I first found a louse in my daughter 's hair at the beginning of the summer. I treated it and kept checking her hair. At the first sign of anything, I treat it though I am sure I didn't get all the nits, though they were very few at first. Now she has had a recurrence -- i don't see any live lice but she has nits which I am tyring to pick/comb out. Grateful for any advice on something that works to get rid of it.
My question is, I should notify her school, shouldn't I? But my sister has gotten lice from my daughter and she is all hysterical She is behaving like we have passed on scarlet fever. Am i supposed to notify people wherever we go to keep away from my daughter? (though I told my sister about it when they first appeared, and even told her i thought she had nits and she never did anything about it).
What is proper lice etiquette? I can't keep my daughter away from normal activities for months while we track the last 2 nits in her head!! I treated it right away so my daughter is either getting reinfested or a few nits are keeping the infestation going.
Tracy M, I told my sister the first time this appeared -- I found ONE louse in my daughter's head and was totally paranoid, I treated everything right away -- and even checked my sister's head -- I told her I thought she had nits and gave her a TON of info about treating it. She never did anything and now 4 months later she is surprised??!! No she doesn't have kids. I am wondering if my daughter got reinfected by her. I PROMPTLY treated my daughter and check her head constantly and even had her pediatrician look -- she couldn't find anything -- so how does it make sense to keep her out of school? Or keep her away from other kids? Until when? My daughter's hair is quite fine and dark so easy to catch it. If the white nits have already hatched...that's what I am seeing! what do the unhatched nits look like?
i will definitely notify the school now that she's had a recurrence. I didn't previously as it was end of term.
I know this doesn't sound fantastic, but a friend of mine said that mayonaise is the best thing to use. (kills it all) Lather it in her hair good, cover it with a plastic bag and she has to sleep overnight with it in. I have heard other people swear by this too. You could also do a "search" on Mamapedia for previous answers.
There were several outbreaks of lice at my daughters preschool, and yes they treated it like the plague.. everything came home in plastic trash bags, notices to wash backpacks and cloth lunchboxes!! do i think it was THAT extreme, no probably not, but bugs+people=freaking out! then the poor child who had it was in school 2 weeks later and the same thing happened again (bags, notices, blah blah).. im pretty sure that child never returned to the preschool....
THAT all being said, I didnt want my kids catching lice but didnt want them missing school either so I went to cvs to see what could be done. In the lice section, next to the treatment boxes, there was this box that had a spray that was used to prevent reinfestation.. so figured if the kids never had lice to begin with, it wouldnt hurt to prevent reinfestation... the spray was about $11 and smells something aweful, but maybe after you comb some of the remaining nits, wash her bedding/stuffed animals, and use the spray for a bit it will go away??? Also there is an episode of Arthur on PBS about lice, look it up and have your dd watch it :)
Good luck Momma!
your sister is a twit. lice are an obnoxious reality, and unfortunately many (most?) parents have to deal with 'em at some point.
treat your daughter and your house aggressively, let the school know, and go on about your life.
khairete
S.
Comb her out with a nit comb and then use a flat iron on her frequently. They can't take the heat. You should inform the school because lice infestations are very difficult to get control of in a classroom setting. If you tell the school nurse they should keep it confidential as to who reported. This allows the staff to watch for kids that are scratching.
Yes, you should always notify the school whenever your child has a contagious type of thing. Pink eye, and lice are the number one things you always need to contact the school if your child has them. Reinfestation is common, especially if it hasn't been treated, and if you don't report it. Kids will keep passing this around back and forth. You have to wash everything you have -sheets,blankets, pillows, clothing, rugs, everything. Everything they play with needs to be cleaned, disinfected, or thrown out. Call her pediatrician for the right medication to use, I am not sure how old you are that you can use an over the counter medication like Rid. Its super strong. Good luck. It's a miserable process .
If you are having repeated episodes of lice then you aren't getting everything treated that needs to be treated...don't just treat your daughters hair...treat everyone in the house...wash all of the bedding and treat the mattresses and pillows....look it up online...see how they suggest that you go about treating for lice.
I have never had to deal with head lice but I remember having a flea infestation one year and I have never worked so hard in my life!! I had to treat every mattress...take all of my daughters soft toys ( stuffed animals etc) and put them in plastic bags...and leave them there for a week so any fleas would basically starve to death...we also "bombed" the entire house...to get the last of the critters. If you aren't thorough you are just getting a small percentage of the lice...you have to get them ALL!!
Good luck to you
I think you have to go through every strand of her hair to make sure you get every nit out. Separate her hair using rubber bands then go through each and every section. My friend had to do this and she said it took hours but she got them all and never had a reoccurance.
FYI... My daughters both have really long hair and I am paronoid they could get this too. I read some where if you spray their hair with hairspray the bugs will not nest in their hair because they prefer really " clean" hair with no hairspray. Good luck!
Ugh - we are just going through this. You can check my post from a little over a week ago. We definitely got some good advice.
Fortunately, I have a little boy. I found the best solution for a boy is just to buzz his hair. The problem stopped almost immediately for him once I did this, although I'm still continuing to comb out his hair to make sure there is no re-infestation.
Girls are another whole nine yards. Of course, I caught it off my son and, although mine was not so nearly bad as his, I noticed one week after the shampoo that I was getting a bunch of new ones. No matter how hard I worked to get out the eggs, I guess there were still a few lingering. I am hoping the 2nd application of the shampoo will do it for me, but I may even do a 3rd application next week. However, I am not sure I would do this on a child, since it is essentially a pesticide.
Someone suggested the conditioner/baking soda mix on the hair. I did this on both of us and bought the special Rid nit comb at the store - it's got a red plastic handle and thin metal teeth - I definitely recommend springing for it. You can either wipe down the comb with paper towels or run it under very hot water - make sure you get any nits or eggs out from in-between the teeth. Now that we seem to have the lice under control, I generally just wet my son's hair and use the comb - with the buzz it only takes around 10 minutes. I'm putting olive oil in my hair and it takes around half an hour. I haven't seen anything on me in the last 2 days.
I have also continued to wash our bedding and shirts/jackets daily. Someone recommended just running everything through the hot setting on the dryer for an hour and I've taken to doing that to save time/money.
I did notify his school immediately. Turns out he is the only kid KNOWN to have this so far. They took all kinds of steps to prevent spreading the lice and it SEEMS to have worked - keeping kids' jackets/possessions in plastic garbage bags, removing the rugs, vacuuming everything down daily and watching my son to make sure he's keeping his head off of everybody. It has been pretty embarrassing - although his teacher didn't tell anyone who it was, I'm sure everyone has pretty much guessed by now - especially since my son is telling everyone not to touch his head because he has "bugs". I know several parents freaked out at the idea of lice and a few pulled their kids out for a couple days. Definitely I feel like we're walking around with a scarlet "L" on our chests! :) Still, I felt it best to notify the school to prevent re-infestation. It would be kind of crappy not to.
I also told close friends (have actually been checking their kids' heads) and the mom of the neighbor kid my son plays with. Ironically, the only parents who pulled their kids away from playing with my son are the parents of the kids he CAUGHT it from! I understand they don't want to experience a re-infestation, but come on now. I was a little peeved by that, though I certainly can't blame them for unknowingly passing it along.
Just take proper precautions when she is playing with friends (no touching heads, put towels behind her head if she's sitting on a friend's couch, etc.) and it will probably help stopping the spread of the lice.
My daughter has long impossibly thick hair and got lice from school or something when she was 6. I have to admit I was pissed but more about the inconvienece than anything. Lice like clean hair, not dirty hair. I used the RID 2 weeks of eachother and put her to sleep every night picking and smashing the dark unhatched eggs out of her hair every day for a month.
If you told your sister and she never checked again or did anything to make sure she killed them then yea she may have been reinfected by her.
Make a mixture of hair conditioner and baking soda and start combing through to get the nits out. It is safe, and it works, most professionals use it when removing nits. Also, keep her hair dirty, hair gel, mouse, hairspray, and keep it pulled back for a week. Contrary to what people think lice love clean hair not dirty hair. As far as at home take her stuffed animals and put them in a plastic garbage bag for a few weeks, washing them would even be better, blankets, pillows, vacuum couches, anything she comes in contact with. If you have not found any live lice (nits are not contagious) then I wouldn't see any need to contact the school, at this point it will only bring more negative attention to your daughter. It is possible someone else in the class has them, didn't report it and reinfected your daughter. If you want to treat everyone in the family you can do the same for them with the conditioner and baking soda, there is no need to use those toxic chemicals. The conditioner will smother them and the baking soda is gritty enough to help get the nits out. Do the same with their hair, lots of gel, hairspray, etc. If you do fine live lice then I would notify all parties, but until then just repeat the treatment at home. My cousins daughter had it and I thought she was going to have a nervous breakdown. People freak out when they think of bugs, it is more of a pain in the you know what then harmful. Good luck
i just had to deal with this for the 1st time.....i am one of those parents that treat this like the plague........thank god we have no carpeting on our 1st floor & leather sofas, that helped a little.
only 1 of my kids got nits, i never saw any live lice
i took her to a walk in clinic & the Dr said there is a newer product that ALSO kills nits. It's called malathion. He said that the lice have become immune to over the counter products & home remedies like mayo. I used it once & pulled out all the nits i could see just as a preventative measure & there hasn't been anymore (crossing my fingers).
My daughter caught it from school on picture day. Please contact the school asap & any other friends your daughter has been around.
Well, I don't know the proper etiquette for a lice infestation, but I would certainly keep her home if she has an active infestation. You didn't say how old your sister is, but yes I would be pretty angry if I got lice from your child. If your sister is an adult with a family of her own, she is probably terrified of passing it to her children. And now she has a TON of extra work to clean her house because of this. Honestly, if you had told me that your child probably had nits, then I would stay FAR away until the issue was resolved. Does an infestation really take months to treat? Frankly, I just don't know since we haven't yet been blessed with this....
you have to let the school know and she wont be allowed back in school until it is cleared up and checked by the school nurse and cleared its protocal
