How to Treat Lice While Pregnant

Lice can be extremely difficult to eradicate, even when a person is not pregnant. However, during pregnancy, there are more restrictions on what types of products can be used. Rely mainly on lice combs and olive oil instead of poisons. The combination of these two remedies is non-toxic and effective against when used correctly.

Things You'll Need

• Lice Comb
• Olive Oil

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Instructions

• 1

  Fill a glass of water. Comb through your hair, rinsing the comb in the glass of water after you have combed from one side of your head to another. This is to keep from spreading the lice throughout your hair and infesting new areas. Even if your hair is short, it can take hours of combing to get all of them, and it is common to miss a few. Longer hair can make this worse. Unfortunately, one louse can lay 300 eggs each month, so missing just one can cause a complete re-infestation. Lice combs are made with tough metal or plastic tines that are close enough together that they trap lice when they encounter them.

• 2

  Soak your scalp and hair in olive oil, wrap your head in a tight-fitting shower cap or plastic wrap and leave your hair untouched for eight hours. This will smother the lice using their own physiology against them. They can shut down most of their body functions, including breathing, for eight hours, so a full eight hours of the oil treatment is needed. Olive oil is non-toxic and will not cause harm to an expectant mother. It's also good for the hair and will leave it shiny when it's washed out.

• 3

  Continue the olive oil treatments every three to four days to kill off any that remain before they can lay more eggs. Continue lice combing on the days that you don't perform the olive oil treatment.