What do I do?!?

[luvsJack]

I just wanted to add that it is of utmost importance that you treat twice--7-10 days between. I would vacuum ( the cornstarch idea is a good one) and wash the sheets and all that but don't drive yourself nuts.

If they only found a couple of nits on your kids, there may not even be any infestation in your house.

I actually got lice myself once. I came home from the hospital with them. I treated my long, thick curly hair--could not even begin to get that comb through my hair so I just combed through the best I could, got out any that I could and waited the recommended time and treated again. Lice gone. I did wash all the sheets in hot water and ran the dryer 2 or 3 cycles. That's it.

They really are not that hard to get rid of.

 

[aprilgail2]

I don't know where you are located but I have had friends whos children have had lice and they used the following company- licefighters.com - they don't put pesticides or poison on your childs head to seep into their skin---

How do we do it?
A Lice Fighters treatment consists of the two key factors in eliminating lice completely. Firstly, to kill the bugs, and secondly to remove the nits! We use a manual removal technique without any pesticides or chemicals to remove all the visible nits. Followed by a precisely applied oil treatment to kill any remaining bugs.


you can google natural lice treatments to see if there are anyplace near your that do it---I would recommend that before putting poison onto your loved ones skin.

 

[alexandria674]

Ok, calm down, don't cancel your trip because you have a lot of time to do what you need to do.

 

[bradma]

THANKS SO MUCH FOR ALL OF YOUR REPLIES!! My eyes are crossing right now so hopefully this makes some sense.

The girls have a "bob" haircut but very curly, coarse hair which I usually love but right now I would love baby fine. I wouldn't mind cutting it but don't know about going to a hair salon at this point. And unfortunately it wasn't just a nit or two. They had several live bugs going on. They were checked Wed and Thurs of last week and were cleared but by Friday it was a different story.

I did several hours of nit picking (and still a few live bugs) today and then soaked their hair in tea tree conditioner for a time. There were still some nits that showed up in the water. So I blew dry their hair,hoping the heat would also help. I then went and bought the robi comb which still found some live ones later tonight.

I was feeling pretty good until I saw a live louse on my sheet after all of this. I had put a clean sheet on earlier in the day and let my daughter watch a movie there while I nit picked my other daughter's hair in the back yard for the sunlight. So it could have come from her laying there. I'm just going to keep checking and picking, using the robi comb, washing sheets and bed stuff daily, and doing the second treatment next weekend. I'm going to attempt to work as well. I'm a junior high teacher and this is my last week. The girls are done on Friday, too, so that makes me feel a little better b/c they won't be around other kids for too long and I'll have more time for all of this craziness.

I'm not nearly as frantic but still worried. I don't want to cancel the trip AT ALL and I will do my best to make sure we get there. Ironically the girls saw an ad for Disney and said "Can we go there? Maybe when we're 7?" They have no idea we are going (fingers crossed) so that's keeping my spirits up.

Off to put more laundry in the dryer.

 

[bradma]

Ok, we are on day 5 of this saga. I took a 1/2 day yesterday and a sick day today to keep working. I soaked their hair in conditioner for about 2 hours yesterday, rinsed with vinegar (which dd #1 HATED), and then picked for about an hour to an hour and 1/2. Still one or two bugs and about 10 nits in her and one bug and about 5 nits in dd #2. Thanks to the poster who suggested the "spa treatment" of nails b/c it really lightened the situation and distracted them for awhile. I then blew their hair dry again and straightened it. They fell into bed at 10 at night!
I did dd#1 again already and am about to pick dd#2 now. It's still taking a long time but there are definitely less today, only about 5 or so on dd#1. I've basically made this my 2nd job. I'm going to do the olive oil tonight and let them sleep in it and then pick and rinse before they go to school tomorrow. They have kindergarten graduation on Friday so I'm hoping we are not all too exhausted to enjoy it.
Thanks again!

 

[luvsJack]

You do realize there is such a thing as overkill, right? You are stressing you and your dd's WAAAAAYYYYY too much over this. Treating in some way every day is not necessary and is probably not going to help. 1 washing of all bed linens per treatement is all you have to do. The things will not live on non-living things but for a short amount of time--they have to have blood to live.

Why don't you just buy the RID, treat their hair and calm down? 7 days later (or whatever the recommended time is) treat again.

Lice just are not this hard to get rid of. You are driving yourself crazy over nothing.

Day 5 of this saga?? Treat, wait, retreat--end of saga. I swear to you it is not as bad as you are making it out to be. And I repeat from an earlier post you DO NOT have to remove every nit. The RID will kill them. In fact if you are seeing any brownish nits--they are dead and will fall out on their own.

 

[mickeyboat]

Are you still seeing live bugs? What have you done to kill them? I only saw live bugs the first day and none after I used the shampoo. I also never saw any live bugs outside of DD's hair. I think I might be freaking out a bit if there were still live bugs after 5 days.

Good luck.

 

[720L]

I only saw live bugs the first day, after I used the RID there were just nits. Those metal combs do work and use it every night! I dipped the comb in hot soapy water between combing strips of hair. The first couple nights I probably found 8 or 10 nits, after that maybe 1 and towards the last 3 days or so none.

 

[luvsJack]

I just did a search for lice treatments just out of curiosity. There is a product called Ovide that kills the lice and the nits. If this product is available--get it. You are wasting way too much time with such stuff as olive oil. Kill the bugs, kill the nits and move on.

We got an infestation of mites from a new puppy about two years ago. Once we got the right stuff to treat with we didn't have near the trouble the OP seems to be having; and I swear I would rather have lice any day of the week than another mite. It was HORRIBLE!!

 

[Debbie7452]

I have lived through a couple of bouts with lice. The common medicated shampoos did NOTHING on our bugs. The first time I killed them by plastering their heads with Crisco shortening. This worked but is a pain to get out of their hair (leave on overnight with hair wrapped in Saran wrap). Wash the next day many time over with Dawn dishwashing liquid to remove the "treatment". Painstakingly hand remove nits. I did not find the special combs very useful...

The next time it was younger DD, I found an herbal shampoo at Wal-mart called Lice Freeeee...It really worked and killed the bugs. I was impressed with it. Hand nit removal was the key for us. This too shall pass!

 

[Towncrier]

Not sure if this has been mentioned or not, but when our daughter had lice, we found a special spray that made the nits much easier to spot. It was like the stuff that they sell at Halloween that colors hair. You spray it in, brush it out, and the nits really stand out making them much easier to pick.

Good luck. Just reading this thread makes my head itch.

 

[FarAway<3]

I had lice in elementary school, and my mom made me go to school still even though they said not to send a kid with lice in.
I don't remember it being a huuuuge deal, but maybe it was because I was 7 and I didn't have to do the nit picking or clothes/pillow washing. The worst thing for me was not being able to part my hair! (So no one would see the creepy crawlies.)

 

[bradma]

Are you still seeing live bugs? What have you done to kill them? I only saw live bugs the first day and none after I used the shampoo. I also never saw any live bugs outside of DD's hair. I think I might be freaking out a bit if there were still live bugs after 5 days.

Good luck.

I did use RID the first day (friday) and still saw live bugs yesterday. I'm freaked out a little but from my internet search and talks with friends and co-workers, it seems like lice are becoming immune to the medication in the shampoos unfortunately.

 

[bradma]

You do realize there is such a thing as overkill, right? You are stressing you and your dd's WAAAAAYYYYY too much over this. Treating in some way every day is not necessary and is probably not going to help. 1 washing of all bed linens per treatement is all you have to do. The things will not live on non-living things but for a short amount of time--they have to have blood to live.


My daughters are actually still happy and playing so I'm not too worried about them, but yes, I am definitely stressed, probably more than I need to be, but that's me. If you've read some of the other posts, lice can be very difficult to get rid of. If we didn't have this trip planned, I'd probably not be as crazed but I want them good and gone before we go.


Why don't you just buy the RID, treat their hair and calm down? 7 days later (or whatever the recommended time is) treat again.

I DID buy the RID and used it exactly as the directions stated Friday night and still had live bugs yesterday. That's why I'm not completely calm yet. :


Lice just are not this hard to get rid of. You are driving yourself crazy over nothing.

I'm hoping what you say is true of course, but like I said, alot of people seem to disagree and claim that they are pretty hard to get rid of if you don't pick until you get every last one.


Day 5 of this saga?? Treat, wait, retreat--end of saga. I swear to you it is not as bad as you are making it out to be. And I repeat from an earlier post you DO NOT have to remove every nit. The RID will kill them. In fact if you are seeing any brownish nits--they are dead and will fall out on their own.

It's not just the nits but like I said in a previous post, LIVE bugs.

 

[720L]

I'd call the pediatrician if you are still seeing live bugs and see what they recommend.

 

[loopymommy]

How did you get every last nit? This is the advice that I need!!! Did they reoccur for your daughter? What did you use?
I didn't buy the spray either b/c it is supposedly not necessary. Although, I'm lysoling everything anyway.

I didn't read through the whole thread, so please forgive me if this has already been posted:

If you live anywhere near a religious Jewish community (particularly a Hasidic community), there are women who comb out lice/nits for a living and are experts at it. They do an amazing job and usually get 99% of them out the first time. (No flames, please, since I'm a nice Jewish girl from Brooklyn).

Don't forget to clean the headrests of your car. If they have any favorite stuffed animals, wash them, too, and if they're not washable, put them in a sealed Ziploc bag for 2 weeks.

Good luck!

 

[Eeyore's-tail-tack]

in our experience we would do the shampooing about 3 to 4 days after the first treatment. My daughter remembered that we would leave the child in the tub after the treatment shampoo then we would use a whole lot of conditioner. Just make sure the part of the comb where all the teeth start at goes as close to the scalp as possible. good luck.