Lice, Freaking Out!

Sure, I can tell you a good story. My son got lice twice, once from day-care and once in kindergarten. Both times we did most of the stuff you are doing right now. Both times we got rid of them first time around. Make you feel better??? Also, I understand the "ick" factor, but getting lice DOES NOT mean that your house or son's hygiene is dirty; and you don't need to be quarantined. Just don't share hats, helmets, etc until you know you have them licked.

Melaluca oil.......................... it's all natural.
Take some shampoo that you normally use and put it in a different container BUT add some Melaluca oil (Tee Tree Oil) to the shampoo. The shampoo should have that distinctive smell but don't over do it. You can also take a small spray bottle and mix the Melaluca oil with water.....spray it on as well.
The lice don't like it on the skin and acts like a bug repellant. I'm not exactly sure if it kills them, but it should keep them off of the head. or any other surface. They have it at Trader Joes.
I have 2 kids and have been lucky so far. Ahhhhhh, so dreading it............

My 2 daughters have enough hair for 3 heads and both got lice at different times. You can pick up lice anywhere brushing past an infected person at a store or park and one jumps to you. An adult louse can live in carpet for a month before feeding and then need to feed and jump on to the closest person.

To keep them gone:
vacuum all furniture, curtains, inside car
put stuffed animals in a plastic bag for a month or freeze them for a week
wash all pillows, mattress pads and other bedding in hot water and dry on high (if possible)

The trick to getting rid of them is cleaning the house and car completely.

You can also add Tea Tree Oil to your shampoo or buy one with Tea Tree Oil in it. Tea Tree Oil kills lice. Walgreens and Walmart both have a shampoo and conditioner called Tea Tree and Mint by Organics about $7.50 each.

I have gone round and round with lice and my GD. We used RID all the time. Then the last time I thought that the lice had become immune to the RID because I couldn't seem to get it to go away, despite all the laundry, spraying everything, and doing her hair with RID every 4 - 5 days for like 3 weeks! So this last time I tried Lice MD. It is very different than RID. It got rid of the lice with the first application and we haven't had a problem since. It's been 8 months!!!!!

I think the brown things you found this morning were the lice eggs that have hatched. The white eggs are ones that haven't hatched yet.

My suggestion would be to try the Lice MD instead of RID, continue with the laundry, and blow dry their hair every day. The heat of the blow dryer causes the lice to let go of the hair shaft and be blown out. If you blow dry on carpet, be sure to vacuum as soon as you're done.

First, not sure what the Listerine is suppose to do. Sounds like yet another old wives tale. You'll need to use RID or the store brand which is cheaper on everyone in the house. Once is enough. The RID kills them off, yes, but it's the combing that does the real work with a special comb to get rid of any eggs that are still attached to the hair shaft. You may have to cut off some of the hair to make the combing easier. I had to do that with my daughter's long hair. She had it the lightest out of the triplets but took the longest to get rid of because of her long hair. All of the work and expensive can drive you nuts and then the feeling of nastiness on top of it can make you batty! Make sure you throw away the vacuum bags or clean out the canisters after each use. Bag up stuffed animals for 2 weeks, anything with material. They will naturally die off. Comb the hair with nit combs every day for 2 weeks, as annoying as that sounds. Check heads daily. Notify anyone who you've been in contact with as it can take 2 weeks to appear on others. Boil the nit combs after each use. If you have cloth interiors in your car you can spray them with the lice spray that comes with the kits and vacuum the seats and floors, clean the vac when you're done. Remove car seat covers and wash them. You can vacuum them but I felt better washing them.

**Tea tree oil and all of that does not work. People thinks it does because it didn't return, when it was the combing that kept them away. And live will live on clean or dirty hair. That's another old wives tale to make people feel better so no need to walk around filthy, lol. So don't listen to the old wives tales. Just rid RID, and yes it still works, and comb daily and check.

K. B
mom to 5 including triplets

Don't do those shampoos and drugs on your child. They are pesticides and can soak through the skin. They don't do much good anyway.

Please go to headlice.org and get some good common sense ideas about how to move forward.

Head lice are everywhere and they like clean kids. They can stick their eggs to the clean shaft of hair. So in a weird way it's a compliment they chose your kids...lol.

The home remedy I find that works for me is to get a regular spray bottle from Walmart. Put a few drops of Tea Tree Oil in it then fill it up. Use it each and every morning when you are brushing their hair for the day. Spray it down well and style their hair. Putting girls hair up in a pony tail keeps it off the neighbors shoulders. Do not let them share brushes or dress up toys with anyone outside your family.

Head lice do not like Tea Tree Oil due to the smell and how oily it is. Walmart has it with the ethnic hair supplies. It's not very expensive either.

So, to summarize. Do not use poison on your children's hair anymore.

Google natural remedies to get rid of head lice especially the one site headlice.org.

Use water with a tiny bit if tea tree oil mixed in each and every morning to prevent lice from getting on the kids at all.

Finally, head lice is at epidemic proportions across the USA. It is the most common of all kids issues. Nearly every child has them on them now or will in the next few months.

We had them once, used the shampoo and vacuumed the house, washed the bedding the first night and then just dried them in the dryer the next few nights (heat kills lice and eggs), put electronics in the freezer for 5 hours just incase. We did use the lice comb daily and re-treated in 7 days. I think a lot of people just use the shampoo and do not do the lice combing which is what gets rid of the eggs. So buy the metal $10 comb at the drugstore and comb, comb, comb. Don't freak out, my husband and I never got it, the girls got it from trying on winter hats I think. We no longer try on hats or coats with hoods but take them home and put them in the dryer for half an hour. If it does not fit I return things.
Go to http://www.headlice.org/ and learn the facts and you will be a lot less upset: tit is pretty easy to interrupt their life cycle.

my older son will be 25 this year. Thru his lifetime & mine, I have never encountered head lice.....until this year. In the past 6 months, I have had 2 families pop up with it.

The 1st family was on holiday weekend, & called to tell me their 8month old baby had head lice. No one in my family nor the other daycare families nor the baby's family had it. WTHeck?

I completely tore apart our home, vacuumed every crevice, & bagged what couldn't be cleaned. I am still thankful that we never had it here. & I am shocked, because as much effort as my family put into the cleaning process....the baby's family simply vacuumed around the furniture & washed her bedding. That's it! I say they were danged lucky, because they also didn't treat her hair....simply removed the eggs/live bugs with the comb.

With my 2nd case, it was just recently. The children were here all day, & 1 hour after leaving....the mom contacted me with the notice. She ended up with 2 out of 4 of her children having it, & took the time to thoroughly clean her home. Her thought is that the kids got it from summer school....

Regardless, I cannot imagine not feeling like your skin is crawling. Even now, & it's been 2 weeks, I still cringe! Sounds like you're doing everything right....good luck!

& as for the Listerine....never heard of that remedy. :)

Oh girl, I feel for you. And your daughter. It's just the worst. My 4 year old daughter got it 3 times in preschool!!!!!!!! Ughhhhh! All because another childs' brother kept getting it from his elementary school. Every time he got it, his sister got it then they would have sleepy time on the rug and there it is on my daughter again. And she has thick wavy blond waist length hair. Just the worst!!!

So here was our process.

Be sure to wash bedding daily and bag up all her stuffed animals and pillow for two weeks. Vacuum daily.

We started with Licefreee. It still came back two weeks later. Then RID. Came back 3 weeks later. What FINALLY worked was a treatment with Cetaphil! With the Licefree and Rid I continued to find eggs but with the cetaphil I did not.

http://www.smsd.org/schools/belinder/news34181.htm

I did the Cetaphil treatment sunday afternoon and didnt wash it out of her hair until thursday. (Her school days were mon and wed). Sure it was waxy and thick but I just threw it up in a ponytail and braid. It protected her hair!

Put on a good movie and set her up by the TV. Comb those suckers out! Also check her hair every morning and night for the little eggs that are attached about an inch form the scalp. They seemed to be by the base of her scalp and sorta behind the ears area. If you can pick them out when they have a little black dot that means the baby is still in it. If its hatched then there is a nit in her hair.

Best of luck to you. Once you beat lice you can do anything!

I feel for you. It makes my head itch just thinking about it since we had our first experience with it last December. The best way to get rid of the lice is comb comb comb and look. If you see something close to the shaft of the hair that looks like dried skin but is stuck to the hair, that's the nit. You need to pull that off. They are stubborn little suckers but the key to getting rid of lice is getting rid of the nits. The shampoos don't always get rid of nits (or the lice) so look REALLY hard for those. The nymphs don't lay eggs so be sure to check every day or more often so you can catch those before they become adults.
According to all the state health states, lice DO NOT JUMP. "Head lice have no wings and do not fly or jump, but they can move quickly through hair. You can "catch" head lice through:

direct head contact with an infested person;
sharing personal items such as combs, brushes, other hair-care items, towels and pillowcases;
sharing clothing, headgear (hats, scarves, football and batting helmets, head phones, etc.), ribbons and other head coverings.
Shared school lockers and unassigned wall hooks for coats have been associated with higher rates of infestation than individual lockers. Even if schools have individual lockers, remember that there may be other times during the day when children's clothing comes together (e.g., throwing coats in a pile before or after recess)."

So vacuum your couches and chairs and floors, wash everything you can. Lice not on a human can only live 2-4 days, maybe a little longer if it's warmer. (I guess it was a good thing we got ours in the winter.

One non-chemical thing that is supposed to work is oil (vegetable/olive). Cover the hair in oil, then put a shower cap on for 8 hours (maybe less). This will suffocate the lice. Your child should not sleep with the shower cap on (or she may suffocate). Wash out the oil.
Good luck. (As I scratch my head)

Two summers ago I discovered that both of my boys had lice. I think they got it from the helmets when we went go-carting. (I make them wear the protective hair covers ever since.) I bought the shampoo and washed their hair with it. I washed their bedding. I threw their stuffed animals into a bag. For the next seven days I went through their hair with a nit comb (I did this in direct sun so I could see well). Seven days after the first treatment I shampooed again. I checked them for a few days after. I never found another bug or nit. My husband or I never got it, nor did any of their friends. It was really no big deal.
Reverend Ruby-lice can not jump or fly, and they can only live for about 24 hours without a human host. Kids get them from playing closely (hair touching). Watch little girls especially when they play, they like to be close. They can also get them from sharing hats, helmets and clothes (like playing dress up).
Cheryl B-the eggs are white/grey when first laid and turn brown/black before they hatch, then the empty shell left after they hatch is white.

Don't forget your Childs car seat!

I did not read through the responses, so if mine is a repeat, I apologize. Last year lice went around my daughters school and my daughter has a ton of hair, so I completely freaked...even considered having the 'removal' professionally done. However, after doing the RID routine, trying Listerine, etc. I stumbled upon an idea...a product that claimed to penetrate the hair shaft. What did I have to lose but a few dollars. It worked!!! I have been using the hair products on both my girls ever since. Moroccan Argan Oil by Organix. When I was trying to eliminate the lice, I generously applied the shampoo and let it set for about 5 minutes, rinsed thoroughly and then applied the conditioner and let it set for about 5 minutes as well. I have not had a problem since. If you can, use the RID lice comb to comb the conditioner through the hair before you rinse. Here is a link to the website so you can see what the product looks like. http://www.organixhair.com/category-title/27
Best of Luck to you and your daughters. You will get through this!

tea tree oil...put a few drops in your shampoo bottle. it doesnt have a pleasant smell but it will keep your child from getting them again...and dont freak out. most kids get it and they could get it anywhere. also lice prefer clean hair so dont think your gross...good luck

Rid doesnt work anymore. The lice are resistant to it. If you really want it gone first tiem around I'd go to the natural removal centers. I disney was pout in for her and they went through ever strand with a microscope just about and cut strands with remaining eggs. Knock on wood havent had an issue since.