Head lice help?

[Amy loves Bud]

My neighbor just called and three of her kids have head lice. We spend a lot of time together and Peyton has been complaining of an itchy head, though I haven't been able to see anything am suspicious.

 

We're headed for hair cuts today and to pick up a nit comb.

 

We're washing bedding in hot water and drying on hot.

 

Some questions:

 

I normally wash all our clothes in cold. Do I need to rewash in hotter water?

 

Have you tried mayonnaise? If so did it work? Apparently the lice shampoos aren't working anymore around here.

 

Any other things I'm missing?

 

Thanks!

[wulfbourne]

I don't know about mayo, but I believe Tea Tree oil is a more natural way to treat lice. They have TTO shampoo's that are typically used for dandruff, so you could try that. Or if you have any actual TTO you could probably add it to a regular shampoo.

 

Here is a link to Dr. Greene's article about head lice:

http://www.drgreene.com/21_640.html

[WagsWife]

A few years ago, my girls had a case of head lice...the kind of lice that would survive a nuclear bomb! None of the shampoos worked. The doctor told me that I was going to have to cut the girls (very long hair) to their ears. *I was prepared to do it...but my DH (who was in Iraq) and the girls were begging me not to, so I did A LOT of research on lice...this is what I can tell you.

 

First, lice can not live on anything but human hair for very long. One site said that the easiest thing to do, is to treat everyone with the shampoo...then go to a hotel for a few days, while the lice in the house die.

 

This would not have worked for me because the shampoo was not working. What I *did do is this:

 

I confined the girls playing and sleeping into a couple of bedrooms. They slept in my room because I had a bed big enough for all of them to sleep. They played in my middle daughters room where there was a game system to play, while I picked nits for SIX hours a day (more on that later.) The rest of the rooms I threw all the stuffed animals and such into, shut the doors, put a rolled up towel down at the bottom (just for good measure,) and forbade them to open the rooms on penalty of death, until a week after I knew we had the lice, on their head, under control.

 

I took the sheets on my bed off and replaced them with blankets that would be easy to pull off every morning and throw in the dryer. They do not need to be washed...45-60 mins in a hot dryer will kill them. I also pulled out 1 pair of pajamas, and about 2 play outfits each. I would throw the pajamas in the dryer with the blankets in the morning, and wash the clothes at night after they got ready for bed.

 

Each morning I would vacuum the bed down...and at night vacuum the couches. That is all I did for "cleaning" so to speak. A lot of people tell you to wash everything in the house and to bag up clothes and linens, but that is work that you do not need to do, if you are able to confine things to rooms and not use them.

 

Now, as to the mayo...*I would not use it, I would use olive oil instead. Lice can hold their breath for hours...so the best way to do treatment is to have the kids sleep with it on their heads at night, and wash it out in the morning. In my reading, I heard a lot about sour mayo :(

 

I saturated the girls hair in olive oil every night, then put them to bed in a shower cap. I would then wash their hair out every morning (it was not has hard as I thought to get the oil out) and rinse with vinegar which makes the nits easier to pull off. After that I would then sit them down and start going through hair to pick nits. The mayo/oil will not kill the nits!! You have to pick them out. Because I was afraid of missing nits that would hatch, I used the oil every night for about 4-5 days, then every other night for about 2 weeks. I looked for nits every day...keep a glass of water next to you, and put the nits in it...this way you know they are not falling on the floor.

 

If you have any other questions, let me know...I know WAY to much about lice :/

[Zoraida]

Yes mayo does work. Get a couple of large bottles and generously lather hair with mayo. Take saran wrap and wrap around head or use a cheap shower cap leave on for about an hour. Than take your nit come and go through hair. You might need to do this at least twice. Last, shampoo hair using regular shampoo.

 

This is a tip that my hair dresser gave when my youngest sons little league team all contacted lice at the same time. They were all sharing the same helmet. Yuck!

 

Blessings

 

Zoraida

[Rosie_0801]

Olive oil and coconut oil can dissolve their exoskeletons. It doesn't have a 100% reliability rate, however. Buy the expensive metal nit combs. They are better than the plastic by a long shot.

 

Rosie

[Melissa in Australia]

when my children got nits from their cousins. I used conditioner. we put the conditioner in their hair very thickly at night. left it in all night and then fine combed it out in the morning. we looked at t he nits under the microscope and discovered to our horror that the conditioner doesn't kill the nits but just renders them unconscious for a few hours. "THEY CAME ALIVE AGAIN" but the conditioner did stop them clinging to the hair so they could be fine combed out. we did this every day for 2 weeks, always looking at the lice under the microscope. after 2 days we had all the adult lice out and about 8 days later we started to find the baby ones as they hatched. we kept at it until we found no more.

I also washed bedding and line dried the bedding. I also put the mattresses out in the sun every day.

[rafiki]

.

[KLynnTX]

http://www.safe2use.com/licergone/index.htm

That is LiceRGone, and it is FABULOUS. Seriously, go read about it. A local health store may even carry it. If not, it's worth it to buy it online. Non toxic, works like a charm. I learned about it on these boards, and it worked when nothing else did, and I can say I'm not worried about lice anymore. BTW my dd has waist length blond hair. So, when we had lice it was a major pain in the butt.

 

Thing number 2 I wish someone had told me: DO NOT smother your child's hair in Vaseline. It is next to impossible to get out. If you choose to go a similar route, do mayo or something, but please do not do vaseline. It took weeks to wear all that greasy look out of her hair. And that was after washing it with everything. under. the. sun.

 

Another suggestion, is after picking the nits out, which you really should do.....when that is done, run a flat iron over all of her hair. (If the child has long hair). I really think this was a great idea. There might be a few eggs left, but they'll be fried eggs.

 

Good luck, I hate lice, but since using the LiceRGone, I don't worry about getting it, seriously go look around at their website, and read about it. They have people that answer a toll free phone line, that are extremely helpful.

 

HTH,

K.

[dalynnrmc]

when my children got nits from their cousins. I used conditioner. we put the conditioner in their hair very thickly at night. left it in all night and then fine combed it out in the morning. we looked at t he nits under the microscope and discovered to our horror that the conditioner doesn't kill the nits but just renders them unconscious for a few hours. "THEY CAME ALIVE AGAIN" but the conditioner did stop them clinging to the hair so they could be fine combed out. we did this every day for 2 weeks, always looking at the lice under the microscope. after 2 days we had all the adult lice out and about 8 days later we started to find the baby ones as they hatched. we kept at it until we found no more.

I also washed bedding and line dried the bedding. I also put the mattresses out in the sun every day.

 

 

Whatever you do, you MUST go through the hair and get the nits out with a fine-toothed comb! The one that comes with the RID is the one we found to be the best back when our family had it horribly. (This was when *I* was in high school - so about 12 years ago. I have long, long hair....) If you don't go through and get the nits out, they will just continue to hatch and breed.

 

Also, please do not go out and 'get' a haircut - do it at home if that's what you're going to do. For a professional barber/cosmotologist, it is actually against health department regulations for them to service you. Technically, if they figure out someone with lice was in their shop, they're supposed to SHUT DOWN and sterilize EVERYTHING whether it was touched or not. (I have an aunt who is a cosmotologist and has been all my life, as well as a sister currently in school for it. I promise you I'm not exaggerating this! My aunt took off of work for almost a week to help us get rid of it years ago....)

 

 

Anyway. Lysol everything, wash as much as you can in bleach and sterilize the rest. Boil the brushes and combs, and please take care of the nits! They are tiny, almost look like dandruff, but when they're still alive they cling to the hair. (This is what you look for to see if a person has lice, not the bugs themselves. Finding the actual bugs is actually pretty hard to do.)

[KLynnTX]

Yes, you'd better not take them to get their hair cut. But, if you have clippers, and they don't mind getting a buzz cut, that is the best way to rid them of the lice!! Clearly girls won't go for this, but you have boys, right?

 

eta: If you don't see any nits yet, then I'd say it would be ok to get a haircut! Sometimes, just mentioning the word lice makes me itch, so that doesn't mean they actually have lice. Look at hair, and if there are no nits, then a haircut is actually a great idea, and the shorter the better.

Edited March 26, 2009 by KLynnTX

[phathui5]

We were told to use shampoo with tea tree oil in it to ward them off.

[joannqn]

we looked at t he nits under the microscope

 

:lol: LOL Only a homeschooler would do this! Classic!

 

I have nothing to add to this discussion as I have never had to deal with lice. Despite there being huge outbreaks at my elementary school (I remember daily head checks in class), I never got them. My kids haven't had them either....so far. I'm glad I haven't had to deal with it.

[Amy loves Bud]

Wow! What a day. There are six families that are very close her in our neighborhood. They were all here the night before last for Bud's birthday. Twelve adults and 15 kids. Plus there was a lot of going from house to house during spring break.

 

So far, 7 kids and 1 adult have lice. But we're all getting treated to be on the safe side.

 

And let me tell you, it is way more fun to have friends to sit on the front porch and nitpick with than it would be to nitpick alone!

 

Thanks for all of the advice. I hope we've got all the little buggers. We'll see.

 

ETA: I was not sure about the haircut and asked them. Their eyes got really big :scared:as they walked us to the door. I hacked off Peyton's hair to a cute little bob. I'll get it professionally tidied over the weekend. Luke doesn't have any lice, but he's getting a cut, too.

Edited March 26, 2009 by Amy loves Bud

[Nicole not in CA]

I second the Lice R Gone. It is really good stuff. I also heard about it here on the boards. You can do a search for lice and find more posts about it. I think Camy initially recommended it. We've had a couple bouts of lice, and it took a long time to get rid of it with the olive oil or mayonnaise treatments. Plus it was hours upon hours of combing for nits, which is such a pain. With Lice R Gone we only used it twice and combed for nits twice and then it was gone.

[SherryTX]

Good times. Not!

11 year old said her head was itching - we had it three years ago - so I immediately checked. Her head was FULL of nits! I am doing the same thing that we did three years ago that got rid of them really well:

1. Wash their hair with a mixture of baby shampoo, tea tree oil and olive oil. Put a shower cap on their heads with the mixture and let it sit for at least an hour. This will smother and kill any lice.

2. Use a metal lice comb to remove the nits. Its true - if you don't remove the nits, it will just keep coming back!

3. All the stuffed animals in their room are in tightly seal trash bags - and will stay in there for about 10 to 14 days. Lice do not live for more than a few days without humans to feed off of - so if there are any nits on them that hatch, they will be dead by the time we pull them out.

4. Washing all the bedding and clothes they have had contact with in the last few days (actually we are playing it safe and washing ALL the bedding!) it hot water and then in the hot dryer. (I am heading out to the laundry mat to wash the bedding that the girls haven't had in their room because there is so much!)

5. Removing the couch covers and washing those as well at home.

6. Later today, I will be spraying a few chairs in the house and all the seats in both cars.

7. Vacuuming the mattresses.

8. All the girls will be sleeping in the living room for the next few days. I will be vacuuming the living room as well. Remember - you could actually treat everyone and leave your house for 3 to 5 days and they will die. I just don't have the time or money for that, so that isn't an option.

 

You may have noticed the ONLY pesticide products I am using is the spray for the chairs and car seats. This is because pesticides in the shampoos like RID is dangerous for kids. Also, my Aspie is extremely sensitive to smells, and RID reeks! It also isn't good for really anyone to breath in - and since I have asthma and I am in charge of treating everyone's hair, I don't want to deal with it.

 

This method worked very well for us 3 years ago.

 

What a pain in the neck though. I did let the school know (only one is home schooled). I just hope my 11 year old's moron teacher doesn't tell the kids it is her. Usually the school sends out a generic note home with every student in the school. However, he is very immature and is known for blurting things out he shouldn't.

 

I am just checking email and things online while taking a break from the lice drama. Sigh. I figured I would check here and see what other people have done. The good thing is that my other kids (besides the 11 year old) either have no nits or lice, or else I only found a couple of lice and NO nits, so hopefully this won't be as intensive (hours with a nit comb) as it was last time.

 

Good times! Not.

[stripe]

I got them out with oil alone, no chemicals, with combing. Yes, your hair will be really greasy hair but it works, combined with regular combing, and shampooing with cheap shampoo (as I wasn't going to waste so much of the good stuff on getting out the oil). Oil suffocates the lice. I think mayonnaise works for the same reason, but it has a more distinctive odor. BTW if you have trouble finding a comb, you can get the kind for pets. (!!)

[Kate CA]

Well, I will tell you the *only* thing that works to kill both the bugs and the nits - gobs of vaseline on the hair in a showercap for 8 full hours. You will then have to comb out the vaseline with a regular comb - no nit combs with this method and no nit picking. Then you wash the hair multiple times with Dawn Dishwashing liquid. It leaves you with oily hair for a while, but it worked in one fell swoop. No picking nits, no worrying about it reoccurring. We washed, heat dried, or bagged toys and blankets we would not be using and vacuumed every day for a week. It was easier to bag it for two weeks than wash/heat dry it all. I am sorry you have it. It was not fun. A friend with boys shaved their heads. It made it very easy on them!

[Karen sn]

EASY.

Step one: mayo to the head, wrap in plastic shopping bag at least 5 hours, preferably overnight. This kills all living bugs. (Eggs are another story).

 

Step two: all kids stuff in bags for 2 weeks. (Stuffed animals, pillows, ...)

 

3:Comb like a mad woman everyday all day long and it will be GONE in a week.

 

KEEP HAIR UP.

For your own good, as well as that of others, section hair and twist into bobby pins against the scalp. Wear a scarf or plastic bag over head. Every few hours - go outside where the sun is really good - and you go through each section of hair. Un do it - comb through it, use your fingernails!!!!! and get the hard ones off......twist the hair and pin it to scalp.

 

You can see them shine in the sun - so do it outside. Throw them on the ground - they'll hatch and die - they have to be born on a host to live.

 

You have to keep up with it AFTER the initial mayonnaise killing of the original bugs.

Those eggs hatch fast! They lay even faster!!!!!!!!

 

I only ever mayo'd the hair at the onset of Tx but you can do it more if needed. Washing it all out is work.

Mayo suffocates them. But they can hold their breath a long time......

 

The hot water is irrelevant - the dryer is important.

Stuff needs to really be dry. And when dry - run the dryer a bit more.

 

Good luck. It's a lot of work, but the picking through their hair with fingernails is actually meditative.

You get in a groove and focus on those shiny little eggs....grab it, slide it all the way down the hair....fling it to the ground. And focus...and grap....and slide....and flick. And focus....and grab....

 

AND TELL PEOPLE so they can look at their kids and nip it in the bud.

I never ONCE gave it to anyone.

Dd had it twice. Never did I get it, never did another kid.....

You fess up, you let everyone know, you get rid of it.

No big deal.

Edited April 21, 2009 by Karen sn

[SherryTX]

My 13 year old was on the phone with her best friend - she came in and asked me if she could tell her - I had already contact the school, but I said yes, even though you weren't over there for a while it is a good idea.

 

Then she gets off the phone and told me that THEY had it about a few weeks ago. :glare: That doesn't mean they were the source of course, but I have to admit I was a wee bit irritated they didn't say anything since our kids hang out constantly. Ah well.