Head lice....now what do we do??

[kfeusse]

My daughter has head lice.  The last 2 nights I put olive oil in her hair.  She washed it out in the morning.  I bought the terminator nit comb and it came in the mail today...so we just finished combing through her hair.  I hope I did it right and well enough. How does one really know?  It took us about 1 1/2 hours...but she has long, thick hair. 

So what do I do next?  I am sure this isn't the end of it, right??  

My other question is, if the oil is supposed to kill all of the lice and eggs, why will it come back if we don't take all of the eggs out of her hair?  

Thanks.

[Pen]

I don’t know answer about oil and eggs, but people I know who have had to deal with lice had to deal with bedding, stuffed animals, clothing... every where lice eggs could have fallen , sort of like fleas: lots of vacuuming, lots of laundry in hot water. Freezing pillows and stuffed toys or tumbling them in hot dryer ...

[kfeusse]

oh, we did all of that too...I was just talking about what to do with her head.

[catz]

There has been a thread on the last couple days search back a little.  

[kiwik]

Olive oil does not kill either nits or eggs.  You need to use something that actually works.

[catz]

Honestly almost nothing definitively kills nits or adult lice over the counter.   A metal nit comb, conditioner and a combing schedule through a few weeks is what worked here.

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

[Terabith]

We have gone through this a couple times.  You have two options.  1)  You buy and use the prescription shampoo.  Not the stuff sold over the counter.  That's worthless.  You get the stuff that requires a doctor's prescription and you use it according to the directions.  You get a steel comb and you do thorough combing every night for at least two weeks.  

2) If your town has a "lice lady," you go to him/ her, and they do thorough combing and that pretty much is the end of it.  You still will need to do follow up combing, but not nearly as much of an issue.  

You bag up pillows and stuffed animals for a few days.  You wash bedding on hot water.  

[LucyStoner]

Just keep combing.   There's no such thing as too much combing.  

https://www.consumerreports.org/medical-conditions/preventing-and-treating-head-lice/

[LucyStoner]

53 minutes ago, Terabith said:

 

You bag up pillows and stuffed animals for a few days.  You wash bedding on hot water.  

 

 

2 weeks/14 days for bagging stuff up.  That gets the full cycle.  

[gaillardia]

After lots of kids and never any problems, not even when I was a kid, our two young teens had lice. It was very upsetting, so if you feel that way, you are not alone. We did use over the counter lice shampoo but I don't remember what it was called. I laboriously nit picked over their hair every day. It took two hours for the one because she has such thick hair. The other one had long hair so she got a hair cut, sadly, by me. ? We got through it without anyone else in the household getting lice. It didn't take forever but it seemed like it. 

Good luck.