Head Lice

[anniemae]

GRRRRRR. Head lice is raging at my dd school. We got the notice today, and it is a full blown epidemic!

I bought a product called fairy tales, that is a preventative spray. What else can I do? I will start putting her hair up. The school will have the kids bag their coats and back packs in garbage bags if they find a case of lice in the class. The whole grade shares a coat room and shares cubbies, so if someone has lice, their coat will touch another child's coat.

This is a very big fear of mine, I have heard it is very hard to get rid of.

 

[Southernmiss]

Use hairspray on you dds hair. If you suspect she gets lice wash her hair with shampoo with a few drops of tea tree oil in it. Put conditioner in her hair and leave it in while you use the metal fine tooth comb and painstakingly comb small sections of hair. Worked for us and dd has very thick wavy hair.

Once she started wearing a ponytail every day we haven't had another case of lice. And that's been four years ago at least. Knock on wood.

 

[Soldier's*Sweeties]

It's not that hard to get rid of(assuming you treat your house and your children properly). It will be a PAIN if the children's coats and hats are stored together though.

Keep her hair up or braided with lots of hair spray until it's under control.

It stinks.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Ick, I hate lice.

Buy a lice comb for starters. I have the LiceMeister.

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

Use it on your dd daily to check for lice and comb out any potential nits. I would comb and dip in a cup of hot water to check.

If you see your dd scratching her head, whip out the lice comb and check her head.

:Shudders:

 

[Nette]

I second the lice comb... you need a good one, not one of those ones that you get with the shampoo.

Also, we had a very stubborn case of lice a couple of years ago (kept getting passed around DDs class -- the whole school really) and the only thing that finally worked (short of getting prescription Quell) was Cetaphil.

Yep, that's a face cleanser. Our NP suggested it when I called about the Quell. So what you do is you buy the Cetaphil (generic is fine) and you was your kid's hair as normal and dry it. Then really glop the Cetaphil on thick and leave it overnight. We wrapped heads with press n seal and a towel. Wash it out in the morning. (I think it would be ok to do this early and just wait like 6 hours if you wanted to do it during the day.)

We also combed her hair with the lice comb every day for like a week checking for re-infections. It takes forever and you really need natural light, but it really is the best way to see if they're back.

Also make sure you treat yourself and other family members and all bedding and coats.

It's not that bad, really. Just be persistent. Of course, if other parents aren't equally persistent, it will be more difficult.

 

[anniemae]

Our school allows kids to go to school with nits. Some have a no nit policy. You can't catch it from the nits right?

I gather it is all about getting rid of the nits regardless of if you use OTC products like nix, natural methods like mayo, or prescription products.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Our school allows kids to go to school with nits. Some have a no nit policy. You can't catch it from the nits right?

I gather it is all about getting rid of the nits regardless of if you use OTC products like nix, natural methods like mayo, or prescription products.

The thing about the nits is that where there are nits there are probably lice.

Those suckers are very hard to see when they are tiny which is why a good lice comb is invaluable.

Youngest dd has had lice twice. We found it to be absolute torture to get rid of. For whatever reason, they love her.

Now she has very short hair.

 

[whatname]

We had this at dd's school last year at about this time. Major lice outbreak. I was freaked out. I wasn't freaked about the stigma of lice. It happens. DD has very, very thick, long, wavy hair. I was dreading going through it. It is hard enough just to comb it regularly.

I bought tea tree oil at gnc and added a few drops to some hairspray and sprayed their hair every morning after putting it in a ponytail. I put a few drops in conditioner and used it when washing. Our school had everyone bag their coats and other belongings. Maybe you could just send a garbage bag with your dd and tell her to put her coat in it? Or send some sort of bag and put the coat, hat, etc in it and cinch it. Also, make sure she knows not to put her coat in a pile with others or to share hats, hugs, etc. I picked dd up from an activity last week and there were the coats in a big pile on the floor. I had to remind them not to do that. My understanding is that they don't jump or fly. They are spread by contact.

Good luck. We escaped the outbreak. I hope you do too.

 

[snarlingcoyote]

When I was teaching, we were always told that heat and hot wet especially kills head lice, so I always washed my hair in really hot water as long as I dared then blow dried it. No idea if it actually works, but it made me feel better! Nowadays, my niece (in HS and works part-time in a day-care) uses a flat iron for the same purpose - she figures it will burn up anything crawly.

 

[LoserMomma]

Lice SUCKS! We had to go through it a couple of times. Then my daughter not only pulled her hair back daily, it got braided and sprayed with an anti-lice hair spray.

 

[wiigirl]

Ick, I hate lice.

Buy a lice comb for starters. I have the LiceMeister.

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

Use it on your dd daily to check for lice and comb out any potential nits. I would comb and dip in a cup of hot water to check.

If you see your dd scratching her head, whip out the lice comb and check her head.

:Shudders:

 

[KateDinVA]

We have had to go two battles with lice and my DDs.

We won both, but the first one took many rounds. The second time was quicker, and we've never had a problem since, and I thank Tea Tree Oil.

In addition to a different way of treating it the second time (long story short - Listerine!!), I started adding just a few drops to every bottle of shampoo we've used since.

When we've gotten letters home from school about someone in one of my DDs class having lice I make sure to check their hair and usually do an extra shampoo with about 10 drops in a tablespoon of shampoo for the both of them to split. I'll often "just happen" to send them to school in buns or pony tails for a few days.

You could even "treat" coats and such with a very, very low dilution of tea tree oil - put a few drops in a bottle of water and mist the coat and let air dry. Lice aren't like bedbugs, though, and they're not as likely to come home on the coats as they are on the heads.

 

[aprilgail2]

GRRRRRR. Head lice is raging at my dd school. We got the notice today, and it is a full blown epidemic!

I bought a product called fairy tales, that is a preventative spray. What else can I do? I will start putting her hair up. The school will have the kids bag their coats and back packs in garbage bags if they find a case of lice in the class. The whole grade shares a coat room and shares cubbies, so if someone has lice, their coat will touch another child's coat.

This is a very big fear of mine, I have heard it is very hard to get rid of.

I always had my daughter put her coat in her backpack and keep her backpack at her desk when the lice notices came out!

It's not that hard to get rid of(assuming you treat your house and your children properly). It will be a PAIN if the children's coats and hats are stored together though.
.

I always thought lice was a hard thing to get rid of until the one summer my daughter came home from camp with it. Within minutes of seeing a nit I drove her to Brooklyn to the "lice lady" and it was pretty easy- NO pesticides in the hair which is the way I wanted it. They put Pantene conditioner in the hair and then just comb and pick over and over. Came home, washed the sheets and pillowcases, (actually bought new pillows because I was grossed out LOL) and vacuumed one time and that was that. Went back 10 days later for a recheck and all was good. Our friends and their family of 7 also went the same day as us and our other friends family of 2- they all went to camp together so the kids brought it home and shared it with their whole families, everyone except me had it!

 

[mhsjax]

Once you do get rid of them, use hairspray, gel, any type of "product" you can in her hair.
contrary to old school popular belief, Lice attach to clean hair, with all the stuff in your hair, the lice can't attach. Also as others have said, keep her hair up in a pony tail, with lots of hairspray.

 

[Ginny Favers]

My kids have the most hair of anyone I know. When my daughter got lice in kindergarten, I was so freaked out because her hair is nearly impossible to brush. I had heard stories about people using RID and not getting all of it out the first time, and I wondered how I would do it with my kids and their crazy hair! And what if I had it, too?

So I paid a woman to come to my house on a Sunday and have it removed with natural remedies, clean the house, and teach me how to deal with outbreaks in the future. She spent a good 6 hours combing through her hair, and then she went through the rest of the family's. She told me, just as others have said, not to wait if lice is going around. Once every few days, I go through her hair with a lice comb. I keep her hair up and use lots of product and a lice preventative spray. I also use regular Suave coconut shampoo, which lice don't seem to like. I also used tea tree oil on myself (the smell was too overpowering for the kids). We haven't gotten them since.

 

[eh24fan]

The key to getting rid of them is COMBING COMBING COMBING and making sure to either bag or dry (on HIGH HEAT) bedding, jackets, stuffed animals, etc. And car seats...treat and/or vacuum the carseats!

The first time my youngest had lice, I went nuts and cleaned my whole house, did laundry for 2 days and just panicked. The 2nd time, I still panicked a little but not nearly as bad as the first time. Now we just keep my boys hair pretty short so I can easily check often, my husband nearly shaves his head so that's easy too. It's my hair that worries me So my mom checks for me when I get paranoid. I have shoulder length, curly hair.

My teenage sisters BOTH got lice this summer. No idea how, or where they got them from but I suspect my niece. I helped my stepmom comb for hours. They were so upset. I even ended up cutting their hair from mid-back length to shoulders b/c it was just too much to comb. They were infested. It was awful. I had never seen live, adult lice before that and there were many. The girls cried and so did I. Getting rid of the live ones wasn't the issue...RID and olive oil helped with that. It was the nits. There were sooo many!

My sister-in-law swears by Cetaphil, which is what she used when my niece was infested. My niece is only 2 and has had it twice. But the Cetaphil and combing took care of it easily and quickly both times. The first time she had them BAD, so it was quite an undertaking.

 

[minnie1012]

During the school year I am so careful, coconut or tea tree oil shampoo, pony tails, braids, hair spray! So I slack off in the summer because hey its summer and my kids don't go to camp. Well both my daughters get it from their cousin at her birthday party! Ugh! The mother never told me her daughters had it so I had to find it on my own weeks later and by then they were infested! I feel like we lost 2 weeks of summer just trying to get rid of it (I didn't let them do anything with other kids until I knew it was gone).

I never did catch it from them (thank goodness). I believe it's from hairspray and wearing my hair up since it was summer.

I did find an awesome way to get rid of it. The RID didn't work at all I still saw live ones. I put Listerine in a spray bottle and sprayed their entire heads. I then placed a shower cap on for 2 hours. When you removed the shower cap you could see the dead ones (yuck). I did this every few days to make sure they were gone. I think it takes 7-9 days for the eggs to hatch. Every day I put tons of Pantene conditioner in (because of its thickness) and combed out the nits with the licemeister comb.

 

[pioneer89]

Our pediatrician suggested the following after an outbreak in our school:

Oil in hair overnight 1/week.
Tea tree shampoo.
Bag all stuffed toys, pillows, etc for a few weeks.
Bags around all car seats.
Plastic mattress covers.
Nightly comb for a month after last nit is found.

The two times (separated by 1.5 years) we spotted nits in one of our kids hair, my DW went on full alert. It does take lots and lots of time and effort to treat it right, but when we saw them once, I think we got rid of them.

The second outbreak only showed up after we stopped with oil in the hair, so we're not going to stop that now.

Bagging coats and backpacks at school seemed like a good think, until I found out the kids were re-using the bags every day, and NOT the same bag. Kids were puting the garbage bags into a bin at the end of the day, and taking a different used one at the start of the next.

 

[tajz90]

For those who use tea tree oil, be careful around your pets, it's very poisonous.

 

[Glennie5]

Is your daughters hair long enough to take a flat iron to? Make sure it is on the hottest setting. Flat irons are the reason we don't see head lice in older children as much as we used too. You would still need to treat the head for the lice but the flat iron will take care of destroying the eggs and any lice off the scalp.