Spent $1000 for lice treatment - I feel sick! UPDATE Day 10: I THINK THEY ARE GONE!

[mefordis]

When I found lice crawling around my 7 yr old's head, I freaked out called a lice removal company who came to our house and picked through our heads (me and my two daughters) and used their special natural shampoo and oil treatment.

After 7 hours of picking nits, I racked up a $1040 bill (I think it is at that, I haven't gotten the full bill yet).

I am still left with 10 more days of shampooing, applying oil and nit picking until... well I guess the nit picking will last for the rest of my daughter's school career since apparently, according to the school nurse lice are everywhere all the time!

What can I do next time (God forbid!) so I don't spend a grand to remove all the lice? I could not have nit picked as thoroughly as the women who came over did, because I had a truck load of laundry to wash and a 2 1/2 year old who is VERY high maintenance.

Thanks for reading! Any advice?

 

[pat fan]

Did they clean the house or just your heads? For that price, they better have cleaned the house too!

I have heard a jar of mayo works as well as the shampoos. The idea is that they can't breathe and die, and the mayo smothers them without putting the harsh chemicals on your head. Next time, buy a couple jars of that.

 

[LisaNJ25]

Oh my I could not imagine paying that much. I didnt even know there were companies that did that.

A few years ago 4 out of 6 of us got it... want to talk about being in tears. It was the first and knock on wood.. only time I have had to deal with with.

My sons had brough home 2 letters this year that there have been cases in his grade.

Remember lice like clean hair... so if you add products to it you reduce your chances., Put some hairspray in the girls hair for school. Also pulling back and putting it in a braid can help.

I though I read something about pepermit oil.. about getting shampoo with it or spraying a little on your hair to keep the away.

 

[mefordis]

Yeah, I just read about the mayo! The problem with me is I have no time to pick out nits -- at least not all of the ones my daughter had plus I needed someone to look through MY head -- so they charged $150 an hour and they were here picking for 7 hours. Ugh! I feel so sick!

I just bought a Robi Comb from Walgreens and I'm using that on myself. I hope that kills any nits!

 

[LisaNJ25]

Yeah, I just read about the mayo! The problem with me is I have no time to pick out nits -- at least not all of the ones my daughter had plus I needed someone to look through MY head -- so they charged $150 an hour and they were here picking for 7 hours. Ugh! I feel so sick!

I just bought a Robi Comb from Walgreens and I'm using that on myself. I hope that kills any nits!

I would of come over and picked them for much less fellow Jersey girl

Remember it happens to the best of us.

 

[girli565]

Did they clean your house too? That seems like a huge expense for just picking the nits.

 

[GinnyEmma]

I'm so sorry! I hate when I do stuff like that!

 

[timswoman]

I feel for you & I know exactly how you feel. I have two daughters and have had the un-pleasure of experiencing this three times. Both of their hair is waist long. My husband & I were at a Church friends house celebrating New Year's Eve with 3 other couples when the babysitter called and told me that she had found a louse in one of their heads. I thought I was gonna faint right there. Everyone looked at me and started asking me what was wrong. I felt so embarrassed but told them anyway. One of the ladies said.....ok.....men you go to Wal-Mart and get some several bottles of lice shampoo as well as lots of laundry detergent. Ladies, we are going home with her and gonna help her pick nits. We did...well into the new year.
I did not have a clue on what to do. I had no clue what lice looked like. By the time they were found, we had generations going on. I picked and cried and picked and cried. I felt so sorry for the girls...they were perfectly innocent in the situation. My family all came and got laundry and washed every thing in hot water and aired everything out. My husband was a gem. He was there with me the whole way.

About 4 weeks later we had another episode with the youngest one. It was determined that she was picking them up at school. I used a different tactic that time. We rinsed her hair for about 30 minutes in vinegar. After that I took red kool-aid and put one pack of it in a spray bottle and added a small amount of water. I sprayed it on her hair making sure to cover the entire area. The nits that were attached to her hair absorbed the red color and seeing the nits was much easier thus easier to pull out.

Then one year later we had the whole scene again. This time I was not as hysterical and calmly went thru the vinegar and kool aid procedure again. It went off without a hitch.

I was very stressed and became obsessed with the whole lice thing the first time. The second time, I knew it was possible to get rid of them. The third time....it had become old hat and my family even commented about how calmly I was taking it that time. This to shall pass......just accept anyone's help that offers. You cannot do it all yourself.

Hope it all works out for you.

Take care.

 

[mefordis]

Did they clean your house too? That seems like a huge expense for just picking the nits.

Nope, just picked nits for 7 1/2 hours and put the shampoo and oil on our hair. They spent a LOT of time slowly combing through the hair.

How could I have done this myself and been as thorough, I keep asking myself. While doing the truck load of laundry we had!

 

[CaliforniaDreamin]

You poor thing!

My daughters and I all ended up with it. I found a home remedy online and it worked perfectly.

Soak hair generously in olive oil, put a shower cap on, go to bed. In the morning, all the lice will be dead and the nits just comb out as easy as can be with a comb. No more picking at them. I swear, just run a comb across the hair once and they come out easy as can be. The only downside is washing the olive oil out of the hair. It may take about 3 times. But it's SO worth it.

 

[apnep]

I used a different tactic that time. We rinsed her hair for about 30 minutes in vinegar. After that I took red kool-aid and put one pack of it in a spray bottle and added a small amount of water. I sprayed it on her hair making sure to cover the entire area. The nits that were attached to her hair absorbed the red color and seeing the nits was much easier thus easier to pull out.

What a brilliant idea! How'd you come up with that? That would have made life MUCH easier when my daughter, who had hair down her back, got lice and I nit picked every day for a full week to get rid of them.

OP, I bought this natural stuff called LiceKiller and spent $100 then washed every single bedding item in the house and vacuumed thoroughly. I put all stuffed toys in ziplock baggies and EVERYONE got a treatment. They are disgusting, but it takes patience, time and diligence!

$1000? Those people ought to be ashamed of themselves for charging that...really??

 

[Gr8t Fan]

Tea Tree Oil works as a repellent (a couple drops mixed with water in a spray bottle -- I used this every morning on my three girls before school) as well as coconut shampoo.

Continuing to comb out and pick nits is as important as the initial treatment, don't let it go even a day longer and risk that any nits will hatch and start the infestation all over again. We tried many OTC remedies as well as home remedies and the one that was most effective was tea tree oil, mayonaise and vinegar, leave on hair for 1 hour (covered in a plastic bag) and then comb through with a metal lice comb (not the cheapo ones included in the lice kits). The vinegar helps to loosen the glue that that nits attach to the hair shaft with, mayonaise smothers any live ones and the tea tree oil helps to repel them. We repeated this process every 3 days for almost 2 weeks and they were finally gone. Of course, wash all bedding, hats, etc. in HOT water. You can also use the tea tree oil/water spray to spray down mattresses and stuff that can't be put in the washing machine.

 

[MaleficentRN]

Wow! That's almost $150 an hour! Am I in the wrong business!
I have dealt with this three times. It is hell! The last bout was the worst as it seems more and more lice as resistant to RID and we had to get a prescription from the ped for something stronger.
I wish I could say there is a guaranteed preventor. There isn't. I've braided my dd's hair, rubbed tee tree oil in it, told her not share combs, no hugging friends and still! We don't even go bare headed into a movie theater anymore. We wear hoodies.
Things I have learned are that "natural" remedies don't work. Mayo, olive oil, mouthwash. None of it. Vigilant nit picking and not just combing are essential. I would spend an hour a day on dd under a bright light and sometimes hold a flashlight in my teeth and work some more while she slept at night.
That without a host, lice die after a couple of days. The nits are rarely laying around your house. Anyone who has nit picked can tell you how well they stick to your hair! That last bout we also took dd to our mountain house for a long weekend. Of course we washed linens and such. But you don't need to be like, "OMG FUMIGATE THE HOUSE!!"
The cleaner your hair, the easier it is for lice to grip onto it. So you can wash your head raw. It won't help.
Good luck! You have my sympathies!

 

[Kellydelly]

Boy they saw you coming with the wallet ! Get some tea tree oil and add it to your shampoo, or get some shampoo that already has it in the ingredients. It really works to repel lice. We haven't had lice at my house yet, it's one of my biggest fears.

 

[mefordis]

Thank you!!! I could have done that instead I guess. Well I consider it a $1000 education on lice removal!

How did you get yourself checked for nits? Did you do the olive oil too?

You poor thing!

My daughters and I all ended up with it. I found a home remedy online and it worked perfectly.

Soak hair generously in olive oil, put a shower cap on, go to bed. In the morning, all the lice will be dead and the nits just comb out as easy as can be with a comb. No more picking at them. I swear, just run a comb across the hair once and they come out easy as can be. The only downside is washing the olive oil out of the hair. It may take about 3 times. But it's SO worth it.

 

[mjkacmom]

I just did this - found some on dd8 on Monday. I've been through it before, though. I gave her the RID treatment, then combed through her hair (metal comb, section off the hair - I'm guessing this is what the company did). Then I covered her hair in olive oil, and put a shower cap on, and she stayed like that all day. I washed all the bedding, towels, jackets, vacuumed, vacuumed inside the car, sprayed surface lice spray on whatever couldn't be washed, bagged the stuffed animals...

I combed her out Monday night, kept her home Tuesday, found a couple very small, dead lice, picked through her hair a few times (took about an hour each it, making lines with the prong of the comb). She was clean last night, did the same this morning, and sent her to school to be checked by the nurse, and she passed.

Nothing on the other kids, but treated dd10 just in case. Sent the other kids to the nurse to be checked by her also.

ETA, even though I couldn't find anything this morning, she will be combed and checked daily all week, and re-treated with the shampoo.

I use the comb more as a tool to find them, and I prefer to pick them out myself, and wash them down the sink. I caught this pretty early (one of her friends had lice, and warned the rest of us to check - took me about 15 minutes to find the first one, because they're were SO small - couldn't tell what they were even under a magnifying glass - just specks).

The first time we had them, I did panick, but fortunately not to the tune of %$1000+. I know that there are companies out there, but I'd only use them as a last resort. It can be done without them - it's just time consuming (my washer and dryer ran about 48 hours non-stop.)

 

[MaleficentRN]

After that I took red kool-aid and put one pack of it in a spray bottle and added a small amount of water. I sprayed it on her hair making sure to cover the entire area. The nits that were attached to her hair absorbed the red color and seeing the nits was much easier thus easier to pull out.

That rocks!

 

[mefordis]

Not almost - it is $150 they are charging me! I don't know what I could have done, though. I don't have the time to pick through and I wanted most of them out of my dd's hair immediately. Ugh, now I have to spend an hour a night picking through her hair, and hope none are on mine because how do I pick my own head?

How about the olive oil the above poster suggested, that makes the nits comb out easily? The place I hired told me to pick through the hair DRY, not oiled. This oil is hard to wash out, though.

Wow! That's almost $150 an hour! Am I in the wrong business!
I have dealt with this three times. It is hell! The last bout was the worst as it seems more and more lice as resistant to RID and we had to get a prescription from the ped for something stronger.
I wish I could say there is a guaranteed preventor. There isn't. I've braided my dd's hair, rubbed tee tree oil in it, told her not share combs, no hugging friends and still! We don't even go bare headed into a movie theater anymore. We wear hoodies.
Things I have learned are that "natural" remedies don't work. Mayo, olive oil, mouthwash. None of it. Vigilant nit picking and not just combing are essential. I would spend an hour a day on dd under a bright light and sometimes hold a flashlight in my teeth and work some more while she slept at night.
That without a host, lice die after a couple of days. The nits are rarely laying around your house. Anyone who has nit picked can tell you how well they stick to your hair! That last bout we also took dd to our mountain house for a long weekend. Of course we washed linens and such. But you don't need to be like, "OMG FUMIGATE THE HOUSE!!"
The cleaner your hair, the easier it is for lice to grip onto it. So you can wash your head raw. It won't help.
Good luck! You have my sympathies!

 

[Kellydelly]

Ugh, now I have to spend an hour a night picking through her hair, and hope none are on mine because how do I pick my own head?

You don't have a husband, sister, mom, neighbor to help you out?

 

[girli565]

Nope, just picked nits for 7 1/2 hours and put the shampoo and oil on our hair. They spent a LOT of time slowly combing through the hair.

How could I have done this myself and been as thorough, I keep asking myself. While doing the truck load of laundry we had!

I hate lice, I feel for you. Could you have had a friend or family member come and pick through your hair?

I second the tea tree oil, it smells wonderful and helps keep lice away.I'm a teacher and I use a tea tree cleanser on our towels and linens just to be safe bc we've had a few lice outbreaks in my department.