Lice....... Ewwww!!!

[missperky]

you can also use mayonaisse (however you spell it ). even though it is nasty stuff!!!. yuk

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

DD caught lice from a classmate in 2nd grade. At the time, she had waist-length, VERY thick, wavy hair. We tried every product on the market, but her hair was so thick I was using a ton of the shampoos and was very worried about the effects of the chemicals on her. It didn't help that her classmate kept returning to school still infested and, though she'd be sent back home as soon as the nurse's office opened, she would still spend the morning rolling around on the carpet or mats with DD, and it was so hard to get DD to understand that she could not join her friend in these activities.

It turned into a 3-month nightmare - I was terrified that DD would come away blind or somehow brain-damaged because of all the treatments. Finally the school worked some legal magic to force the girl's family to take care of the problem for good, and the school nurse recommended mayonnaise overnight with a shower cap, followed by a regular shampoo and vinegar rinse in the morning - every other day. Every night after supper, DD would climb into the tub and I'd go through her hair (it was much easier to do when it was dry), dividing all that hair in to segments and literally picking out the nits and lice like some monkey on a National Geographic special. The poor kid can't stand mayonnaise to this day, but we both came to appreciate our "girl talks" in the evenings - at least there was something positive that came out of that!

 

[missperky]

has anyone used mayonaise for that????

 

[ChrisLei]

I hadit when I was a little girl. It was not fun! I have long curly hair. My mom had to cut 8 inches of it so it was easier for her to get them out.

My mom's way of avoiding it....always tie up long hair. My daughter is always in pig tails or a ponytail, and like a previous poster suggested use hair gel.

 

[hydster]

Been there done that and I feel your pain! For my dd we tried all the over the counter meds, the prescription meds and everything else...We did the Vaseline/Mayonaise/Crisco route and it helped a lot! 1 thing to get the crisco out of the hair (which for my dd took almost a week) we started using Dove Dishwashing liquid which has a degreaser in it and it helped.

My sil was told by a friend of hers when my nephews had lice to make up a shampoo

Shampoo (use an inexpensive brand such as Prell -- these seem to mix more easily with the oils).
3 tbsp olive oil.
1 tsp tea tree oil.
1 tsp rosemary or eucalyptus oil

Add the oils to a small amount of shampoo and mix well. Work into hair and leave on for half an hour with a tight-fitting shower cap. This mixture has a strong smell. The fumes may burn the eyes, so don't lean forward. Wash hair two or three times to get the oil out. Repeat the procedure if necessary

My other sil swore that using the blow dryer (though not with the over the counter treatment because that is not good) but she would use the blow dryer 15 min morning and night and then comb, comb, comb. The heat helps kill the nits and adult lice but the combing is the essential part.

Good luck! If it lasts more than 2 weeks I'd be calling the ped to get prescription meds for it.

Heidi

 

[SueM in MN]

Turns out the lice had survived the winter in the camp's helmets.

Lice can't survive more than 48 hours without a blood meal. They dry out and die. The eggs will go into a sort of dormant state if they are not on a warm body, but they can't survive more than 2 weeks without hatching and newly hatched nits need a blood meal within a few hours of hatching or they will die.
Here's a really good website with good factual information (and pictures if you want to see what the critters look like:
www.headlice.org

 

[Forevryoung]

This is still my mothers WORST NIGHTMARE and my sister and I are going to be 18 and 21 respectively.

 

[noseybuddy]

If conventional treatments don't work, mayonaise can also do the trick. My cousin had a really stubborn case of lice, and they finally got rid of them with mayonaise.


ITA, The mayo works wonders. Put it all over their head. They feel silly with that on their head but it works great!

 

[HeatherinNC]

I'm here to tell you, olive oil is the miracle cure! Both DD's and I ended up with lice. We tried the over the counter lice treatment. It was a pain to get the nits out and 3 days later, they came back, BIGGER!
I found a website with instructions on how to do the olive oil treatment. I was extremely skeptical, but it really worked!
Get a big bottle of olive oil. Completely saturate the head from scalp to the ends. Brush out the nits, they just glide off the hair with the olive oil. Buy a shower cap and wear it over the head for 8 hours. We did this at night and just put a lot of towels on our pillows. Next morning, shampoo twice and you are good to go! It is a bit messy, but I PROMISE, it works.
I did not want to go through a second round of pesticide on our heads, and this is actually what the over the counter lice treatments are, pesticide. Thats why I looked around online to find something natural. I'm sure the crisco and mayo would probably be just as effective as the olive oil.
And don't feel badly about dealing with this. It just happens. It's a part of childhood anymore.
Another note about the lice shampoos, studies have shown that the lice really are developing a resistance to the pesticide. This may be why one treatment doesn't seem to be effective in most cases.

 

[summerrluvv]

Use hair product like gel or hairspray in your child's hair. They lice love clean hair but can't handle hair product hair. Honestly I have really really thick curly hair and when I was little my mama washed my hair with white vinegar every Sunday for months it felt like. She would do a treatment with the lice shampoo in the middle of the week and a vinegar rinse on Sundays. It smells awful but the vinegar worked.

Your mother washed your hair with the lice shampoo eventhough you didn't have lice? That stuff contains harmful pesticides and really shouldn't be used on people that don't have headlice (just and FYI).

My sister has been battling the headlice thing with her three kids for the past six months. Every couple of months they get reinfested. The problem is, her friend has 3 kids that have been infested for years now and the parents refuse to pick the nits out, so the children just live with headlice (poor kids). My sisters husband lets the infested kids play around their kids and they end up getting it. My sister has told her husband time and time again not to let the kids around these children with lice, but he doesn't care since he isn't the one dealing with the lice once they get it I think next time he lets the kids play around the lice kids they will be getting a divorce

The worst part is, my sister called the head lice children's school to let them know about the ongoing problem and the school said it was out of their control there was nothing they could do. Lovely that they allow lice infested kids in school to infest the entire class.

I'm curious as to what the floursescent spray is called and where you buy it so I can pass it along to my sister.

Fortunately I haven't had to deal with this with DS. I do check his head frequently though just in case. If he did catch it, I think I would be shaving his head or calling one of the lice pickers that I saw advertised in the parents magazine LOL.

 

[AtlantaSue]

Just offering some moral support - I lived through it with my 2 girls last year but it was honestly one of the WORST experiences of my entire life. I agree with the poster who said "be aggressive." Wage all out war. I made the initial mistake of simply doing "battle" in the first round - and they came back. I just about went grey and I lost 8 pounds. It was just such a disgusting thought that those little critters were in my home!!! For round 2, we went through each girls hair, strand by strand, every night and made sure there were no nits. Thankfully, they were gone after that. GOOD LUCK!!!!

 

[Danvers]

 

[disneygals]

Do a search to find some old threads on this. Someone posted a great tip about using red koolaid to help locate the nits.

We went through this last Oct, only one dd luckily. BUT she has long, thick, curly hair. We did the initial chemical treatment, then olive oil and shower cap every three nights for 21 days and look, comb, look, comb, look, comb, look. It took a looong time before I was able to do a strand by strand check and find zero nits.

Good luck!!

 

[Cyndirella]

Ugh, I hate those things! DD11 came home with them last October and it was a nightmare. A couple of weeks before we found them, they were doing some kind of thing in school where the teacher would put a hat on their head and they had to answer a question. Of course she used the same hat for everyone. I have told both DD's if they are ever in class and that happens again to refuse to put on the hat and have the teacher call me if necessary.

I used almost everything I read to get rid of them. Hairspray, coconut shampoo, tea tree shampoo, and endless amounts of combing through her thick, thick hair. DD8 got them as well but I found hers very early on and her hair is much thinner so it wasn't so bad for her.

Now I am almost obsessive about looking in their heads at least every other day!

 

[MickeyMonstersMom]

Now I am almost obsessive about looking in their heads at least every other day!

Hehe, that reminds me of my behavior for at least a year after DD's bout with them. I can remember reaching over and checking in the middle of a conversation, and she'd get so annoyed with me!

 

[jennz]

DD, 7, just got lice for the first time so where do I look for advice? The DisBoards of course! I got that Rid shampoo and did it last night and then the gel and combed out her hair - total of a 2 hour process. I just looked again and I see white things it looks like all over her hair - I'm about to cry!!! Also she says her head still itches. Does this mean there are still live things in her head??

Thanks!!

 

[HeatherinNC]

DD, 7, just got lice for the first time so where do I look for advice? The DisBoards of course! I got that Rid shampoo and did it last night and then the gel and combed out her hair - total of a 2 hour process. I just looked again and I see white things it looks like all over her hair - I'm about to cry!!! Also she says her head still itches. Does this mean there are still live things in her head??

Thanks!!

The white things you see are the nits, lice eggs. I'm sorry to tell you, unless you get them out, more lice will hatch. Please consider the olive oil treatment. The olive oil will loosen the nits and they will comb right out. Just be sure and saturate the entire head. And Good Luck!

 

[DisneyBug1995]

Conditioner works too. Saturate their head and let it set for a couple of hours. It is easy to wash out and it makes your hair soft. You might have to do every couple of nights for a couple of weeks, but it does work.

 

[Cyndirella]

Sorry to tell you but you probably have quite a few more 2 hour combings coming up. I think I did that every night for about 2 weeks (but DD's hair is very thick), and for the first few nights I was getting live bugs out with every comb thru. Then it would appear they were gone, and a couple of nights later there would be live bugs again. This was after a washing with the Rid shampoo. I was also washing all of her bedding every day in hot water. I have read in a couple of places that is not necessary but I wasn't taking any chances. There were several nights I felt like crying because I didn't think we would ever be rid of those things.

Keep working at it and make sure you get out all of those white eggs.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

DD, 7, just got lice for the first time so where do I look for advice? The DisBoards of course! I got that Rid shampoo and did it last night and then the gel and combed out her hair - total of a 2 hour process. I just looked again and I see white things it looks like all over her hair - I'm about to cry!!! Also she says her head still itches. Does this mean there are still live things in her head??

Thanks!!

DO NOT use RID!!! Use the NIX! RID does not kill the nits. And yes they are crawling in her head. Just look you will see them.
The nits are a tiny clear teardrop and are hard to see!!! You need a light shining directly on her head.