Lice!!

[NLK]

UGH!! My DD woke up on Saturday Morning complaining that her head was itchy. I looked at her head and saw creepy crawly lice in her hair. I went to the store and used the RIT right away then tried a bunch of homemade remedies today. There are still a bunch of NIT's in her hair. I just can't get them out. So I look at my husband and said I'm call a company that I found on-line to come to the house and get rid of them. Am I crazy to pay these people $300.00 to have this done. My DD has very thick curly hair and it took me forever to get through the nape of her neck. There is no way I can do the rest of her head. Help me get through this craziness please.

 

[quentina]

I would call before they spread to the rest of you....good luck!

 

[rockydek]

Hair grows so fast...Why not cut it shorter.
Good Luck! It happens in school all the time.

 

[NLK]

My DD's hair is already shoulder length so we can't cut it much shorter. We did shave my DS's head so he's safe.

 

[mefordis]

Do you live in NJ? I had my carpool "friend" announce to me her dd had (hopefully HAD, no longer HAS) lice a couple of weeks ago. She is coming over for a playdate tomorrow so I really hope it is GONE!

Anyway, she paid $200 for the lice patrol to come over and she swears by it. I would do it.

 

[3boymthr]

Oh my, considering how much work I went to I'd say $300 is worth it, especially if it includes cleaning all the toys and clothing. If an item that she touched has touched another item, it has to be cleaned so it amounts to an amazing amount of cleaning that has to be done, and quickly if you want to catch all the nits. I spent almost 24 hrs doing non stop cleaning and we have a small house.

If the cleaning service only is for household surfaces, make sure you clean ALL your clothes, coats, hats (esp. hats), mittens blankets, sheets, pillows, and towels even the ones you have in the linen closet, and all the toys, especially if they are soft. I recommend taking them to a laundromat as it took me over 30 loads to wash everything which amounted to 6 loads a day for 5 days.

Also don't forget to clean or replace all your brushes and combs. Get a cheap one to use during the infestation and replace it when you are done.

As PP mentioned I too would recommend cutting unless she is really really attached to her hair. My DS's have really curly hair and getting the nits out was horrid took soo soo long to do and they didn't have long hair, just really thick. So after I combed the first time, I basically gave out buzz cuts (I have a clipper and always cut myself). We never had a recurrence but DS' friend, from whom we got the lice , didn't want to have his hair cut so his mom gave in but after two weeks, despite the constant cleaning they kept coming back. At this point she insisted they too cut the hair and lo and behold, no more lice.

Also, make sure you clean not only your house but your car, especially the seat where she sits. People forget about this one all the time and then wonder why they keep coming back. I found a whole bunch of them lingering on the seats.

 

[mefordis]

Not to hijack this thread, but my dd's little friend's mom told me she had lice 2-3 weeks ago. She swore it was gone about a week later. She treated it a few different ways. She is supposed to come over tomorrow for a playdate. Are we safe??? Think it truly is gone? If I see her scratching should I call her mom?

I think the lice service only takes care of the heads with lice, not the household stuff.

 

[NLK]

Thanks for the tips. I washed everything I could think of. The service I got doesn't clean the house they only come and get the lice out of her hair. That alone was a pain.

My DD is 9 so I don't really know how short she will cut her hair. I don't think she would mind a trim but not to short.

I lived in NJ but we moved to GA 3 years ago. The service I got also has a service in NJ. I hope it works!

 

[mefordis]

Thanks for the tips. I washed everything I could think of. The service I got doesn't clean the house they only come and get the lice out of her hair. That alone was a pain.

My DD is 9 so I don't really know how short she will cut her hair. I don't think she would mind a trim but not to short.

I lived in NJ but we moved to GA 3 years ago. The service I got also has a service in NJ. I hope it works!

My dd's friend's mom also smothered her hair in mayo and slept with a cap on at night. It smothers the eggs and nits. Make sure you wash everything in hot water. I think the service told her to do all of this. My head itches whenever I talk or think about lice!

Question: do you have any hunch how she got the lice? Any suspicions where she picked it up?

 

[mefordis]

here is a good link with good info on lice:

http://health.kaboose.com/kids-health/lice.html

 

[emer95]

There's no way I'd spend $300 for someone to pick through my kid's head! If people have that kind of money, more power to you. My kids had lice last Christmas. It sucked and I hated every second of it. I work full time but I was still able to get rid of it myself by diligently going through their heads. I brought my husband's heavy duty work light up from the basement, and worked on their heads, one section at a time, until I was positve there was absolutely nothing in it. They read a book while I did it. I treated it with Rit, and then I checked their heads meticulously again the next night, and again, until I saw nothing for several days. Only then did I feel that we were "safe."

Good luck! I hope you're able to get rid of it quickly.

 

[3boymthr]

Thanks for the tips. I washed everything I could think of. The service I got doesn't clean the house they only come and get the lice out of her hair. That alone was a pain.

My DD is 9 so I don't really know how short she will cut her hair. I don't think she would mind a trim but not to short.

I lived in NJ but we moved to GA 3 years ago. The service I got also has a service in NJ. I hope it works!

I hope it works for you too.

It's such a pain when this happens. I was devastated by the amount of work I had to go thru.

On with more cleaning tips...

Don't just wash, vacuum, pull the sheets off the bed, vacuum the mattress; pull the mattress off the bed, vacuum the bedframe. Vacuum your couch, your chairs, your rugs and your curtains. Clean or replace your shower curtain.

I got all my cleaning advice from the school nurse. She said anyone who went to the effort to clean everything and who got all the nits out of the hair the first time, wouldn't have a recurrence and she was right.

 

[majimikate]

My daughter had lice lastyear. She has very long hair, all the way down her back. I got rid of it in one try, but it was serious work!! Washed everything in hot water, that was the easy part compared to pulling nits out of her hair. My mother in law is a school nurse and read the directions wrong on the shampoo when she was "helping". I rewashed her hair 2 days later and got rid of them for good by picking through her hair twice every day for 2 weeks straight. Getting rid of the nits is the key, if you do that, you get rid of the lice. Our school nurse still says she can't believe I got rid of them in one shot with the length of my daughters hair. I told her it was dogged determination!!!

Cutting hair doesn't make it any easier to get rid of them in my experience, just means there is less hair shaft to pull the nits down to get them off. Good luck, I hope you get rid of them in one shot too!!

Chris

 

[majimikate]

Don't forget the seats of the car, they need to be vacuumed too...

 

[NLK]

I did they Mayo thing and some other things I found on-line. A listerine mouthwash soak on her head and a vinegar soak. Plus I put some tea tree conditioner in her hair since someone said that lice hate the smell. I still couldn't get the nix off her hair. Are the lice harder to get rid of than fleas? I had fleas in the house before and that was really bad. But from what I read they have a shorter life span than a flea so it would seem they would die off easier as long as they weren't on the head. I did vacuum and washed everything in the sanitize cycle and on high heat in the drier if they couldn't get washed like the stuffed toys.

 

[3boymthr]

I did they Mayo thing and some other things I found on-line. A listerine mouthwash soak on her head and a vinegar soak. Plus I put some tea tree conditioner in her hair since someone said that lice hate the smell. I still couldn't get the nix off her hair. Are the lice harder to get rid of than fleas? I had fleas in the house before and that was really bad. But from what I read they have a shorter life span than a flea so it would seem they would die off easier as long as they weren't on the head. I did vacuum and washed everything in the sanitize cycle and on high heat in the drier if they couldn't get washed like the stuffed toys.

You are right about the lice but they are harder to get rid of than fleas, unfortunately, because the nits (eggs) are resistant to the chemical treatments and one lice can lay thousands of nits. So miss just one nit and your infestation is on all over again in two weeks.