In today's edition of ridiculous things on the internet, a mother is refusing to kill her child's head lice because she's vegan.
Yep, you read that right.
The mum's neighbour wrote into the agony aunt column at coach.nine.com.au explaining that her seven-year-old daughter is friends with the girl next door, whose family is vegan.
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"That’s fine, we respect their choice… my problem is that recently this otherwise delightful child was at our house and scratching furiously, and I discovered she was crawling with head lice," she explained in her letter.
The woman explained that when she mentioned the head lice to the vegan mum, she told her that she wasn't planning in doing anything about it because 'vegans don't kill living things'.
"My neighbour told me she was in the practice of combing the lice and nits into the garden where they had a chance of survival. My jaw hit the floor," she wrote.
She then asked the agony aunt what she should do, as she doesn't want to separate the kids but she also doesn't want her daughter to become infested with the head lice.
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The agony aunt told the concerned neighbour that her only real option was prevention.
"Quit worrying about your neighbour's (admittedly questionable) parenting methods and focus solely on what you can do to keep your own offspring pestilence-free. Keep your daughter's hair tied back as tightly as possible and use a protective spray," she said.
She continued: "My friend Rebel swears by a combination of conditioner, tea-tree and eucalyptus oils, and water, which she sprays onto her kids' hair for a full week without washing."
The agony aunt also joked that she could set up a game of 'hairdressers' for the kids and remove the nits while they play, but she would be risking upsetting the vegan mum.
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New South Wales Health notes that 'mechanical removal is the preferred way to detect and treat head lice because it is effective, does not contribute to insecticide resistance in head lice and also presents a low risk of skin irritation'.
However it adds: "If you prefer to use chemical treatment, make sure that the heads you treat are infested with head lice.
"Registered chemical treatments that contain insecticides to kill lice are usually safe, but excessive use of other substances, such as home remedies and other insecticides, can cause irritation.
"Speak to your local pharmacist to identify the registered treatments that are safe for you and your child."
Keryn Donnelly