Lice Issue

I would do whatever my granddaughter wished. I went through a similar experience as a child. I am so glad they didn't cut my hair as I loved my long, thick hair. Keep all "mortified" comments and behavior from her. Act like it is just a normal experience for elementary school-aged kids.

Have you tried a prescription shampoo from the doctor? When my daughter had lice (about the same age), her hair was very long, but not thick. Prescription shampoo did the trick.
Also, when I told the preschool, they said no one else had lice. Right?! No one else told.

If you are still dealing with this then it is probably time to hire a hair service to come to your house and do an effective and painstaking comb-through. They use eucalyptus oil. I'm sure you can find one of these services in your area; they seem to be everywhere now.

I'm a fan of long hair, but below the butt for any age is just too much hair, but that's my opinion. I'd cut it to the middle of her back. Also, lice love clean hair and they tend to stay away from hair that has any hair gel, hairspray, mousse, etc. in it. You may want to keep her hair up in a ponytail while at school and spray the nape of the neck hair w/ some hairspray, too.

Good luck, those are nasty little critters. Our school goes through waves of them and I'm dreading the day that our daughter comes home w/ them. I try to keep her hair up in pony, pig tails or braids to avoid it.

last winter (it is very common in fall and winter) we dealt with lice twice from my youngest daughters school. I was actually quiet ticked off the 2nd time because I know that is where it came from and I reported it to them but they didnt bother to check any classmates. grrrr I was afraid to send her back to school again once she was "clean" again.
Here is what I learned- my daughter has a LOT of hair so you think it is thick the the strands are quiet thin so it is weird...anyway- the combs don't work. You have to sit (unfortunately for hours probably) with her hair wet- like towel dry from a shower wet in good strong bright light and go like inch sections at a time and LOOK for the nits. The only way I could get them off her hair was to pinch the hair strands between my fingernails and pull from root to end to get them off. That being said long hair is long pulling but since the nits and the lice themselves only like the scalp area cutting her hair wont make much difference. With the rid and nit the bugs should be dead but you must get her nit free. this required removing them by hand. All stuffed animals, bedding, clothes,etc need washed and dried on high heat. Minimum stuff back on her bed- if she cant sleep without a specific teddy- then wash and dry that thing every time she contacts it. All others put in garbage bag and seal it up. I left mine sealed for 2 weeks after we were nit free. Combs sanitized everyday...I actually just went to the dollar store and bought a few packages that had like 10 combs in them and threw combs away every day. Make sure all her hair accessories were also washed or thrown out. Also blow dry her hair everyday- they like warmth from body heat but can't stand high heat. Once she is back to school- keep her hair in a bun- with hair that long a braid wont help too much. There is a "natural" spray that isn't as hard on the hair- you can spray it on every night before bed- let air dry and apply before school too. It smells like black licorice.
The nits hatch constantly and lice lay eggs constantly so if you have nits you will once agian have live bugs and so on and so on. Also Mayo under a showercap did work to help loosen the "glue" holding the nits on but didn't do too much else for my daughter. Treat everyone in the house and check everyone every day for atleast a week after she is free of lice. Keep washing, vacuuming etc for awhile too. Those buggers are sneaky. Also because I knew it came from school. every day when dd came come she stripped off coat,hat,gloves, clothes and put in laundry basket right inside the front door. I had clean clothes sitting there waiting for her and her school clothes went straight to the washer. time consuming yes- but once we started doing that we didn't get it back when they had an outbreak again. Makesure you follow the instructions to retreat even after you think she is good- but removing all those nits is the key!
I was also told my a pediatrian and a hair dresser that some reason lice HATE johnsons and johnsons origianl no more tears baby shampoo and sauve cocanut condition. We switched to that to be on the safe side.

Here are frequently asked questions and answers: http://headlice.org/faq/questions.htm

It will take about 2+ weeks at least to get totally rid of lice. First you treat the head to get rid of live ones. Then you comb daily to get rid of any eggs that hatched (babies or nymphs) and any eggs attached to the hair with a metal lice comb (spend the $10 at CVS, they are well worth it and the plastic ones that come with the treatment do not catch all the nits). Then a week later you treat the head again for any live lice that hatched and that you missed with the picking. Then you comb daily for another week to make sure you are no longer getting any hatched babies (nymphs) nor any eggs.

We sat our girl down on a stool in the bathroom with her handheld game, and it took an hour for her fine but shoulder length hair to be fully combed. I would put all her hair over to one side, take about a 1/2 inch flat (so about 5 strands thick) section of it, put the metal teeth of the lice comb against her scalp and run it to the end of the section of hair, swish the metal comb in a white bowl with hot water to see what comes out, then twist that section and let is fall to the clean side of the head. Repeat and repeat and repeat. When you do this daily you will see the bowl full of black spots the first day (after the treatment kills the live ones) and later in the week you should only be seeing tiny specks that at first looked like pieces of a louse to me, but were actually tiny baby lice. After the 2nd treatment a week later we were only still pulling out the occasional egg (tiny white globe close to the scalp, if you can blow it to move it then it is not an egg but dandruff).

A good home treatment for shorter hair is to cover the hair with Cetaphyl cleanser and let it harden. The lice breathe through their exoskeleton and when thevay are covered they cannot breathe and die. But you need to do this daily for about 10 days to make sure that all the eggs that hatched lice are also dead. Some people treat and do the combing then for added measure do the stiff dry Cetaphyl treatment overnight.

You do not have to wash bedlinens daily, you can just put them in the dryer for half an hour. Stuff that cannot take the heat can be put in the freezer for 5 hours.
Vaccum rugs and put stuffed animals in a bag for 3 weeks.

Headlice and their eggs cannot live away from the human head for more than 24-48 hours, so there is no real need to go crazy cleaning, since they die anyway, just don't lay your head where the infected head has been and don't share hats and combs, etc.

Good luck.

Wow! You have used a lot of products in 2 short weeks!. Not sure exactly why you're doing daily comb outs. I hope you have not used Rid more than twice, as it is not recommended to do a second treatment until 7-10 days? (I don't remember, exactly) Using those products more than recommended can really harm her.

What you need to do is put in a movie, let her sit in front of on the floor while you sit in the couch. Put all of her hair on one side of her head. Take a very small section of her hair and comb it out with a nit comb. Let this section of hair fall to the other side of her head. Take a new section of hair and repeat. Depending on how think (not how long) her hair is, you might have to do this about 30 to 50 times.

"Everything is washed down daily in hot water and dried, vacuumed, sanitized, etc." There is absolutely no need for this. Once you have washed it once, it should be good. You might try to keep her hair away from fabricy things as much as possible, but there is no need for such overkill.

I'm so glad you learned more about lice. Lice is a pain in the butt, there's no doubt about it. It's really not harmful, other than really making your head itch, and it really can happen to anyone. In fact, it happens to just about everyone at some point.

Hang in there. You really will get rid of it!

to answer, well its would be easier, but still not less time consuming. Its just part of having good ole lice. I think though after 2 treatments you shouldnt be seeing any adults. It SHOULD only be the nits now your picking out. So I think with 2 weeks worth you dont need to keep combing, maybe your not getting all the adults then.

I know it costs $$ but your area may have a service that either they come to you or a salon that specializes in removing them from her hair for you. There is a place in Chicago I was told for $200 the Hair Fairies etc. would comb out the nits. It might be worth trying.

Also, my dd has long hair to her butt...I am going to have several inches cut but I purposely put her hair in a ponty tail for school and use argon oil, conditioner...hair spray. I hold my breath every time there is an outbreak and pray my kids aren't affected.

she might be getting the lice over and over again. not that your not doing a great job of detting it out the first time! i would call a hair salon and ask them what to do. if you know of a hair dresser willing to come over and help you with the shamoohing of the lice i would jump on that quickly. also her pillowcase, and all that other stuff on or around her head needs to be sanitized.

I remember a girl who had very long and pretty hair. she got lice and cut it to her sholders. it was so odd she had to cut her hair because of lice. she was in jr. high not 4 so i doubt it would be tramatic like it was for the older girl.

sorry your little one is dealing with this. sorry your still dealing iwth it too~

We had a bout of lice and hated it as much as the next person! We used lice MD and then combed every 2-3 days for 14 days. We repeated the actual treatment twice. We never used the house products because my research showed them having a brief lifespan off a host (a couple of hours) and once they were off the host they weakened quickly and couldn't "jump" or anything to a new host (only if you put your hair on top of them). We found the key to be in the combing. As for cutting hair or not, I'm sure whoever is in charge of the hair will make the right choice for them (which can be largely influenced by the maintenance).

Please go to headlice.org and read some of the suggestions there. Do not put any more chemicals on your child's skin. It is SOOOOO not necessary and it is possible to hurt her with all the stuff.

I have done a couple of very good things that always works. If you can color her hair try that. An all over permanent hair color kills the bugs. Putting about half a jar of mayo on the hair then putting on a shower cap for at least an hour suffocates the bugs.

Pouring a bottle of clean alcohol over the scalp and hair works too. The lady at the front desk in our ER told me that she got head lice when she was pregnant. They could not do any treatments what so ever. They did the alcohol it is instantly kills the bugs and the nits glue is dissolved so they should come right out.

If you have treated her and it is still recurring then something is not being done correctly. I think the advice on headlice.org would still help with a check list of what to do in the home.

Either someone else in the home is giving it right back to her or she is not getting rid of them correctly.

Head lice like clean people. They cannot stick their babies to dirty hair.

Cutting her hair will not make it less appealing to the bugs, it will only make it more enjoyable to them.

Well i know i'm prob gonna get flack for this but the only sure way is to just shave it all off. Sorry, but it's true. I know there are other, less humiliating, ways but that's what i'd do, but that's just me. Best of luck, i'm sure you'll get some great tips here.

My son has had lice 3x since he started school in kindergarten. It is a pain to get rid of and all the things you have to do to make sure they don't keep getting it. I can only imagine what a hassle it would be if my child had long hair. We use a product called nit free. It is a chemical free treatment so there is no worry that it could harm her. They have a treatment to get rid of the lice, they also have a shampoo and a mint spray to maintain a lice free head. Once we got rid of the lice I have been able to keep him nit free by putting pomade in his hair EVERYDAY. Lice likes clean hair. If you braid her hair and apply a healthy dose of hairspray it will probably keep her lice free. The other thing you need to do is make sure she is not using anything that is shared between students (headphones, dress up clothes, hats, combs, etc.) The other thing is keeping her backpack seperate from the others. Lice do not jump they crawl and they will crawl from backpack to backpack. I spray my kids backpacks, coats and their heads with the mint spray every day before school and (knock on wood) we have survived to out breaks this year without any lice! Yeah! Good luck to you!

According to my hairdresser, you need to put it in a braid everyday. But before the braid, spray it down with anti lice spray and keep it dirty. Lice hate that.

Did you follow the directions to rewash with the RID after 7 or 10 days?

Just to be sure - have you or your hubby and all in your home been checked?

Have you done the mayo or olive oil overnight? Saturate the hair in mayo and put it in a shower cap (snugly). Nothing will survive 8 hours of that. Then keep a lot of hairspray and lice spray in her hair with a braid.

Good luck!!

My daughter's school had a policy of NOT TELLING the parents if one of the kids got lice. So the only way we broke the cycle that started in March was to have school get out. Do the math-we fought those babies forever.
Both of my girls and I got them, we spread them to another school before I knew they were back at our house, omg! They are so disgusting. Makes me itch to think about them.
The over-the-counter products were not working efficiently so I called the pediatrician. He prescribed a totally horrid and toxic chemical that we had to keep on our heads for 6 hours and nothing moved after that. Two treatments a little over a week apart did the trick. He said that many of the lice are immune to the over-the -counter stuff.
I did wash EVERYTHING when I did the treatments. Also kept the live spray around and sprayed stuff that couldn't be washed. But mostly it was the prescription lotion that killed them and getting the kid out of school that broke the cycle.
Good luck. And really $200.sounds pretty cheap for one of those companies if it works. I spent way more than that on products, dry cleaning, etc.

Been there. Very embarassing the way our school did it-they called students individually to the nurse but from the same class room in one day. If the student didn't come back, all the other students knew that one had lice!! So much for privacy!!
Both my girls had hair the length of their backs-when younger, I kept it in a braid. As the kids get older, hygiene kicks in for the kids and it gets a little better around 4th grade. Very rare instances at that grade.
Walmart sells a Robi-comb. It was about $25 but so worth it!! It uses a battery and emits a sonic vibration which kills the lice and the nit. Really helps on long hair.
We usually did this outside in bright light-took about an hour to do very carefully. I also did one wash of the shampoo just in case.
All stuffed animals were put in bags and left in the closet for 2 weeks-bedspreads, sheets and pillows were washed and dried.