Head Lice....HELP!!

[RIDISNEYLOVERS]

Brief synopsis:

My daughter had head lice all last year during school. I treated her constantly and got no reprieve until the summer came. (I really think maybe other kids were not getting treated and that is why it was constantly recurring). Then she got it again in October...We were so done with all of this so I contacted the pediatrician and I got a prescription for sklice and it worked. Just when I thought we would be done with this it reared its ugly head again and its back!!

UGH...what would you recommend?? My poor daughter is distraught by this (as well as I am)

Thanks for your help!!

Lisa

 

[jackilvsmath]

What worked for us last year was drenching the hair in olive oil. Put up in a bun and put on a shower cap. Leave on as long as possible. Rinse with vinegar. Pick through as thoroughly as possible. We did this two days I a row. Then picked through every night for a week. Then I added tea tree oil to their shampoo and to the water bottle we use to wet the hair in the morning. Hope that helps.

 

[lizabu]

Head lice is the worst. You have to use a treatment then meticulously pick out every single nit. Wash all the bedding. Tie up the toys in a garbage bag. Vacuum everything. I'm sure you know all that. I would also talk to your child about hugging and wearing other kids hats etc. my kids went through a period where they kept getting reinfected over and over. What I figured out is that my DD liked to hug people back then and there was always a kid or two who were sent back to school before their infestation was completely cleared up. I get it. People have to work and they use the shampoo and think they're good. But unless you pick out every single nit they can come back. Use natural light. Use a magnifying glass. Take turns with another person. It can take hours to pick through every stand of every hair. My DD is blonde and it was so hard to see the tiny white eggs in platinum hair but you have to get every one.

 

[SLP958]

I have no advise, I just hope you can get rid of them.

Lice really creeps me out. So sorry your daughter is having such a tough time with it!

 

[Southernmiss]

Brief synopsis:

My daughter had head lice all last year during school. I treated her constantly and got no reprieve until the summer came. (I really think maybe other kids were not getting treated and that is why it was constantly recurring). Then she got it again in October...We were so done with all of this so I contacted the pediatrician and I got a prescription for sklice and it worked. Just when I thought we would be done with this it reared its ugly head again and its back!!

UGH...what would you recommend?? My poor daughter is distraught by this (as well as I am)

Thanks for your help!!

Lisa

It's been a few years since dd had lice, but what I did was wash her hair with lice shampoo, then condition her hair. Leave the conditioner in and then meticulously comb tiny sections of hair for hours. I did this every night for a week. I would comb a section then clip it up out of the way. After the first wash with lice shampoo, I put a drop of tea tree oil in her shampoo for the next several nights and continued the nightly conditioning and combing. Got rid of the lice. At the end of combing each night I'd blow dry the rest of her hair as hot as she could safely tolerate it.

She has very long, thick , wavy hair and now keeps it in a ponytail for school and a bit of hairspray keeps the lice away. She's also learned not to share hats, etc.

I would also get conditioner and shampoo with coconut oil and add a drop of tea tree oil at each wash.

 

[mom2rtk]

What else are you doing to treat your home and her surroundings when she gets it?

You need to think long and hard about everything she comes into contact with. My boys kept getting it over and over. I had to become a detective and figure out for myself they were getting it at the kids hair cut chain I was taking them to. When I stopped taking them and started cutting their hair myself, they stopped getting it.

Lice don't jump. There has to be contact. They can only live for a couple days without being on a person. Think about your home and surroundings. Chat with the school nurse. Be a detective.

The only time my daughter got it a teacher at school had been selling bows and headbands and let the girls try them on. Oy. That one ticked me off.

Best of luck. This too shall pass.

 

[dustpixie]

You could try this: http://www.amazon.com/Fairy-Tales-R...9?ie=UTF8&qid=1392772537&sr=8-9&keywords=lice

Now I itch all over....

 

[ebtbmom]

It usually takes at least two treatments to completely clear the infestation. Treat a 2nd time 7-10 days after the initial treatment. This allows time for any missed nits to hatch but it's soon enough that they shouldn't have started laying eggs yet.

 

[quandrea]

What else are you doing to treat your home and her surroundings when she gets it?

You need to think long and hard about everything she comes into contact with. My boys kept getting it over and over. I had to become a detective and figure out for myself they were getting it at the kids hair cut chain I was taking them to. When I stopped taking them and started cutting their hair myself, they stopped getting it.

Lice don't jump. There has to be contact. They can only live for a couple days without being on a person. Think about your home and surroundings. Chat with the school nurse. Be a detective.

The only time my daughter got it a teacher at school had been selling bows and headbands and let the girls try them on. Oy. That one ticked me off.

Best of luck. This too shall pass.

That's how my daughter caught it. Kids haircut place. I took my dd to a place called Lice squad. They treated her but I had to comb her hair out with conditioner every night for two weeks. They explained that treating lice had to do with reduction. Keep getting out those eggs. I cleared her room of all but the essentials and washed all her bedding daily. That might have been overkill. Dry all bedding on a hot cycle.

What people think is reinfection is often just a few straggler eggs that hatch and reproduce.

I also routinely check my kids' heads now so I can catch it early.

It's a lot of time and work but you can and will get ahead of this.

 

[mmmagique]

This worked for us over a weekend one year. The school nurse said it was the quickest she's ever seen it cleared up. (no nits, no anything!)

Before bed, slather the hair in Cetaphil (the moisturizer) you can get a big thing of it at Costco. If your hair is short enough, blow dry it until it dries to the hair, if it's extremely long, blow dry it as long as you can...maybe an hour or so. Then (whether short or long) put it in a hair cap and go to sleep.

The next morning, wash it out. Then pour Listerine (the original orange kind) over it, making sure you are getting it everywhere. (protect your eyes) Put hair in a hair cap and sit for several hours while it dries. Rinse it out, and wash it. (an optional step is to rinse with white vinegar, but it wasn't necessary in our case. We didn't need to pick nits either. The Listerine seems to get rid of everything.

Bag up all soft toys, clothing and bedding that cannot be washed and dried at the highest temperature. Put somewhere out of the way such as a garage, basement or storage facility for several months.

 

[Shelly F - Ohio]

Wash her coat, hat and scarf in hot hot hot water. Get a new pillow. Replace hair brush combs ect.

Tell her not to share brushes combs hats with kids at school.

 

[anniemae]

I feel your pain op. We went through this in the fall. The problem is the nits, the live bugs are easy to kill, it's the nits that are more challenging. There is a product that I used with dd that is supposed to be all natural and kills the live bugs and the nits. The reviews were positive so I gave it a try. It is called LiceFreee (yes there is an extra e in free). I would spray it on at night to saturate her head and wash in the morning. I also used otc RID, which some say does not work because lice have become resistant to it but dd dr. will not give you a RX unless an OTC fails. Strange. Anyway, this is what we did (much of this I am SURE you know, but I'll lay it out):

Use treatment (whatever your dr. recommends, otc or Rx) Repeat when it says, I thin the rid was repeat after 7-9 days. It has to do with the life cycle of the nits.

strip bed wash sheets bed pad (I went overboard)

Bag up any stuffed animals, decorative pillows, extra blankets.

Run anything through the dryer for at least 30 minutes that can't be put in the washing machine, like comforters and pillow. I think I gave dd one comforter, one stuffed animal. all extra blankets were bagged up. I ran all bedding through dryer every morning although I am sure that was over kill.

I put the licefreee on her head every night for the first week. Again, overkill

did the second rid treatment on designated day

Ran coat, hat, mittens etc through dryer when she got home from school. I swear the coat room at school spreads lice with the kids throwing things everywhere.

Spray mattress, car seat, furniture etc with spray to kill lice. Basically anything that can't be washed. You can buy it otc, but I got a natural one on amazon that smelled like peppermint.

Preventative:
Hair in pony tail or bun

tell dd no hugging friends

Use fairy tales products to repel lice (spray, shampoo, conditioner) I swear this stuff works, was recommended to me by another mom.

 

[mom2rtk]

It usually takes at least two treatments to completely clear the infestation. Treat a 2nd time 7-10 days after the initial treatment. This allows time for any missed nits to hatch but it's soon enough that they shouldn't have started laying eggs yet.

That is absolutely a key piece of the equation.

 

[aprilgail2]

My daughter had lice a few years ago-as soon as I saw that nit I was on the phone to a place in Brooklyn called lice busters. They get rid of them without putting poison on my child's head and that was the most important thing to me-I didn't want her head drenched in pesticides. They simply used conditioner and combed and picked and combed and picked. They told me to wash the bedding and dry it on the highest heat, Vacuum one time and put stuffed animals and pillows in a bag and leave them go three weeks. I just tossed out the pillows and bought new ones. In 10 days we went back for a recheck and all were gone. I thought the whole thing was gong to be a lot more work than it really was.

 

[NaLisa]

Ugh, I feel for you. My DDs have had it twice--once about three weeks after WDW trip and youngest tried on every hat in every gift shop. I still get the itchies looking at those pictures!

It was a two-week ordeal for us both times. Treated with OTC lice shampoo, used lice comb and then repeated seven days later. In the meantime, every day for two weeks I would have my DDs wash their hair and then sit outside so I could look for nits in the sunlight. Both have light colored, very fine hair but lots of it (I hear lice love fine hair). I ended up finding it easier to cut off the strands with nits rather than try to comb or pick them out. Also, after every pass with a comb, I would tap the comb on a piece of black construction paper so I could see better if it was still picking up nits. Kept all that up until we went three days straight without seeing a single nit.

I also washed sheets daily for two weeks, laundered hats and pillows, etc.; I didn't wash things in hot water, as I think the dryer heat was enough. I also vacuumed upholstery every day and placed combs and brushes in just-shy-of-boiling water for 15 minutes.

The big trick is to get all the nits, and that takes time.

 

[Disfanx4]

TRIED AND TRUE to this day, after my 2 DD came home with lice and the regular treatment, have used Denorex Extra strength once a week and have never had a problem since.

 

[stitchfan75]

I hate those things and have tried everything. Living in AZ we never had to worry about them due to it being so dry and hot most of the year. A few months after relocating to Texas my youngest came home with them. Then she gave them to her sister. Our school district stopped sending kids home to be treated, in fact they don't even require a kid to be treated so it is always a battle.
The last infestation was about a month ago. I soaked them in Listerine every week for 3 weeks until there was nothing left to kill on their heads.
I'm hoping we are done but I know it's only a matter of time. My oldest said one girl has so many she has started naming them and the other kids can see them crawling on her hair.
It makes me furious and sad at the same time.

 

[4luv2cdisney]

What worked for us last year was drenching the hair in olive oil. Put up in a bun and put on a shower cap. Leave on as long as possible. Rinse with vinegar. Pick through as thoroughly as possible. We did this two days I a row. Then picked through every night for a week. Then I added tea tree oil to their shampoo and to the water bottle we use to wet the hair in the morning. Hope that helps.

Head lice is the worst. You have to use a treatment then meticulously pick out every single nit. Wash all the bedding. Tie up the toys in a garbage bag. Vacuum everything. I'm sure you know all that. I would also talk to your child about hugging and wearing other kids hats etc. my kids went through a period where they kept getting reinfected over and over. What I figured out is that my DD liked to hug people back then and there was always a kid or two who were sent back to school before their infestation was completely cleared up. I get it. People have to work and they use the shampoo and think they're good. But unless you pick out every single nit they can come back. Use natural light. Use a magnifying glass. Take turns with another person. It can take hours to pick through every stand of every hair. My DD is blonde and it was so hard to see the tiny white eggs in platinum hair but you have to get every one.

This and this!

My younger DD has dandruff and an itchy scalp. Her infestation was baaaaaaaaaaaaaaad by the time we noticed it, because the itching was normal. After the initial olive oil treatment (left on for no less than 2 hours) and combing thru with a lice comb, we never saw another live bug. The olive oil suffocates the lice and the vinegar loosens the nits. I continued to find nits for a few days, but they were obviously ones that I'd missed, because there were never any more bugs. I did retreat with olive oil again about 3 - 4 days later (just to be sure) and continued checking for nits for another few days.

Also, I treated myself and my other DD - just in case - and DH shaved his head to nearly bald. I did all nitpicking, applied olive oil, etc. standing in the bathtub and rinsed out tub in boiling hot water afterward. Immediately changed our clothes in the bathroom, put them in bags and carried them straight to the washing machine. The nice thing about the olive oil / vinegar treatment is that you can do it over and over. No waiting. So, if I'd noticed even 1 new bug, I would have immediately started the process over again. No waiting. Also, DD wears a ponytail almost every day now. I don't know where they came from, but we don't want them back.

 

[mom2rtk]

I hate those things and have tried everything. Living in AZ we never had to worry about them due to it being so dry and hot most of the year. A few months after relocating to Texas my youngest came home with them. Then she gave them to her sister. Our school district stopped sending kids home to be treated, in fact they don't even require a kid to be treated so it is always a battle.
The last infestation was about a month ago. I soaked them in Listerine every week for 3 weeks until there was nothing left to kill on their heads.
I'm hoping we are done but I know it's only a matter of time. My oldest said one girl has so many she has started naming them and the other kids can see them crawling on her hair.
It makes me furious and sad at the same time.

That's really unfortunate and irresponsible on the part of the school district. I would be approaching the principal, and if I didn't get anywhere, the school board. That's just crazy.

 

[mommyjam]

My daughter has very thick hair and when she came home with lice it was a nightmare. The lice shampoo didn't work and I was at my wits end. After some internet searching I soaked her hair in Listerine and put a shower cap on it for an hour. Rinsed her hair and then soaked it in white vinegar and put a new shower cap on for another hour (this loosens up the nits). This took care of the problem in 1 treatment. Never saw another one.