Lice found in school - how to keep it away from us?

[Jenn]

My daughter's class had a confirmed case of lice today. She doesn't have them - thank God - but are there any ways to help keep it that way?

I have heard using Suave Coconut shampoo/conditioner, using gel/hairspray, and keeping her hair up each day. Any other tips??

 

[tw1nsmom]

I would agree with keeping the hair up and tight and to spray liberally with hair spray. Does your DD have a lot of stuffed animals? Maybe you could remove all the animals from the bed area as a preemptive measure. I think the worst part of dealing with lice would be having to thoroughly clean every piece of linen and furniture in the house. Hopefully your DD won't get any on her.

 

[Annette_VA]

Ugh, we got the "one of your child's classmates was found to have lice" letter a couple of weeks ago. Freaked me out! Luckily, we seemed to have steered clear of it. I really don't know what I would do if one of my kids ever got them. I'd lose it.

I was telling my friend about it and she said her DD got a similar letter and she was freaking and did some research and found this.
http://www.fairytaleshaircare.com/catalog/displayitem.asp?product=2
I haven't a clue if it actually works or not.

 

[snowwite]

My daughter's class had a confirmed case of lice today. She doesn't have them - thank God - but are there any ways to help keep it that way?

I have heard using Suave Coconut shampoo/conditioner, using gel/hairspray, and keeping her hair up each day. Any other tips??

Dont share hats ,combs or brushes or linen with infected kids,use olive oil in hair at night and comb through.My kids got it yrs ago and it was sooooo awful. We had to throw out toys and pillows. The OTC remedy didnt work. We ended up using vasline to kill them and then using Dawn dish det to remove it.

 

[tw1nsmom]

If you ever do get an infestation, instead of throwing out toys and pillows (unless you want to...I'm always trying to get rid of my kids way too many toys ), double bag them in giant garbage bags and close securely. Set them somewhere out of the way for at least two weeks and any lice that were on them will be dead. For good measure, if you live in a cold climate you could put them outside and freeze them.

 

[mousehouselover]

Keep her hair up and advise her not to share hats, combs, or hooded coats. I would also advise canceling plans for a sleep over for a while. (My kids got them from a sleepover with their cousin..... It was awful to get rid of them.)

Also, pets do not carry or harbor lice. Your cat or dog can't re-infect your child if she does contract the little pests.

We tried the olive oil thing too and it was such a mess. I finally left the OTC shampoo on for about twice as long as the package reccomended. I had to strip the beds and wash everything in hot water. I also used the spray I bought at the store for the bedding and furniture. The kids had to do with ouot their stuffed animals and any non plastic toy for a month so I was sure we didn't have any bugs that could get back on them.

Good luck! Hopefully, you won't have to deal with treatment because you're actively trying to prevent an infection.

 

[lscarb]

My daughter's class had a confirmed case of lice today. She doesn't have them - thank God - but are there any ways to help keep it that way?

I have heard using Suave Coconut shampoo/conditioner, using gel/hairspray, and keeping her hair up each day. Any other tips??

Hey i am in Ma too and Have been using the Fairytales products since September when my girls had it and we have been good i second on if anyone comes down with a case you have to treat the whole house meaning Vacing all furniture washing the clothing and linens in Hot water Bagging the stuffed animals and the most inportant thing is if anyone comes down with it tell every parent you know that it is out there if you treat your child and others who have it ignore it your child WILL get it back again, Mine did because a family did not believe there child had it and didn't treat and I was ready to die

 

[Alex2kMommy]

I lived in a small town in California when I was a kid, and we used to get an outbreak every year. The girls wore their hair up and tight (in a bun or in braids) and a lot of parents shaved their boys, or at least cut their hair very short.

Thankfully no one in my family ever got it, because the treatment shampoo back then was pretty harsh on the scalp. Good luck!

 

[famofsix]

When this happened at my kids school more than once I bagged all stuffed animals and put them away except a couple for sleeping as a prevention measure. I only washed the girls hair once a week and sent them to school in braids. I buzzed my boy. To keep their hair from looking dirty I used a leave-in conditioner with a fragrance and doused them with hairspray everyday. I have a 6th grader now so she made it through elementary school without incident. It is not as common in the upper grades because the kids don't have close cubbies and are more knowledgeable about keeping their hair away from other people (ie playing close together etc).
I did think DD had lice once time because there was something close to the hair follicle and it would not brush off ...sticky. After doing all my linens and bagging everything up and crying...I found out it was from her glue stick You can't get lice from a glue stick HAHA
It is important to keep in mind it can happen to anyone. Prevention is the key but if it does happen it is important to take care of it right away and to report it to whomever may have had contact with the infected person. One time, we had a dear family at church that was ashamed to say anything about it pass on to many folks because while they treated the children in the family, the mom had it and was passing it to the kids in the nursery. YIKES!

 

[stm61]

I didn't think pets would get lice either, until the vet proved me wrong. My ds got it twice and I was raising holy heck with the preschool. They were swearing noone else had it, he hadn't been anywhere else. Happened to be at the vet's and mentioned the problem to him. He immediately asked if there were any outdoor cats that ds played with. Yes, the neighbor fed all the strays and they were very tame, he played with them frequently. He said to check the cats and then showed me a stray that had been spayed and was still asleep from the surgery. She had nits still on her after being treated. Then he showed me that most bottles of pet shampoo state that they kill lice on the label.

 

[CathrynRose]

The more 'stuff' in her hair, the less likely they'll grab on.

SO hair spray, mousse... or even better, that silicone shine stuff...they cant grab on.

 

[nealymouse]

I was told by my hair dresser when our boys were young to take a cotton ball dip it in alcohol and trace the hair line (all the way around the head) I did this daily and they never got them again after coming home from school wirh weekly notes of a lice outbreak and the boys getting them twice. The rest of the year we got these notes and my boys never had them again.

Old wives tale but it worked for us

 

[Mickey'snewestfan]

I didn't think pets would get lice either, until the vet proved me wrong. My ds got it twice and I was raising holy heck with the preschool.

Why would you take this out on your child's preschool teacher -- whether or not they got it at school?

I hope you apologize profusely.

 

[KikiFan]

We had a horrible infestation at my daughter's school. She got it twice. I was furious. The weird thing was that I never got it despite my daughter and I sharing combs all the time. Talking to the nurse, I found out that the difference was that I blow my hair dry every day and my daughter's hair just air dries. The heat seems to be the difference. So now anytime we think someone in her class seems to scratch a lot, we blow her hair dry a few times.

 

[summerrluvv]

Why would you take this out on your child's preschool teacher -- whether or not they got it at school?

I hope you apologize profusely.

I can tell you that my sister's kids kept getting reinfested by the same carriers at school and they continued to allow this family to attend school while they had lice. My sister was friends with their parents and the parents knew the kids had lice, but did nothing. They said they didn't have time to pick through their hair and the kids just had to live with it. My sister complained to the nurse and the school and they did nothing. Perhaps that has what happened in the situation with the PP.

 

[ADisneygirl]

Does your school have a policy of sending kids home who are infested and not allowing them back until it is treated? Our school used to do this years ago and the lice outbreaks were contained to a minimum. Now there is a new district wide policy stating that the child must have live lice seen on the head to be sent to the clinic! So the kid could have a head full of nits and be scratching like crazy, but if there are no live ones, they don't get sent home. This has something to do with the kids whose parents can't/won't get off work to pick them up early. The school clinics were overcrowded with kids who weren't being picked up, so they decided to allow the students to stay in the classrooms unless there were live lice in the hair. We send them down to the clinic and they come back!

This is wrong to me on many levels, both as a teacher and as a parent.

 

[suzannen]

We recently had another outbreak at DD's school. The nurse at DD's school said the best thing to do is the tight ponytails or buns for girls and NOT to wash their hair. Lice like a clean enviroment so their natural oils are a deterrent. Luckily every girl in the school was told this, so they all came to school for several weeks with dirty, oily hair. It was pretty disgusting, but better than the alternative and luckily, the last outbreak was very small. Her pediatrician said if she did get it to call him pronto because the prescription shampoos are so much more effective than the OTC. Anyone have any experience with that?

 

[KikiFan]

We recently had another outbreak at DD's school. The nurse at DD's school said the best thing to do is the tight ponytails or buns for girls and NOT to wash their hair. Lice like a clean enviroment so their natural oils are a deterrent. Luckily every girl in the school was told this, so they all came to school for several weeks with dirty, oily hair. It was pretty disgusting, but better than the alternative and luckily, the last outbreak was very small. Her pediatrician said if she did get it to call him pronto because the prescription shampoos are so much more effective than the OTC. Anyone have any experience with that?

That's interesting, because that's exactly the opposite of what our nurse told us. She said it's not keeping clean that allows them to thrive. We knew for a fact that one of the main culprets in my daughters class was really poor and had no running water. It was pretty gross.

 

[Cool-Beans]

Lice don't care if your hair is clean or dirty. But they do care if you are black or white. They have a hell of a time attaching to black hair/heads. Little racist bugs, they are.

You have to be in close contact with the head of an infected person. Lice crawl, they don't jump. They aren't fleas. So, avoid sharing hats and such.

If you are unlucky and get lice, getting rid of lice is, by and large, pretty easy...although a pain in the buttinski. The over the counter kits almost always work. You have to wash sheets and pillow covers and stuff in hot water, but that'll get rid of them...no need to boil anything in tar.

Some folks swear by Vaseline, Mayonaise, etc. No scientific test has ever come to the conclusion that these things work, but tons of folks say they do! So, I don't know...I'd stick with the chemicals if it were me.

 

[suzannen]

That's interesting, because that's exactly the opposite of what our nurse told us. She said it's not keeping clean that allows them to thrive. We knew for a fact that one of the main culprets in my daughters class was really poor and had no running water. It was pretty gross.

I'm surprised your nurse is not aware that this one of those myths about lice. It's known that it is no longer just the poor. It affects all societal levels and incomes and that cleanliness or uncleanliness in a home has absolutely no bearing on it. I've included this from the Center's for Disease Control's (CDC) website. I've bolded the most pertinent part. [http://www.cdc.gov/NCIDOD/DPD/PARASITES/lice/factsht_head_lice.htm]

Who is at risk for getting head lice?
Anyone who comes in close contact (especially head-to-head contact) with someone who already has head lice is at greatest risk. Occasionally, head lice may be acquired from contact with clothing (such as hats, scarves, coats) or other personal items (such as brushes or towels) that belong to an infested person. Preschool and elementary-age children, 3-11, and their families are infested most often. Girls get head lice more often than boys, women more than men. In the United States, African-Americans rarely get head lice. Personal hygiene or cleanliness in the home or school has nothing to do with getting head lice.