The tiny scabies mite is called Sarcoptes scabiei, and lives in the skin
where it makes burrows causing a lot of damage and leaves the afflicted with
intense crawling, itching, and hurting sores. Transmission occurs mainly via
skin to skin contact, such as when hugging or even just briefly touching (such
as a swipe, bumping into someone when walking past, or a handshake even). The
doctors will prescribe pesticide cream but we sought an alternative way to cure
the infestation.
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| Scabies outbreak |
To cure scabies in a 1 year old (my nephew)
and in 2, and 4 year old children (my daughters) and a 40 year old parent, we
used a salt bath (1 cup salt / 20 liters water) and soaked in that for 15-30
minutes per day, every day for two weeks (I have read it doesn’t need to be
that long but just to be on the sure side). It is important that everyone in
the house has a bath or they act as potential carriers. Any salt (sodium
chloride) will work well. I used rock salt because it was cheapest. Make sure
the head is frequently wetted and only lightly pat dry (The doctors told us the
mites don’t go on adult heads but our mites didn’t follow the doctors orders!).
After the first two days of protesting the kids
actually liked the salt bath except for a bit of complaining about the mite
sores in the salt water. We treated the sores with a homemade neem oil lotion
(use neem oil diluted only, incase your kids (or you) are sensitive to it. It
is also interesting to note that neem works much better when it is diluted. We
used this recipe: (1 teaspoon turmeric powder, 2 teaspoons coconut oil, and
half a teaspoon neem oil) you can also try this without the turmeric but even
though everything the kids touched turned golden, turmeric has strong
anti-inflammatory properties.We changed all clothe, towels, and bedding daily and vacuumed likewise. We also quarantined as much as possible (after 3-4 days without a host the mites die). Good bye scabies, good bye!
