Lice - Saint Paul,MN

G.,
My friends daughter had lice when she was little I asked her what she did. Her doctor told to bag everything and wash in hot water, then use NIX to treat it, then he said try not washing her hair everyday (believe it or not) lice lives in clean hair. Then when you do wash it to use Suave Coconut shampoo, something in that shampoo prevents lice I don't know what but it works. Her daughter was getting lice just about every month (she was in day care) and since she has used the shampoo she hasn't had it anymore even when other kids get it. Hope this helps...Good luck.
L.

I have heard taht tea tree oil shampoo works to prevent lice.

I would go back about 7-10 days from the time you saw them on her head and that would probably be when she got them. She can get them from other kids or even riding in a car that has them on the seats. I'll bet even the little grocery store ride in car-carts could have them from a previous kid. They can live for a couple of days without a person to feed off of. She wouldn't be getting reinfected from your own house if it's been a year. Take all of her fabric things and put them in plastic bags and tie them up for about a month. If it's going to freeze outside you can put them out there and they'll freeze. I didn't use the nix on my kids' heads but instead used vinegar with 20 drops of tea tree oil. Put it all over her head and then saran wrap her hair for a couple of hours and then let it dry. Don't wash for a couple of days and just keep picking them out. Each bug can lay 4 eggs a day and each egg takes 7-10 days to hatch.
You said you didn't have trouble getting rid of them so here's what I was told to prevent them. Put 10-20 drops of tea tree oil in each of her bottles of shampoo. I also bought sauve coconut conditioner for her because I guess they don't like that smell either. Any time she's going to be around other kids I would put her hair in a ponytail and maybe even a braid so it's not touching other people. My girls have butt-long hair and I put it up whenever they go to preschool because we've been getting notices all year of head lice.
My kids actually got it last Fall when my foster boys were at a visit at the park for 2 hours with their Mom and Dad. Their Mom was the one that had it! Then the boys gave it to my girls. By the time they started hatching, we had 4 other foster kids living with us for 10 days! Luckily only 3 of my kids got it but I shaved all the boys' heads and kept the girls' long hair in braids the whole time.
Good luck keeping it gone,
J.

I know a little girl who's had her head shaved on and off since she was 2 and she's now 6. I feel so sorry for this little girl. She kept getting it from their home. Go nuts with the lice products on your carpets, furniture, stuffed animals all clothing even in the closet and drawers. This particular person I knew wasn't killing it in the house. I would check your daughter's head daily for months or even a year. The minute you see something start treatment. I would check any other children that come in contact with your child- cousins, playmates etc. Check your pets if you have any. Check your car interior and prehaps treat that as well.

Hi G.,
After you use the regular lice treatment, you can put t-tree oil (or olive oil) on the scalp and leave it on there until the next wash, it keeps them away. I guess it has something to do with that smell or the fact that lice can't stick to the hair when it's oily. I would keep her hair oily for a while until you believe they're gone. I also heard you have to bag up any pillows and stuffed animals for a period of time and wash everything else you can in hot water and dryer on high heat. Fortunately we haven't had it here, but these are things I've learned from others who had it also. Good luck!

I also heard to bag up stuff toys and clothes, ect for at least 7 days in garbage bags, then wash them. Hope that helps!

For the person that responded to check the pets, both my Doctor and the vetinarian said animals can't get people lice and vice versa. So thats one less thing I had to worry about when my oldest son had it too a few years back.

the solution is , the daycare making everyone use the rid at the same time and properly combing out the nits (eggs). someoe in daycare is not doing there part. if a boy has short hair they normally are not bothered by it. i guess baby oil will sufficate the nits. yuck good luck

If you have pets, they can be "carriers". They can't be infested but the lice can live on them for a couple days which is the same for carpets, rugs, furniture, mattresses and stuffed toys.

Treat your pets with a commercial product as well as carpet, mattresses and furniture. Put ALL clothes and stuffed toys in garbage bags and tie a big knot to seal it shut. Make sure you take clothes DIRECTLY to the HOT water washer with no "left-overs" on the floor for the next load. Most stuffed toys can not be washed but they can be put in the dryer. Use a laundromats big dryer, as they can get hotter then ones we use at home, and let them go for 20 or 30 mins in there.

Mayonnaise works just as well as the commercial products on everyones hair. You must do EVERYONE in the house. Cover the hair/head thick and good with mayo, place plastic wrap on top to seal and nuke a bath towel for a few seconds so it's nice and warm as you wrap the haed. Leave on for at least 30 mins and up to an hour. Rinse with as warm of water as everyone will let you. Use a fine tooth comb and check the whole head. Wash with a good cleansing shampoo, Suave has some good ones. Now for the important part! Rinse with apple cider vinegar. Yes, V-I-N-E-G-A-R! Continue to rinse hair with vinegar as long as you wish. Lice HATE vinegar and will avoid it at all costs! Vinegar also helps to keep your hair a natural color when using a chlorine pool in the summer, gives hair a soft feel and a silky shine.

I am a former cosmotologist as well as a daycare provider. Once when I wasn't sure where lice had come from, I made a rule that ANYONE entering my house would be checked BEFORE they came in. Some parents didn't like this but as I said to them "at least you will know it's not your kid". No one argued after that. LOL!

During the "season", I tend to check kids hair as they walk in still to this day! LOL! Teenagers think I'm a bit unhinged but I haven't had lice in my house in over 10 yrs!

Unfortunately most of us have or will have this problem. I have 5 kids and have had the dredful time of going threw this.most people are ashamed and wont admit to having this problem.it is not only from person to person that causes lice. If you have pets they to can get lice and need to be shampooed. But there is a spray that you can buy at most pharmacies and walmart i believe. That you spray on everyday. Not sure of the name. But if you ask the pharmacist i am sure they could help. I have a girlfriend who used it because her daughter had gotten lice several times, and her daughter has very thick curly hair. And it took for ever to comb. The spray worked well for her. Its just a suggestion. I hope things work out with what ever you decide.

Hi G.,
Did you do anything to your house the last time she had gotten headlice? When I was a kid and got it (yearly when we lived in Florida, never again in the 19 years since moving back!), my mom would put all of my stuffed toys through the dryer as well as pillows and bedding, the heat killed them. Close contact with an infected person or an infected person getting close to items she uses it can cause it. It has NOTHING to do with being dirty at all, you can get it even if you're a clean person, it's a social stereotype.

Hello I have had alot of unfortunate experience with this problem. First of all they like clean hair not dirty. That is why black people don't get it. Anyway I tried everything possible. I did get a prescription one time but I later found out it was very harmful to the kid's. But the very best thing I found to work is tea tree oil you can get it at any local store. You just put it right on her her head and work it through, then let it sit for about 10-15 minutes. Then wash it out it never came back after that. It does have a very stronge oder. I also would spray a little hairspray in her hair to help keep it a little dirty. I know it sounds odd but it does work. GOOD LUCK. Let me know how you do with all of it.

I am sure you already know this. Finding the main bug is very hard I was fortunate to find it in my son when I was running my fingers thru his hair and found the black nits on his head so i began picking them out and as luck would have it the actual bug (louse) can across his haad I plucked it out and killed it. I knew that I had gotten it in time, my son did not have that many eggs on his head the pharmacist said I cought it in time, I then treated him and washed all our bedding thru out any toys that where cloth (ones that we didnt care much about), put all the toys into a garbage bag for about a month just sanitize everything. Chances are your not getting every nit out or they are in the pillow or mattress. They are like velcro they can stick real easy. Once I did all that nothing ever returned. Good luck.

What products do you use to treat the lice. My daughter got is so bad one summer that we almost had to shave her head. the best way to get rid of it is to do a treatment and use the Nix Brand stuff as the others don't compare. In between the first treatment and the followup treatment do a mayonaise treatment. what you do is plaster her head with mayonaise and then cover it with a plastic shower cap and it has to be a clear plastic one. the oils in the mayonaise make it easier to comb out the nits and coverin the head smothers the lice. What I have done since them to prevent lice is I use teatree oil on my daughters head and I only wash her hair once a week. I know the once a week hair washing seems kind of gross but contrary to what people think, lice actually prefer a clean scalp because its easier to stick to. With a scalp that is less frequently washed all the natural oils in the hair make it harder for the lice to stick to.