Am I a bad mother? (Lice/hair cuts)

[Hannathy]

Just be careful with all the bows and hair clips until your problem is gone or you'll re-infect. They have to be treated just like the brushes and combs.

I know it is a pain but you really need to sit and get all the nits out of her head. It can take hours but it sounds like even now you can still see them and it isn't going to work until this happens. If your boys are clean you don't need to wash their sheets every day spend the time getting everything out of your DD's hair!
All the work including the hair cut is not going to matter if she still has nits.

For the car another thing that will help is keep the windows closed and park it in the sun on a hot day the heat will help kill them

 

[mickeyboat]

I dreamed last night I had lice. There was a garlic clove shaped sac on the top of my head where they were all coming from. I picked it out and they all went away shortly after that.

I gotta stay off the DIS.

Good luck OP!

Denae

 

[KerriSue]

I dreamed last night I had lice. There was a garlic clove shaped sac on the top of my head where they were all coming from. I picked it out and they all went away shortly after that.

I gotta stay off the DIS.

Good luck OP!

Denae

You know I now have a visual-- GROSS!!!!

 

[Mkrop]

Believe me my suggestion of fumugation is by means a last resort approach but after 13 months, I think this may be the best alternative. I mean no one WANTS to put pesticide near their family.

For DS9's school, it was very hard on the teachers and the kids, the teacher was constantly worried about bringing it home to her family. The children were told that it can happen to anyone and that no one should tease anyone. Yet there was disrupted classtime to go have their heads checked by the nurse.
Well at first it was all about cleaning the room, there were only two pieces of cloth in the whole classroom, a little rug, and a big pillow, both were thrown out and the classroom wiped clean. Then winter came and no more issues. Spring came and boom, they were back and isolated to that one room. in a K-8 school! And also one little girl who could not get rid of them, came to school with her hair down etc. Her parents are Vietanamese and have a hard time with English so we think they were not reading the preventative measures, so the school nurse finally had a talk with them.

Our biggest problem was the principal and her communication to the parents and even the bus company. At least three girls on my son's bus(all in his grade) got lice but they did not tell the bus drivers and one girl got it from sitting next to the girl on the bus. The bus driver got most of her info from us parents and she voluntarily started to wipe her bus down everyday and did find one little critter but no more.

So after several cleanings, nothing else was working so it was suggested that the room be fumugated over the Easter break when the children would be away for a few days. They treated the ONE room and thoroughly cleaned the others and poof, no more problem!

So make sure the prinicpal is communication with the parents, a flyer telling people how to prevent the spread would be a good start but if shcool is closing soon, maybe they should consider a fumugation as well.

 

[Cindyluwho]

So after several cleanings, nothing else was working so it was suggested that the room be fumugated over the Easter break when the children would be away for a few days. They treated the ONE room and thoroughly cleaned the others and poof, no more problem!
.

Over Easter break, without any warm bodies/blood, the lice would have died anyway. There is a nationwide organization (headlice.org) that deals only with headlice, they have NO agenda. As I said before, there is so much misinformation out there people need to stick to the facts. I'm not flaming you Mkrop, just trying to make sure someone isn't exposed to dangerous toxins for no good reason. Leave just one or two drug resistant lice and you'll have a whole army of drug resistant lice to deal with. Toxins are not the answer, it's not me saying this, it's the organization that deals with lice everyday. People can and do die and be brain damaged from those toxins and yet some doctors still prescribe the shampoo, etc. It blows my mind!

 

[Mkrop]

Over Easter break, without any warm bodies/blood, the lice would have died anyway. There is a nationwide organization (headlice.org) that deals only with headlice, they have NO agenda. As I said before, there is so much misinformation out there people need to stick to the facts. I'm not flaming you Mkrop, just trying to make sure someone isn't exposed to dangerous toxins for no good reason. Leave just one or two drug resistant lice and you'll have a whole army of drug resistant lice to deal with. Toxins are not the answer, it's not me saying this, it's the organization that deals with lice everyday. People can and do die and be brain damaged from those toxins and yet some doctors still prescribe the shampoo, etc. It blows my mind!

I am no going to take any offense because the children were also gone over spring break and that did not work, they were gone longer for spring break then they were for Easter break. They also had a long weekend in there as well where the rooms were thouroghly professionally cleaned. When it happened in the fall, we thought the Thanksgiving break would do the trick and it didnt. So I am telling you that our school did many things before they resorted to the fumugation of one room in the whole school. Other classes were not afffected by this only my son's classroom. They sprayed the room and then gave it the time to air out then then went in and thouroughly cleaned the room again and found some dead ones on the ground. I mean each day these kids had to bag their coats and book bags. This was a greast source of stress for this class and the parents going through it. Especially the ones who had them (like I said before it was all girls, never saw so many boys with buzz cuts!). These kids missed a lot of class time having to file up to the nurses office every other day to be checked.

So I am not in favor of using pesticides just for the heck of it but when all else fails (as it did in our case) then I think it should be a considered course of action.

 

[Talking Hands]

You are not a bad mother. I had to shave my daughter's hair twice to get rid of head lice. Tried everything else. It was traumatic for both of us and at almost 25 she still reminds me of it. Neighbor called CFS on us and we were investigated for abuse. Talk about the year from hell. Good luck. I hope this will conquer it.

 

[Worried_Incognito]

You are not a bad mother. I had to shave my daughter's hair twice to get rid of head lice. Tried everything else. It was traumatic for both of us and at almost 25 she still reminds me of it. Neighbor called CFS on us and we were investigated for abuse. Talk about the year from hell. Good luck. I hope this will conquer it.

OMG! What a horrible thing for you to go through. How distressing. Thanks so much for sharing. When you had her hair shaved did she feel differently? Less feminine? I know I'm probably over-reacting here but I just worry that DD will now not feel as girlie.

 

[Worried_Incognito]

People can and do die and be brain damaged from those toxins and yet some doctors still prescribe the shampoo, etc. It blows my mind!

Those toxins have been banned here for a long time now. I agree that it is way too risky to use potent toxins on a child's head (or on anyone's head) and yes, I remember hearing horror stories about brain damage. The thing is though, since those dangerous toxins were banned (and believe me, I'm glad they were) pharmaceutical companies have not found an alternative that actually works. The over the counter treatments that I tried were less than useless - they caused trauma and distress for no reason. I could actually see the live lice crawling on the comb after treating with the stuff. It's maddening. Now I am not at all saying they should bring bad those dangerous chemicals but I do wish some effort would go into coming up with an alternative and effective pharmaceutical solution. I also believe that there's a lot of false advertising going on - there are lots of ads running here about all these remedies available from pharmacies and none of them work. It's like they're making fools of parents by giving them false hope.

 

[Worried_Incognito]

Just be careful with all the bows and hair clips until your problem is gone or you'll re-infect. They have to be treated just like the brushes and combs.

Thanks. I've just bought some new little clips which are steel and can be boiled. They're small simple little things but you're right, the lice or eggs could stay on them.

I know it is a pain but you really need to sit and get all the nits out of her head. It can take hours but it sounds like even now you can still see them and it isn't going to work until this happens. If your boys are clean you don't need to wash their sheets every day spend the time getting everything out of your DD's hair!
All the work including the hair cut is not going to matter if she still has nits.

I know. The only way to get them all out of her head is to cut them out. That's what I do. I havent' been able to cut out all the dead ones yet but will over time (I'm focussing on the 'live' eggs which are a different shade). I still need to constantly comb, check and wash bedding for the boys too though as they're the ones carrying them in from school and it's only easy to rid them of them because of these labour-intensive actions - otherwise they too would be covered in lice. But I do hear you about the nits. I really do and I'm always conscious of the importance of getting them all but like I say cutting the individual hairs out is the only way it works on her head and the lice/nits spread at a much faster rate on her head than on the boys' heads - it's very difficult. The shorter hair is helping enormously.

 

[dementia412]

I feel for you, we have to shave our daughter's hair for other reasons when she was six. My poor little first grader with no hair but peach fuzz. I did it myself at home and it was so hard. She still has pretty short hair, and it's not nearly as soft and pretty as it was before. The worst part is cutting her hair didn't fix the problem (she twists her hair so bad she gets a bald spot). I hope this helps you with the lice problem. I swear the only reason we don't have that problem is because my kids are so filthy, lice hate dirty hair!

 

[Virgo10]

I just wanted to give you a and your daughter too. My daughter had lice when she was 9. I can still remember my mother totally freaking out. OK, Ma but kids get these. It's not leprosy.

You have done everything and more. You're not a bad mother. Lice is a fact of life once the kids get into school.

I'll be keeping my fingers crossed that her summer do does the trick and ends this problem for you.

 

[my4kids]

Over Easter break, without any warm bodies/blood, the lice would have died anyway. There is a nationwide organization (headlice.org) that deals only with headlice, they have NO agenda. As I said before, there is so much misinformation out there people need to stick to the facts. I'm not flaming you Mkrop, just trying to make sure someone isn't exposed to dangerous toxins for no good reason. Leave just one or two drug resistant lice and you'll have a whole army of drug resistant lice to deal with. Toxins are not the answer, it's not me saying this, it's the organization that deals with lice everyday. People can and do die and be brain damaged from those toxins and yet some doctors still prescribe the shampoo, etc. It blows my mind!

I have also been amazed at how many people are misinformed about the issue. Doctors included. Just on this thread there has been a ton of misinformation. As I said before head lice is totally treatable with NO pesticides or special shampoos. They are dangerous. Yet I have friends who will say that their doctor kept recommending the shampoo, even though its manufacturer even warns not to use it more than twice. (and people wonder why the autism rates, infertility rates and leukemia rates keep increasing )It isn't even necessary once if you comb out the eggs and lice properly. I didn't use any of it at all for my kids and they were lice free in under a week. I especially can't believe how many people are so scared of bugs that they will fumigate their houses! Or that the FDA even allows for lice spray to be sold over the counter to spray on sofas and carpets where our kids lay. All the while making lice harder to erradicate as they become more and more resistant to the pesticide. The rate of head lice cases has also steadily increaded since pesticides were invented.

There is just no need for the shampoos, if you have to comb through after shampooing anyway, than why not just comb them out live and save your children from exposure to the pesticide. The stuff is so dangerous it's own label says things like "DO NOT leave in for more than 10 minutes maximum for any reason" and "DO NOT treat a child with this more than twice" They shouldn't even allow it to be called "shampoo" as it is not. It does not clean. It is just a pesticide the attacks the nervous system of the bugs. IMO the word "shampoo" makes people think it is a friendlier product than it is.

 

[MAKmom]

Get the oral Medication from your pediatrician , Lice have become immune to rid. We battled for weeks a few years ago. I was insane like you washing combing nit picking & the DR finally agreed to give us the oral medicine. It kills the lice makes them sterile & makes the nits sterile.

 

[Cindyluwho]

Get the oral Medication from your pediatrician , Lice have become immune to rid. We battled for weeks a few years ago. I was insane like you washing combing nit picking & the DR finally agreed to give us the oral medicine. It kills the lice makes them sterile & makes the nits sterile.

I was hoping that they would approve Ivermectin in the US, I didn't realize they had. I've used it on my chickens when they get lice and when I was younger we used it on cattle for internal/external parasites. Ivermectin is an amazing medication and they've been using it on humans in Africa and the UK (I think) for several years. It works on all internal and external parasites - even scabies. I've spilled enough on my hands over the years that I'm probably lice free forever!

 

[Poohnatic]

OP, All I have to offer is .

My sister got lice in kindergarten and of course, we shared the same room-I had them too. Not fun going through the RID treatments as a kid. The only thing going in our favor was that my mom insisted on short haircuts and we had dark brown hair with red highlights-the nits were easy to find. The school nurse also suggested washing with Lye soap. It was a wonder no one else in the house got them.

Last February, my boys got them. We weren't sure if it was school or day care. Let me tell you, I feel for you, because I did 14 loads of laundry in 24 hours, picked two heads, had mine picked and thanked my lucky stars that we have leather furniture and allergy bags on our mattresses.

So, I did all the treatment and a week later, my daycare provider went BALLISTIC on me, as she thought my boys brought it to her place and one of the toddlers now had it. I went through round two with my boys, even though all the soft things were STILL in bags in the garage in my one month banning (I'd been to the website). Another 14 loads of laundry and a sleepless night. Sprayed the cars (again), changed the linens out (again) and decided to shave my son's heads. Older son loves his hair this way, but we had to rid my younger son of his beloved curls.

Older son has coarse, straight hair, he'd only had three or four eggs and two nits. Younger son has baby fine curly hair-his head was like your daughters. My hair is even finer than his. The reason why the got me is that he'd been feeling feverish and climbed into bed with me a few days before we found out they had them.

After the paranoia and angst that we caused all this, I even cut my hair short. Both son's teachers were so very kind in all of it-they told us we would not believe how often it happens. I know the shame you feel-I felt it, too.

Then a month later, my daycare provider came to me shamefaced. It ends up that the toddler was the one who was the source of it. Her mom had read my daycare lady the riot act that it was from us and the school and she came to find it was from her neighbor.

The lesson I learned is that lice are insidious, like fine hair that's clean and live through the promethrin shampooing. I'll never judge anyone for having kids with it, because mine had it and it wasn't from being unclean. The little girl who brought it in wasn't, either.


I didn't talk about our ordeal on the DIS because, like you, I was ashamed and afraid of what people would think. Since then, I can't tell you how many times I've heard of people who were dealing with it.

Hang in there, I hope that DD's shorter style will help eradicate it from your life.
Suzanne

 

[robinb]

I'm just wondering if the hair cut helped the OP's DD ... I am still struggling with lice myself after about 7 weeks . My DD combed clean on Thurs and Sat, but it's been about 9 days since I treated and I suspect there is a whole new batch of bloodsuckers ready to hatch! We're on day 11 of a 21 day program (http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/theliceprogram/index.html).

I just wanted to send this to the OP: . I do hope things are going well!

 

[DznyLvr2005]

a LONG time ago my sister had lice and we had to get our whole house 'bombed'
They live in the rugs too.

 

[Kath2003]

Lice LOVE long, clean hair.

I guess your other option was to stop washing her hair...but I think cutting her hair off was the better solution. It'll grow back amazingly fast, especially since it's the summer (hair and nails grow faster in the summer) and you can buy her lots of hair bits to put in. Perhaps you could find something like a glitter-bug (Lush sell them) which will make her hair "princess sparkly" - it's chemical free, besides the pieces of glitter

My little sister had long, THICK hair and got lice multiple times - although not as often as your DD. My mother nit-combed it every night - lice or not - for months. She also kept it tied back as much as possible, and quit washing it every day. Eventually it stopped happening.

 

[chobie]

I'm just wondering if the hair cut helped the OP's DD ... I am still struggling with lice myself after about 7 weeks . My DD combed clean on Thurs and Sat, but it's been about 9 days since I treated and I suspect there is a whole new batch of bloodsuckers ready to hatch! We're on day 11 of a 21 day program (http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/theliceprogram/index.html).

I just wanted to send this to the OP: . I do hope things are going well!

We went thru this a few years ago. Got the dreaded call from the school nurse about my then 6 year old son. One RID treatment and a few comb out sessions and he never got it again. My poor DD with her waist-length, thick, curly hair had a harder time. I did RID and combing but it came back a month later. So after that I was very thorough --every night for an hour, I combed and picked. It took a good two months of doing this before I slacked off on it. And we have not had a problem since. So, hang in there.