Lice!!!! - Orange,CA

Chances are the lice are dead, you're just having trouble getting rid do the nits (dead eggs). I agree with Canuck, time to find a better comb.

The easiest thing would be to give your son a really short haircut.

Both of my boys got lice a few years ago. I bought the shampoo and followed the instructions on the bottle. I changed their bedding. I combed through every day for a week and washed again with the shampoo. Lice were gone and they have never had them again.

What kind of comb do you have? The shampoo came with a plastic comb, but the pharmacist told me to buy a metal comb because the plastic was no good.

Always comb for nits in daylight. Bright sunlight if possible. A lamp isn't good enough.

I informed the school that my kids had lice so they could warn the other parents to check their kids. They do not check for lice in our schools.

Anyway, try a better comb or a haircut.

BE SOOOOOOOOOOO THANKFUL that your school has this policy!!!!

A few years ago my son's class kept giving it back and forth to classmates from September through March or April because the school did not take it seriously enough. And we pay tuition, too. I would have killed for someone at school to be checking carefully before a child was allowed to head back into the class. If just one parent was not diligent, it was back in school and spread like wild fire. You want your life back after less than a week. Just imagine dealing with this for almost the whole school year.

Invest in some tea tree oil, a better comb, a brighter light and a magnifying glass and get rid of it once and for all. I feel for you. I hate lice!!

If you still have live lice, start doing the cetaphil treatment (google it). It is non toxic and actually works.

If your school has a no nit policy, I'd just shave your son's head. It's not worth the time going through the hair to remove nits when it's perfectly acceptable for a boy to have short hair. If it were your daughter, you'd have to go through the head, strand by strand looking for nits. It takes hours.

Have you considered shaving his head? Could the doctor write a note saying the lice and live nits are gone. Only shells of the nit eggs are left?

For some reason I had no issue getting all of the nits out of my son's hair (it is short). The school nurse was shocked I was able to and she never saw anything in his hair (I'm glad I found it instead of the dreaded call). I spent hours nit picking though. I'm glad I reported it. The class had 2 boys that I know of who got it over and over. some kids were sent home after I called to report it.

We use fairytales leave in conditioner to help prevent it from happening again.

The school could be the cause (play clothes and hats).

You didn't mention washing bedding, and laundering their coats and hats and vaccumming the couches and bagging up their stuffed animals. your whole house needs to be treated even their car seats! or this will keep coming back.

you need a metal nit comb. there are youtube videos that show you how to comb.

we had good luck with the cetaphil treatment and the over the counter lice treatment. it worries me when I see people suggesting hair dye is enough, cuz it isn't.

Its a nightmare, but if you deal with it IT does go away!

I would prefer the no nit policy especially in preschool.

Please stop with all the stuff from old wives tales. Go to headlice.org and read what works and what is actually needed. Those pesticides people buy and use on their kids is dangerous. The white nits are empty sacks. The baby that was inside them is already out and in the hair laying more eggs.

YOU must get some good magnifying gear that goes on your head so your hands will be free to do the work.

Wash their hair and condition it. Comb out all tangles the rinse it. Don't dry it. Leave it wet and put it all up except for a small section. Go through this small section with the magnifying head gear on. If you see a live bug pinch it with tweezers, your fingernails, or something and drop it in a cup of water.

Lice breath air like we do so water drowns them.

If you find an egg with a dark center either pull that egg off, down the hair, pluck that hair out, or simply clip that individual hair with small scissors.

Go through each section and rewet the hair as needed. I can spot a moving bug in wet hair a LOT better than one that is in dry hair. The water effects them and makes them sluggish.

Go through their hair every day, maybe even twice per day for a week or so, until you don't find one live bug and don't find one new egg.

This is where a brush cut for boys really comes in handy.
Can't do that for your girl but shorter hair makes it easier to handle.

We did this exact thing in Nov! My daughter's head start has the same nit policy, and she missed so many days because they kept sending her home.

So, after having them 3 times, this is what I did: I went to Ulta (because we had one) and got the Fairy Tales stuff. There is Lice-B-Gone which is a pump stuff that you put in the hair and it kills everything. Then you have to comb the hair with the Metal Terminator Comb. (This is worth every one of the 16.95 pennies it costs!!!) and buy the LICE REPEL hair conditioner/spray stuff.

This is what finally got rid of all the lice. I am still using the repel spray because they keep coming back to the head start.

The first time we had them I finally had to dye everyone's hair, but they came back as soon as there was enough grow out. The Fairy Tales works so much better because it really gets them gone. Also, we still comb our hair with the nit come almost everyday, and my daughter gets hers done everyday before school just to be sure.

I feel so much for you, and I am so sorry. The reason all the other stuff doesn't work is because they are immune to it now. I did RID and watched the lice come out after I dried her hair.

http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?product...#

http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?product...#

http://www.ulta.com/ulta/browse/productDetail.jsp?product...#

There is a Fairy Tales shampoo that keeps lice from coming back...

Do a search on this.

We have never had it, but, a few friends in a diff school swear by it.

I have a friend going through the same thing. These things can be so resilient and resistant to treatment anyway, but more likely because people go back to school too soon or haven't followed all of the protocol. So re-infection is pretty simple, unfortunately.

You can't do anything about the tuition - it's not like they can enroll another child in your child's place to make up the difference! Your tuition secures your child's spot, just like your taxes secure a spot in public school for your older child. If your child is sick or you go on vacation, you still pay tuition. And the school's policies on lice are not just set by them, but more likely by the Department of Public Health. It's so frustrating to keep a child home and to have to stay home from work, but these are the choices we make when we have kids, like it or not. "A nit or two" is all it takes to get started on another round of lice, unfortunately. You're worried about sitting on the bed and trading lice back and forth, so of course you know what happens if a parent sends a child into a group with lice or nits - you're already in that situation because someone else did it to you. And your daughter's school's office staff isn't as thorough? That means it's going to come back in her classroom, and with maybe 20 kids instead of the 10 at the preschool!

I wish there were a shortcut. There isn't. It's shampoo and mayo and hot water and hot dryers for bedding, stuffed animals and clothing. Hang in there.

well, have you treated that couch and bed? you don't mention that.
and if you haven't, you're not going to get rid of them.
i'm sure it's a terrible inconvenience, and it sucks to pay for care that you're not using (not to mention missing work) but the school's no-nit policy is a very good one. as you can see from this very thread, finding 'a nit or two' can be nothing, or it can indicate that you haven't begun to address the problem properly. the school doesn't have time to split the hairs, and all parents are grateful for institutions that take the nuclear option.
however diligent you are, if there are still nits there's no way they can 'presume' the lice are dead.
i'd shave the boy's head for sure.
khairete
S.