Head Lice

[anniemae]

Yes, her hair is long enough to flat iron. I think I will try that in addition to keeping her hair up in a pony tail/braid. I am most freaked out about the coat room. It is such a disaster. I hope one does not hitch a ride home on her coat. She hangs it in her cubby, but she shares a cubby so if that kid has it, a bug could crawl to my dd coat.

I never heard of coconut to repel lice. Would any coconut scented shampoo work?

 

[eh24fan]

I also second the tea tree oil and coconut. I put a few drops of tea tree oil in the shampoo we use (it is also good for my husband's psoriasis on his scalp). I try to do a coconut oil treatment on my hair every so often and when we had the outbreaks, that's what I put on my hair every night instead of the olive oil. It's good for my hair/skin anyway, so I figured it couldn't hurt!! I suggested both to my stepmom for my sisters, but I don't think they did it. Maybe I should bring it up again.

 

[Glennie5]

Yes, her hair is long enough to flat iron. I think I will try that in addition to keeping her hair up in a pony tail/braid. I am most freaked out about the coat room. It is such a disaster. I hope one does not hitch a ride home on her coat. She hangs it in her cubby, but she shares a cubby so if that kid has it, a bug could crawl to my dd coat.

I never heard of coconut to repel lice. Would any coconut scented shampoo work?

I have read that Suave coconut shampoo works well.

 

[OhioMom02]

I also vote for regular use of Suave coconut shampoo/conditioner. And I had put mayonnaise on dd's head overnight to "suffocate them". This can burn though. :-( Plus taking hours and hours to pick out nits. Her school had a zero tolerance policy on nits so she missed a week. Every day she'd go to school, they'd scan her head with a special light to see if there were nits present and they'd send her home. It came down to there being like 4 nits left but I could NOT find them at home and they wouldn't show us where they were. They just said there were some left! So we eventually took her to her ped. and they gave her that nasty shampoo. I hope to never have to repeat the lice fiasco again! Good luck!

 

[thewebbs5]

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

I think only for cats. I've had more than one vet recommend it for an incission on a dog after being spayed but they have always said do not use on a cat.

 

[tajz90]

I think only for cats. I've had more than one vet recommend it for an incission on a dog after being spayed but they have always said do not use on a cat.

Sadly, dogs too. There are many reported cases of dogs dying from tea tree oil poisoning. It is recommended for use to get rid of fleas, but not recommended for use on dogs.

 

[robinb]

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.

You can't catch it from the nits (the eggs) and none of the remedies will kill them. They all kill the insects themselves. I would not be so concerned about coats, hats and backpacks in the same room. Lice need their live blood hosts and lice simply don't crawl onto inanimate objects. Lice are usually passed on by kids putting their heads together or sharing brushes. FWIW, I don't think that any of the "preventatives" as worth a will of beans.

When a lice question comes up, I post this from 2010:

My DD had lice a couple times and shared them with me once .

The first time she had lice we did the Rid treatment and the lice laughed at us. OK ... maybe not laughed but it didn't slow them down much. After 2-3 RID treatments and literal nit picking for nearly 2 months we STILL had lice I knew I had to try something else.

I *swear* by this method called "The Lice Program":
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/theliceprogram/index.html

It works great if your school does not have a "no nit" policy because it doesn't bother with nits. It removes live lice when they are big enough to remove. First the egg layers and then the juveniles as they hatch and grow. I admit that I was originally grossed out by this program because (1) at 21-days it took too long and (2) it left lice (nymphs) in the hair and I wanted those lice out NOW. But ... after my failure at more traditional methods I had nothing to lose in trying it.

After 21 days the lice were gone. I was mad that I wasted 2 months trying to poison them and dousing them in olive oil to no avail. When my DD came home a second time with lice, I went right to this program and they were gone in 3 weeks and she never missed a day of school.

There are two things that I really like about the program. The first is that I don't have to expose my family to chemicals and toxic poisons. The second is that there are rest days built into the program to allow the lice to grow big enough to comb out. Combing for lice is mentally draining on both the parent and the child when there seems to be no end in sight and I found the breaks to be a blessing.

I also have tips on combing ... first off I used one of the narrow teeth combs available at Walgreens with the little magnifier in it. That way I could make sure I was getting a little bugger and not something else. I also would have my DD wash her hair and leave conditioner in it for combing. The lice can't move easily through wet hair and the conditioner made it easy for me to comb. When combing was done she would rinse the conditioner out. ETA: I would section off her hair with metal hair clips (the kind that stylists use) and then everything went into a daily bath of water with a tablespoon of bleach in it.

FWIW, if you are picking nits any "nits" more than an inch from the scalp as really empty egg sacks and you're wasting time and energy unless your school has a no-nit policy.

 

[aprilgail2]

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.

Wow- all that make me so happy I decided to go see someone who does this for a living- an hour and a half and we were done with the whole nightmare. No nightly combing, oil etc- I don't have the time or patience for all that nonsense. I don't care if we had to live on raman noodles for the week, I would get the money up and have it professionally taken care of before I would do all that!

 

[KiKi Mouse]

Glad you had somewhere to take your child to.

My kids got lice this summer. We were panicked.

I second a lot of things that have been previously said.

--We bought the shampoo which kills the live bugs.
--We then combed their hair every day and picked out what we could.
--I put tea tree oil in leave-in conditioner and sprayed the kids after each bath/shower.
--The plastic combs that come with the shampoo suck. I bought metal ones from the drug store. They were much better.
--I boiled any brushes that were used.
--We washed all the bedding etc. in hot water and used packing tape on pillows in case there were nits.
--After a week we used the shampoo again.

The only way to get rid of them is to break the cycle and get rid of the nits before they hatch into live bugs that will lay more eggs.

 

[luvmyfam444]

coconut shampoo/conditioner is supposed to help

 

[JLTraveling]

I had lice go around my apartment when I was living with several roommates. My hair is crazy--waist length, twice as thick as average and wiry. I just washed everything in hot water, bought new pillows and used an electronic lice comb a few times a day. It zaps both lice and nits, and eliminates the need for chemicals. It took about a week, but totally got rid of the problem.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

You can't catch it from the nits (the eggs) and none of the remedies will kill them. They all kill the insects themselves. I would not be so concerned about coats, hats and backpacks in the same room. Lice need their live blood hosts and lice simply don't crawl onto inanimate objects. Lice are usually passed on by kids putting their heads together or sharing brushes. FWIW, I don't think that any of the "preventatives" as worth a will of beans.

When a lice question comes up, I post this from 2010:

Yes they do.

Not sure what lice you saw but my dd had lice CRAWLING and FALLING off her head. They would be on chairs she sat at and in her bed.

AACCCK!

 

[castleview]

Hairspray, hair up and combing regularly is all you need right now OP. Honestly, a good old fashioned fine toothed comb works just as well at this point. If you end up dealing with it (and I hope you don't), get the Licemiester or RID special comb. They are amazing. The big thing that parents have to remember is to retreat in 10-14 days.

 

[castleview]

Yes they do.

Not sure what lice you saw but my dd had lice CRAWLING and FALLING off her head. They would be on chairs she sat at and in her bed.

AACCCK!

But they don't last long once they are off the head.

 

[lauradis]

Thank you for making me itchy. Lol

Full attack mode is the only treatment. We do the gel hairspray thing it seems to help. Get a really good nit comb the ones in shampoo are junk. Comb comb comb.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

But they don't last long once they are off the head.

Well, I will tell you that I did not wait for that science experiment.

However I will add that the ones that were dropping off were the egg layers. They were the big ones. Obviously if you were to sit at a chair that had a live louse and your hair touched the chair, I am sure they would crawl into it.