Help head lice!!!

[nv2kenu]

I would suggest putting tea tree oil in your shampoo as a prevention. Our family has done this, as well as others in the family, and friends. Even with outbreaks within class/school, none of our kids ever got it. Also, as everyone else stated...wash all you can in hot water, or place in dryer on hot setting, and vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. And don't forget to empty cannister/remove bag when done and dispose of outside. You don't want those buggers crawling back out.

Good luck to you!

Natasha

 

[rathbone]

Just remember they only live about 24 hours without a food source. Sometimes I would just hang things outside for a couple of days to sanitize them. And if the item isn't actually dirty you don't have to wash it. You can just throw it in the dryer. It is the heat that kills them, not the washing action.
Also don't bother with trying to "smother" them by putting baby oil or Vaseline in your child's hair. It doesn't deter them one bit.
And as soon as you realize you have gotten rid of them, you need to mark the day on the calendar and then continue rigorously checking your child's hair for another two weeks. Many people think they "contracted lice again" when actually some remaining eggs hatched and they had in reality not been completely rid of the nits.

 

[AmericanHomesteader]

Dang my head is itching just reading this!!!!

 

[rathbone]

I wanted to add one thing: DONT use those sprays for the furniture. Not that it will hurt the furniture but rather, you are spraying a dangerous chemical on your furniture. It then dries into a fine dust. Your child breathes it in. At the very least, the spray can cause serious asthma symptoms. On the more serious end of the spectrum, it can cause convulsions and death.

 

[whaTType]

I agree. I hate public school systems for that reason. DD kept getting them, and teachers kept doing head checks, EVEN the school nurse

 

[Red Diamond Ranch]

A simple, safe and inexpensive solution is to get a big jar of hair styling gel from the Dollar Store. Use plenty of it to saturate the hair and then blow dry it till it's dry. Leave it on for 15 - 20 minutes after it's dry, then wash it out with your favorite shampone session and the critters are gone. With children you can have fun shaping hairdo's before blow drying. This really works! We've used this method on our children when they were young and they had fun making spiked hairdo's. It relieves the fear and stress also.
Laundering the bedding and clothing is of course common sense.

Children get these little critters mostly at their school.

 

[rhoda_bruce]

You can buy the OTC stuff or you can get the MD to prescribe Kwell or you can get flea and tick shampoo.....they all work just as good. I worked for a pediatrician and we saw it all the time. But regardless, its more than just washing the kids head. You must go through the whole head and pick out each nit and pop them. If you think you treated and thats the end of the matter, you are in for a disappointment. You actually don't even need to treat if you just grab a comb and start looking, but some of those bugs are fast and you might catch it yourself.
As a preventative, you might want to spray a light coat of hairspray before sending your child to school. Pony tails are nice, especially if you spray it down. Boys can get a nice part, with partially wet hair, so they look styling and then get a little spray. Heads with spray seem to be ignored.
When my oldest was in the 4th grade, the school had a real lice problem. I kept calling and complaining that they needed to check every child in the class because I was sick of picking nits out every other week. I finally got fed up and told my kids the only shampoo they could use was dog shampoo, until summer vacation. We pretty much kept killing the lice as they entered the house. Thank God they solved that problem. Thats one thing nice about homeschooling.
Please be advised, it hurts little girls to have a short tempered mom going through their hair, with a comb, pulling and pulling on each strand of hair to get each nit out. May as well find a cute, mid length haircut for them. One little girl went to school with her hair so chopped up and ugly, that I was tempted to call OCS and ask them to please investigate what is going on in that house. But thats another story.

 

[the funny farm6]

When my kids were in grade school they got them a few times. We first used the stuff you buy at the store but they were still alive after following directions. So we looked for other options and found the best way to treat them was cheap conditioner put fairly thickly on the hair at night and then put a shower cap on overnight then wash hair very well in the morning and wash or put all bed clothes in the dryer, and vacume anything that can't be put in the dryer. Repeat as nessisary.

I have also heard that you can spray lysol on your furniture and matresses.

We haven't had this problem since the youngest kids entered high school.

My sister told me wal mart is selling something that is chemical free, haven't checked but might want to check it out.

 

[hqueen13]

Dragging this old one out, cause, well, I have lice Have NO idea where they came from... except possibly the dog. He's getting treated this weekend to a bath with LOTS of additives!

My head was itching, and it took me a long time to figure out it was lice But now that I know, I'm doing MORE to take to take care of it. The interesting thing is that we combed through my hair last night and only found 4 actual bugs (EEEE!!! ) and no nits, though I know they're super hard to find, and I have very long hair.

My normal shower routine doesn't include shampoo or conditioner, but instead baking soda and vinegar as a rinse. I believe that this helped keep it from getting worse and worse on its own. Wednesday when I showered I added Eucalyptus, Tea Tree, and an essential oil blend called Theives to my baking soda before adding water to the container to mix it up. The itching was greatly relieved that day, and then I repeated the process again yesterday. Tonight when I shower I will increase the vinegar ratio (I usually use 1 oz of vinegar and fill up the rest of the 8 oz bottle with water to rinse my hair) and leave it in instead of completely washing it out.

ALL the bedding and linens and everything will get either washed and/or put into the dryer today as well.

NEVER had to deal with this, even when growing up, even though we were always sent home from school with papers on lice and stuff.

Tomorrow the dogs are getting soaked in the bath with Dynapro (a liquid probiotic that helps tremendously with skin issues when used externally), vinegar, and probably baking soda mixed with the essential oils to help suspend them in the bath water better.

WHEW! NOT fun! Hopefully all of this will take care of this issue QUICK... Not cool at all!

 

[Emerald]

My daughter brought them home from high school once-the whole cheerleading squad came down with them! We went the poison route then but really regretted it as it caused me to have a reaction. For follow up my dr recommended mayonnaise. Lucky for us tho she was at summer camp and we didn't have to deal with our house just the stuff in the duffle bag-they told us when we picked her up and we went directly to the laundry mat and washed and dried all her stuff there on their hottest machine. The camp sent the nit shampoo home with each girl.
But with the mayo you just use about 1/2 cup to a whole cup (depends on the amount or thickness of head of hair) you smear it on thick and then wrap plastic wrap round the head for two hours or as long as you can stand to have it on. Wash it out and then comb comb comb for the nits. We did it each night for her for 5 days after the first chemical one. It did work but I think anything that will smother the little boogers and the close attention to combing and checking a few times a day really is the main thing to getting rid of them.
On her bedding (even tho we washed everything before bringing her home to the house) we used our old stash of towels(you know the ones the ones too worn to use in the bathroom but are too nice to just toss so they get the odd jobs haha.. like hair dying or sicky clean up or even washing the cat haha) and I put one on her pillow each night and then it went in a plastic bag till laundry day.
It was the only time we had them but my brothers Ex tends to send my niece to her dads with them at least 8 to 9 times a year! She knows that my little brother will not only take care of my little niece but then buys enuf stuff for their whole gross family as he knows that they won't bother for themselves and it will only keep coming back to us.. it doesn't help that my niece has really thick nice hair and it is a 3 hour job going thru and combing and cleaning her..
I also gave my brother some DE and while I honestly don't know if it helps we sprinkled some in her clothing in big garbage bags and let it sit for the weekend each time and then wash it all. At least my bro and his daughter don't have the same allergies to certain chemicals that I do.
But now I'm itchy too..
Here is hoping you get rid of your new friends quickly and easily!

OH and if you can see if you can find the episode on Dirty Jobs about head lice. it had some really good information and techniques on combing. I'd bet it might be on youtube.