UGH! Lice

My X SIL had a lice problem in her house...nothing worked except olive oil...same deal, head wrapped in plastic and left on overnight. I believe she tried mayo, too, and it worked (since it is mostly oil)...the idea is to smother them so anything oil based will work.

~L.

yes it works! I was soo freaked out though I had her wear it all night! hahaha also-empty vacuum everytime-the cleaning part is just as important as picking the eggs out! clean! clean !! and more to clean!!

Mayo does not work. My sister had lice and we tried everything the only thing that finally worked was consistently doing the rid treatments. But all the mayo did was make a huge mess and her hair smelled horrible even after about 5 shampoos. Also if you have a hard time getting rid of it antibiotics helps

We went through this too, and I feel for you. It is awful. My daughter had it, and we learned that nits hate dirty hair. So the best thing (once you get rid of the buggers) is to put hairspray or hair gel in their hair. I would not treat your other children if they do not have any nits. But the best way to get rid of them is with the comb and the lice treatment. Also be sure to wash all bedding in scalding hot water, and maybe even throw away pillows. Good luck!

Hi C.,

I guess I don't have to tell you lice is no fun. I used to think I would die if my kids got it. I have to admit I was wrong because here I am.

I want to share a little information about the Lice Shampoo you get at the drug store. It contains the same ingredient as wasp spray only the shampoo has a stronger dosage. Scarey hu? They are also becoming less effective because the lice is becoming immune to it.

To get them out of the house, Vacuum everything often. Couches, matresses, carpets and anything else that is soft and can't be thrown in the washer and dryer.

In addition to what you are already doing, I would put a little tea tree oil in my family shampoo. Lice hate it and will avoid your children. Any time we hear someone in my granddaughters class has lice we use it and she has never had lice. Maybe it will keep them from coming back into your house.

Good luck.

Donna

If you did on line research than I assume you know about hot water washing and bagging all pillows, stuffed animals, backpacks, coats, hats and ALL un-hot washable items for 2 weeks? Check for nits for 2 weeks, too. Vacuum EVERY surface. And have your daughter wear her hair tied back. In spite of all that my daughter was re-infested in 3 weeks!

I'm sorry!! I just went through the same issues with my three children. My son, I was just able to buzz his head. He wanted me to anyway; "it looks cool!" The girls, I used the RID kit, which consists of shampoo, comb out gel, and the bed spray. It comes with combs. Follow directions to a T. Wash everthing! Spray mattresses, and furniture. Wash pillow cases. Place pillows in the dryer on high heat for about 10-15 minutes. No need to wash them. Any stuffed animals, plastic bag them tightly for two weeks. Any girls dress up clothes, wash them also. And yes, do the other childrens hair too! It wouldn't be a bad idea to do your own hair too! After all, you do sit wherever they have sat!! Here is a good sight that I found. It might help with different ideas.
http://www.make-stuff.com/formulas/lice.html
Good luck!!!

Don't waste your money on the Rid stuff. You can get bug spray with the same active ingredient - more spray for less money and does the same thing. YES - THE MAYO THING WORKS!!! I just did it this summer when my daughter came back from camp (oh joy!). We put on a nice thick coat, used a shower cap and kept it on for 5 hours (I'm a bit paranoid) while I did the laundry, spraying and vacumming. Then I spent a couple hours picking through her hair for eggs (again, I'm paranoid). That's it! Bugs gone and her hair looked fabulous from the conditioning treatment!

One of my daughters had this problem last year and it felt like we battled it for about a year! Yes those lice can be very pesky!

We tried everything! My best advice would be to make sure you follow-up in 7 - 9 days even if you don't think you need to. In fact, if it happened to me again I would do it a third time in another 7 - 9 days! And make sure you comb out with a good nit comb often!

Sanitize combs, brushes and hair items in boiling water and then sit in vinegar.

Put stuffed animals in garbage bag and throw in dryer. Or I've also been told to just keep them tied up tight for a week.

We would do everything - vacuum, wash everything, treat every family memeber, tell the daycare, etc etc. and we thought we got rid of it and then a month later we'd find it in her hair again! So keep on it. Good luck!

C. beinig a mother of five girls real long hair i know your pain have delt with lice on more then more then more then one time and not wnating to shave my daugter bald after putting that god aful stuff on ther e haif i found a god send of a thing it called a robie combi they have it at rite aid for about 30.00 it beep and buzz and when it stop you know it got some thin you run it thur the hair in small section and it wonderful treat all hair comb all hair spray all beads wash all beddig dry all pillows bags or suffed annimalls vacumm and sparray all carpet jacket that they woren car seat car carpet furetur then you need too do it all a again in a about seven to ten day i me i do it in seven i just hate the nasty little bugs good luck and get your self some dove chocolate it will help you get thuru it with a smile on your face

Hi C.,

We've been through this. If yur other children have bugs, or nits, thenyes, theydo ned to be treated. When we had it, our dermatologist told to repeat the RID 3 times, if we still saw nits, 3 days apart, becasue if you miss a nit, it take that long to hatch. If you still have them, then it could be a resistant type of lice and will need a very strong prescription to get rid of it. Because of the strength of that, they are really reluctant to prescribe it, unless you are sure that all of the other methods have failed. So be diligent with your nit checks on all 3 of them, do a lot of laundry, washing their coats daily, and all of their clothes, washing bedding. It involves a lot of laundry, and it is an enormous amount of work. If you are diligent it will go away. Good luck

You can use Mayo or Olive oil, it suffacates them. The longer you leave it on the better. The Mayo is easier to wash out than the oil. The other choice is to shave the boys. No hair-no bugs!! I just did this for my 3 yr. old. For my 2yr old I did the NIX conditioner treatment to be on the safe side. Do it in thfe bath tub after a bath with littl or no water in tub, she has little hair so i just ran the comb all over her head in different directions. I used the oil in my oldests hair when she was younger and it does word. Make sure to get car seats with the spray. Vacume everything and wash all bedding, what cant be washed or vacumeed put in a plastic bag for 3-4 days you could leave it in the sun during the day to heat things up. Good luck!!

Hey LICE is no fun you have to wash everything from sheets to bedding to combs, hope u can get rid of them L. from Hazel Park,Mi

My sister and I are both preschool teachers and swear by using lavender soaps to keep lice away. I'm not sure if it helps once you have it, but it might help to keep them away from now on! Good luck!

It looks like you've gotten lots of advice already, but I'll put my 2 cents in. Here is a link to a magazine article I just read about a week ago.

http://wondertime.go.com/learning/article/how-to-treat-li...

Basically, you have to meticulously come through your child's hair. Obviously, there is a lot more information than that in the article. But you do want to minimize the amount of lice-killing shampoos you use because, just like anibiotic-resistant bacteria, the lice are mutating to become immune to the lice-killing shampoos. Besides, I don't think it's a good idea to pesticides on your child's head if you can avoid it.

Best of luck!

C.

I had a Lice situation a few months back- I tried rid more than once-to no success- then oil as instructed by the school that didn't work either- my sister told me about using Mayo- and it did work- I don't believe we left it on that long however- I believe it was more like 1 hour-

Just went through this a few months ago!!! I am SO sorry for you!!! It was horrid. Here are my tips that I learned by experience.

1. shave the boys in your house down to as short of hair as possible--trust me, it will save you other cases of headlice! Keep your daughter's hair up and hair sprayed--lice HATE hair products.

2. Do NOT spray that Rid Lice Spray anywhere. It is a really dangerous product and it doesn't help. Good old fashioned laundry & vacuming will do the trick in your house.

3. We did the RID treatments as well as vinegar rinses after shampooing EVERY night for 7 nights. After washing hair, rinse thoroughly in vinegar and then wrap in a towle(wet) and leave for 20 min or so. Then do your routine nit picking.

4. Buy a good, metal nit comb. Those little plastic ones don't do anything.

5. Best tip of all....do dilligent nit picking EVERY SINGLE day for 2 weeks...or until you find not ONE more nit. I found most times it was easier to pull them down the strand of hair with my finger tips!

UGHHHHHH I'm remembering it all again!!!! hahaha You will survive!!! Laundry every day/vacume every day...nit pick every day!!!! Good luck!

vaseline!!!two things lice hate the most is grease and heat. not to be stereotypical but african americans are less likely to get lice. that is because we use hairdressing (hair grease in our hair and ocassional heat.) go to the beauty supply and get oil sheen spray the other children's hair with oil sheen u can get a lite version......i know what im talking about.because rid doesn't always get it

We went through this, too, and made the mistake of looking at one of the little bugs thru a microscope - it is gross! The thing you need to remember is that any missed ones can come back up to two weeks after you think the problem is "cured". It's important to vacuum every day, put stuffed animals in airtight plastic bags for two weeks, and wash all sheets and pillow cases in hot water. Putting stuff in the hot dryer for 20 minutes works, too. Don't forget to vacuum the backs of the seats in the car, also. I've found the spray not to be especially effective. It's easier to comb out the nits if you dip the comb in baby oil during the procedure. Go at them strong so you're not dealing with them over and over. Keep checking the kids every day, I don't think they need the shampoo unless they have nits or bugs.

You can stick with the OTC product or get a prescription fomr your pediatrician. If you do not want to use medications, you can go somewhere like this:
http://www.hairfairies.com/index.html (I live in Chicago right now and they have a location here). A good alternative to using medicated shampoos. I have no idea about those other home remedies, but manually removing the nits will do the job, it just is time consuming. Lice are really common so try not to stress!

I agree that putting the tea tree oil in the shampoo seems to keep them away, I even put a little in the water that I wet thier hair with in the AM. Since they don't like dirty hair, put some mouse or shampoo, or hair spray in thier hair.

I tried a bunch of stuff all at once, and it worked, but I did mayo overnight with shower caps, olive oil, while I was waiting for liceX, a natural product that seemed to work great! I used it, and could not find not one bug or nit, they were all gone. I recommend it.

H.

So sorry to hear you are going through this. You received ALOT of great advice, but one I didn't see that I found on the Internet was Listerine! We tried it. I don't know if that's what worked or the Rid or what, but it seemed like it helped. Look it up on the Internet. I figured it couldn't hurt to try it. Also, when I called Rid's customer service, they said to reapply in 7-10 days, just to be sure, because they hatch again. We did the comb through EVERY single night for weeks. She hated it, but it had to be done. Good luck!

Hello C.,

I've heard of the mayo( not miracle whip just the real stuff) and saran wrap. I was told that it works. I do know you need to repeat it a few times because it takes 7-10 days for eggs (nits) to hatch.

Wash bedding and everything else in hot water. Other things such as stuff animals,etc, put in plastic bags for at least 10 days. The adult can not survive without a blood source for 24 hours.

I also, heard tea tree oil repels lice. You can buy it already in shampoo or buy it at a health food store.

I hope I helped a little, L.

Hi, I am a teacher, my children have not had lice thankfully! However, there is a non-toxic enzyme shampoo available! It is called Lice R Gone. It works the best! It also gets rid of the nits as well! It is safe and works! You can go to www.safesolutionsinc.com or other stores such as Walgreens or Meijers or health food stores etc. to get it. Good Luck! Our school has used it and it works great!

UGH is right. You have some great advice but don't forget to vacuum the car head rests. We kept rotating through our kids and they were in the back seat of the vehicle. Any where they laid their heads vacuum or wash! Good Luck and keep after it.

Don't make the salad! RID should be enough and if it isn't then you should see the doctor to get a prescription treatment. Also, it's very important to wash EVERYTHING in HOT water and dry very thoroughly. When my kids and my sister's kids all got lice at daycare we did 23 loads in one night at the laundromat. All of the coats, pillows, sheets, blankets, comforters in your house that have been used recently plus any clothes he wore in the days before you found the nits. If there are any stuffed animals in the house, put them in garbage bags for at least 2 weeks. Good luck! They're a pain to get rid of but if you do it right you won't be doing it again in 2 weeks.

Don't feel bad is awful but treatable. Yes you should do all the other children in the house including you and your husband. You need to bag up their stuffed animals for a week, spray the bedding, boil water and put all hair combs, and brushes. I know that to loosen up the nits laundry detergent works well. You can also try the oil, olive oil and wrap the head that sufficates the lice, but if you used rid they shouild be dead you just need to get the nits out and any eggs because they can hatch.

The vegtable oil works, but it works better if you add some eucalyptus oil to it, then wash out with Neutrogena T-Gel Extra Strength (1% coal tar). Lice hate this stuff. I tried everything, but once I started doing this, they were gone. Anytime we hear of a breakout at school, and before my kids get it, we start washing with the T-Gel and add a little eucalyptus oil to it and my kids don't get any lice. If you can't find eucalyptus oil, peppermint also works just as well. Just don't get any of these oils in your childs eyes cause it will burn bad. Cover their eyes with a dry hand towel during the washing. And be sure to pick the nits too, daily, till they are all gone.

Ugh. I have no help to offer with the salad idea, but I just wanted to give my sympathies. I'm a former teacher and always got scared of getting it from leaning over one of my students with my long hair. I never did, but all the teachers would start itching as soon as we heard there was an outbreak in our room. I know how much work it is to get rid of them and I want to cry just thinking about what you're going through. Ugh. Just make sure you bag or wash EVERYTHING in your house...stuffed animals, bedding, your baby's lovey, etc. It's so easy to miss one thing and reinfect everyone again.

You don't have to use mayo! Plain old hair conditioner will do the trick and you don't have to wait hours. Check out this website it has tons of great advice!

http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/phtm/PHTM/hlice/hlinfo1.htm

H.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news - but I remeber when my brother and I would get these that my parents would have to treat EVERY surface our heads came in contact with including the couch, any chair we sat in, the seats in the car, our hats everything!! As a precautionary measure I would treat all siblings as well. You could probably get away with just the Rid on their heads and bedding. I don't remember if my parents sprayed our sheets, blankets & pillow cases or just threw them in the wash - they may have actually done both and then sprayed the pillows and mattresses down. I remember it being a horrid ordeal. You may also want to notify his teacher, so that the other kids in his class are checked (that was how we always found it on us - we always got it from another classmate).

Please do whatever you do very thoroughly, no matter how much trouble it is, so you don't have to do it all over again. I'd treat every adult and child in the house and spray the couch etc. I put stuffed animals in a sealed bag for awhile and totally did all the bedding. If you know where he got them from, you can try to elminate or avoid the source. My daughter's neighbor child never got treated and kept re-infecting her kids. The neighbor mother wouldn't take it seriously so they had to stop playing with this child for a few weeks. This stuff is horrendous! Be sure to warn anyone your son might've infected too - cousins, sleepover friends etc. Make sure there's no hat or comb/brush-sharing. Until we dealt with it with grandchildren, I had no clue!

I have had to deal with this a few times.IT was an epidemic with my kids school and it's a real pain in the butt.
I have spoke with pharmacist and the board of health about these remedies that you read online and majority of them are ok but usually you will end up going thru all the headaches again.
you see once you use the shampoo there is a residue left on the childs head that is suppose to be there so the eggs don't hatch.
I was als told by the pharmacist and board of health nurses that you don't have to saturate the whole hair just the scalp of the head.

If you use mayo or conditioner it removes the residue and you may end up having to start all over again.
I don't know if you have the stuff I get from the pharmacy where you are but I have found lice stuff called Resultz,it is an oil appose to the shampoo and it works awesome.It doesn't have all the nasty chemicals that are toxic and you put it on the childs head the same way you would the shampoo and when you rinse you can watch the little buggers just fall off the childs head and it also makes it easier to comb their hair.However what you need to do combing is comb upwards on the hair shaft then back down it helps to losen the eggs more efficiently as well.

It says you can shampoo the kids hair after and what have you however I never have I didn't really care at that point if my girls had greasy hair for a couple of days.I never had a problem afterwards.

Also with the stuffed animals and such I put them in my deep freezer for 48 hours and that would cure any problem if there was any critter attached.(lice will live only up to 48 hours off the head then die)

C.,

I'm sorry. I swear that cleaning the house and making sure everything soft that can't be washed is in bags in the garage for a few weeks and the constant vacuuming, cleaning is worse than taking care of their heads.

As for their heads, the last time one of my daughters came home with lice, we could not get rid of it. The conventional shampoo and even the prescription wasn't working. I was at my wits end when my sister told me of reading about mayo working. At that point I would have tried anything because I was close to shaving her long hair.

I had good plastic wrap, store bought mayo, and a package of the thin plastic shower caps as well as a good thick heavy one, both from the dollar store.

I completely slathered her head in the mayo, aaaaaall the way to the roots to make sure that it was covering her scalp, because it smothers them and I was not giving them any air pockets. I wrapped her head good with the plastic wrap, then a thin cap, more plastic wrap making sure it covered forehead, neck, etc, then the heavy shower cap and more plastic wrap. I wanted to make sure it didn't slip off and get everywhere.

Her head weighed about twenty pounds lol, so we propped her on pillows in her bed, brought her sandwiches for lunch and dinner, drinks through a straw and put on many videos. I would definitely not go less than 8 hours. You want to make sure that it suffocates both the bugs and any nits. It's worth the time to make sure everything is taken care of.

I spent hundreds of dollars before I found that the above process for about 8 dollars took care of it. And without fear of poisoning my child, repeatedly.

The most important thing is to make sure that the house is thoroughly, thoroughly cleaned because thats where they'll come back from. Vacuum and wash like crazy and anything that you can't wash and dry in hot hot.. put into garbage bags and toss them into the basement or garage, not to be opened before three weeks.

Good luck and if you need anything or have any questions, I am at your service...

L.