Have you started itching and wondered to yourself, “Can black people get head lice?”. Perhaps you’ve been sure that something can’t happen to you only to have that very thing occur? Maybe you always wake up on time without an alarm clock…until one day you sleep past the start of an important meeting. Maybe you…

Pyrethroids are a class of chemicals used in insecticides, including the most popular head lice medications. A new study in the Occupational and Environmental Medicine reports what many had feared for decades—that “exposure to certain pyrethroids, at environmental levels, may negatively affect neurobehavioral development by 6 years of age.” Pyrethroids are neurotoxins. They work by disrupting the…

If you love your children, you won’t want to use lice products that use pyrethroids. Here’s why. Pyrethroids are the class of pesticide used by the most popular over-the-counter (OTC) lice products. That’s right. These products use pesticides. For decades, parents have been dousing their children’s heads with toxic chemicals to treat head lice. Pyrethroids…

If you’ve ever encountered head lice in your family, you may know that lice afflict some 6-12 million people—mostly children—each year, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Lice are a serious nuisance and they never seem to go away. So you may wonder, where did head lice come from in the…

When a child comes home from school (or camp or day care) with head lice, most parents rush to the pharmacy and buy one of many available over-the-counter (OTC) head-lice treatments. There are a couple of reasons to slow down before taking this step. First, there is no need to panic. Easier said than done,…

As kids head back to school, parents are often on edge about possible illnesses common among youngsters. Kids working and playing in close conditions can quickly spread illness. Here are some of the most common conditions and how to avoid them. If you haven’t washed your hands by now, you’ll want to. It’s important to…

Home remedies for head lice have a kind of folksy appeal—using mayonnaise, olive oil, tea tree oil—seem at first blush to be benign at worst. There are also recommendations you can find for kerosene or gasoline these are just a few examples of dangerous home lice remedies! Don’t Get Burned The reality is that none…

A 2000 study by researchers at the Laboratory of Public Health Entomology at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) found that healthcare workers, parents, and school officials often misdiagnose and inappropriately medicate head lice infestations. Parents are left scratching their heads, is it head lice or dandruff? The researchers asked readers to submit examples…