How to remove lice from child w/out killing lice?

chela

I am not sure if I can follow this guideline of not killing lice and lice eggs. How can you get the blood-sucking lice off of your 2 year old w/out killing them? My child doesn't have lice, but she could get it, since it's very common in young children. I want to be prepared.

karasti

I don't think it would be possible. Plus when they get lice you have to hot water wash all the bedding and everything else, too, which will kill the lice and the eggs. I think anyhow. Knock on wood, we have 3 kids from 4 to 16 and have never had lice once. But I think to make them let go, you have to kill them and then comb them out. I don't know of any way you could possibly deal with it without killing them and/or destroyed the eggs.

zombiegirl

Sometimes we have to make a decision to protect our family regardless. You could take this sort of rigid disciple way too far. For example, are we going to be concerned about the bacteria that is making us sick and forego taking antibiotics? No.

It's nice that you are seeking out compassionate means, but in the case of lice, I just don't think it's possible. But since it's also not an issue you're currently facing, I don't think you should worry about it.

federica

Headlice are transmitted through close contact.
Make you daughter wear a bonnet, and tell whoever is looking after her that you wish to make sure she doesn't remove it.

When I was a girl at my RC. Convent boarding school, we were expected to plait our hair and keep it tied back, and to wear our bonnets at all times.
While i was at my boarding school, i do not remember one single incidence of headlice ever being found.

chela

Thanks. My older child had lice twice when she was in preschool and it was very, very difficult to get rid of (even with powerful lice-killing products)--this was before I ever thought about Buddhism seriously. So when I read the description of Right Action here: http://what-buddha-said.net/drops/What_is_Right_Action.htm, it really concerned me. Then, as a side thought, I wondered if this may be one of the reasons monks shave their heads (to prevent lice).

Anyway, I have always been very respectful to other lifeforms but I feel like I couldn't really be Buddhist if it means that I must not kill the lice on my child, or if we got bed bugs in our house (it is not uncommon in our area), or if we had an infestation of fleas or something of that nature. I have to protect the health of my family, as you said, and I feel that letting things go like that would be on the zealot-side of religion, and I can't go there, personally. That's not to say that I don't think deeply about the death of any creature; even the ant that I accidentally squashed the other day caused me to feel sorry. I guess sometimes you have to draw the line somewhere, and I just needed to know that it's okay to do that if you feel that you have to.

Takuan

every step you take, every move you make, you kill stuff. What does this mean? Well, you're either a terrible human being on the levels of Hitler and Amin, OR you're just a normal person living their life. I just sanitized my hands... OH NO! The germs and viruses! They're dead! All dead! I'm so terrible. I go to hurl myself off of the closest building.

Honestly, I wouldn't worry too much about it. It's for the health of your child. If you're really concerned about the well being of the lice, maybe try shaving the child's head. It's an old school method, but I hear it works.

This monk has the same dilemma.

federica

HH the DL is known to spank mosquitoes hard, if they persist in bugging him.... and a Buddhist Monastery in I-forget-where in the USA had to call in the exterminators when cockroaches became too numerous to ignore....

so try not to fret.

person

federica said:

HH the DL is known to spank mosquitoes hard, if they persist in bugging him.... and a Buddhist Monastery in I-forget-where in the USA had to call in the exterminators when cockroaches became too numerous to ignore....

so try not to fret.

HHDL has kind of an ongoing funny relationship with mosquitos, to my knowledge he never actually kills them though, he just blows them or brushes them away. I have heard him say though on more than one occasion that its ok to kill lice if you have an infestation after you do some sort of virtuous practice to offset the action. Sometimes the practicality of a situation trumps strict ethics even for monastics.

Its not that killing insects doesn't have negative karma but intention and the object you commit the action upon matter. So regretfully killing some lice so your family isn't permanently effected isn't even close to the same as serially torturing and killing humans for fun.

how

I think this thread is a valid question to ask
But...

We kill with every breath, with every step, with every heart beat. Everything that dies allows other life to flourish. We choose to see the sanctity of one life without acknowledging that it's very existence causes and depends on the deaths of others.
I revere compassion, sympathy, tenderness, love and try to remain mindful of my actions so that I don't create un necessary harm.
But ask yourselves, when caring so much about the deaths of head lice.....
What un necessary deaths are we causing and choosing to ignore when we eat more than what our body needs?
When we buy something we don't need?
Throw out something that is still of some use?
Take out the car for frivolity?

Is the paying of so much attention to one form of sentience, just the denial of the death we really create all around us, for the pettiest of wants?

lobster

How can you get the blood-sucking lice off of your 2 year old w/out killing them?

Please don't kill your two year old - for lice sake . . .

Beej

@how- those questions are very good questions and i believe they merit pondering. this is the practical application of the butterfly effect- all that you do has some consequence but compartmentalizing it into localized observaration negates that which lies outside your field of observation.

i was thinking of this idea this morning when i saw a huge flatbed truck hauling compressed cubes of cardboard, no doubt on the way to the recycling plant. Recycling is commonly viewed as a positive thing because it may reduce the need to harvest resources from their source, but when you factor in the amount of polution created by the hauling, the cleaning of the material, and the subsequent final production, its clear that recycling isnt as "green" as we are led to believe. Now thats not to say that it isnt better than cutting down new trees, because it is clearly better than that, but it might be better if the next time anyone places a newspaper in the recycling bin, they remain mindful of the fact that even the best intentions have some oppisite impact, somewhere, on something.

chela

Great stuff, everyone. I'm so glad that there is common sense in the teachings!

chela

lobster said:

How can you get the blood-sucking lice off of your 2 year old w/out killing them?

Please don't kill your two year old - for lice sake . . .

It's funny because I caught that in my original title, and then changed it LOL.

Sile

I had a successful experience in removing lice without killing them. My dad had cancer at the time and I had just moved in with my parents to help out, and had just discovered lice in my own hair, and was deathly afraid I would add to the overall trauma we were going through by contributing head lice to an already bad situation. Yet I couldn't bring myself (due largely to my dad's own teachings, lol) to outright kill them, nor did I want to in the first place.

Anyway, I asked them to leave, and prayed very hard that they would leave, and every time I felt one in my hair I would try to get it out, and then flick it outside. I also removed the eggs as I found them (sorry if this is gross). Flicked them outside, too. On any one person there are actually not that many lice at any given time. By just being relentless, I removed them all. It helps to live in a very clean house and shower once or twice or more per day; but it can be done. Mine were gone in about two weeks or so.

Also, remember that lice are not really anything special; just an itchy annoyance. They're not even as bad as ticks--they don't burrow in deeply or carry bubonic plague or Lyme Disease, for example. They just crawl around and take occasional bites.