you should be combing the child/children out for only 15 to 30 minutes with the conditioner treatment and baking soda for 10 to 14 days. Note: Lice do not go away in one day. COMBING, COMBING, COMBING for 14 days is an essential part in breaking the lice life cycle.
Baking soda has zero effect on lice eggs. It does not suffocate them, kill them, or prevent them from hatching.
Sometimes it will be easier to remove the nits if you wet the hair with white vinegar while you are combing the nits out. Vinegar helps loosen the "glue" that holds the nits to the hair. Separate and comb small sections of hair at a time.
Spinosad (Natroba).
It can be applied to dry hair and rinsed with warm water after 10 minutes. It kills lice and nits and usually doesn't need repeated treatment.
Can vinegar kill lice eggs? Vinegar is one of the classic home remedies for lice. However, if you are trying to find out how to get rid of nits using vinegar, you should know that using vinegar to kill nits or lice eggs is totally ineffective. Vinegar has no negative effect on the lice eggs.
Wet the entire hair with 6 parts of water plus 3 parts of vinegar. Vinegar dissolves the glue of the lice eggs, so they can easily come off the hair when combed out. Wet the entire scalp and hair from the roots down to the tips, so that you can remove dead lice eggs on hair also.
Washing at a temperature above 130 °F will generally kill the insects. Alternately, try sealing the fabrics in plastic bags for 2 weeks. Soaking combs, brushes, and other hair care items in hot water for 5–10 minutes. Vacuuming the furniture, floor, and other surfaces that may contain lice or their eggs.
Spinosad topical suspension, 0.9%, was approved by the FDA in 2011. Since it kills live lice as well as unhatched eggs, retreatment is usually not needed. Nit combing is not required. Spinosad topical suspension is approved for the treatment of children 6 months of age and older.
First off, here's what not to do: don't shave your or your child's head, or coat it with petroleum jelly or mayonnaise or anything else designed to "suffocate" the parasite. You'll probably end up with greasy, smelly, lice-infested hair.
Use heat. Wash any items used or worn by the person in hot water, and dry them on high heat. Lice and nits die when exposed to temperatures higher than 130 F for more than 5 minutes. Wash anything that touched the person's skin or scalp, including jackets, hats, scarves, pillowcases, sheets, and headbands.
Go to your drugstore and buy Cetaphil cleanser in the soap department. No prescription is needed. It works by coating the lice and suffocating them. Apply the Cetaphil cleanser throughout the scalp to dry hair.
While vinegar does not help in suffocating adult lice, it does prevent the nits (eggs) from latching on to the hair strands. Combined with careful combing, using the fine metal comb, it's an excellent and simple method for removing the nits.
Lotions and sprays for head lice and nits
There are several different products that can be applied to the scalp and hair to kill head lice, including: dimeticone 4% lotion or lotion spray – applied and left for 8 hours (usually overnight) dimeticone 4% spray gel – applied and left for 15 minutes.
Does vinegar kill lice? Vinegar receives an “honorable mention,” because it has been touted as an aid in the removal of nits, but it doesn't kill adult lice. The acidic makeup of vinegar breaks down the glue-like substance that adheres the nits to the hair shaft.
Can someone have nits but no lice? It may be possible to have nits but no lice. If a person cannot find any nymphs or adult lice in the scalp and the nits are more than a quarter of an inch from the scalp, these may be dead and from an old infestation. However, the lice could be in hiding.
To remove lice and nits by hand, use a fine-tooth comb on wet, conditioned hair every 3–4 days for 3 weeks after the last live louse was seen. Go through small sections of hair at a time. Wetting the hair temporarily stops the lice from moving, and the conditioner makes it easier to get a comb through the hair.
Body lice, close relatives of head lice, die when exposed for 5 min to a blow dryer delivering air at 50°C. Researchers in Salt Lake City, USA (Brad M Goates and colleagues. Pediatrics 2006;118:1962–70) have assessed six different methods of killing head lice using hot air.
The conditioner does not kill lice but stuns them for about 20 minutes enabling easier removal. The long toothed metal comb will remove nits and the stunned head lice. Wipe the comb on a white tissue and check for any lice or nits.
A preventative shampoo and spray can break the life cycle. A shampoo that kills lice before they can lay eggs is critical for closing the “bridge” from one head to another.
Olive Oil smothers and kills active head lice, making nit removal easier and moisturizing the hair and scalp. Part hair and apply the oil directly onto the scalp. Massage into the entire scalp making sure to saturate the hair. Apply a shower cap.