Head lice immune to some over-the-counter treatments

Head lice are a pesky side effect of the school year starting up once again.

But this year there’s an even greater concern, those over-the-counter medicines might no longer be enough to get rid of lice.

Recent medical studies suggest new generations of lice have actually mutated.

That means they’ve developed a gene making them resistant to some of the main ingredients found in some over-the-counter treatments like Rid Shampoo or Nix Rinse.

A few years ago Kristen Westlake’s daughter got lice.

Since they share the same hair brush, she got them too.

“I thought, ‘This is awful. This doesn’t happen, I am a meticulous mother, my kids are very clean. Why is this happening to me?'” Westlake said.

Since then, she’s been trying to educate and help other parents remove lice with more holistic methods like coconut oil and Clearlice.

With new generations of lice mutating, some speculate prescription medication might be the new fix.

But pharmacists said you should still use over-the-counter medications as your first line of treatment.

“If these don’t work and the natural treatments don’t work, they’ll have to go to prescription drugs. There are a few of them on the market, basically medication, but they do require prescription,” said pharmacist Steve Pomerance.

Westlake said the best method is combing through and removing each louse strand by strand.

She said it’s not just your child who could be affected.

“It’s a huge process, because then you need to treat your home by just washing your sheets, towels in really hot water. Bagging up any stuffed animals and toys,” Westlake said.

After her lice infestation, she said prevention is so much easier than treatment.

“Every day she has a ponytail or a french braid and then I put tea tree oil in her hair. It has a very pungent smell and lice don’t like strong smells, they like dry, clean hair,” Westlake said.

She also checks her kids’ hair twice a week for lice.

Westlake and Pomerance agree that education and not sharing hats or hair brushes are much easier than removing lice one stand of hair at a time.

Not all the over-the-counter medications are ineffective. One product, ‘Vamousse’ works against mutated lice since it does not have the chemicals they have adapted to.