Lice!

[ccgirl]

I hear mixed reports, my straight iron will or wont kill the eggs?

The problem is that most eggs/nits live right next to the scalp. There is no way to get the flat iron close enough to the scalp to get them. The eggs further from the scalp have already hatched or are dead.

As far as vaseline and olive oil, they both do the same thing. Smother the lice and loosen the glue. I have not used the vaseline method but have the olive oil. I washed it out with Dawn dishwashing liquid and it only took two washes.

The only shampoo my DD8 uses now is the fairytales lice repellent. It is safe for daily use but we only wash it 3 times a week. I also use the repellent spray on her backback and coat. They (fairytales) has a leave in conditioner as well. You may be able to find it on Amazon a bit cheaper. Using the shampoo and spray and keeping my DD's hair up we have been able to avoid them. Lice do not fly. They actually have to walk on the hair. Girls, with the hair down will be more likely to transfer the lice when their hair comes in contact with each other.

Great tip about the combs. I went to the dollar store and bought a big pack when we were going thru it. I thru the combs out after each use. You should boil them. If you use it and catch the lice on the comb and then comb your child's hair (or someone else's) you are just going to transfer the lice again.

 

[mom2grace]

There is now a Rx shampoo that is approved for young children. We used the Rid shampoo & the bugs lived, they did not live through the Rx shampoo. It is expensive & our pharmacy had to order it in for us.

 

[luvmy3jewels]

We went through this a little over a month ago and were able to get rid of them fairly quickly. Thankfully, my kids and I all have fairly thin hair because I hear that thick hair makes it a bit more challenging. The first thing we did was everyone in the family used RID (which may or may not have been a good idea, but I wasn't comfortable trusting dh to really do a good job looking through my hair). We cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Vacuumed couches, carpets, beds, basically any surface we could. Washed everyone's bed linens, pillows, coats, etc. Stuffed animals and pillows that couldn't be washed were stuck in garbage bags and placed in the garage.

For the next two weeks after that first day, I had a shop light set up in our bedroom that allowed me to really focus a lot of light on the kids' hair/scalp. I would examine each child's head every night until I was satisified it was completely nit free.

I think we were very lucky and caught it early. Youngest dd was the one who brought them home (from her bff at school) and she had the worst case. I picked and pulled every nit I could find and would wipe them on toilet paper and seal them in a baggie (and then threw them away in our outside garbage can). She has very blond hair and they were very easy to see to pull out. We bought the expensive combs and used them after wetting the kids' heads and putting Cetaphyl on them, but I found that using my fingers to pull out the nits worked best.

Ever since that experience, I check my kids hair at least once a week just to make sure no critters are hitching a ride.

 

[TreslovesWDW]

Use the shampoo and then pick off the eggs.You have to keep checking until you don't see any nits and the sleeping with olive oil on the hair suffocates the lice. Out of 6 people in my house only my daughter had them and no one else got them because I did these steps.I also had everyone use coconut shampoo and conditioner.

 

[tipsytrtle]

instead of doing a follow up treatment with the chemicals
use olive oil, my daughter got lice at school 3times in one school year, after doing 2 treatments and reading the warning labels I did some research
lice breath through their exoskeletons. slather olive oil on the hair and scalp
this suffocates the little creatures and also helps get the eggs off the hair
and it is safe and good for your hair!!!

 

[ccgirl]

I just want to make the point that the shampoo only kills the live lice. The nits/eggs will not be killed by the shampoo and need to be picked out. As others have alluded to; the olive oil (or vaseline) will suffocate the live lice just as well. The eggs/nits will always still need to be picked out. I had my DD sleep with a shower cap for a week. She was such a good sport. She had a very bad case. Amazingly, she was cleared by the school nurse during a lice check. Not fun.

 

[luvsJack]

In the times that my kids and I ever had lice, I never had the trouble people here seem to have. Maybe because I worked in the school system and helped check for them and then in the child care center was responsible for checking them--I just don't panic.

Getting rid of: RID twice, comb with nit comb. Wash all bed clothes in HOT water. Bag up pillow and stuffed animals for 2-3 days. Vacuum. Spray with RID spray. Done

Prevention: Keep hair up in ponytails for girls. Hair spray, mousse, styling gel, etc will keep lice away. I have never even heard do Tea Tree Oil. Health Department always recommend the hair spray and such.

 

[POOHDRMR]

My dd had it 2 years ago.I am a bit of a clean freak and this was one of my great fears.I had been checking her regularly because I had heard it was going around her class so I found it very early and she only had a few bugs and eggs.I first did conditioner with baking soda mixed in and the lice comb and that is what got rid of all of them I used what I had in the house till dh came home from work and had him get the lice md(no pesticide).We did that and combed again and found no more.I wound up doing a rid treatment too to be on the safe side the next day and found none.Had school check her and she was good.I kept combing through her hair everyother day for 3 weeks(I told you I was alittle crazy!)and never had more.I vacuumed everything daily for a week and put all stuffed animals and backpack in bags for 2 weeks.Make sure to vacuum the seat in the car and I covered it with plastic too for a week.Now we must have some special lice because I was using tea tree oil on her everyday(water mixed with 10 drops oil in spray bottle)she wears her hair up all the time and she uses alot of product(frizz ease,gel and a little hairspray)and she got them anyway.

 

[shawni]

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[ccgirl]

In the times that my kids and I ever had lice, I never had the trouble people here seem to have. Maybe because I worked in the school system and helped check for them and then in the child care center was responsible for checking them--I just don't panic.

Getting rid of: RID twice, comb with nit comb. Wash all bed clothes in HOT water. Bag up pillow and stuffed animals for 2-3 days. Vacuum. Spray with RID spray. Done

Prevention: Keep hair up in ponytails for girls. Hair spray, mousse, styling gel, etc will keep lice away. I have never even heard do Tea Tree Oil. Health Department always recommend the hair spray and such.

My dd had it 2 years ago.I am a bit of a clean freak and this was one of my great fears.I had been checking her regularly because I had heard it was going around her class so I found it very early and she only had a few bugs and eggs.I first did conditioner with baking soda mixed in and the lice comb and that is what got rid of all of them I used what I had in the house till dh came home from work and had him get the lice md(no pesticide).We did that and combed again and found no more.I wound up doing a rid treatment too to be on the safe side the next day and found none.Had school check her and she was good.I kept combing through her hair everyother day for 3 weeks(I told you I was alittle crazy!)and never had more.I vacuumed everything daily for a week and put all stuffed animals and backpack in bags for 2 weeks.Make sure to vacuum the seat in the car and I covered it with plastic too for a week.Now we must have some special lice because I was using tea tree oil on her everyday(water mixed with 10 drops oil in spray bottle)she wears her hair up all the time and she uses alot of product(frizz ease,gel and a little hairspray)and she got them anyway.

From what I understand, they are becoming resistant to a lot of things now. I have heard that tea tree alone will not work (though you can become lucky) but it also needs rosemary and eucalyptus. Not sure any of that has any scientific proof though.

 

[twimomako]

Most of you have thick hair. I have super fine hair so you can just imagine how many strands I let go just to get rid of these pests. Just as my hair would start to re-grow, an outbreak at school starts as well.

The last time we had it was in January ( hopefully the LAST time, coz my hair starts to grow again.) Nit-Nurse really did the job, it has natural ingredients for lice treatment.

A local shampoo brand made it really worst, attracted more lice!

We changed our brand and added some tea tree oil. I tried an anti-lice shampoo and it did kill them (LiceAliz) but turned a few hair strands to gray plus lots of falling hair, as well :-( This is when i started crying and started reading online.

I also put pillows under the sun.

Daily nit-picking did a really great job, this is also our bonding time!

Good luck everyone!

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

Sally Beauty supply sells a Paul Mitchell generic version of shampoo and conditioner with Tea tree Oil. I buy the shampoo and conditioner, plus I put gel, and styling oil in both my kids hair to keep it from being "clean".

Good luck !

 

[ccgirl]

Sally Beauty supply sells a Paul Mitchell generic version of shampoo and conditioner with Tea tree Oil. I buy the shampoo and conditioner, plus I put gel, and styling oil in both my kids hair to keep it from being "clean".

Good luck !

Tried that and DD still got it. It is not pure tea tree oil and that is what the lice don't like (supposedly). I switched to the Fairytales shampoo and have made it through two lice episodes nit free.

 

[BellePrincessBelle]

OMG! my nightmare has come true.
My son got lice at school.
After doing his treatment and buzzing his hair short.
I had my mother check me ... and yup ewww I have have them to.
So i did a treatment also. We killed them with shampoo, combed out nits, washed bedding and towels and coats etc in hot water followed by 3 hours in the dryer. I have extremely thick curly hair and I'm so nervous i didn't get them all.. sigh...
Any tips? am I forgetting anything... tell me I'm not the only one this has happened to since I now have a complex...... lol

I don't know if you're in Northern New Jersey but if you are I think Lice Treatment Center will come out there. They are incredible!!! There is also Lice Busters in NYC.

 

[roliepolieoliefan]

Tried that and DD still got it. It is not pure tea tree oil and that is what the lice don't like (supposedly). I switched to the Fairytales shampoo and have made it through two lice episodes nit free.

Where do you buy the fairytales shampoo?

 

[ccgirl]

Where do you buy the fairytales shampoo?

You can google it. My hairdresser started carrying it. My mom ordered it on Amazon. Fairytales also has a website. They have shampoo and leave in conditioner. They have spray as well. I spray her backpack. I'm sure I am doing overkill but I just don't want to go through this again. It smells really good too.

 

[Orange County Girl]

I highly recommend using a flat iron in addition to whichever other methods you choose. I did this for my daughter and had no recurrence. I sectioned her hair and ran the flat iron 3-4 times slowly through very small sections. It was very time consuming but successful.

I have never used a lice comb. I found picking to be much more efficient. I picked through the hair everyday for a few weeks till I found no more eggs. I would then cut the hair with an egg off or simply pull it out. Even with a sensitive scalp it didn't hurt.

Be careful when choosing no-pesticide natural products. They are simply over-priced hair conditioner (seriously, compare the active ingredient to a bottle of cheap hair conditioner). The "natural" ingredients don't kill lice, it is up to you to remove them with a lice comb.

 

[ccgirl]

I highly recommend using a flat iron in addition to whichever other methods you choose. I did this for my daughter and had no recurrence. I sectioned her hair and ran the flat iron 3-4 times slowly through very small sections. It was very time consuming but successful.

I have never used a lice comb. I found picking to be much more efficient. I picked through the hair everyday for a few weeks till I found no more eggs. I would then cut the hair with an egg off or simply pull it out. Even with a sensitive scalp it didn't hurt.

Be careful when choosing no-pesticide natural products. They are simply over-priced hair conditioner (seriously, compare the active ingredient to a bottle of cheap hair conditioner). The "natural" ingredients don't kill lice, it is up to you to remove them with a lice comb.

The eggs/lice live on the hair shaft right next to the scalp so be very careful with a flat iron. The eggs further away have already hatched or are dead.

As far as the no-pesticide natural products (olive oil) it is quite effective. It smothers the live lice and kills them. NOTHING..not even the pesticide shampoo kills the eggs. You need to pick them off. The shampoo I am referring to is a deterrent as the lice do not like the tea tree, rosemary and eucalyptus. So, the child is less likely to attract the lice in the first place.

 

[CastleChick]

I wanted to say I feel your pain. We got off our disney cruise on the 20th and when we called home we were greeted with the news that 2 of our 3 kids (one of them our daughter with thick long hair) had lice! We shaved the boys' heads along with treating them, but my daughters has been the worst. I have gone through her hair with the comb and picked out nits and live ones after many treatments. Tomorrow they start back to school so I am hoping that is the end of it, but I'm still going to keep checking her (today she was clear, but it seems like every other day I find a live one?)

 

[sahmoftwo]

You can google it. My hairdresser started carrying it. My mom ordered it on Amazon. Fairytales also has a website. They have shampoo and leave in conditioner. They have spray as well. I spray her backpack. I'm sure I am doing overkill but I just don't want to go through this again. It smells really good too.

Just wanted to let you all know that even Fairytale products are not 100%...I also used the shampoo and leave in conditioning product and my dd got a horrible case of lice that she kindly shared with her brother and me. Fun times. I used the robi-comb and lots of nit-picking and a lice-free spray I found at Walgreens. HTH! We now just use a homemade tea tree oil spray on her hair...several drops of oil combined with water in a spray bottle.