I think lice are going to drive me over the edge...

[TKDmom]

I have one child in school (my K'er). Last night she was complaining about her head itching, and sure enough she has brought home lice, once again. This is the FOURTH time this year! I'm doing my part. All 5 of us that have hair are getting treatment. I will spend and hour and a half nit-combing each girl's hair. I may shave the boys' heads (again). I will be sanitizing a dozen loads of laundry over then next two days. All brushes, hair things and stuffed animals will either be sanitized or quarantined. This isn't how I wanted to spend dd's Spring Break. But at least I don't have to worry about her getting reinfected tomorrow.

 

What drives me bonkers is the school district's policy (or lack thereof). There isn't any sort of no-nit policy. Apparently there used to be, but they rescinded it (why?? For the convenience of parents who want to send their kids to school with lice?). The school is powerless to do anything. The nurse can't come to the class and check for nits. They can't send home kids who have lice. One day the teacher confided to me that she knew there was lice in the class and encouraged me to check dd. The nurse checks my dd's hair after each time I treat her, and seems to think I'm doing a great job with treatment. DD says she knows who she got them from. I have been planning to pull her out of school this summer, but this may send me over the edge. I'll have to consult with dh, but I don't want to send her back again.

 

So...does anyone want to draft a letter to the school district for me, and blast them for their non-policy that's causing the spread of these annoying little buggers?

[Guest]

When mine were in school (K and 4th I think), they came home with it. I immediately ran to K-Mart to see what they had there. I saw three other parents in that aisle...all from my kids' school. They all were talking and it came out that they weren't going to bother buying anything because it was "too expensive." I knew one of the parents had a child in my son's class. I called the school the next morning to let them know why my boys wouldn't be at school that day. They said they hadn't gotten any other reports from parents saying their child had it. I told them that was funny, considering how I had just seen three sets of parents the night before looking at stuff for it. They told me that unfortunately they couldn't do anything. Thankfully there was a counselour there that listened and they did head checks. No way was I going to send my kids back to get it again because someone couldn't be bothered to treat their child.

[justasque]

No help with the letter, but I would send her for the rest of the year with her hair braided and pinned up, completely covered with a bandanna.  Every last wisp.  And if they gave me any push-back on that because of a no-hats-inside rule or other such nonsense, I'd get a doctor's note to say it is being worn for medical reasons.  

And I'd invest in some really lovely bandannas and scarves, in the hopes that it would spark a fashion trend, and I'd encourage the other moms to do the same for their daughters and sons.  There are all kinds of traditional headcoverings (hats, scarves, etc.) that would be fun to try out!  And I would cover my own hair whenever I visited the building.

Most schools have moved away from a no-nits policy.  As I understand it, kids have a right to an education even if they have lice/nits, and lice are seen as a nuisance rather than a health issue.  (I am not a fan of this approach.  At all.)

[fairfarmhand]

No help with the letter, but I would send her for the rest of the year with her hair braided and pinned up, completely covered with a bandanna.  Every last wisp.  And if they gave me any push-back on that because of a no-hats-inside rule or other such nonsense, I'd get a doctor's note to say it is being worn for medical reasons.  

 

And I'd invest in some really lovely bandannas and scarves, in the hopes that it would spark a fashion trend, and I'd encourage the other moms to do the same for their daughters and sons.  There are all kinds of traditional headcoverings (hats, scarves, etc.) that would be fun to try out!  And I would cover my own hair whenever I visited the building.

 

Most schools have moved away from a no-nits policy.  As I understand it, kids have a right to an education even if they have lice/nits, and lice are seen as a nuisance rather than a health issue.  (I am not a fan of this approach.  At all.)

 

I was going to suggest this very thing.

 

Braids and buns would be the new morning chore.

[NorthwestMom]

It drives me crazy too, but honestly, I find that the homeschoolers with an attraction for "natural" remedies are the ones who keep the lice going around longer than it does in schools. 

 

I prefer the old "shock and awe" approach to tiny bugs in my kids hair. LOL.

 

Lice are the worst.  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:

[AMJ]

I so feel for you (very careful hugs).

 

One of the problems is that the school likely has lice in the carpeting now, too.  We had our own rounds of lice last winter, due to frequently-seen cousins bringing it home from school.  Reinfections occurred, and it was only after winter break (when NO ONE was in the classrooms for more than 2 weeks) that it stopped.  The school had also brought in some carpet cleaners to clean the classrooms that were known to be infected.

 

If you can manage having her stay home I'd recommend doing just that until the school is thoroughly cleaned.  Even if every child was inspected and treated they can all get lice again if the classrooms haven't been properly cleaned.

[Scarlett]

Ugh. I feel for you. That would definitely cause me to pull my child out of ps. It is rampant here in the ps too. It made its way to our congregation and I've had a few phone calls giving me a heads up.....now I worry every time I hug someone!

 

Just ridiculous.

[Sarah CB]

It drives me crazy too, but honestly, I find that the homeschoolers with an attraction for "natural" remedies are the ones who keep the lice going around longer than it does in schools. 

 

I prefer the old "shock and awe" approach to tiny bugs in my kids hair. LOL.

 

Lice are the worst.  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:  :thumbdown:

 

I would have agreed with you before, except that during our last bout with lice the shampoos I bought from the pharmacy did nothing.  I tried more than once.  And I went a little crazy washing absolutely everything in the house.  You know what finally worked?  Tea Tree Oil.

 

[Sarah CB]

I was going to suggest this very thing.

 

Braids and buns would be the new morning chore.

 

I would do this and then make a solution of tea tree oil and water and spritz her hair before she leaves the house.

[Laurie]

 

 

What drives me bonkers is the school district's policy (or lack thereof). There isn't any sort of no-nit policy. Apparently there used to be, but they rescinded it (why?? For the convenience of parents who want to send their kids to school with lice?). The school is powerless to do anything. 

 

I don't think the school is entirely powerless, but perhaps lazy. 

 

If parents complain enough about trying to prevent the spread of lice maybe they'll do something.   What's going on in the Kindergarten classroom?  Do they have any dress-up activities with hats?  Do they share head phones?  Are there any upholstered chairs, bean bag chairs, or other shared soft surfaces that they're resting their heads against?    Maybe some of these things need to go...

 

If there's lice going around it seems to me that the school should be able to at least require anyone with long hair to wear it in a ponytail, braid, or bun.   If the schools want to demand that everyone roll up their sleeves and be vaccinated  then it shouldn't be a big deal to ask for hair compliance so that children don't have to be infested with lice. 

 

 

 

[NorthwestMom]

I would have agreed with you before, except that during our last bout with lice the shampoos I bought from the pharmacy did nothing.  I tried more than once.  And I went a little crazy washing absolutely everything in the house.  You know what finally worked?  Tea Tree Oil.

 

I am not opposed to tea tree oil or the Cetaphil method - both have some evidence of working. It's when the kids come to the library in shower caps with their hair covered in organic mayonnaise or some such that drives me nuts. Also, you have to wash all the coats and bedding, vacuum the car.... you can't just soak their heads in oil and call it good. Sarah, you and I are on the same page. :)

[Chrysalis Academy]

Is anyone else's head suddenly itching?   :leaving:

[katilac]

I would do this and then make a solution of tea tree oil and water and spritz her hair before she leaves the house.

 

I wouldn't - tea tree oil stinks to high heaven! 

[catz]

I really think combing with a high quality metal lice comb is what works.  If they don't chang their policy, I would be nit combing 1-2X a week through the school year once you get ahead of this round.  And I would be combing for 3 weeks NOW to make sure you're catching all the stragglers. 

 

http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/theliceprogram/

 

I didn't think the pharacy RID stuff did anything at all.  I think teatree might help a little, but if they get contact with a head, I don't think it will do anything. 

[Ravin]

Coconut oil or coconut/olive oil mix with a couple of drops of tea tree in it. Apply and nit-comb before and after school, and do not use shampoo on the affected child's hair. Oil drowns eggs and nits can't hold on. Lice holds on most easily to shampoo-cleaned, dry hair.

[momto10blessings]

I would have agreed with you before, except that during our last bout with lice the shampoos I bought from the pharmacy did nothing. I tried more than once. And I went a little crazy washing absolutely everything in the house. You know what finally worked? Tea Tree Oil.

 

Yes!

The lice shampoos didn't do a thing for us. It was a joke and waste of money. I ended up having to comb every single bug and egg out of their hair. Putting tea tree oil in their conditioner seemed to help too. We never found out where we got it from either. We contacted everyone we had close contact with in the past few months and no one admitted having it. So frustrating.

Anyway, supposedly lice are becoming resistant to the shampoos. Next time I won't even bother with them.

[alisoncooks]

Is anyone else's head suddenly itching?   :leaving:

 

Yes!

 

We picked up lice earlier this year (either from a theater or our homeschool PE class).  It was our first experience with it, but man!  I cannot imagine dealing with the stress of it several times in a year!   :eek:  :willy_nilly:

 

We took a multi-pronged approach to treatment: 

chemical warfare :p

natural preventative sprays while between treatments

daily combing with a high-quality lice comb

bagging every last stuffed animal for a MONTH

washing and drying all bedding/linens on hot/high

 

LOL...I'm sure I went overboard.  

This was months ago and we have had no signs of lice, but I still get paranoid (and do head checks) each time a kiddo has an itch.

[momto10blessings]

Coconut oil or coconut/olive oil mix with a couple of drops of tea tree in it. Apply and nit-comb before and after school, and do not use shampoo on the affected child's hair. Oil drowns eggs and nits can't hold on. Lice holds on most easily to shampoo-cleaned, dry hair.

I did this with conditioner instead of coconut oil.

[TKDmom]

No help with the letter, but I would send her for the rest of the year with her hair braided and pinned up, completely covered with a bandanna. Every last wisp. And if they gave me any push-back on that because of a no-hats-inside rule or other such nonsense, I'd get a doctor's note to say it is being worn for medical reasons.

 

And I'd invest in some really lovely bandannas and scarves, in the hopes that it would spark a fashion trend, and I'd encourage the other moms to do the same for their daughters and sons. There are all kinds of traditional headcoverings (hats, scarves, etc.) that would be fun to try out! And I would cover my own hair whenever I visited the building.

 

Most schools have moved away from a no-nits policy. As I understand it, kids have a right to an education even if they have lice/nits, and lice are seen as a nuisance rather than a health issue. (I am not a fan of this approach. At all.)

Well, what's ironic is she goes to a "school of choice". There's an application and a lottery to get in. The kids wear uniforms. Only white hair accessories allowed--no colors. :tongue_smilie: this particular school has all sorts of extra rules that others in the district don't have. Those rules have been slowly pushing me right out the door for the last few months. Of any school in the county, I'd expect them to have rules against lice, but no.

 

This dd is my curly head and her hair doesn't grow fast. Her hair isn't long enough to braid. It's just barely long enough for 2 ponytails. I do like the idea of putting a headscarf on her. :D I was just buying hair buffs to keep my own curly hair under control and she begged me for some of her own. I very much doubt that she'd keep one in her head all day, but it might be worth a try. I'd have to get her a white one. Maybe I could also get the rainbow one she was begging for and "accidentally" let her wear that sometimes. ;)

[TKDmom]

Yes!

 

We picked up lice earlier this year (either from a theater or our homeschool PE class). It was our first experience with it, but man! I cannot imagine dealing with the stress of it several times in a year! :eek: :willy_nilly:

 

We took a multi-pronged approach to treatment:

chemical warfare :p

natural preventative sprays while between treatments

daily combing with a high-quality lice comb

bagging every last stuffed animal for a MONTH

washing and drying all bedding/linens on hot/high

 

LOL...I'm sure I went overboard.

This was months ago and we have had no signs of lice, but I still get paranoid (and do head checks) each time a kiddo has an itch.

Yeah. We do all that, except the sprays.ill have to add that in. <sigh> Lice shampoos didn't seem to do much. I discovered a spray call LiceFreee that seems to work better than toxic lice shampoo. I found it on amazon, but walgreens sells it too. dd and I smell like black licorice while we are letting it do it's magic.

[TKDmom]

Is anyone else's head suddenly itching? :leaving:

Sorry! I have a close friend that I vent to, and she starts scratching every time I whine about this problem.

[TKDmom]

When mine were in school (K and 4th I think), they came home with it. I immediately ran to K-Mart to see what they had there. I saw three other parents in that aisle...all from my kids' school. They all were talking and it came out that they weren't going to bother buying anything because it was "too expensive." I knew one of the parents had a child in my son's class. I called the school the next morning to let them know why my boys wouldn't be at school that day. They said they hadn't gotten any other reports from parents saying their child had it. I told them that was funny, considering how I had just seen three sets of parents the night before looking at stuff for it. They told me that unfortunately they couldn't do anything. Thankfully there was a counselour there that listened and they did head checks. No way was I going to send my kids back to get it again because someone couldn't be bothered to treat their child.

I'm on my iPad and I don't have smilies. But I'd be putting 4 angry smilies on this one. I've spent nearly $100 this year on treating everyone every couple of months.

[Scarlett]

I don't think the school is entirely powerless, but perhaps lazy. 

 

If parents complain enough about trying to prevent the spread of lice maybe they'll do something.   What's going on in the Kindergarten classroom?  Do they have any dress-up activities with hats?  Do they share head phones?  Are there any upholstered chairs, bean bag chairs, or other shared soft surfaces that they're resting their heads against?    Maybe some of these things need to go...

 

If there's lice going around it seems to me that the school should be able to at least require anyone with long hair to wear it in a ponytail, braid, or bun.   If the schools want to demand that everyone roll up their sleeves and be vaccinated  then it shouldn't be a big deal to ask for hair compliance so that children don't have to be infested with lice. 

 

 

Times 10.

[Bluegoat]

My kids got it last year a few times from the kids up the street.  I am constantly paranoid about it.  I make my husband check my head every time I am going to get a haircut.

 

It's in all kinds of schools I think, my aunt works at an expensive private school and says that it is constantly in the school as well. 

 

Part of the problem I suspect is that the shampoos don't really work, and there seems to be a learning curve as far as dealing with it, and so it really should require a few days of not going to school to be sure they are all removed and dead.

 

But there seem to be a lot of parents that struggle even to line up childcare for when their kids are sick, so keeping them home with lice is no easier.  And what babysitter is going to take a kid who is home with lice? 

[Scarlett]

When you guys are saying that the lice shampoo doesn't work do you mean it doesn't kill live lice?

[redsquirrel]

I am so sorry. 4 times in a year is just beyond reasonable.

 

The reason the schools started not sending students home with nits is that most visible nits are empty cases. IOW, just because a kid has nits in their hair doesn't mean they have live or incubating lice. And so many kids were missing days of school with no good reason that the policy changed in a lot of schools.  Now, I know the schools here will check for live lice and will send kids home. The nurse has a BIG magnifying glass with a strong light and she can spot the little crawlers pretty easily with that.

 

FWIW, my son had a BAD case of lice that spread to all of us. I had no idea he had lice so he was infested for a looooong time. I felt so badly for him.  Anyway, I managed to get rid of them for all of us in three days. I think what worked best was wet combing with loads of conditioner in the hair. I did use cetaphil and blow dry once etc etc but I think what really, really worked was having him wash his hair (does remove some lice) and then loaded up his hair with a thick detangling conditioner. Then I sectioned the hair and pinned it up and used a really good lice comb.  I got it off Amazon. I would comb and wipe, comb and wipe, comb and wipe. When I was done he would wash again and I would blow dry.  My son has hair almost to his waist and so do I. My dh has shoulder length hair and my oldest son has very short hair. I did this for all of us every day. By the fourth day in a row I found zero nits.  After that I did it every other day for about 10 days? But I never found another nit.

 

There is no need to sanitize wash everything. You just need a drier. The drier is what kills them. I put pillows in the drier every morning for a week, and we all used fresh towels every day for a week. But once I stopped finding nits I didn't feel the need to keep it up.

 

I cannot stress just how bad a case of lice my poor little guy had. I almost cried when I saw his head. He was just crawling with them. I cannot believe that i got rid of them all so quickly. If (when?) we get them again I am absolutely using the same tactics.

[Scarlett]

I am so sorry. 4 times in a year is just beyond reasonable.

 

The reason the schools started not sending students home with nits is that most visible nits are empty cases. IOW, just because a kid has nits in their hair doesn't mean they have live or incubating lice. And so many kids were missing days of school with no good reason that the policy changed in a lot of schools.  Now, I know the schools here will check for live lice and will send kids home. The nurse has a BIG magnifying glass with a strong light and she can spot the little crawlers pretty easily with that.

 

FWIW, my son had a BAD case of lice that spread to all of us. I had no idea he had lice so he was infested for a looooong time. I felt so badly for him.  Anyway, I managed to get rid of them for all of us in three days. I think what worked best was wet combing with loads of conditioner in the hair. I did use cetaphil and blow dry once etc etc but I think what really, really worked was having him wash his hair (does remove some lice) and then loaded up his hair with a thick detangling conditioner. Then I sectioned the hair and pinned it up and used a really good lice comb.  I got it off Amazon. I would comb and wipe, comb and wipe, comb and wipe. When I was done he would wash again and I would blow dry.  My son has hair almost to his waist and so do I. My dh has shoulder length hair and my oldest son has very short hair. I did this for all of us every day. By the fourth day in a row I found zero nits.  After that I did it every other day for about 10 days? But I never found another nit.

 

There is no need to sanitize wash everything. You just need a drier. The drier is what kills them. I put pillows in the drier every morning for a week, and we all used fresh towels every day for a week. But once I stopped finding nits I didn't feel the need to keep it up.

 

I cannot stress just how bad a case of lice my poor little guy had. I almost cried when I saw his head. He was just crawling with them. I cannot believe that i got rid of them all so quickly. If (when?) we get them again I am absolutely using the same tactics.

 

 

You didn't even have to use the lice shampoo/poison?  

[alisoncooks]

Yeah. We do all that, except the sprays.ill have to add that in. <sigh> Lice shampoos didn't seem to do much. I discovered a spray call LiceFreee that seems to work better than toxic lice shampoo. I found it on amazon, but walgreens sells it too. dd and I smell like black licorice while we are letting it do it's magic.

 

LiceFree is the spray we used. (I used it between chemical treatments, before a comb-out.)

 

And yes, all of this lice stuff is pricey!  It really does add up!

[redsquirrel]

You didn't even have to use the lice shampoo/poison?  

 

 

Nope.  I just used a good thick conditioner and combed those f'ing things out. Oh my god, I could see them running away from my comb on my son's head. It was that bad the first day. The second day I only found a couple live lice and they were really small. The third day I found a couple nits and that was it. After that I found nothing.  I would wipe the lice comb on a white paper towel and examine it under bright light. By the second day those buggers were really tiny. I only saw them due to movement in the conditioner that I wiped on the towel.

 

Note: I just remembered that with my younger son, he got TWO wet combings that first day. It was that bad.

 

Math and science are on your side. A louse lives 30 days, counting from when the egg is laid. The egg is pretty much impossible to kill. But once it hatches it is alive about 10 days before it can mate. It is those 10 days when it is the most vulnerable. If you can remove nits (reducing the hatching population) and keep removing lice before they are old enough to mate, sooner or later you will reduce the population enough that it cannot sustain itself. 

 

Some people both wet comb AND then spend hours picking nits. But wet combing removes something like 85% (? can't remember exactly now, but it was a good percentage) of of nits and lice.  If you just keep doing that on consecutive days and reducing the population by 85%..or even 50% you will win.

 

I used both the Terminator and the LiceMeister combs. I ordered one off Amazon and found the other in Target...can't remember which one was where. But you NEED a good comb and one that is comfortable in your hand. You will be holding it for a long time. Your hand will cramp if you use that teensy comb that comes with the shampoo

 

When you are done with the comb and the clips you use to pin up the hair just pour boiling water on them to kill any remaining nits.

 

Heat is also your friend. You don't need to wash everything, just dry it.

 

And remember a hatched louse can't go for very long without human blood, so just bagging up stuffed animals for a few days is prob enough.

[lapsetmom]

As a schoolteacher in a school where students frequently get lice, I stopped getting it from students (I have long hair) when I started washing my hair with tea tree oil shampoo on a regular basis. Tea tree oil works better IMO and is natural.

[tm919]

The local public school always has cases of lice. I think a big contributor is that state law mandates that the full-day K students have a "rest" time which means -- in practice -- they lie down close together on mats, with stuffed animals, and so on. Those stuffed animals and pillows get washed every week, but it's still not enough if students are allowed to come to class with lice. 

 

It does seem to occasionally (every few years) make it over to the Montessori my daughters attend. We (a) use the tea tree oil shampoo, (b) use the fairy tales spray, ( c )  comb with a ton of cheap conditioner,(d) use coconut oil as conditioner, (e) put our hair up when we're around other children, and (f) when I hear lice are really rampant, I've used the extra strength head & shoulders shampoo (on myself, not on the girls, because of the chemicals). Of all of these, the only thing I'm sure works is combing with a lice comb, once a week --- but I'm willing to try anything because all three of us have long hair.

 

My girls have never had it, yet, but many of their friends have.

 

I've also heard neem oil really works and I'm thinking of getting some for myself since I can't lice comb my hair as well as I can for someone else.

[Shellydon]

A friend coats her kid's head in mayonnaise, puts a shower cap on and leaves it all night.  Combs out in the morning.  Repeat for 3 days and that seems to work.

[Scarlett]

Nope.  I just used a good thick conditioner and combed those f'ing things out. Oh my god, I could see them running away from my comb on my son's head. It was that bad the first day. The second day I only found a couple live lice and they were really small. The third day I found a couple nits and that was it. After that I found nothing.  I would wipe the lice comb on a white paper towel and examine it under bright light. By the second day those buggers were really tiny. I only saw them due to movement in the conditioner that I wiped on the towel.

 

Note: I just remembered that with my younger son, he got TWO wet combings that first day. It was that bad.

 

Math and science are on your side. A louse lives 30 days, counting from when the egg is laid. The egg is pretty much impossible to kill. But once it hatches it is alive about 10 days before it can mate. It is those 10 days when it is the most vulnerable. If you can remove nits (reducing the hatching population) and keep removing lice before they are old enough to mate, sooner or later you will reduce the population enough that it cannot sustain itself. 

 

Some people both wet comb AND then spend hours picking nits. But wet combing removes something like 85% (? can't remember exactly now, but it was a good percentage) of of nits and lice.  If you just keep doing that on consecutive days and reducing the population by 85%..or even 50% you will win.

 

I used both the Terminator and the LiceMeister combs. I ordered one off Amazon and found the other in Target...can't remember which one was where. But you NEED a good comb and one that is comfortable in your hand. You will be holding it for a long time. Your hand will cramp if you use that teensy comb that comes with the shampoo

 

When you are done with the comb and the clips you use to pin up the hair just pour boiling water on them to kill any remaining nits.

 

Heat is also your friend. You don't need to wash everything, just dry it.

 

And remember a hatched louse can't go for very long without human blood, so just bagging up stuffed animals for a few days is prob enough.

 

 

Your experience jives with my mom's strongly held belief that the most important thing is getting rid of the nits...she did always recommend the shampoo too....I think because the thought of live lice is just so gross.  She was a public school teacher for 20 years or so and never caught them herself...but she has spent many an hour in the nurses office picking nits out of students hair because the parents wouldn't/couldn't whatever.  

 

 

[catz]

Been there done that when my kids were in public school. We all were totally infested except for my husband and then passed it to my sister's family unawares. NIGHTMARE.

 

There's no policy about lice in our school district either except they like you to report it so they can send a note home to classmates, but that's the extent of the school's involvement. We got so many notes...ugh.

 

The first awful time we followed the lice shampoo protocol and picked everyday for 2 hours. I seemed like there was a nit on every strand of hair.

 

Last time we caught it early on dd and just slathered her head with mayo, let it sit for a couple hours, and washed and combed. I checked for nits for a week after and they were gone.

 

I think what keeps the problem going is that parents don't understand the life cycle. By the time most people see an infestation, they've probably been there for a month. A louse has to be 10 days old to lay an egg and it takes 10 days for an egg to hatch.

 

Lice also seem to dislike hair with product in it. I'd be moussing up your curly girl and white scarving her head everyday until school is out. ;)

 

:iagree:   We used leave in conditioner like crazy, but I think greasing up the hair like that over a week or so really loosened things up even if it didn't kill.  It really is all about the life cycle.  You miss a few eggs in think hair and you stop combing at 7 days, you can be back to the drawing board in a few weeks time.  Keep following up with the metal comb/oil/conditioner/whatever you want for a comb through for 3 weeks, even if you're not seeing anything. 

[redsquirrel]

A friend coats her kid's head in mayonnaise, puts a shower cap on and leaves it all night.  Combs out in the morning.  Repeat for 3 days and that seems to work.

 

mmmmm...mayonnaise that has been on a warm head overnight.  Healthy I suppose.

 

There are alternatives that won't give you salmonella, lol. 

 

It's the oil that is smothering the lice, it works really well.  When we had our outbreak, I figured it out because I caught a beastie on my own head before going to bed!  I went downstairs and put coconut oil on my hair, focusing on the scalp. I could have used ANY oil, olive, canola oil etc...even a creamy thick conditioner, and it would have been fine.  Then I covered it with a shower cap and covered that with my twisty hair towel and went to bed. I was the ONLY one in the house with no live lice the next day. I washed my hair the next morning and DH wet combed it that night. I only had nits left after that. The heat might also help to kill them. Nits and lice need very specific temps to stay alive. Getting them even a little bit hotter than they can stand works very well. That is why nits are about 1/4 inch away from the scalp, it is the best temperature for them to develop. If you cut the hair shorter than that, they have to lay the nits too close to the scalp. It's to warm for them.

 

Lice breath through air holes and if you can cover those up with a thick coating of something oily it will smother them. You just need something thick and oily. There is nothing special about mayonnaise, it's what mayonnaise is made from: oil.

[FloridaLisa]

Well, lice went around our small co-op 2 years ago and apparently returned this year. The parents were really proactive at telling everyone up front as soon as it was found. We actually cancelled co-op for a week to shampoo carpets and let everyone get debugged (there were a couple of other things happening that day anyway that made it seem reasonable to cancel). We had it for the first time ever. I checked, didn't see anything and then a few weeks later .... bad case! My poor boy was scratching away in church and I about died. 

 

I think we went through the whole de-licing twice. I treated everyone -- all 6 kids then at home and myself. The 3 of us with long hair used a lot of the shampoo.

 

It's a menace!! So sorry you're dealing with it. And yes, it makes me so itchy!

 

Lisa

[redsquirrel]

Your experience jives with my mom's strongly held belief that the most important thing is getting rid of the nits...she did always recommend the shampoo too....I think because the thought of live lice is just so gross.  She was a public school teacher for 20 years or so and never caught them herself...but she has spent many an hour in the nurses office picking nits out of students hair because the parents wouldn't/couldn't whatever.  

 

Yeah, I don't like the idea of using pesticide on my kid, especially when so many of the lice have developed immunity to it.  It is always not good for my kid, and probably not harmful to the louse. My kid is the one it is more likely to harm. So, no pesticide for us. I don't care how gross the lice are, I'd still rather not use neurotoxins on my kid.

 

And the wet combing worked really well.

 

FWIW, my friend had a kid in the public school and he was the one who gave it to my son. Like so many have mentioned, his school seemed to have an intractable lice problem. My friend sort of halfheartedly tried a few things, claimed that the comb didn't work on her kid b/c his hair is so fine. But she was using it dry and not consistently and not washing his hair very often.  So, of course he had a never ending, low level infestation. When I told her what we had done, she changed her approach and he was lice free and stayed lice free.

[plansrme]

Anyone else having flashbacks to a previous thread on lice that got ridiculously heated, with the "it is a nuisance, not a sanitation issue" crowd turning it into a class warfare thing?

 

And also, there was a recent case of a toddler who died of suffocation after being put to bed in a shower cap/olive oil (or mayo?) treatment. Just a reminder not to use the shower cap on a sleeping kiddo.

[scoutingmom]

http://www.headliceinfo.com/

 

I love their video!  (Head Lice to Dead Lice)

[Scarlett]

Anyone else having flashbacks to a previous thread on lice that got ridiculously heated, with the "it is a nuisance, not a sanitation issue" crowd turning it into a class warfare thing?

 

 

 

Oh yes.  I've been on a few of those threads.  

 

I am trying to keep it focused on treatments that work.

[ksr5377]

I didn't read all the comments but did want to make sure it was mentioned that lice want CLEAN hair.  My mom always combed a small layer of mousse or hairspray into my hair when there was a lice outbreak and I never got them.

[redsquirrel]

Well, my friend's son is not known for his cleanliness and he is the one who gave my son lice. A grubby (but cute)  little boy can get lice and pass them on. He's the sort of kid who might have actual sticks or mud in his hair and not notice for days.

[TKDmom]

Well, my friend's son is not known for his cleanliness and he is the one who gave my son lice. A grubby (but cute) little boy can get lice and pass them on. He's the sort of kid who might have actual sticks or mud in his hair and not notice for days.

Yeah, my gel-coated hair should be immune...but they'll come to dirty hair if they get close enough.

 

And I'm with all of you that say nit-combing is the way to go. The first comb I got was in a Rid kit and it's awesome. I've gotten others with other products that just broke or rusted after a treatment. The first time I had to treat dd for lice, I spent 90 minutes combing. She was watching Scooby-Doo in the iPad, and I can't stand that show anymore. :lol:

 

Pillows have all been through the dryer. All the bedding has been sanitized. I did her laundry and I took the opportunity to bag up all the toys on her floor and tossed them in my closet. (I've been wanting to do that anyway in the name of minimalism and this was a good excuse). Now we have a clean-ish house and her room is decluttered. And the kids are rediscovering old toys in the clean room. Look at all these silver linings. :D

[umsami]

We faced this the last two years.  DD brought home lice maybe 5-6 times? I have very thick hair and actually had to shave my head bald.  No fooling.  Even saw a dermatologist, but that was his recommendation.  I should have spoken to the pediatrician first, because she probably would have given me the Rx stuff.

 

We changed schools.  Haven't had lice since.

 

Fairytales comb worked.  Using rosemary spray every day in hair did nothing to protect us.

 

Cut DD's hair into a bob...didn't help.

 

She usually infected her three brothers too, it was lovely.

 

Used to buy this foam stuff like the Fairytales that worked well.  Nix and Rid are pointless.

 

Cetaphil treatment worked too.

 

If she got it again, I'd probably just go for the Rx.  I think it's $80, but we spent far more on buying delousing stuff.

[Bluegoat]

One thing that strikes me is that I think the directions on the bottles of shampoo may actually mislead people.  They seem to give the impression that two applications of shampoo with little combing will do the job.

 

Has anyone tried the electric combs?

[Sarah CB]

One thing that strikes me is that I think the directions on the bottles of shampoo may actually mislead people.  They seem to give the impression that two applications of shampoo with little combing will do the job.

 

Has anyone tried the electric combs?

 

I tried an electric comb.  I don't think it was really effective.  I also tried shampoos with lots of combing and nit picking.  I really think the tea tree oil was a lot more effective than the shampoos.  

[scoutingmom]

 

Has anyone tried the electric combs?

 

Yes - I found it made my girls' hair very static-y so it made it hard to actually use.   And I didn't find it very effective..... not more effective then combing them out to begin with.  (which makes sense - the comb has to touch them for it to do anything, so it has to be very carefully combed through anyway.... although I guess it might in theory kill a few that would otherwise fall out of the comb while still in the hair?)

[*Lulu*]

We faced this the last two years. DD brought home lice maybe 5-6 times? I have very thick hair and actually had to shave my head bald. No fooling. Even saw a dermatologist, but that was his recommendation. I should have spoken to the pediatrician first, because she probably would have given me the Rx stuff.

 

We changed schools. Haven't had lice since.

 

Fairytales comb worked. Using rosemary spray every day in hair did nothing to protect us.

 

Cut DD's hair into a bob...didn't help.

 

She usually infected her three brothers too, it was lovely.

 

Used to buy this foam stuff like the Fairytales that worked well. Nix and Rid are pointless.

 

Cetaphil treatment worked too.

 

If she got it again, I'd probably just go for the Rx. I think it's $80, but we spent far more on buying delousing stuff.

We had them 6-7 times in the past year.

 

Each time we went long enough between outbreaks that I knew it wasn't just me missing some here. The fairy tales products did not work any better for me than just using coconut milk/conditioner and combing with a nit comb.

 

Daily for the first week.

 

Weekly after that.

 

I still do a combing once every 3-4 weeks. I am fully and totally paranoid at this point.

 

I agree with red squirrel, heat, combing, and quarantine of stuff are the most effective treatment.

 

(Don't forget bike helmets!)

[umsami]

One thing that strikes me is that I think the directions on the bottles of shampoo may actually mislead people.  They seem to give the impression that two applications of shampoo with little combing will do the job.

 

Has anyone tried the electric combs?

 

I had an electric comb.  Good if you have lots of live lice in the hair because it will electrocute/stun the little guys...if you happen to find them.  You do need something to dispose of them in (like a ziplock baggy you can seal, bowl of rubbing alcohol, bowl of hot soapy water, etc.)

 

Negatives....wider teeth than FairyTales comb, so pointless on nits.

 

Can only use on dry hair, which makes combing ineffective.

 

Basically, I wasted $30. 

[TKDmom]

We faced this the last two years. DD brought home lice maybe 5-6 times? I have very thick hair and actually had to shave my head bald. No fooling. Even saw a dermatologist, but that was his recommendation. I should have spoken to the pediatrician first, because she probably would have given me the Rx stuff.

:svengo: