Head lice!!!! Yikes~

[eh24fan]

Ok Great Dis folks...HELP!!!

My 2 1/2 year old has nits! We are pretty sure he must have got them at daycare. We haven't seen any live ones but we've already treated him and I combed him as much as I could. He was not cooperative, so we did the best we could tonight. I've already got the beds stripped, sprayed with spray stuff (I know I know...some are going to tell me that stuff doesn't work), laundry going, furniture has been sprayed. I did my hair but can't get that nit comb through my fine, curly, tangly hair to save my life.

I never had lice as a kid and I'm freaking out. My mom is a hairdresser and this is making her nuts. LOL

So, please help!! Does olive oil work? Any other suggestions?? PLEASE???

 

[LadyZolt]

Did you use the lice shampoo? If so, I'd just wash with that myself and comb out as best you can. My kids had lice several times, but I never got it from them as I never shared hair brushes or combs with them, either. I think if you use the shampoo now and again in two weeks, you'll be fine. And do your son now and again in two weeks, and use the nit comb again on him.

Wash all the sheets and blankets in hot water. Take all his stuffed animals and put them in a Hefty bag and tie it up tight and then store it in a closet for four weeks. I told my kids the animals were taking a long nap. LOL! They did have machine washable teddy bears, so I was able to wash those and give them back to the kids.

Don't freak out -- lice is not a sign of uncleanliness or anything like that. It's a highly contagious parasite and little kids get them a lot. My daughter got them when she was 12 and she had long hair then and I had no choice but to cut it as she had lice everywhere. So that was sad, but her hair did grow back. Just take all the right measures now and tell his daycare center so that the other children can be treated as well otherwise he'll just keep catching it again. It's a pain, but you'll win in the end.

-Dorothy (LadyZolt)

 

[3boymthr]

If there are nits then there are live ones even if you don't see them - he may only have one or two though - each one can lay thousands of eggs which is why it's so easy to get an infestation. My youngest got lice lots of bugs and nits and my oldest too though the oldest only had a few bugs and no nits. Middle one had none and neither did DH or I. We were lucky to get it all in one strike so far we've never had them again.

Lady Zolt gave you some good tips and I have a few more tips.

Don't just spray the furniture, vacuum it to catch any bugs or nits that may have transferred from his head. Throw the vacuum bag away when you are done.

Wash his bedding and vacuum the mattress daily until you are sure they haven't come back. If he has pillows wash them don't just treat them. The bugs can get down into the cracks of the pillows and mattress and hide.

Don't forget to clean his car seat and your entire car if you can. Vacuum it well and if the cover comes off throw it in the washing machine in hot water. Don't forget to use HOT on the dryer as well.

I recommend washing all the toys that can be washed, not just throwing them in a bag. If they toys can go in the washing machine do so. If they can go into the dishwasher, toss em in.

And seriously, shave his head - a number two or three buzz cut. it will really help keep them from coming back on you and on little boys the hair will grow back quickly.

ETA - one more tip. Get that barbicide stuff from your mom and treat your combs and brushes or replace them all. The nits and bugs can live in the brushes. Don't forget to clean the area that the brushes are stored in. Vacuum it and spray it.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

Okay, I got curious, so I just did a search on Head Lice:

http://www.cdc.gov/lice/head/treatment.html

http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/lice/headlice030.shtml

http://http://www.headlice.org/

Now my head is itching for some strange reason!

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Have to get the nits out of their head. If you have nits you have live bugs.

I swear by the LiceMeister comb, a huge magnifying light and hours of nitpicking.

Vacuuming is your best friend.

You can throw stuff in the dryer on high for 30 minutes to kill off bugs.

 

[MichelleVW]

On a 2 year old boy I would shave his head for sure. Nothing for them to grab onto then!

 

[mjkacmom]

On a 2 year old boy I would shave his head for sure. Nothing for them to grab onto then!

No brainer - shave his head! And make sure to bag the stuffed animals, and wash his carseat cover.

 

[dbriggsq]

My DD had nits a few years ago when she had waist length, very thick wavy hair and it was an absolute nightmare. We tried various nit shampoos - they didn't work!

The only thing that did work in the end was washing her hair every day and then loading it with conditioner and combing through thoroughly when wet - it's much easier to get the nit comb through when the hair is absolutely coated with conditioner.

 

[mhsjax]

When you do get rid of them and his hair has grown back(if you decide to shave it) do what our nurses at our school said, put lots of gel and hairspray in his hair, apparently they love clean hair with nothing on it, it is easy to grab onto, but with the gel and hairspray it isn't. It has worked for my kiddo. we had our first bout of it this year, and it was at a time that I wasn't putting "goop" in her hair.

 

[lizzie01]

After almost 20 years of being free to them, the head lice are now back in my head. Shampoos don't do well on me. Anymore suggestions?

 

[Magic Mom]

If he's fighting you and you can't get all the nits, you should just save yourself a ton of hassle (and exposing him to more lice poison) and just buzz cut his hair. It's almost summer so he won't be cold. It will grow back fast. Seriously, it's your easiest option.

 

[Arkansan]

Fortunately, my kids have never gotten lice. However, we've been using the preventative (organic) shampoo, conditioner, and hairspray for several years. Coincidence? Maybe, but it is cheap insurance! (and I have two DDs with long hair) The products are organic (so no chemicals or poison) and reasonably priced. Once you're on the e-mail list, they send a monthly coupon code for at least 15% off. The site is Fairytaleshaircare dot com. I know they sell products to get rid of lice, too, but have never used them personally.


OT, but I'm also bringing their "bed bug natural spray" when we go to Disney this year! I take no chances.

 

[EllenFrasier]

Just reading these posts is making me itchy. Sorry. My dd got lice when she was in 1st grade. Not sure where it came from, but she ended up with it. Trying to be all natural and everything, I hit the internet for cures that were not involving insecticides. Mayonnaise was the chosen path. The website said to slather the hair with mayo and then put a plastic bag over the hair for 30 minutes. It recommended treating the whole family....all 4 kids in the yard with plastic bags on their heads. Dh decided to forgo the treatment and I waited until I was in my bathroom that night. It didn't work.

So we bought RIDX or whatever that stuff is after call the pediatrician to be sure dd could use it with her asthma. I was happy to say that it did not smell bad at all. We had to comb her hair every day, twice a day to get rid of the nits and she missed like 4 days of school because the nurse had to check her first and she always managed to find something. I used hair gel to make getting the comb through the hair easier and bobby pins to hold the hair out of the way that we already went through.
Did you notify the preschool? You should do that so the other parents can be on the lookout for lice too.

 

[marypoppinswannabe]

If it was my little boy, I would shave his head. We have done lice treatments before with no medicated shampoos. We slathered our hair with mayonaise and put on a shower cap. (you could use saran wrap if you didn't have a shower cap.) Leave it on for about an hour, then wash your hair and comb out with the nit comb. Plus you can do this treatment more often than once every two weeks.

 

[A&Bmama]

After almost 20 years of being free to them, the head lice are now back in my head. Shampoos don't do well on me. Anymore suggestions?

Lice are very persistent so you have to be just as persistent in your treatment.

First the big trouble with the lice shampoo/treatments is that they only work on live lice, they do not work on the eggs. So you can use the product and kill all of the lice on your head and as soon as the eggs hatch (about 10 days) you have a new crop and are back to square one. You have to keep on it so that you can kill the new crop before they mature and lay more eggs. There is really no product that will kill the eggs this is why all of the products tell you that you will need to do another treatment the week following the initial treatment. My advice would be to do your initial treatment, another treatment after a week, and one final one week after that. Don't be tempted to do the treatments more often, almost all of these treatments contain a pesticide and you don't want to overload your system with poisons!

My daughter came home with them a few years ago. I did the initial and follow up treatments and thought we were clear of them. About a month or so later she had them again. Pharmacist insisted that she must have been reexposed to them from another source and that it couldn't be from the initial infestation but I'm not buying it. I did my homework and found out that it can take 10 days for the eggs to hatch, since my treatments were 7 days apart I think there were still some viable eggs left after the treatments were complete. I wouldn't want to wait any longer than 7 days between the treatments though because it takes a little as 4-7 days for newly hatched lice to reach maturity and lay eggs of their own.

The second time I did 3 treatments and in between treatments I washed DD hair with a tea tree oil shampoo I also added more pure tea tree oil to the shampoo, once it was on her head I would leave it for about 10 minutes and then rinse it out. I did the tea tree oil treatments twice a week between the "conventional" treatment that the pharmacist sold me. After this the lice were gone for good. I did keep up with the tea tree oil treatment for awhile for good measure but I think it might have been overkill, since tea tree oil is non toxic I wasn't worried about that.


I also want to add that when you are checking your hair any viable eggs will be very close to the scalp. The eggs need your body heat to incubate. Once they hatch the shell is moved a little farther down the hair shaft. Anything that is more that 1/2 inch down hair shaft is just a shell and is not viable.
Good luck and I hope this helps!

 

[Hollywoodhaha]

When I was in 5th grade, I had lice. We would get them gone, then I would sleepover practically every night during the summer at my neighbors house. Then I moved away, and discovered that she was giving them to me
How do I know? Before I had them, we were playing hairdresser and I saw them

 

[freepixie]

After almost 20 years of being free to them, the head lice are now back in my head. Shampoos don't do well on me. Anymore suggestions?

Mayonaise! Slather it thru your hair, and wrap it up in plastic wrap! Keep it on for a couple hours, then rinse thoroughly, and the nits and lice should slide off! I'm a teacher, and trust me, I've seen my fair share of the nasty lil critters!!

But be sure to treat the rest of the house as well or they'll be back...

 

[robinb]

Old thread ... Welcome to the DIS!

After almost 20 years of being free to them, the head lice are now back in my head. Shampoos don't do well on me. Anymore suggestions?

Yes, follow this program:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/theliceprogram/index.html

The shampoos, olive oil treatments, nit removal, etc did not work for me when my DD shared her lice with me. This program worked for me and my DD and then twice more when she came back home with other outbreaks.

 

[beattyfamily]

I feel for you.

We had this problem two summers ago. I have two girls with long, thick hair so it was a nightmare.

I tried everything....treatments, combing and nit picking several times a day, Tea Tree Shampoo, Fairytales shampoo/conditioner line, electric comb and Olive oil.

It took 3 weeks and I believe what worked was the constant combing/nit picking and combing the hair with olive oil. That is how I got the live ones.

Of course, we also cleaned everything (clothes, bedding, brushes) and we each had separate brushes and I kept their hair in pony tails with hairspray for awhile.

Good luck!