Head Lice - Columbia, SC

I went through this about 3 weeks ago and I ended up shaving both my boys head and cleaning everything in the house..only took me 2 days to rid them. I wish you luck!

Hi T.,
I understand your problem,this is the most annoying thing on the planet when you have children! I have been there so many times,I cant remember how many. There would be an outbreak at school and my kids would get them,I have 4 children,husband,grandmother,and my hair is a few feet long and very thick.We would spend days shampooing,spraying furniture,washing clothes and linens,and the most annoying,picking nits! We would think we finally got rid of them,only to take the kids back to school for the nurse to check them,and with her super human super hero vision,saw more,so we would have to pick nits for another day.Only to finally get them out and find out a few weeks later they had them again! This began when my oldest son started school and continued almost constantly for 5 years.We have a very bad head lice problem in South GA,obviously.The first step is to find out where the bugs are comeing from,in our case is was my sister in law,who refused to get rid of them,the rebelious teenager that she was,nasty too as you can tell,so we would no longer allow her to come to the house to visit the children,or take the children to their grandparents until they got rid of them.Next there is a prescription product on the market now called OVIDE,it is very expensive,at about 90 bux a bottle,but if you have insurance,it will usually cover everyone in the household,you just need to tell your doctor how many people are in the house.It's a liquid you put on your head before bed,and leave it for twelve hours,then wash it out,at this time,most of the nits will just fall out.The rest is as simple as pulling a nit comb through,you should only have a few to manually pull out after that.This product penetrates the nits shell and kills the nit also,so if there are a few left,they arent live.It also repels them for a long time.We treated the kids hair,and didnt have another outbreak on our children for about 3 years,during which time there was an epidemic at school,my kids never got them.They have only had them once since then.They say you still need to wash everything and spray everything down,but the last time they got the bugs,we didnt spray or wash anything and that was several years ago.

Good Luck,
A. F.

Comb, comb, comb, and then when you think you are done comb again!!! That's the only way to get rid of them all. On the same day that you comb, wash everything. Make sure that you spray down car seats and bag stuffed animals. Good luck. I know that this is awful for you!

I totally agree on NOT using the Rid and other OTC products with all those nasty chemicals. Why take a chance? Last year, my daughter got those little icky things from school and her hair is down to her waist! After a LOT of research, I used good old mayonaise on her. After loading her up with the mayo, I wrapped her head in plastic wrap and put a shower cap on her. I left it in for about an hour. This smothers ANYTHING that might be left behind. I then combed and used rubbing alcohol to clean the comb and then dipped the comb in baby oil so that the alcohol wouldn't dry her hair out. It worked beautifully. I know it sounds like a lot but it's better than the chemical route. Hope this helps.

K.
www.balterbaby.com

Hi there! I totally feel your pain. My little girl got lice from a kid at her school and she has this long super curly hair that is a pain to brush anyway. We sat for two days combing every single nit out of her hair. The problem is those things you get with the combs only get out about half of the egg sacs. You have to get each one out with your finger nails. I tried what you did when she first came home with them and she had a recurrence a week later when they had all multiplied again. Terrible! So, the second time, my husband took the day off work and we sat there for hours picking every single nit out of her hair. Then, and make sure you do this, wash with the RID shampoo after a week even if you don't see anymore of them. The whole process is horrible and time consuming, not to mention alot of money on RID and similar products but it'll be over soon! Good luck!

MC

you need to make sure you treat everyones bedding / stuffed animals, furnature, and vacume REALLY well over and over again. lice are really hard to get rid of. get the bedding spray spray their mattresses toys, and furnature you cant wash in REALLY hot water. I would wash her hair again just to be safe and if she has trouble sitting through the combing then put on a movie she likes and sit her down infront of it and comb away. dont forget to disinfect hair brushes and hair bows,barettes etc.

I hate to be the one to tell you this....YES!!! You need to sit her at the kitchen or bathroom sink and put her hair up in a clip and do a small section at a time. I had three girls that I had to do this with and it worked the first time.....and they had it bad from the neighbor. We just bought an over the counter kit that comes with the spray for your furniture & stuffed toys and all that, it came with the comb, the shampoo, & with this awesome gel that I put on and left it on while I was coming through each little section. It really was the longest night ever but it worked. The neighbor kept getting it over & over again so I finally had her come over and I did the same thing to her that I did to mine & that was the end of that.

Hey T. -- I personally feel strongly that parents should be informed that conventional chemical lice treatments can be harmful to our children, and that there is a safer and more effective natural treatment available. You should carefully consider whether you really want to use chemical over-the-counter and prescription lice treatments commonly recommended by physicians and pharmacists. And they do not prevent them from reoccurring…

I would love to get you more info on a safe (inexpensive) way to get rid of the lice – ###-###-#### M.

Just a few testimonials that I thought you might appreciate seeing:

"I recently watched a friend's daughter for five days while she was out of town. The daughter spent four nights in the beds,using the blankets and pillows of my daughters, and using our brush. The evening of returning to her home, my friend called me to tell me her daughter had head lice. She just spent five days with us! I'm glad
to say none of us got the lice and I credit it to the Melaleuca products! I spray the kids beds and pillows weekly with Sol-U-Mel, I use MelaPowerfor the laundry, and we regularly use the Melaleuca Naturals Shampoo. I can say from experience that Melaleuca oil repels head lice!"
- Marcie W., MI

"I just wanted to share that I too battled head lice with my children for a long time. My kids are constantly exposed to head lice because they play with a child who seems to keep it. It seemed every few months,I was being told my kids have it again. I began to use the Melaleuca Oil Shampoo on my kids faithfully every night. Since I have started that, they have not gotten the bugs again."
- Sheila R., AR

Hello, we went through lice a couple of years ago and it was a pain. What I was told is if there wasnt human contact for 55 hours they would die. So we did the treatment(after getting a second time) and stayed the weekend at grandmas! Also, as far as the nits, I guess there can still be critters in them so schools want them out. we used the RID organic, its just this slimy stuff that help you comb them out, and combed until we couldnt comb anymore:) Its such a pain. We also put all of the stuffed animals in trash bags away from the kids for a few days and sprayed the rid furniture spray while the bedding was being washed. Oh the money we spent on that weekend.

I feel for you as a single mom of four kids, and now two have lice! As if there's enough time in the day to deal with this! I just wanted to say that the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) web site has a great fact sheet that explains lice and the most accepted lice treatments.

Re nits: From what I read when I went through this the last time, if the nits are very near the scalp, they haven't hatched yet, but if they are farther along the hair, say 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch from the scalp, they've already hatched.

Hang in there!

S.

Hi T.,

Ditto, Ditto, Ditto Michelle G! Melaleuca is the ONLY way to get rid of lice safely and effectively! Lindane (RID), which is the conventional treatment, can cause brain damage just 5 minutes after it hits your daughter's head. Lindane is not even ALLOWED to be manufactured in the US because it is so dangerous...then they tell us to put it on our kids heads.

The Melalaleuca oil will get rid of the lice. Treat her every three days to make sure the eggs that haven't hatched are dead. Use the Melaleuca oil shampoo (it smells wonderful)on a regular basis. The laundry detergent, the body wash, the furniture polish, etc, all repel lice.

Yes, lice is a harrowing experience but my kids don't get them, even when they are around other children who do. Please email me or Michelle and get all the info you need. I have additional information on Lindane also and I would be glad to email you. This is not something to play around with!

God Bless!

M.

hey use some olive oil and put in her hair and get a shower cap and let her sleep in it over night.Let it stay in a long as you can it smothers the lice and kills the eggs also then for the nits you put vinger in her hair and let it sit for 5 minutes and the vinger will losen up the glue in the nits and they will come right out. My kids and have them and this is what we did and do it twice a week apart and then u want have to use the harsh chemicals and it wont hurt them! good luck to you