Can't get rid of LICE! HELP!!!!!

[imcrazy2]

My 3 and a half year old has been battling lice for 6 MONTHS.  We have tried RID, NIX, olive oil, Licefreee, nit-picking by hand (HA, HA, she's 3--she won't even sit still for 5 mins, let alone an hour to go through every strand of hair!!.  Every time I think they are gone, they show back up again.  My other kids are clear, and DH insists he can't find any on me (thought I'm awfully itchy--could be psychological).  Doc is not helpful, says the prescriptions available are not good for kids, (fine, but....)offers no other options, just says to pick them out by hand.  I have plastic on everything, change bedding, bagged up stuffed toys.
I finally got fed up and did a no-no--I double dosed her with RID, and then Nix in one day.  When I went to comb and pick nits, I found several LIVE lice!!!!!!  I realize now that they are resistant mutants, and the chemicals aren't working, so there is no point in continuing to expose her to the chemicals, but what can I do????  I am at my wits end, and she announces to EVERYBODY that she has "buggies" in her hair, as she scratches away.  I am MORTIFIED, and want them GONE.  Any suggestions would be appreciated!!!!!  Thank You!

[amythist2779]

OMG I am not alone in this. I have an 11 yr old son that has them,we get rid of them and it seems like they come right back within a week or two. I have tried about everything too. I have tried the RID, NIX, LICEICE, I tried vegetable oil with a bag over the head for 2 hours to try to suffocate them, someone even told me to put mayonayse in the hair and then cover the head with a plastic bag for a couple of hours and this would take care of it. Well the mayo thing works the best for the time being. My son hates it, and so do I, I mean its just so messy and gross, but I dont know what else to do. I have even tried the prescription shampoo that the pharmacies have. No luck.

Now my youngest son is 6 and he does not have the lice, neither does my husband or I. It is only the 11 yr old who keeps on getting it. I am also to my wits end. I dont know what to do. I got so desperate awhile back I was doing some research on the net and there is a medication that the doctors can give to people that have tried everything else. It is some kind of pill medication though. I will have to go look it up again and let you know what it is so that you can ask your doc about it.

I feel for you hun. It is so embarrassing, but what can you do? I mean really, I have boys, so I cut their hair a little bit shorter if they get lice so that its easier, so I thought, to get out. But you poor thing its not like you can go and buzz your daughters head without everyone knowing.

I will try to find that information again and get back to you on this post ok. Hang in there, and hey if you havent tried the mayo thing...give it a shot. You really have to make sure you get it really saturated though, im talking like globs and globs sitting on the scalp and rubbed into the scalp...and it is a pain in the rear to wash out.

Its just no fun, no matter how you look at it, but it may work. But like I said saturate the hair and scalp with mayo then pile the hair on top of the head, put a plastic bag over her head, i use the bags that the grocery stores give you, I put it on the head cover the tips of the ears with the bag, gather it at the nape of the neck and use a rubberband, or a clippy to hold it into place. Keep the bag on her head for atleast 2 hours, so that it hopefully smothers the lice.

If you try this I hope it works for you, and good luck. Let me know if you decide to try it and if it works for you or not.

Oh one more thing...after you comb through the wet hair and get out all the dead lice and nits that you can, blow dry her hair, especially scalp for as long as she will let you. The hot air will help kill any remaining lice or nits...or its supposed to anyways.

Again, lemme know how it goes... and good luck!!
Aurora

[DelilahM]

I guess you can not do this to a 3 year old but you certainly could to an older child. These are new drug resistant lice. My teen got them after a sleep over in her super thick waist length hair. We did ALL OF THE SUGGESTIONS HERE, over and over. Spent hours on end combing her hair. My mom told me to put a color on her hair and that would kill them. We got three box colors--so much hair--matched as close as we could to her natural hair, colored according to the directions, and never saw another nit or louse. I told a friend who was battling with her 12 year old daughters lice for three months what we had done. She immediately bought a box color matching her daughters hair, used it, and it worked. Another friend used it, kinda funny her teen had been wanting to go red red, so she let her...happy teen and no more lice. As I said you can not do this to a 3 year old but wanted to share with those having older kids. Good luck, my heart hurts for you. It is such a struggle but you should not feel badly. It is not your fault.

[harrassedmother]

Glad to see others are also obssessed with head lice! with 3 daughters, I have a wealth of experience I'd like to share!
First of all, I haven't found any of the chemical treatments and shampoos any good, and besides I was never happy at pouring insecticides over the kids heads.
I have been told there is a new thing out that suffucates them which works well, sounds like a version of mayonaise/vasaline idea!
I'm afraid the only way i have found to get rid of them is combing with conditioner which stops them holding on! comb and comb, using the very narrow tooth ones made for the job. make sure you wipe the comb clean after each comb.
when you are happy the head is clear, do everyone else on the same day. Then do everyone the next day. then the next. If everyone is clear wait for 2-3 days and repeat. then do it again in 2-3 days! if all clear prevention is now essential. Tea tree is great for this. shampoo is ok but i find 1-2 drops of essential oil  mixed into a bowl of water and combed through works well.be very careful not to use too much,its strong stuff. after washing the hair towel dry vigorously,if any have got back on the head, this breaks their legs and they drop out. then as mentioned before, use the hairdyer, hot as possible next to the scalp. tying the hair back makes it easier for them to climb aboard!If your child is restless we find doing the combing in front of a dvd helps with the boredom. Once I was combing my youngests hair dry and the lice mustof been flying around. a little while later I looked down at my white top and there were 10-15 lice crawling up towards my hair, I think they can sniff it out!
good luck! by the way if you have a boy, apparently  they do not go anywhere them once puberty starts, sadly not true for girls.      

[suzyqx3]

OH WOW!!! I could have written these post on here my self...I am at my wits end right now with my 9 year old daughter. And like you others oddly enough she is the only one. The first case appeared this summer, then again about 2 weeks ago and sure enough again tonight!! I have done it all too, chemicals, olive oil, mayo and tea tree oil.... AAUUGGGHH! The mayo and the olive oil seem to be the most effective. The best thing about those is that the nits slide right off the hair shatf....
I AM SO OVER THIS!! We cut 7 inches off my daughters beautiful thick hair, I cried, she loved it. But now its back again!! My husband is deployed and I want to cry...thanks for letting me vent...I do feel better knowing I am not alone!

[kk2]

OK now I know why God led me to this forum tonight. I am on the weight loss forum day in and day out every day since last June, but I have never checked out any of the others until tonight!

My daughters and I fought the lice battle last winter and I remember what you guys are feeling. I found the answer on the Internet in a very simple affordable product called Nitmix. It is an oil. Its a little bit messy but it does not leave the hair oily, in fact you can get a spray or rinse to use every day as a preventative and people say it makes your hair shiny and smell great. The really amazing thing about the oil is that it doesn't kill the lice. So you think " well it doesn't work then." But it does! Its so oily they cannot hang on and you just comb them right out. Whatever you don't get the first day you probably will the next, and that's eggs too so you don't have to worry about them hatching seven days later. We used the stuff once and never had a problem again. It was a miracle for us. Just google Nitmix and you will probably find it, if not, let me know and I will see if I still have any of their info.

[Nikkihaskins]

I am 24 years old and have 3 half siblings 7 10 and 11 years younger then me.  Because of head lice I was not allowed to visit my father or my brother and sisters.  When ever I went there I would catch them and my mom would freak out. I love my other family very much and head lice or not mother could not keep me from them.  I swear they had them for years but no one would talk about it.  I felt horrable for them because no one was allowed to play with them becuase of the lice in school my sister told me they were known as the head lice family.  Ever time a check was done they would be sent home.  My stepmother tried everything that was mentioned above and still years later they have it.  My brother doesn't have it all the time because he will shave his head himself.  They are Muntant Lice.  The kids had it for so long that they did not think twice about useing peoples brushes lying on peoples bed etc.  It would upset me because I didn't want to treat them the way every one else did.  So I would hide brushes ask them to only sit in the living room and vacum after they left.  I know have a 5 yrold daughter who loves her aunties and uncle very much.  But I could not live like this anymore.  School was starting in a fw weeks and I started to panick.  I heard that hair die would kill them.  So me and my daughter both got new hair colors then we piled hair grease on our heads and put bags over them.  The next day we had showers and the bugs FALL OUT.  I could not beleive it all the years I struggled with this as a kid my self they FALL OUT.  For the next week every day we combed every strand of hair on my daughters head then my own.  Never had them since.  I beleive not does it kill them but the bugs to not like you hair after you do it either.  They only thing is that my daughter has not seen her aunties or uncle or grandfather since school began this year.  How should I handle this?  I don't know what to say to my siblings or father.  

[babeth]

Did anyone looked for Nit pickers, they are all over the US, like Lice Source Services & Lice Cleanique in Florida, they have clinics for you to go to or also offer house calls.
Even so they are obvious fees  to have someone remove nits for 2 hrs, it is probably nothing compare to how much you already have spent trying on your own. They work with needed families & educate individuals as well. Looking for a specialist in your area is the way to go.

[Jewel08]

Oh Boy that time again Head Lice .. when my neice gets head lice from school she calls me the professional nit picker every time to go through her hair  .. yes they do offer services in areas to clean you child out for a fee .. it is a lot of hard work to get them out of a small child that does not like to sit still for you to do it by hand.  Yes the RID , NIX do not work that well but PRONTO seems to work better then these too but my niece not only has me pick her clean but she keeps the shampoo  ( Pronto) on hand during head lice season and another thing that might help you is trying a small drop of Tea Tree oil on the scalp after they are clean the lice tend not to like the taste of the scalp treated with this oil during the Head lice season..

I have also had my neice after treating her and picking her clean have her put lots of conditioner on her head .... with a plastic bag on the head and this causes any live ones  babies that might hatch if you missed any (nits) to come to the surface becasue the conditioner keeps the lice from being able to get ahold of the scalp .. this is how I found them in my head one time when I caught them .. thought I had dry scalp during the winter and it turned out I had head lice.. I left the conditioner in and was brushing through my hair with the conditioner still in my hair and found lice in my brush .. boy was I shocked..

Conditioner is not going to hurt or harm your childs head  this way you can periodically check by leaving conditioner on her under a bag  to make sure she doesnt have any new hatches if you missed any nits ... hope this might help you

[Jewel08]

I dont know if I would put straight kerosense on a childs head even if it does get rid of them because if this burns the childs scalp it could be considered child abuse have you ever read the label on the Kerosene bottle ?   Using on yourself as an adult even ( I have done this to myself in the past ) but mixed it in shampoo never put it on full strength ..  putting it on full strength =  possible consequenses if you burn the child or it gets into their eyes because it is dangerous to use this chemical for a use not intended... I would never put this full strength on my daughter or son and they are both 9 at the moment .. and prime targets during head lice season ..

[primalmom]

Mayo will work. Lice can hold their breath for 8 hours. So putting mayo or olive oil will not work if you put it on for a couple of hours. You must have it on LONGER than 8 hours. Now, I will say the olive oil way works but you must stay on top of it.. olive oil night #1, night #2, night #5, #9, and every 4th night for 21 days.

Mayo.. do not do at night. Leaving on a child while sleeping risks the child getting salmonella. Do it early am (6am? 7am?) and leave on until at least 9 hours have passed. Comb through while the may is in the hair (out in the sunlight is best so that you can see the nits and aren't reinfesting the house.) Wash out by putting a shampoo for oily hair DIRECTLY on the hair with NO water. Massage in.. add a little water to suds it up. Rinse. Repeat. I rinse with vinegar too.

They WILL suffocate or at least slow down enough to get them out. Depending on severity.. you may have to do it the next day as well.

[Bellix]

I didn't read the whole blog, but I totally understand not being able to pick the nits out of a three year old girl's hair. It was such a frustrating situation, I was out of work for a week the first time, and 3 days a couple of weeks later because of course we can't have one single nit in her hair. Here's what I did. I started with the rid, and what do you know, I pulled live and dead lice out of her hair. I was amazed that the buggers survived the chemicals. So, here's the real trick my dear...
1. Get some cetaphyl, it's the not soap stuff that you wash your face with, very gentle and easy with no nasty harsh chemicals. DOUSE the hair with it, and start blow drying... What we're going here for is a friggin CRUST of cetaphyl, so you'll have to put more in, and dry, and more... but you can sculpt her hair into all kinds of cool configurations while you're at it and turn it into a little game. Once you get all the hair up top in a nice little crusty helmet, slather some more on there, bag it, and put her to bed for the night. It's not greasy or grimy like the mayo treatment. The cetaphyl should suffocate the nasty little things.
2. In the morning, or as late into the afternoon as you can stand it, go for a rinse. You might still fine a few live ones but I've got that covered too.
3. Once her hair is dry, start making random parts in the hair and use a cotton swab to wipe tea tree oil on her head. This is the best part, I think they even abandon ship at this point, I didn't find a single live louse on my daughter's head the next day.
4. Put the tea tree oil on the head every day for about a week, keep it up, my understanding is that any that do happen to hatch quickly jump off onto your rug and die in a few hours.
5. I added tea tree oil to the bottle of shampoo the family was using, you don't need a ton, just enough to make it a little stinky. The smell got covered up with our conditioners, hairsprays, etc so nobody really noticed.

This was really easy on my family, especially after the nitpicking episode my daughter and I had to sit through. I only had to do it once. Hope it works!

[HazelLynn]

Hi, I have four children, three of them girls with waist long hair - they caught nits, we bought HEADRIN, NIX, TEATREE, LAVENDER, and many many other concoctions - and none of them worked, I spent hours and hours combing through, then I had an idea of soaking their hair in baby oil, I left it for a few hours and then combed through, and continued combing through and through.  I left the oil in all night and day and combed and combed, then washed it out by putting shampoo in first without water - to lift the oil and shampooed normally.  I repeated this every few days and found that there were no eggs and no nits.  We had wasted a fortune on this remedies, we had them imported if we couldnt buy them here - what a waste of money.   If you try this, please let me know if you are succesful. It smells nice and leaves the hair in lovely condition too.  GOOD LUCK!

[romanorick]

the reason i have the lice removal center is just that my own kids are worst for me but good for everyone else,so same principal kids sit and be good for me at the center,where normally they wouldnt sit still at home....p.s im gonna check in to your guys sugggestion on the oil

[Rachelinpain]

i have 2 children who are adopted...they came into foster care to us covered in lice and from what i know had had lice for YEARS!!  like some of the other posters have said...the chemicals really did not help...although I must admit I took several rid baths my self because of the psychological itching (never got them btu felt i had them).  the only thing that worked was cutting the kids hair as short as possible...for my son we just shaved his head...end of problem...with girls it is harder but you need to cut her hair as short as you can stand...then (as difficult as it may be) sit down every night after her bath and use the nit comb on every ounce of her hair...dont worry about the eggs, you will comb those out as they hatch but you have to get all of the adults before they have time to lay more eggs.  if you comb her every night she will get used to it.  we did this every night for months...my daughter strarted watching them swim around in the bowl of water.  you also have to be very careful about what is in her room...bag it all...if it is not entirely made of plastic, put it in a garbage bag and keep it in the garage for 2 months then wash it, that way you are sure you have killed everything.  you have to remove baby dolls and barbies too...i finally found a barbie that she slept with that i think was keeping her infected.  you have to completely steralize her room, they can transfer to anything.  if you can not wipe it with a damp rag it needs to be out of the house.  you have to do your car too, where she sits and the seat all around her.  a really bad case of lice is the pits...what horrible memories.  i hope some of my suggestions help.  good luck.

[sisbbbb]

Wow, you guys are going through my biggest fear.  When the kids (now 7 and 9) started school I found out just how prevelant lice was in schools today.  My kids have not gotten lice yet, but it is one of my biggest fears.  I work on pevention:  I have them wash their hair with Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Oil shampoo during school lice season (which is most of the school year), and during the cold weather season I make them put their winter coat, hat and mittens in a plastic bag when they take it off at school.  They just put their stuff in the bag and hang it on their hook.  My son never complains about doing this, but my daughter didn't like doing this at first.  She still wishes she didn't have to because no other kids have to do this but too bad.  The children's elementary school has 215 total students, and their have been times when as many as 15 - 20 kids have lice.  Our school does head checks at the beginning of the school year, and has periodic head checks after vacations where the kids are out of school for 5 days or longer.  I'm probably creating paranoid kids, but I know how much trouble people I know have had getting rid of the lice once their kids get it.  My prayers are with all of you.  I would advise that once you get rid of the lice do everything you can to prevent it from happening again.

[Becky1989]

tea tree oil mixed with conditioner really does work, give it a go if you haven't already.

[rilbrianne]

Mayo and vaseline mix works for us.  3 hours.  Has worked for my teen sister for 2 outbreaks now and we swear by it.  Oil works too with the mayo.  

[Godslove0210]

help!  I keep thinking we get rid of lice in our 2 year old daughter, and today I found another egg! First found lice 2 weeks ago today...did over the counter shampoo, and manual picking...then switched to olive oil,  and been putting tea tree oil in her hair....we hav 4 girls in house, and babysit a 5th everyday...so far no one got it, but cant stop finding eggs in youngest's hair! am I missing them or is there one hiding laying more eggs....feel im losing sanity.....

[redneckgurl]

lavender shapoo helps keep them away alot people dont know after you do a treatment your are spost to repeat it after 10 day my sister use to get it and if she went  somewhere to spent the night we had to do a teretment when she got back and other thing you need to it wash the towels in hot water and the bed stuff and get the lice spray and spray it on every thing what ever she sit or touched and when you put her hair up make sure you put hair spray or evern when her hair is down put tons tof hair spray and another thing you can do is put maniose in her hair it and put a shower cap on and let her sleep in it

[redneckgurl]

and after you do those things it can leave her hair mess what you it get some baking soda and mix it in with a little bit of shapoo and scrub in iher hair and on her scalp

[redneckgurl]

hope this helped someone

[Trylea]

im am bout to blow a fuse....tried all the chemicals...now doing a tee tree oil and mayo setting. for 2 hours i hope it works. we had a out break in dec and its march and im still fighting it. my daughter just turned four and cries because her toys are gone and she has a new bed and still has them... i just found the barbie post. i never thought  about that so we are doing the barbies...not sure how but im going to try and bag them and put them on the top rack of the dish washer...? and redo the mayo treatment in a couple days?.....pray for me im gonna scream

[Sally44]

My daughter is the only one who repeatedly picks them up at school.  There must be other kids with them.  But the system I use that works is:-
All bedding, toys, towels, combs/brushes etc have to be washed at +60 degrees.
I buy a nit comb from the chemist, and after washing her hair I put on a conditioner that I have added tea tree oil to.  And then I comb the hair through.  After every down stroke I rinse the nit comb under the tap in the sink.  I keep a plug in the sink and I count how many I comb out.  You have to rinse it out after every down stroke so that you aren't just spreading lice and eggs all over the hair.  When I am no longer combing out any - and by that time I may have gone over all her head 5 times - I rinse her hair with clean water (not from the bath incase eggs or nits are floating in it.  Then I do the same thing again every 3 days, until I have not found any live lice for 2 weeks.  Then I stop.  Sometimes she gets re-infected.  But this last time she has been clear for over 6 months.  I also make sure her hair is not loose at school in a pony tail etc.  This summer I will probably cut it short.

[MAYALEE]

hi, every one! yah I'm one whos also in battle with these things, I feel like just cutting all girls hair off! I did the mayo thing, olive oil too combed all nits but they came back I feel reading you all on here may help.. thanks so much! :)  ITS GOOD TO HEAR THINGS FROM PEOPLE WHO HAVE TRYED, I HAVE BEFOR ONLY READ THING FROM PEOPLE WHO JUST THINK THEY KNOW..

[Help54]

It is so frustrating! At my house we tried RID and it didn't work. The school nurse said put Cooking Oil on her head with a plastic bag. It didn't work. And then the doctor said to put mayo on her head with a bath cap overnight. It still left maybe 5 adult lice left. So lice die because of heat, right? So we are going to sit her in the bathtub, have hot water coming out of the facet and she is going to put her head under it for 20 min. and hopefully that will kill the lice. Then we will wash her hair. If you do the mayo or oil thing make sure you wash her hair with ULTRA CONCENTRATED DAWN dish washing soap. I know you have tried some of these, but try it again. And then my husband made her cry and get worried cause he said a friend of his friends daughter had lice and they couldn't get it out so she had to shave her head, but the funny this is, her dad shaved his head, too so she wouldn't feel as bad. Hope this helps!