How to battle NITs – Advice from the NitLady

Head lice can be an extremely frustrating, seemingly endless nightmare but with the right knowledge and products you can eradicate them and prevent re-infestation long term!  

Here is what I have learned…

• Head lice are highly contagious and are easily picked up through contact with others that are infested or their personal belongings.
• It does not have to be head to head contact, you can get them from jumpers, hats, couches, car seats, towels, hair brushes, pillows, scarves etc.
• Once they reach infestation levels they will drop off the head and live on material objects for more than three days, waiting to find their next host.
• They live on the human scalp exclusively.
• They breed all year round and will camouflage themselves to the colour of their hosts’ hair, which makes them incredibly difficult to see.  I have seen brown ones, black ones, grey ones, auburn ones and blonde ones.
• Female lice lay about 7 – 10 eggs each night.  They like the warmth of the back of the head and neck when resting on a pillow and will often feed there which can leave a tell-tale rash.
• Eggs are glued firmly onto the hair shaft, no more than 1cm from the scalp as they need the warmth and they too will match the colour of the hair shaft.  Often you can see a tiny fleck inside a live egg, this is the louse developing (unless they are dead, in which case they will go an opaque white).
• Nit eggs hatch every 7 – 10 days and a louse can live for up to 40 days.
• When they first hatch they are tiny and very difficult to see, it takes a few weeks for them to reach the size of a sesame seed.
• They can not jump, fly or swim but they can hold their breath for almost 20 minutes.
• Not all children complain of an itchy head.

Here is what I recommend…

• For school age children check for head lice once a week.  You will not need to do this if you are using Nit-Enz Organic Shampoo twice a week, as recommended.
• Check the whole scalp for insects and their eggs, especially:
  1. Around the hair line and at the back of the neck.
  2. Behind the ears.
  3. On the crown of the head.
• If head lice are present you will need to launder any material objects that have been in contact with the infested person’s head.  Ie: bed linen, sun hats, jackets, car seat covers etc.
• For 20 minutes soak hair brushes, hair ties and combs in a squirt of Nit-Enz shampoo diluted in some hot water.
• The whole family should be treated at the same time (otherwise they will just keep being passed around).
• Use Nit-Enz Organic Head Lice Products as recommended.

Melanie Innes, also known as The Nitlady, has over 20 years of experience in dealing with head lice infestation.  She has worked successfully with Oranga Tamariki, Children’s Health Camps, The Foster Association, Head Lice Removal Services, Schools, Pre-schools, Kindergarten’s and Kohanga Reo’s to name just a few organisations.  

Nit-Enz organic head lice products were invented and developed for Melanie by her father, Rodney Innes, in 1999.  They were created out of necessity as head lice became an on-going problem for the family, one of her daughters was just an infant at that time and there was no way she would use dangerous synthetic chemicals on her (or any other family member for that matter).  Nit-Enz was invented as a safe, effective and affordable on-going head lice control system – because one off treatments will not work long term. With this in mind we also have bulk 2 litre and 5 litre products available at a very affordable price.

As The Nitlady she is here first and foremost for advice though.  If you have any queries at all regarding head lice, infestation and/or prevention please feel free to call Melanie on 06 976 0323 or via email at melanie@nit-enz.com.

For further information regarding Nit-Enz Organic Head Lice Products and real feed back from our customers please visit our Facebook page or our website at www.nit-enz.com.