The classroom has changed in many ways since I was a kid, but the one area in particular I’m writing about today is the READING CORNER. I say this with emphasis because all I can think about when I walk in to volunteer in my kid’s elementary classroom is LICE, LICE, LICE (cue the psycho movie soundtrack). I understand the importance of reading and wanting to make a comfortable environment for the students to read in, but come on! Pillows, blankets, bean bag chairs OH MY! This type of scenario is a haven for head lice to thrive in, but I can’t tell my kids not go to the reading corner and enjoy reading with their friends. What I can do is arm them with a daily defense against the little head lice bugs.

I did my head lice research and found out that SCHOOLTIME® Head Lice Control Products are the most effective and softest head lice treatment and prevention products on the market. SCHOOLTIME® products have been around for years and have millions of satisfied customers (including me). In a world flooded with head lice products making all sorts of claims, they are the best I have found. I read their reviews and read their labels and decided SCHOOLTIME® IS the best because it’s safe, pesticide free AND it works. They are also the first of head lice shampoo and other products that are all those “things”.

I was relieved to discover that I didn’t have to wait until my kids got head lice to DEAL with head lice. When I was doing my research I discovered Schooltime® Spray Away – and let me tell you – it is definitely part of our morning routine now. I made sure my boys didn’t have lice to start with by doing a daily head lice check and now I just use Spray Away and then style their hair as usual. The spray contains natural ingredients including a blend of lavender, rosemary leaf, lemon, eucalyptus and lemongrass, so their hair not only looks good, but smells good too!

Now you may be saying “My kids don’t like anything in their hair, how will I get them to let me spray it on their head?”. If your kids are like mine, they know what head lice are and they know they don’t want it. I told my boys if I spray their hair with this good smelling spray everyday it would keep the head lice bugs away. It didn’t take them long to agree to that!

I purchase my SCHOOLTIME® Spray Away from Walmart.com, but I know it’s available on Amazon too! Wherever you decide to get it, just get it! Send your kids to school and let them enjoy the Reading Corner. Just be sure to arm them against head lice with SCHOOLTIME® Spray Away and you can enjoy it too!

Short Hair? Head lice Don’t Care! As a Mom of two boys with short hair I could easily fall into the trap of thinking that my boys won’t get head lice because they have short hair. This is so not true! Lice do not care if your hair is short or long, they just want to find a nice happy home to lay their eggs and live happily ever after with their lice babies.

Boys typically will not share other people’s hair brushes at school, but they may trade a ball cap with one of their buddies. This is the perfect scenario that lice thrive in . . . being passed around from head to head with Billy’s favorite hat. Then the hat comes home in Billy’s backpack and guess what? Billy has lice and you have head lice at your house where you and everyone else in your family live and can become invested!

If you are one of the unlucky ones that gets head lice in your home, then be prepared for a lot of cleaning, vacuuming and laundry on top of the usual amounts of cleaning, vacuuming and laundry! It can be safe to assume that the lice will not be a welcome visitor to your home, so the best way to prevent this from happening is to do frequent head lice checks and daily use of Schooltime® Spray Away hair product. Using Schooltime® Spray Away on lice free hair will help keep it that way and maintain a lice free life for everyone in your home.

Kids will be kids and as a mom I don’t want my boys to have to worry about head lice (nor do I need more cleaning than I already have), so I do frequent head lice checks, spray their hair every morning before school and style as usual. Their hair smells fantastic and looks great too. If I happen to forget the Spray Away, they always say “Mom, don’t forget the Schooltime!”.

Using Schooltime® Spray Away helps me arm my boys with a natural defense against the dreaded little head lice critters and gives me a peace of mind knowing I won’t have to spend tons of extra hours de-lousing our home.

Let’s face it, head lice happens, but it doesn’t have to happen to you! Have a lice free day and prevent head lice with Schooltime® Spray Away.

With social media came “selfies,” and they are everywhere. The variously styled self-portraits of one or more people, whose heads rest close together, has introduced an interesting question: Does the “selfie” put teens at increased risk for lice?

Although this topic has gotten quite a bit of media attention, there is currently no evidence that justifies this concern.

An estimated 6 to 12 million infestations occur in the country each year among preschool and elementary school children (3 to 11 years of age), according to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). However, data on teenagers and young adults — the ones who take most of the “selfies” — is not generally collected. This is because these young people do not typically get lice.

My personal experience supports this. I can say that neither myself nor my colleagues have seen any increase in lice in the children and young adults we treat in our practices.

Is my teen at risk?

The short answer is: No. It would be very unlikely. Here’s why:

Should I have my child treated just in case?

Overtreatment is potentially more dangerous than an infestation of lice resulting from taking “selfies.” The products and services (such as local “lice clinics”) used to commonly treat lice can cause your child significant side effects and discomfort, and they can cost a great deal of money./p>

It’s also more likely that you’ll confuse dandruff, dried hair products, and dead skin — all side effects of treatment — for lice and nits, resulting in prolonged and unnecessary treatment. What’s more, mistaking the problem for lice can cause your child to miss school for no reason. It can also create stigma and embarrassment for your child.

This is why it’s important to see your healthcare provider for a definitive diagnosis. If in doubt, the best resource is your pediatrician or family doctor, who can ensure that you avoid unnecessary treatment and expense.

Original Article Link

Head lice, those tiny, wingless insects that live on the human scalp, have been a part of human history for thousands of years. Despite their small size, they have a significant impact on our lives, from the annoyance they cause to the fascinating insights they provide into human evolution and behavior. In this article, we will explore some intriguing facts about head lice, shedding light on their biology, history, and the various ways humans have dealt with them over the centuries.

A few more Lice Factoids

Tags: head lice, head lice prevention, head lice products, head lice shampoo, head lice information, head lice facts, lice facts

If you’ve been the victim of head lice for any amount of time, you know that they are one of the worst things that can happen to you both physically and psychologically.

To chemical head lice treatment manufacturers, this problem is worth a massive amount of money to them every year, with over $100 million being made on head lice control in the US alone. The EPA (US Environmental Protection Agency) is responsible for testing and making sure most pesticide head lice treatments destined for use on US children are safe.

Pesticides vs. Pediculicides: Confusion Over Safety
No pesticide to this day has been or is legally allowed to be advertised as such. However, Pediculicides (lice-killing pesticides) are regulated by the FDA (Food & Drug Administration) which causes the confusion: “If the FDA approved it, it must be safe?” This leads many people to believe (including those who prescribe and sell these medications) that these toxic pesticide products (like roach spray and weed killer) are harmless.

This common misconception leads to alarming overuse of these potent and harmful pesticides on fragile children, some of the mothers I spoke to even buying a head lice product every week with the grocery money. Some schools even share this belief and require proof that pesticide product has been applied, rather than simply checking whether or not the child still has lice.

The truth of the matter, is all pesticides have the potential to do serious harm and each individual has unique vulnerabilities and potential to react differently to these chemicals.

Although the FDA requires testing before the product can be approved, it cannot foresee potential problems in every individual, commonly hearing about them after the damage has been done. A process of elimination then begins, and only when it is shown that the only thing in common all the children with leukemia is that they have all used the same head lice treatment containing the same chemical. Pediculicides as a class are nerve poisons designed to interfere with the nervous system of lice. Unfortunately, this interferes with the nervous system of our children as well. To make things even worse, children’s sensitive growing bodies are far less able to process these chemicals. Children’s sensitive bodies have less developed immune systems. Children’s detoxification processes are not fully developed and their organs are still growing. This makes them far more susceptible and sensitive to the toxic threats of pesticides. i.e.: Lindane (Kwell): Applications of lice treating medications containing Lindane have been proven to be extremely dangerous.

Lab tests reported cancer causing agents, blood disorders, damage to the liver, kidney, nervous and immune systems and DEATH in animal testing from treatments containing this chemical. This toxic chemical is the working ingredient in over 2 million prescriptions for head lice and scabies. According to PANNA (Pesticide Action Network North America): “Lindane can cause seizures and damage to the nervous system and can weaken the immune system. Case-controlled research shows a significant association between brain tumors in children and the use of lindane containing lice shampoos. The insecticide is also a suspected carcinogen (contains cancer causing agents) and hormone disruptor.” New York followed California in banning the chemical compound Lindane and it is now banned in 52 countries. Despite this damning evidence, parts of the US still allow prescriptions containing Lindane in pharmaceutical compounds. Malathion (or Maldison as it is known in NZ and Australia): Is a highly toxic derivative of nerve gas which works by disrupting the chemical reactions in the lice?s (and our) nervous system.

Extremely toxic orally, Malathion is a possible carcinogen, mutagen (Mutates DNA) and endocrine disruptor. In its raw state, malathion is readily absorbed into the skin. Pyrethroid Pesticides: These are known to be toxic to the Thyroid and Immune System, amongst other concerns. Scientific studies of Sumithrin, Resmethrin and Permethrin also reveal serious safety concerns and are possible carcinogens. German studies link exposure to Permethrin and also Phenothrin with leukemia, lymphoid cancer and multiple chemical sensitivity.

Yet, according to a 1996 study conducted on 300,000 primary schoolchildren at 31 schools spread across the five health authorities of Wales, the researchers concluded that as many as 80% of 316 lice tested were resistant to these very chemicals. Are we REALLY prepared to put our children in THIS much danger for a shocking, mind boggling 20% success rate?

Products Becoming Less Effective as Head Lice Develop Increasing Tolerance
Chemical head lice product manufacturers also refuse to admit that their products are becoming less and less effective against head lice as the lice build up more and more of a tolerance to the different chemicals. Resistance is caused when the host is infected with one or two adults who are naturally resistant to the chemical and do not die. These two adults then reproduce and you have a whole new batch of lice that are resistant to that chemical. When you retreat with the same chemical treatment it is then of no use whatsoever to the new super breed of lice. Chemical product manufacturers may try to warn you that head lice can make you ill. Head lice carry no disease agents and cannot cause illness. A parent’s biggest concern should be keeping the stress of the child to a minimum to avoid long term psychological damage due to the shame and ridicule. The only way head lice can cause any physical damage is if abrasions from scratching become infected.

Using pesticide bombs also unnecessarily expose your family to dangerous chemicals. Adults and nymphs are only able to survive for 2-3 days off the host in optimal conditions. Under normal circumstances however this is more likely to be measured in hours rather than days as the adult louse is highly susceptible to dehydration and will quickly starve. Eggs can survive away from the host for up to 7 days but will not hatch without the warmth of a human host. With this in mind it is fairly obvious that compulsive cleaning is also unnecessary.

Pharmaceutical Industry Disparages Natural Remedies
The highly profitable chemical and pharmaceutical industry will have you believe that natural remedies are necdotal (unreliable) and are not scientifically proven, but independent studies by average everyday parents and caregivers show that there are many different natural therapies which are proven to be 100% effective.

NO over the counter or prescription head lice preparation has been proven to be 100% safe and effective, and repeated use leads to ongoing outbreaks and resistance to the pesticides.

The ONLY safe way to get rid of head lice permanently is to use a totally natural alternative to the chemical preparations on the market, some of which have been found to be extremely toxic.

Original Article Link

Tags: head lice, head lice prevention, head lice products, head lice shampoo