Head Lice. - Arlington,TX

The herbal remedies didn't work on my daughter when she had lice. Neither did Rid. All it did was dry her hair out something terrible. What finally worked was Adams Flea Shampoo. Slathered it on dry hair, worked it in, let it sit twenty minutes, then had her get in the shower, lather up, and rinse it out.

How old is he? Honestly, for a boy... I would shave his head. Or take him to a place that offers lice removal in one treatment. You have one in Dallas called "the Lice Place" - it's $95 per hour.

Otherwise you have to get the shampoo, comb the nits out, bomb your house etc. And if you don't do it well enough you have to do it all over again. ICK. The tea tree oil can be used, but it will take longer to get rid of the lice.

We fought it for what seemed like forever. Over the counter things like
RID did not work for us. Someone finally suggested baby oil and a shower cap. We covered her hair in the oil and she slept in a shower cap (cover pillow with a towel). The next day the lice were gone and the nits combed out with ease. After washing, her hair was so soft that she started using baby oil fairly often as a conditioner

If he is the only one that has it in the family, I would clip his hair and vacuum the house real well. Change & launder the bedding, including the comforter, an check him regularly.

The lice need a warm place (the scalp) to lay eggs. If his hair is too short, they will seek other shelter.

Once you clean up the hair mess, tie it off in a bag and vacuum.

I would NOT use tea tree oil. Especially if he has sensitive skin. My pedi recommended it to get these bumps off of my daughter's skin on her arm, but she only let me use it once and said it made her skin burn. So just be careful. I would just get a lice kit at the store, and definitely give him a buzz cut.

We just went through this a couple of weeks ago with our sons, and (knock on wood) appeared to have overcome the little buggers. And, yuck, this was my first time dealing with this - and something I really hope I don't encounter again anytime soon!

I wasn't sure if that was what they had, and originally intended to treat anyway to be safe. But, once I started reading about the over-the-counter treatments, I had second thoughts. The idea of using pesticides "just in case" seemed pretty scary - and most of the articles I read said that in 90% of the cases they don't even work anymore, since lice has become resistant. Read mixed reviews on the other home methods as well.

Fortunately, I found one of those lice places in Hurst, and they were excellent. My plan was to just get checked to be safe, but it turns out the boys did have it, so they treated them there that night. Cost a small bundle (approx $350) - but that included over an hour of strand-by-strand picking on my youngest - who apparently had it first, then a far shorter duration with the rest of us (had the whole family checked). Saved my sanity, that's for sure! Also helped that, in my online research prior, I discovered that you can pay for this with your HSA account, if you happen to have one (which was also a welcome bit of knowledge for us!).

After that, went home and did heaps of wash, vacuuming, and lint-brushing for the next week. Every night: washed all the sheets and comforters on high/sanitary, dried with highest heat setting; put all sleepytime friends in dryer for 50 minutes at highest heat setting; vacuumed main living/sleeping areas; lint-brushed car seats and any other questionable surfaces. Probably overkill, but I was pretty grossed out by the idea. To be honest, we had extra comforters, which helped, since I work full time, husband was conveniently on business travel, and there just weren't enough hours left to run all the loads that would have been necessary. After the first night, I actually just had the kids sleep on the leather couch wrapped in comforters like sleeping bags to save on laundry needs.

Each morning and night, I combed through their hair with the special lice comb I purchased from the place, and checked the water to make sure we were still in control. After a few days, everyone consistently came up completely clean. We've since been back for two rechecks with the place (included in the service) and have come up clean. I still comb the boys every other morning though to be safe - and will probably cut back to once a week now, and ongoing during the remainder of the school year.

My efforts might have been overkill, but it did seem to work - and since so many of the online experiences I read about mentioned re-infestations a week or two later, I would probably follow the same approach next time since we have been successful so far.

I did also alert the kids' teachers and the school nurse - but while they were definitely glad I let them know, the school can't actually do anything unless multiple cases turn up, it seems - which is why I will now continue to check my boys each week to avoid another unexpected onslaught!

Shaving their heads was a thought that came to mind, but aside from really not wanting to do that, I also realized that many might automatically assume lice to be the reason behind that - and I didn't want to subject my kids to potential ridicule (especially since I'm pretty sure they caught it from someone else in one of their classes to begin with!)

Test the tea tree oil on his skin first, it caused my skin to itch. It works better as a repellent than a treatment. If he doesn't react to the oil, add some to his conditioner for the next few months to prevent re-infestation while the rest of the kids at pre-k deal with it.

A lot will depend on the resistance of the lice and how diligent you are at combing out the nits. I have known some who had to get a prescription lice treatment before finding an effective solution. Since you have a boy, you may want to cut his hair VERY short to help with the treatment.

And don't forget to treat his environment. Sheets, hats, stuffed animals, couches, etc (any cloth surface) can hold lice and it only take one to undo all your hard work.

Make sure he has it and if he does, just use the RID. The only other thing you can do is mayo overnight. Smother his head in it and wrap it up and let him sleep the lice into suffocation. Any chance you might shave his head? Lice hate buzz cuts.

Be sure to clean really well. And when my daughter had it, I treated myself with RID just to be safe.

I laugh when I hear mamma's say "treat it with medicine" not all that "natural stuff". Where do they think most of our medicine comes from? LOL! Anyway, neem oil is the best thing for killing AND repelling them. Here is a "scientific" study that shows a "medicine" was created from neem oil and it had 100% effectiveness for killing and for no re-infestations. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21667206

What I did (I had lice with my children at the same time), is that I got the nit-loosening hair-care products to comb the nits out. Then I got neem oil from a health food store and mixed it with our shampoo and conditioner. It is very potent and a little will go a long way. (warning: it doesn't smell the greatest) You can buy the more expensive neem shampoo and conditioner if you want to, they also have it at the health food store. Use that religiously for the next month (your entire family), and you won't see any spreading or re-infestation.

AND, I still use it if there is a break-out at my kids' school as a pre-emptive strike. (knock-on-wood, we have never gotten them again) I keep a bottle of neem oil at the ready!

P.S. and for those that think using flea shampoo is a good idea, please read some of the side effects of the active ingredients of these before using them on your pets or children:

Pyrethrin: Overdose and toxicity symptoms in humans include asthmatic breathing, sneezing, nasal stuffiness, headache, nausea, incoordination, tremors, convulsions, facial flushing and swelling, and burning and itching sensation. Children who were more highly exposed to PBO in personal air samples (≥4.34 ng/m3) scored 3.9 points lower on the Mental Developmental Index than those with lower exposures. The lead researcher stated, regarding PBO, "This drop in IQ points is similar to that observed in lead exposure.

Piperonyl Butoxide: The U.S. EPA has categorized piperonyl butoxide as a group C carcinogen (13). This means that piperonyl butoxide is considered a possible human carcinogen based on limited evidence of cancer in laboratory animals.

Don't treat him with anything until you confirm he actually has head lice.
Go to the website mentioned below and see what they look like and confirm that is in fact the case.
Then - treat him with the medicine. all those natural remedies (in my mind and experience) don't do diddly squat but waste your time and prolong the infestation (yes it is an infestation of parasitic bugs on your child's head - a lovely smelling oil won't get rid of them).
Then in 14 - 16 days, treat him again. I get it is a pesticide, but he may come in contact with more than that in his lifetime just from eating fruit.

OR - you can always shave his head:) That is natural and pretty darn effective.

Good luck. I hope that he doesn't have it.