Asking my budget family for help. My kid has LICE!!!

[pigletto]

Years ago we had a family in my daycare who brought lice to everyone. It was a complete nightmare. Yes, the lice can and most likely are resistant to the OTC meds and they are quite toxic to use over and over again.
I can not recommend strongly enough a good nit comb, natural lighting and COMB COMB and COMB some more. If you miss the nits you start the whole cycle over again.
Seriously.. if you are at the point where you think you couldn't possible comb another second.. do it again.

We sat the kids in front of a movie, and combed and combed and combed. Their parents did nothing (long story ... but trust me.. it was awful).

The extensive and painstaking combing rid everyone of it. Of course wash everything and follow the usual instructions.. but in case I didn't mention it..
COMB out those nits.

It really is tiresome and hard on everyone but you need to be sure.
Good luck to you

 

[tink2dw]

I worked at Head Start when there was a Lice break out! They said Rid, then Straight MAYO, not salad dressing or Kraft Miracle Whip. Then the nits picked out. The a spray bottle of water and small amount of Vinegar that was Sprayed on after Daily shampooing. And before leaving to go to class. Long hair had to be put up in pony tails.

parents were told to iron the carpeting in there houses especially anyone's who was infected bedrooms, the beds, not water beds they were washed down with dish soap and vinegar.

All bed linens and especially Pillows needed to be washed in hot water with bleach and dried in the dryer not line dried. Any stuffy's that could be washed were to be washed in hot water with bleach. And any stuffys that can't be washed were to be dryed for 30 to 45 minutes in the dryer.

 

[SalandJeff]

I get itchy just reading this thread I also read that they don't like coconut...so we add a bit of tea tree oil to Suave Coconut shampoo and use that along with the coconut conditioner.

Good luck!

 

[lchadwick]

My oldest daughter kept getting it in middle school - and then I realized she kept sitting next to the same girl when she would end up with it. She avoided that girl on the bus and we did the mayo with apple cider vinegar rinse, metal comb, coconut scented shampoo and tea tree oil in the detangler. She hasn't had it since (6 years) and my youngest two with just the coconut shampoo and tea tree oil in the detangler have NEVER had them - and their classes have had outbreaks.

Good luck!

 

[delmar411]

just a tip on the metal comb, the cat and dog flea combs are the same as nit combs and the cat/dog ones have nice sturdy handles.

 

[SILLYANDI]

Thank you all, I will be going to the store for cetophil, tea tree oil, coconut shampoo and a big bottle of tequila, I think!

I spent the evening flat ironing then cutting each nit I could find out of her hair. Yep, each hair (and a few stray ones that got in the way) are gone! I figured it was easier then combing in the long run & no noticable bald spots.

I'll keep you posted! I'm really hoping that the amount of styling products the rest of us use combined with the tea tree oil & coconut will work to keep them from the rest of us!

 

[mhsjax]

Thank you all, I will be going to the store for cetophil, tea tree oil, coconut shampoo and a big bottle of tequila, I think!

I spent the evening flat ironing then cutting each nit I could find out of her hair. Yep, each hair (and a few stray ones that got in the way) are gone! I figured it was easier then combing in the long run & no noticable bald spots.

I'll keep you posted! I'm really hoping that the amount of styling products the rest of us use combined with the tea tree oil & coconut will work to keep them from the rest of us!

Aren't those little bugs just the high light of your day? Once you do get rid of those pests, do use gels and hair sprays in your child's hair. OUr nurse also said to put it up in a very high pony tail during the treatment stage.

Contrary to old popular belief, lice love clean hair, not oily dirty hair. They stick to clean. So load up of the products in your DD hair, that should discourage any further problem.

 

[Lucky4me]

Another way to try to keep them away for girls, is when they go to school, braid their hair tightly or put it up in a bun and put hair spray on it. Lice love clean, long flowing hair. They can get to it and attach to it easier.
When dd was in kindergarten in 1990, there was one boy who kept reinfecting the whole class. At least five times that year. dd sat next to him at one table. ACK!
After she got it twice, I starting putting her hair up close to her head or french braiding it very tightly in the back or on both sides. I'd spray it down with Suave hairspray. The rest of the class kept getting it, she never did again.
I think for boys, gelling/spraying their hair would accomplish the same thing.

That was a rough time I remember as a parent with little kids. We had to bag all their soft toys/pillows for weeks and soaked the rest of them in a bleach/water solution, I washed linens daily, sprayed the furniture and rugs with NIX house spray (that stuff was expensive!) and bought a new vacuum cleaner after her second infestation, two months after the first one. I also treated everyone else in the house with the NIX shampoo both times she got it, just in case. Her hair was so thick and so long, it took hours and hours of combing out the nits. It was not fun. I was tempted to shave her head I was so crazed. I didn't because that would have traumatized her a lot more than the lice did. I didn't make too much of a deal of it when she was around, but behind closed doors, I was freaking out. 20 years later, The kids don't have much of a memory of the whole thing, but I sure do.

There were some people at the school who acted like the lice was no big deal, whatever. It was a bit worse for me.

 

[mychicks]

Took my dds to a place last year when we were battling this. Expensive, but well worth it to save what little sanity I had left. Still grosses me out. Couldn't watch Dirty Jobs last night because this was one of the topics.

Any way, place we went to uses conditioner. Slather any white conditioner on the hair and then comb out. Comb each section 10-15 times, wipe comb on a paper towel and if there's anything there, you will see it. Do this every other day. There suggestions are a 3 week schedule. Day 1, Day 3 use the conditioner. Day 5, olive oil on hair overnight, comb out the next morning. Use Dawn dish liquid to help wash out the olive oil. Do this for two weeks. Third week, just do the conditioner. Then go to once/week for one month with the conditioner. Metal combs work best too.

By the 1st olive oil treatment, we were clear, but I kept doing this, didn't want to have to go through it all again.

We use the fairytales shampoo also. They also have a spray you can use, which is a good detangler as well.

 

[angierae]

The Fairytales Hair people were just on Dirty Jobs this week. They really seemed to knwo what they were doing (a hair salon out in CA that ONLY does lice treatment) so if they're selling product, I'd definitely order some.

Last year my DD's stepsiblings got lice but luckily they treated it all before she went for a visit so she never got it.

 

[3boymthr]

Soooo... Did anyone watch Dirty Jobs last night? Mike was a nitpicker for a day. Some very interesting information about lice.

 

[shortbun]

DS got them and gave them to me. I went straight for the olive oil saturation and nit picking twice a day. They never came back. I had three different nit comes, magnifying glasses, hair clips to slowly seperate strand after strand and very bright light to aim directly at the scalp and hairs. We got rid of them and they never came back. Also bagged the stuffed animals and washed all bedding in hot, twice that week. I really think it was the extensive nit checks-they took about an hour each time-we did. My best friend helped with my hair and my husband did it too. they DH and I each took turns doing Ds's hair. I tell you, I was skeeved!

 

[talulabelle]

Everytime you wash her hair, put a large amount of conditioner in it (to make it easy to comb through with the lice comb.) give a good combing, making sure to lightly drag the comb over all parts of the scalp after each shampoo for at least the next couple of weeks. If her hair is hard to comb through- leave the conditioner in while doing the comb though - then rinse out. Each time I did this (even after treating with the lice shampoo) I found a few more unhatched eggs (lice shampoo kills hatched lice, not the eggs - they need to be combed out with the lice comb) and an occasional teeny tiny, need a magnifying glass to see if it is a louse with legs,baby louse. Eventually after a couple of weeks, the comb was coming up clean.

My friends daughters, (they all got the lice at the same sleepover) all had reoccurances 3 weeks later because they had just treated with the shampoo and done one comb though. They didn't continue to comb like I did. Just takes one or two missed eggs to hatch, start laying eggs, and boom - 3 weeks later - your back where you started.

The unhatched eggs are the brownish small seed looking things that come out on the comb - the white visible "nits" are the egg casings that have already hatched, and they are harmless.

 

[kwhite1022]

For this being an OTT person is your best bet. Dont think you can ever do to much vaccuming, combing, or cleaning. When my dd had it years ago, I bought a bunch of extra pillow cases, and she would get a new one every time she napped (she was young) and then again at night, rinse and repeat for 2 weeks. I also washed her bedding every other day for 2 weeks. I vaccumed every morning and again at night, especially the couches. I also had a spot where she was to sit, that had a towel on the chair that I changed every day, and only she was allowed to sit there. I put all lovies in a black garbage bag for a month....you dont know where you are in the cycle, so err on the side of caution. We went through her hair 2 times a day, for a week, then every other day the next week. I used the mayo treatment, RID did nothing. We only ever saw 2 live ones, in that whole time, and I think our OTT time spent kept it from being an issue. If you dont keep up with it, you could deal with it for months. To prevent we spend the money for the paul mitchel Tea tree shampoo and conditioner and keep her very long hair in a bun at school, even when there have been outbreaks at school she has been fine. Best of luck to you.

 

[rdevine10]

Other good preventatives once you have gotten rid:

We use a homemade detangler made with tea tree condioner (trader joes) and Suave Professional Rosemay Mint Conditioner, water, and then I add a couple drops of the essentials oils of Tea Tree, Citronella, Eucaplytus and Rosemary.

We also use a soft hold spray gel with the added oils.

Then a light hold hairspray and for good meausure I add Lice Shield (I get it at Rite Aid).

Best, cheapest and most effective treatments (not to mention non toxic) are olive oil and vinegar (seperate). Oil oil will smother them. Later vinegar for 45 with head wrapped up in plastic wrap will loosen the eggs so they can be combed out easier.

Totally agree with the poster about excessive combing for the next several week with the lice comb. With my DD with really thick hair we did tea tree condtioner and a lice comb- it made it much easier on both of us.

And CLEAN, CLEAN, CLEAN! Bedding washed in hot water daily until you have had no lice for a good solid week.

NOTE: Its easy to miss 1 or 2 on your 1st treatment, so dont stop cleaning then!

 

[pilesoflaundry]

Anything you can't wash, bag up for a week to 10 days in the garage or something. I do that with all the comforters and pillows. It's just easier than dry cleaning everything or killing my washing machine every time this crap goes around. They die after 48 hours without a host and the eggs if they have a chance to hatch will die if they can't eat/stay warm so that's why you wait 10 days at least.

Everyone says heat kills them but if that were true a hot shower or a hair dryer would get rid of everything in one shot. I have dealt with it a few times, it goes around our school a lot unfortunately.

A good comb is your best friend. I have a robi comb that kills the live ones and an egg/nit comb to go through afterwards to get rid of any nits and eggs. Combing and getting them off the child works better than anything else.

Olive oil on the scalp and a shower cap works pretty good too. You have to leave it on at leat 2 hours, I've done it overnight. The oil kills them because they suffocate. It is hard to wash out though. It took 2 washes with pert and then 1 with dawn to get it all out so it's not the easiest thing to work with.

 

[CRdisMom]

as everyone has said FLAT iron and comb!! had it 3 times in one month. Of course that was the month before we left for WDW....I knew the house was good when we got back from WDW. but talk about a nightmare while on vacation.

Another tip for saving laundry is to get the beds and pillows covered in a dust mite cover. The one nice thing is that the new ones have a nice cover on them so the won't be completely like sleeping on plastic.

my head itches....

 

[ilovemyjj]

I feel your pain, however I found this shampoo at walgreens, to keep them away, after treatment, you use this shampoo, and it worked great for my family! Yes, don't forget carseats!

 

[WDWisTheBest]

There's now a prescription remedy called Natroba (spinosad), which was approved on Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration for kids four years and older. FDA spokesperson Shelly Burgess says that it kills eggs as well as lice, so no nit-picking necessary.

 

[aprilgail2]

There's now a prescription remedy called Natroba (spinosad), which was approved on Tuesday by the Food and Drug Administration for kids four years and older. FDA spokesperson Shelly Burgess says that it kills eggs as well as lice, so no nit-picking necessary.

if it actually kills lice and eggs its sure not something I would want on my childs head! Just because the FDA aproved it doesn't mean 5 years from now they won't say "gee we guess maybe it did cause all that brain cancer in children so sorry"