill effects of certain chemicals which come in contact with her skin. The skin absorbs the chemicals and through blood vessels these enter the blood circulation system and reach the foetus. They can harm your unborn child in a number of ways.

The problem arises when a pregnant woman gets infested with lice. These have to be treated and as advised chemical and pesticides present in lice treatment shampoos are not to be used. In this condition it is best to go in for mechanical or herbal methods of removal of head lice.

Mechanical method involves removing lice from the head manually. For this very fine combs need to be used. Wet hair should be extensively combed using a very fine comb. This will help remove a major portion of adult in your head. However, nits which stick to the hair shaft will not be fully removed. Flea combs used to remove ticks from the pets are available in pet shops. These can be tried for removal of lice from your hair. Blowing the hair with hot air will also help to remove lice. After finishing with these methods it is better to ask someone to minutely go through the hair and pull out the lice and nits which remain in your hair. This is time consuming and needs assistance of someone.

Another method is to suffocate the lice to kill them. Pregnant woman should apply some heavy oil like mayonnaise oil or petroleum jelly on her head and cover the head using some tight cap like shower cap. This should be left as such for eight hours or more. It will be better to try this at night so that the oil remains in the hair overnight. The heavy oil and cap cover will suffocate the lice and nits and they will be killed. The hair will need to be washed using some shampoo. This will need multiple washing to remove oil fully.

In addition to the above methods, a mixture olive oil 3 spoons, tea tree oil 1 spoon, rosemary oil 1 spoon and some shampoo can also be applied in the hair. After applying this mixture the hair should be covered with a tight shower cap and washed after thirty minutes.

Use of neem oil is also very helpful. Neem oil has properties of interrupting the growth of lice by stopping the reproduction of head lice. This has strong insecticidal properties. The advantage is that it is harmless to human beings. In fact this oil is used for healthy hair. In addition to neem oil, a paste of tulsi or basil leaves can be applied on the hair to eradicate head lice. These herbal products are completely harmless.