Lice!!!

[tramaddi]

This may have nothing to do w/ this forum but I thought to ask. my 6 yr old dd recently got lice at school (they are apparently having an epidemic)  I have used many bottles of the shampoo and nit pick it every week-end. Does anybody have any other suggestions???  I hear dying the hair kills them all.  This is the most frustrating problem and I've never dealt w/ it before. Plus I think she gave it to me:( & my husband doesn't know what he's doing when I ask him to go through my hair.....it is soooo upsetting so I am open to ANY suggestion..except gasoline (scary) Thanx

[Bita25]

My daughter got lice when she said at Mexico with her Grandma. OMG , I was freaking out , she had long curly hair . I called my DR he gave her (ULESFIA) its a white cream you put on her/his hair and it sit for a few mins. It works , smells a lil strong but the bugs were gone after 3 treatments. You have to also comb the hair get the eggs out and kill the lice. Ask your Dr for it.

[Puff_the_magic_dragon]

I had lice and I was really infested but we had tryed everything thee mayo the shampoos we tryed vinegar with a plastic bag nothing worked and so my mom mixed dish soap with kerocine and it worked great

[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. In the morning all the adult lice were gone.Then, we washed her hair. If you do the mayo or oil thing make sure you wash her hair with ULTRA CONCENTRATED DAWN dish washing soap. Then, only the eggs were left, so we are picking those out today. Or, you could try NIX. Keep doing this treatment repeatedly until it is all gone, if it never goes away, then you will have to shave her hair off. (no joking) Hope this helps!

[Encephalomalcia]

My step-children had lice for 8 months straight.  I was getting some frustrated.  Luckily, my husband, my other two children and myself never found any on us.  I even called social services on the other parent to have them help clean up her house.  The way we finally got rid of the lice was flipping the mattresses over and vacuuming the mattresses and ironing the mattresses.  Yes, the lice were in the mattresses and on the carpet on the stairway.  I vacuumed like crazy, put all stuffed animals in plastic bags and threw them out in the garage, washed bedding like crazy and dried bedding in hot dryer.  Heat kills lice.  Vinegar rinse helps on the hair, along with a natural lice shampoo (no pesticides), combing through the hair, and blow drying the hair.  You have to vacuum the house in all corners.  The brown/blackish lice are adult lice.  Lice starts out being clear and gain color from biting. Hopefully, you will get rid of the lice soon.  Blowing drying the hair on hot really helps as heat kills them.  

[amanda4880]

When i was growing up I got lice just about every other week from school and it freakin sucked ( I have VERY thick long wavy hair).  I even go it as an adult from working in a preschool.  So after a life time of dealing with these monsters I'm going to pass my wisdom onto you...  Lice jump to clean hair.  Although you may think that it's the dirt that attracts then, it's just the opposite.  I know this may sound gross but if you wash the child hair only once a week the scalp will produce it's own natural oils to fend off the pesky pest (just the hair not the body, that really would be funky).  Also, I know somebody else said there's no need to clean the rest of the house well, I believe you absoultly must completely cleanse the entire house.  That means all stuff animals go in a air tight bag for 48 hours and ALL linens get washed in the hottest of water.  I always put bleach in there as a added precaution, what can it hurt (well, hopefully the lice).  Of course you have to go through each individual hair strand and make sure there's no eggs or buggs, which really should be done daily.  My dad, step-dad and uncle all own successful pestcontrol companies and the cleaning of the whole house idea came from them.  Don't forget the carseats, couches, beds and rugs, that's just my suggestion, good luck.  This is making my head itch...

[tramaddi]

Thanx soooo much for the advice I will certainly try the oils and buy the tea tree shampoo!!  I dyed our hair lastnite and the ones I found were dead but still I am not sure they are all out so I will go ahead w/ the oils I was getting concerned if I was using the pesticides too much.  Thanks again, wish me luck

[tinkscastle]

try going down to a health store and get the all natural lice shampoo its safer for your hair and your kids,also invest in tea tree oil shampoo for when u do get rid of them it helps with reinfestation. also make sure u are putting everything that is fabric in plastic bags and keep them in it for the 2 weeks,all your coats and stuff u use on a daily bases put in the drier for just a few minutes to kill any live eggs and lice. then spray all your furniture with very diluted bleach water and let dry and vaccume everything. with the bugs u r going to have to go stran by stran with your nails and pick them out cuz the combs dont work very well. its a little easier if you put  your hair in sections with rubberbands. and if your hair is a little wet. have a lot of light cuz some can be very hard to find.

[Trialanderror]

I thought I would never have to deal with this either but we recently went through our first episode ever between two families. It took a week to stop the mess and another two weeks of checking. Thanks to the internet, I found really great advice: NEEM OIL. Here is how you can get through this:

- get a really fine-toothed comb for each family member, ideally it is metal but plastic works too for a while until it bends.

- wet-comb through everyones hair, close to the scalp. Either wet with water or with conditioner to catch any live critters. Make sure to check comb after each stroke and remove if you find one. Check the internet to see what they look like.

- never mind going crazy cleaning the WHOLE house - those guys don`t suddenly breed away from a human scalp, but pillows, stuffed animals, brushes could temporarily serve as a hiding spot

- after checking for and removing any obvious nits (brownish or so if not hatched yet, white if old, about 1/2" away rom scalp or more) get pure neem oil from health store and dribble on scalp. Smells like sesame oil.
Repeat for about 2 days. Later mix some neem oil in regular shampoo.

- Effect: lice hate it and it causes lice AND nits to deteriorate and be unable to reproduce after a while. So if any escape the combing, you create a hostile environment for them and they disappear within a few days to a week and choose a different head next time.

- important: really do that combing for the WHOLE family, continue for at least 2 weeks and always repeat if your child or anyone is scratching their head excessively.  Consistency is the only thing that helps.
Don`t panic, that Neem stuff really works and it is even good for our skin and scalp, contrary to those pesticide containing shampoos that have caused resistance in lice. Duh, just writing about this makes me itchy... but don`t panic, it IS controllable, give it a week ot two.

[margypops]

H ehehe   Yes Gas ll do it alright...heres what I have found works best...tooth comb , tooth comb, not once a day several times whnever you can the little ....dont like to be disturbed, use the shampoo aswell but I have found in many years wiyth many kids that combing works best, and wash ,,wash wash, linen that is ,see the liceys are going onto your pillow and reinfecting,, Towels sheets, its a lot of work,but you can get rid of em. Go in with all guns firing ,thrash em out of your childs head.

[Sally44]

The chemicals don't tend to work on lice as they get resistant.  This is how I treat my daughers hair (as her year at school keeps repeatedly getting infested, and luckily no one else at home).
I wash her hair and put on a conditioner that I have added tea tree oil to.  The conditioner makes it impossible for the lice to hold on, and the tea tree oil is a repellent.  I use a nit comb and I comb through her hair.  On every down stroke I run the comb under the tap and I keep the plug in the basin so that I can see the little critters.  I go through her hair until I am not combing out any more lice.  Then I go through the process again 2-3 days later.  And I continue doing that until I don't find anymore live lice for at least 2 weeks.  Then I make sure her hair is tied up, or she has a short haircut.  Unfortunately there are always some children with lice that reinfect the other children.  But the above strategy always works.  It is time consuming, and isn't a quick fix.  But it work.  
You also need to make sure you wash all linen and towels at 60+ degrees, and soak combs/brushes in boiling water.