questions about headlice

[lynn]

I want to cry. I did dd hair and before I could vaccuum the couch or give complete instructions she was laying on the couch then, then.......wait for it......I realized this evening she put on the same shirt she had on before I did her hair. So tomorrow I have to do her hair again but with what? I don't want to use rid again so soon. Any other ideas?

[JubilantNest]

Use Vaseline.  Completely coat her hair and scalp and then cover it up with a shower cap overnight.  (The longer you can go the better it is.)  The Vaseline smothers them.  It is a pain to wash out and her hair may look funky for a few days, but then it will be soft, shiny, and louse free.  :) 

[kiwik]

I would just do it again. You usually have to do 2 treatments a week apart so 3 wouldn't be a major unless you have to do it frequently.

[Starr]

http://nuvoforheadlice.com/test/?page_id=9#acceptLicense

 

 

Many on this site have had good results with this method.

[umsami]

Hate to break it to you, but Rid and Nix usually don't work on the current crop.  They are resistant.

 

Do you have a good comb? A metal one like Fairytales?

 

If so, just recomb her.  Put some hair conditioner in….and go to town.

 

You can also google Cetaphil cure.  It's actually been proven to work in journal articles.  You coat the hair with cetaphil.  Comb it out as much as you can.  Then blow dry.  Wash the next day.  Repeat in one week.

 

Wash sheets/clothes and put in the dryer.

 

Put pillows, stuffed animals, in the dryer for at least 30 minutes.

 

[JonesinIndiana]

You've got to comb, comb, comb with a good quality metal lice/nit comb, EVERYDAY. Put everything you can in dryer, EVERYDAY. Vacuum floors and furniture, EVERYDAY. Either bag stuffed animals or don't play with during infestation. Iron things that won't go in the dryer, EVERYDAY.

 

My secret weapon, in addition to all of the above was, I flat ironed the girls' hair EVERYDAY.

 

It took about 3 weeks and added $20 to my electric bill that month but we were LICE FREE!!!

[bettyandbob]

Use Vaseline. Completely coat her hair and scalp and then cover it up with a shower cap overnight. (The longer you can go the better it is.) The Vaseline smothers them. It is a pain to wash out and her hair may look funky for a few days, but then it will be soft, shiny, and louse free. :)

You can use mayonnaise too. This kills the adult lice. You still need to look for eggs. I've never had to do this. My neighbor did it with her dc and it worked. She wrapped plastic wrap on their heads and then put the shower cap on to hold in place. One of her dc had a lot of lice, as soon as his head was covered he could feel them moving around his scalp--try to escape. He has sensory sensitivities so he was uncomfortable, but only for a few minutes.

[Farrar]

Hate to break it to you, but Rid and Nix usually don't work on the current crop.  They are resistant.

 

Yeah.  So while that's not best practice for your dd...  you were going to have to do more than one treatment anyway.  And probably use some of the above advice with the combing and the vaseline and so forth.  The shortest time I've ever heard of anyone getting rid of them is two weeks.  Two weeks of intensive labor.

[Above The Rowan]

You've got to comb, comb, comb with a good quality metal lice/nit comb, EVERYDAY. Put everything you can in dryer, EVERYDAY. Vacuum floors and furniture, EVERYDAY. Either bag stuffed animals or don't play with during infestation. Iron things that won't go in the dryer, EVERYDAY.

 

My secret weapon, in addition to all of the above was, I flat ironed the girls' hair EVERYDAY.

 

It took about 3 weeks and added $20 to my electric bill that month but we were LICE FREE!!!

All of this is what we did too.

 

I used a flat iron on my daughters hair also! The nits die with heat so I would comb comb comb every day and then blow dry her hair and straighten it with the flat iron. It was time intensive with her long hair. But it helped. My dd has thick hair but the actual strands are really fine so even the pricey metal comb would sometimes not be able to get the little nits off, her hair would just slide right through the comb.

[Sarah CB]

Tea tree oil is the only thing that worked here.  I mixed it with olive oil and coated the head.  I would also continue to use tea tree oil in the shower - mix it with a little bit of shampoo and spread throughout the hair, leave for five or ten minutes and then wash hair normally.  I did this every day in addition to combing.  I also used a blow dryer on very high heat.  

 

I had tried two different lice shampoos from the pharmacist as well as the Cetaphil treatment - neither worked here.

[Reefgazer]

I'm not sure that this will make you feel worse or better, but it's likely you would have had to re-comb anyway.  It usually takes two or more passes with the nit comb to get rid of them; so you didn't create any additional work for yourself.  Also, the substance you put on the hair gets rid on live lice, not nits; live lice are easy to kill with many substances, it's the nits most people miss and that are hard to kill.  So resign yourself to one or more passes with the nit comb.  The substance you used to pull them out doesn't matter; it's the combing that gets rid of them. I used regular conditioner to facilitate combing and separate the sections as I combed out the nits.  The conditioner serves 2 purposes:  Making the combing easier, and creating a barrier for any remaining live lice so they can't crawl through to the area you are working on/have just combed.  Lice can't live more than 48 hours off a human head, so if your DD is not near her stuffed animals for 2 weeks, you don't have to do a thing to them.  I would vacuum a lot, just because kids lay on the floor and could pick them up that way. 

[serene]

Check out Headlice.org

 

The National Pediculosis Association encourages a non-chemical approach with manual removal whenever possible.

 

They also recommend vacuuming as the safest and most effective alternative to spraying.  Using lice sprays on bedding, furniture and carpets is unwarranted and poses both personal and environmental risks.

 

 

 

When checking the head, there are several specific steps that should be followed:

• Wear disposable gloves;
• Find a location with good light, preferably direct sunlight. This may require seating both the patient and examiner outdoors on a patio or the pharmacy's back porch. If this is not available, a strong lamp may be sufficient;
• If the examiner is far-sighted, has poor vision or any other visual detail abnormality (e.g., amblyopia), a magnifying glass may be necessary;
• Remove tangles from the hair with a comb or hairbrush;
• Divide the hair into sections, examining each section individually and fastening it away from non-examined hair when it is inspected;
• Grasp a one-inch section of hair and use a lice comb to comb each hair section carefully and slowly from the scalp outward to the end of the hair. Lice combs traditionally sold for lice detection/removal are made of a one-piece plastic or metal construction that hinders their efficiency greatly. However, a recently introduced lice comb is rapidly becoming the standard for lice detection and removal. Known as the LiceMeister^�, it is made by embedding 32 stainless steel teeth in a rigid plastic handle. The teeth are long and tapered, and are set so close that combing removes virtually all lice, both adults and nymphs, and virtually all nits. Thus, this innovative device can both screen for the presence of lice and remove them to halt an infestation(5).
• Dip the LiceMeister^� into a cup of water after each hair section is combed. If debris (e.g., nits, builds up between the teeth of the comb, use a toothbrush or dental floss to clean between them.
• Continue combing each section of hair until all is thoroughly combed.

[PollyOR]

Well, give them 48 hours to die.  That was my actual experience.  Tough little buggers!

[PollyOR]

One more thing - my 18yo wore a type of headband with magnifiers while combing our hair (like this).  It helped her see the nits better.  

 

We also had a handheld magnifier to help us identify whether we were dealing with dandruff or an actual nit.  

[coralloyd]

You might want to look into a lice service. There are companies that come and comb through the hair and give advice on how to handle thing in the house. We had a girl come and comb me and my girls. She also checked my son and husband. She was so good! It took her much less time than when I tried. She was ver methodical. She told us that lice only live 48 hr. off their host. She said to wash sheets, vacuum, put sheets over couches, bag stuffed animals, and put combs and brushes in the freezer. She told me to comb our hair still for the next few days. I did, but never found anything.

[ChrissySC]

I would comb and blow dry her hair each day.  I would not want the mess of the Vaseline or the mayo.  I have had good success with the electric comb too for live lice.  It does not remove the nits but it electrocutes the louse.  :) It beeps to let you know.  I have used this personally twice.  I also have the best nit comb ever.  We do the dryer "thing" too.  Being in the south and having girls with long hair, I think lice are an event like a birthday.  It is just going to come and go.  So, three heads later and three weeks later, we are free.  I do shampoo as instructed, but it is not my only solution and it never would be.

 

You have to have an EVERYDAY routine.  I would have the kids come out of the shower at night with wet hair, spray on condition, and start combing.  Blow dry hair.  Every other day, we ran the electric comb through the hair.  We would send all pillows and loose blankets through the dryer and vac the sofas and floors each day.  We used one brush between us and cleaned the rest (freezer and then hand wash).  All hair things went in ziplocs and into the freezer each night.  We were typically free after seven days, but continued the routine with more and more time in between until we are once a month.  I think the biggest thing for us was keeping things in the freezer - all barrettes, ponytails, bobby pins, etc.

 

I relate this to taking care of bedbugs, and they are much nastier to deal with.  It is all in the duty to adhere to the routine.

[Caroline]

I know that everyone says that lice cannot live off the host for more than 48 hours. I wonder if some haven't evolved beyond that. 

[flyingiguana]

If you did Rid and if it worked, it's probably no big deal that she laid on the couch. There should still be residue in the hair, so if it was gonna work, it'll still be there working when she possibly picks up more lice.

 

I don't know what the story is on Rid etc resistance. It is true that it doesn't kill the lice -- the story is that it sterilizes them. I don't know if I believe that, but maybe..... I do recall that when I used a louse shampoo and then started combing, I was not getting any fresh eggs as the week went by. There were definitely big fat and sassy adult lice all over the place, but no fresh eggs. So maybe it really does sterilize them. If so, that would help quite a bit, even if the lice don't die and fall off in the rinse like one would hope.

 

You can tell if the eggs are fresh if they comb off the hair really easily. It takes awhile for the cement to harden. The fresh ones are also very close to the scalp.

[HSinNH]

Get the Robi Comb at your local drug store. A bit pricey at $30, but worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY. It electrocutes the live lice so they cannot lay more eggs, just watch out for little ears. Use it on everyone in your household. I still use it preventatively once or twice a month on my girls or when I hear that someone we know is infected.

 

Get a good quality lice comb like this one and watch lots of TV while you comb and pick in good light.

 

Bag all stuffed animals and put them in the shed for two weeks.

 

Do not go crazy washing bedding and vacuuming. Concentrate your efforts on the hair.

 

Get the Robi Comb!!