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

[ccgirl]

OP here. No one else in the family has shown any signs of lice and DD6 has only had 1-3 nits to cut out each night since (I'm sure by their location and appearance they are simply ones I've missed the night before, not a new infestation). It has taken 2-3 hrs every day but totally worth it.

So here is my expert opinion after 1 week, 4 kids and HOURS of work.

Use Lice MD it is non toxic and worked IMMEDIATELY on the live ones, also made the eggs turn a different color so I think it killed them on contact. Just be careful not to get it on clothing because it is very hard to remove (it is a silicone gel- in fact the same gel that is in Mylicon Infant Gas drops..).
I sprayed one room with the lice spray and got the worst headache & stomache ache so I stopped doing it. The smell is still lingering in that room after a ton of wiping and vaccumming too.
I stripped everyone's beds, bagged all stuffed animal type things for 1 week and vaccuumed every square inch of the house. Tossed all brushes & hair ponies and DD6's pillows. All headbands and other hair items that could not be parted with were put in the freezer for 2 days. Every family member has their own hairbrush (DD6's is kept in the freezer still lol).
I have stripped DD6's bed every morning when she wakes up and I throw it in the dryer only (other than the normal once a week washing). It stays in the dryer until bed time when we make the bed then strip it again the next morning.
I have not seen a live louse (or dead one for that matter) anywhere in our house, on our kids or on DD since day 1.
I retreated her hair with LiceMD yesterday and found no nits or signs of lice at all. I will continue her once a day check and cut process for a whole month.
My theory is that if I cut out each egg/nit I see each night there is no way for them to hatch and spread. So far so good (and proud to report that NO ONE else in her classroom or our family has developed lice after DD).

I did not like the chemical harshness of RID or the spray that they sell. I used it on DH and myself and I swear it made me sick. The rest of the kids got the LiceMD treatment with no side effects.
Good luck to all of you others out there. I am so angry I could have avoided all of this had I known the little girl who spent the night at our house (and shared a pillow with DD) had lice. Her mom still denies it, although the girl matter of factly told me she had "critters" & was sent home from school that week (DD was out of school due to tonsillectomy and had not been around any other kids but my own during that time). That little girl was pulled out of school the day after my daughter with another case of it GRRR!
I wish people would get over the stigma and WARN anyone who was exposed, its' the only way to stop the reinfestation!

OMG! A mom knowingly sent her DD to stay with you with lice!!! That is awful. You are better than me. I would have called that mom up and told her that her DD even admitted it! I called anyone and everyone that has been around DD for 3 weeks. My DD even wanted me to. She said she didn't want any of her friends to have to go thru this. Goodness, I lvoe that girl! So, you don't use the nit comb and you cut each hair strand with a nit on it off? Are the nits the white things? About the freezer... I live in MA and it is FREEZING here. If I put the bagged pillows etc. outside will that kill anything on them? Wondering if I can do that rather than wait the 10 days. Sorry, am going thru it now. Noticed it first Sunday. Spent 3/4 hours on her hair. Spent about 1 1/2 hrs with the nit comb last night. I really had a hard time even "seeing" anything. I don't want to stop though for fear of infestation.

I also found a leave in Lice Shield spray. We will be using that from now on so, hopefully, we won't go thru this again. Has anyone had luck with this kind of product?

Lice Shield contains natural essential oil extracts of:
Citronella, Eucalyptus, Rosemary and Lemongrass.

 

[Jennyvelaz]

 

[weHEARTmickey]

Even though nobody in my family has lice, I'm all from reading this thread! MY HEAD ITCHES NOW!!!!! DD10 has LONG, thick hair & I've always feared her catching lice I used to get it at daycare as a child & it was a nightmare. Some of you said you go outside to comb the nits out. Dumb question....if we ever had to do this, could our dog catch lice?

 

[aprilgail2]

Even though nobody in my family has lice, I'm all from reading this thread! MY HEAD ITCHES NOW!!!!! DD10 has LONG, thick hair & I've always feared her catching lice I used to get it at daycare as a child & it was a nightmare. Some of you said you go outside to comb the nits out. Dumb question....if we ever had to do this, could our dog catch lice?[/QUOTE]

LOL---- I asked that same question when I took my daughter in for treatment and they told me no that lice do not like dogs.

 

[ccgirl]

As the previous poster stated, lice only live on the human scalp. I think it is more so any lice/nits that are combed out of the head aren't inside of the house so there is less chance of spreading it. Live lice die within 48 hours once they are off the human head. I DVRed the episode of Dirty Jobs of the nit pickers in NY. Watching it today. So never want to go through this again!

OP - how is your DD doing?

 

[ccgirl]

CCGirl, I am so sorry that you had to spend so many hours on lice removal! There is help on Cape Cod, as well as many other communities, that specialize in lice removal. Please visit my website at capecodlice.com or thepicky1.com. My work is very similar to what you saw on Dirty Jobs except I make house calls. I can save families time and money if they prefer a pesticide free approach. Feel free to forward any questions to me through my website. Chances are I have already helped many families in your childs school!

Thanks. Sent you an email via your website. I did the 3 step Rid process and have had her sleep with olive oil and a shower cap two night already . I just found them Sunday. She did have a pretty severe case. I will do the RID shampoo again on Wednesday. I am so paranoid someone else has htem. My DH checked my hair but i'm not sure I totally trust him and want these things GONE!

 

[talulabelle]

Be careful about treating everyone just in case. They can get resistant- trust me! Then you are stuck with olive oil and a shower cap as your only hope.

We battled it for two years straight and it ended when I refused to let the school office staff check my children. They were using gloves and not changing them between kids!

I refused to let the school nurse check my kids anymore as well. She wasn't using gloves! i know from treating my own kids that those things are magnets with any strand of hair. To prove to the school that she could be transfering them to kids, i took a baby louse on one strand of hair and brushed it across my hand. The little thing stuck to one of those microscopic tiny hairs on my hand! They had claimed they could transfer that way because they would only come of on hair or a strand of thread - I proved that there was enough hair on the hand to spread them.

BTW - I was shocked how many people in the school, including the nurse , were uneducated on lice. All she knew was to say "use the RID shampoo - pick the white nits out then come back tomorrow" - the white nits are harmless hatched shells, that just show there are probably live bugs there. It is the BROWN ones you need to make sure you get out. They will hatch in 2 weeks and you start over again. Many people don't know about them.

Lots of conflicting info out there. I know this - I would never use the rid shampoo or the chemicals on my kids again - I still worry that that was the cause of my sons ADD (I know there is no evidence - but how does anyone know what this stuff does to our childrens nervous systems if it is designed to attack the lices nervous systems?) He was fine in school until we had the lice epidemic. I used the shampoo on him twice. It was strong, and he was tiny - in kindergarten. He had a light case that he got from his sister and I could have easily have gotten the eggs out of his hair with just combing. I didn't know better then, but I woudl never use taht stuff again. Gettingthem out manually is the best thing - and not much more work, especially on a boy.

 

[ccgirl]

So, as I am nit picking my DD's hair last night I was saying how I was having a hard time distinguishing between an egg and dandruff. Sometimes, although the eggs look white in the hair, they are brown when you wipe them on a paper towel. Anyway, she said "my nurse used a popsicle stick and if it moved it was dandruff." I asked her if she wore gloves and she said no. I was pretty upset. I will be contacting the school with that info, along with the information for the "picky one." Wish I had her info before I started all this. Even I wear gloves while checking everyone's hair I have no idea why a nurse wouldn't with a student. Just crazy to me.