Ugghhhh! I need some help please!

[luvsJack]

Thanks for all of the great replies. Sounds like I really have my work cut out for me! DH called me at lunch and said they are working on everything. He is washing all the linens, even the ones in the linen closet. He is washing all of the towels and all of her clothes, jackets, etc. He is instructed to vacuum every square inch of the house, including mattresses and so forth. She packed up all of her stuffed animals and lovies, and I made sure to tell him to clean her book bag and lunch box (which is cloth). He said he can't really see that many nits, but I told him to make sure he is sitting by a window and he might see them better. He said he is going to vacuum his truck and will do mine when I get home. I hate leaving this in his hands because he isn't really a meticulous person, but I cannot leave work early because I work in a law office and we are facing some critical deadlines.

I read a few things on the internet in the last few hours and I was wondering if anyone else has heard these things. One article said pure vinegar would dissolve the nits (sounds a bit far fetched to me), and one article said to try using a flat iron on the hair after you have pulled everything that can be seen out of the hair.
Well, the only thing that is getting to me now, is that now everyone in her class knows and I don't want her to feel embarrassed when she goes back. She is mortified! The real unfortunate part is her class is really small, and it is a mixture of 4th and 5th graders. She attended this same class part time last year (she is in the gifted program) and two of the 5th grade girls are snotty and rude to begin with, so now, I am afraid they will be worse.

I don't know, I guess momma hen just kicked in and I don't want her to feel bad about herself! Thanks for the hugs!

Don't know about the vinegar but the flat iron may put enough heat on the hair to kill nits. That's why you have to make sure that anything you wash is put through a hot dryer--it needs that heat.

I have had lice, my kids have had lice and I used to have a couple of kids have them a couple times a year in my child care center. I NEVER had the issues that some of you seem to have getting rid of them.

Everything that could be washed, was washed and dryed. Stuffed animals put in a sealed garbage bag for 48 hours. Carpets and furniture vacuumed and sprayed. Hair washed with lice shampoo and combed with nit comb--done twice x# (whatever is on the box) of days apart. Oh, and hair dried with hot blow dryer. Problem solved--lice gone. I NEVER sat in the sun light picking nits for hours or days or whatever. Sometimes nits can be left in the hair and be dead. There is a difference in the color but I don't remember what it was, I just remember that they will eventually come out and if you don't get them out with the comb its not a big deal. I also remember being told by the health department not to panic about getting every last nit out, just make sure the shampoo will kill adult lice and nits. Lice just are not that hard to kill.

At our center, we allowed the kids to come back after they had been treated one time. We never had an issue with more than one child having them. Even there, we sprayed all carpet areas, vacuumed, sent blankets home to be washed and bagged up all dolls and stuffed animals. And sprayed any hats used for dress up items.

As for prevention, if you keep your child's hair up in pony tails or pulled back it will help. Spraying it with hair spray everyday will help too.

 

[PixiePlanner]

We just went thru this. OMG, children are so cruel. DS actually walked up to one girl and said, "Why are you being so mean to my sister?" I beamed with pride when he told me. This same little girl, I later found out, had lice 4X last year.
I treated DD with an OTC conditioner, combing, combing, combing, combing and finally combing. I combed every day for 2 weeks, only a few minutes a day after the first day. Also, one additional thing I did was saturate her hair w/ olive oil, braid it, put a showercap on her(to protect my house), let her play w/ her legos for an hour or so then washed her hair with Dawn dish soap (2X to cut the oil). This was something extra I thought I would try-read online. I must say, her hair glistened. I used the conditioner again after 10 days. I also panicked EVERY time I saw her hand move upward toward her head. The rest of the summer she didn't argue about putting her hair up again.

Supposedly, most adults don't get lice because of the products we put in our hair. Also the heat from hairdryers/irons. 130 degrees is the magic temp. If possible, roll your car windows up and leave your car parked in the sun for a few hours. Any lice missed by the vacuum will roast!

Best of luck.

My head itches.

 

[3boymthr]

One thing I learned about lice when we had them a couple of years ago. A great place to get them is the bus. Ack! That's where my kids got them. Because despite cleaning my house and my car and being told that they are cleaning the school I also found out they don't clean the busses.

Another great thing I learned about lice - the incubation period for nits is two weeks (not 48 hours). You have to bag up all stuff for two weeks after the first sign and keep cleaning every day for two weeks.

The next thing I learned - the razor is your friend. We shaved the kids heads - no more lice - there one day, gone the next never to be seen again. Since that is obviously not a solution for a girl you might want to talk to her about cutting her hair into a bob.

 

[Tinkerbelle's Mom]

I could have written your post myself.

DD and I are dealing with Lice right now - I am exhausted. At first i thought she has bad dandruff but after reading posts on my dandruff thread we went to visit to the ped. Who confirmed we are definately dealing with Lice. However, it does not seem as bad as what some other people have dealt with.

Since it's just dd and I in the house I do not have to worry about checking a bunch of people. I am treating myself too - which it is very hard to comb out your own hair. LOL! I am off to the hairdresser tomorrow to have her check my head and cut my hair.

I did use Rid. I have washed every cloth object in our home in hot water and a long time in the dryer on high heat. Our pillows, blanets, and such are going in the dryer each day for 30 minutes. I have vaccumed and thrown away the bags.

My car has been "baked" in the hot sun. Not hard to do with the temps here in SoCal. It has also been vaccuumed.

I spent a long time combing dds hair after the inital rid application. I have combed her hair using a metal lice comb each day. But... there have not been many nits to find after the first day -- but I am still very deligent about combing both of our hairs. I just wish I could see the back of my head better.

 

[SandrA9810]

I had lice from elementary to middle school. It probably won't be your last time. But the younger the kids are, the closer they seem to be. They haven't set that "3ft of personal space" boundry yet.

And lice live on the scalp, not in the hair. So if she's got long or short hair, it ain't gonna change the situation. I have yet to cut my hair short since my aunt did this to me, 12 years ago.

The last time I ever got them. My aunt put vaseline in my hair, covered root to tip. Left it in over night (in fact for about 3 days). Till we finally found a degreaser product that worked on vaseline, which is simple green. Yes kids were mean, and my aunt hated that I had my hair half way down my back. So she cut it short and pulled it back into a braid every day. But I never had lice after that again. And I've never did more than trim the ends of my hair, I know keep it to my lower back.

But yeah, lice have become resistant to the OTC stuff. Either prescription or alternative methods like vaseline or vinegar to really get rid of them. But never try the same thing twice in a row. The next time she gets it, you'll have to go another route. But cleaning everything is a good start.

 

[poppyolivia]

hey guys...was reading the thread and found this

Do head lice live in carpets, clothes, hats or sheets?

No. Head lice very rarely fall from the head. They require blood to survive. Head lice feed 3-4 times a day and without blood, will dehydrate in 6 hours in a dry climate and 24 hours in a humid climate. An egg requires warmth to hatch and is the reason why they are laid close to the scalp. The further away from the scalp, the less likely they are to survive.

What should I wash or treat at home?
As head lice only live for a short time off the head, the only extra cleaning needed is to wash the pillowslip on the hot cycle or place in clothes dryer. Head lice combs can be cleaned in water hotter than 60 degrees.


Its basically what we have been told here.. So not sure if this cleaning the whole house and car etc is actually doing any good????


heres a link saying much and such the same...they don't live on bedding etc...

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Head-Lice-Full-Overview.htm

 

[The Mystery Machine]

hey guys...was reading the thread and found this

Do head lice live in carpets, clothes, hats or sheets?

No. Head lice very rarely fall from the head. They require blood to survive. Head lice feed 3-4 times a day and without blood, will dehydrate in 6 hours in a dry climate and 24 hours in a humid climate. An egg requires warmth to hatch and is the reason why they are laid close to the scalp. The further away from the scalp, the less likely they are to survive.

What should I wash or treat at home?
As head lice only live for a short time off the head, the only extra cleaning needed is to wash the pillowslip on the hot cycle or place in clothes dryer. Head lice combs can be cleaned in water hotter than 60 degrees.


Its basically what we have been told here.. So not sure if this cleaning the whole house and car etc is actually doing any good????


heres a link saying much and such the same...they don't live on bedding etc...

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Head-Lice-Full-Overview.htm

I watched live lice drop from my dd's head and crawling in her computer chair. It is gross.

Don't know who wrote that but that doesn't match up to what I have dealt with.

 

[luvsJack]

hey guys...was reading the thread and found this

Do head lice live in carpets, clothes, hats or sheets?

No. Head lice very rarely fall from the head. They require blood to survive. Head lice feed 3-4 times a day and without blood, will dehydrate in 6 hours in a dry climate and 24 hours in a humid climate. An egg requires warmth to hatch and is the reason why they are laid close to the scalp. The further away from the scalp, the less likely they are to survive.

What should I wash or treat at home?
As head lice only live for a short time off the head, the only extra cleaning needed is to wash the pillowslip on the hot cycle or place in clothes dryer. Head lice combs can be cleaned in water hotter than 60 degrees.


Its basically what we have been told here.. So not sure if this cleaning the whole house and car etc is actually doing any good????


heres a link saying much and such the same...they don't live on bedding etc...

http://www.patient.co.uk/health/Head-Lice-Full-Overview.htm

This is what the health dept. told us. And there is just no debating that they must have blood to survive. We did vacuum and spray, but even that may have been unnecessary. Whether for me and my kids at home or in the child care center--we just did not have that much of an issue getting rid of them and I never, ever spent the kind of time some of you are talking about worrying about it.

As for seeing live lice crawl on anything, that has got to be unusual. We checked kid's heads 4 times a year (more if we saw scratching) in the center--this would be 45 kids, 4-6 times a year x 12 years. And very, very rarely (once or twice total) saw a live louse. Only found nits. And never, ever did we see a live one crawl out of anyone's head onto anything.

 

[Tiggernut_jadie]

I am a nurse and was a school nurse until a few years ago. The advice posted by poppyolivia is correct. Lice need to be on a person to survive so all the vaccuming etc is pointless. To the person who said they saw them fall from their daughter's hair onto a chair - this may be the case but if you'd have gone back to that chair a few hours later they would have been dead. Lice do not jump they crawl along the shafts of the hair and children's hair needs to be in contact with an infested person's head fro them to move from person to person. If a louse is left on a headrest (like in a car or bus) it would need another child to put their head there almost straight away for it to be passed on in this way.

In my experience the difficulty is that other parents are not as vigilant and don't bother treating their kids so when you've got your child clear of nits and lice they go back to school the next day, play with little Janie who's mother hasn't treated her hair and your child is re-infested. It is highly unlikely, if not impossible, for your child to be re-infested by sitting on a chair that she used 2 weeks before and catch nits from there!

The key thing is to ensure you check the kid's hair regularly and at the first sign of lice, treat accordingly. I have only ever used chemical treatment once on my DD and use a 'nitty gritty' comb plus lots of conditioner to treat any infestations. I also use the comb and conditioner once a week when she is clear to check for any new little critters! I also use tea tree oil in water every morning to dampen my DD's hair and then put it up in a tight ponytail or braid with no loose strands. Touch wood we haven't had a problem since DD was 6 (she'll be 9 later this month) although when she was younger it happened every couple of months.

 

[carone0318]

So, my dd had lice back in the Spring. I did the otc treatment, washed the bedding and everything daily for 2 weeks in hot water and so on, blah, blah, blah.

As I was doing some reading, I read somewhere that lye do not like heat. Dd is old enough to shower and what not on her own, she never dried her hair or put any products on it - perfect breeding ground for lye!

What I started doing after the otc treatment was after she washed her hair, I put mousse on it, then I would blow the hair dry (first installment of heat.) After her hair was dry, I then would use a hair straightener and would do her entire head. This took a long time, but we did this every night for about 4/5 nights. We were able to get rid of the lice, she hasn't had it since. The other thing she does is she picked a night and every week on that night she washes her hair with the blue Ivory dish soap, something about the lye do not like that - I forget.

Now I don't know if it was something I did, or a combination of the stuff that we did, but it hasn't come back. I'll have to remind her since school is starting up again next week to use the Ivory soap again!