Lice-what do I do???

I would pull my daughter from the camp....only because that's how afraid I am of anyone in my family ever getting lice (no one in my family ever has, knock on wood now). I have read about how awful it is to have and get rid of. I think of gymnastics camp - and all the kids lying down, tumbling, doing forward rolls on those mats. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.
 
DD got lice from, wait for it...a flea market! :laughing: she will never try hats on again! We got the prescription Sklice from the doc and it was amazing. Followed the directions, used it once, cleaned all bedding and they were gone. It is actually ivermectin, the same ingredient in Heartgard for dogs and has been used for parasites in third world countries for years.
 
My kids school had lice more times than I care to think about when they were small. What I did: DD's hair was not washed, in tight pigtails, sprayed liberally with tea tree oil, and then sprayed with hair spray. My son was easier. His hair was super short to begin with, not washed, sprayed with tea tree oil. Neither of them ever got lice, even though close friends of theirs were among the victims. Tea tree oil really does work to repel those suckers.
 


Thank you all SO MUCH! I'm going to get some supplies for "just in case" and use tea tree oil starting today to prevent. Hopefully it won't be an issue but I might as well be prepared. Ugh....

We put 10-15 drops of tea tree oil in a medium size spray bottle and spray our son's hair every morning before school. We also don't let him wash his hair with shampoo during the school year. He simply rinses it when he showers and puts conditioner on it. It has kept them away so far after several lice outbreaks at school. Good luck!
 
We put 10-15 drops of tea tree oil in a medium size spray bottle and spray our son's hair every morning before school. It has kept them away so far after several lice outbreaks at school. Good luck!
Do you mix it with anything?
 


First, get a Tea Tree shampoo and use that, then put gel in her hair and put it in a bun everyday.
This is a good preventative. When we have lice outbreaks at school all the little girls start coming to school with their hair gelled til it's crunchy and braided. Tea tree oil is very drying for hair so we ended up getting a tea tree conditioner as well - I think we found it at Trader Joes.

My coworker loved the products on this website: https://fairytaleshaircare.com/

And from experience my coworker and I agree this is the best lice comb:
https://www.amazon.com/Nit-Free-Ter...-spons&keywords=nit+free+terminator+comb&th=1
 
I worked at a camp once where the source of the lice were the helmets (for zip lines, bike riding) - and they lived from one season to the next. So be careful of helmets as well as sharing other head gear.

We were fortunate DD never got them (and she did gymnastics for many years), but I always kept lice treatment on hand in my bathroom closet just in case, given what I saw at the camp.
 
We went through lice a few summers ago after my kids attended an event where they all got to try on a fireman's hat and someone in the group overshared by giving everyone lice. We did the standard OTC products and got it taken care of in a little over a week. Fast forward to last December, my trashy step SIL came to a camping event (whole weekend)...and several of her kids as well as one of the kid's girlfriends (also in attendance) had been battling with lice for over 2 months...and they didn't tell anyone until after the fact. She's super irresponsible and her kids often got sicker than they needed to because she can't follow through with giving meds and treatments as often as you should. Hence why it took them so long to get rid of the lice. And of course everyone (almost 70 of us) at this camping event was exposed. My doctor suggested we treat our kids with lice shampoo like we would if we'd actually seen lice on their heads...but skip the combing process if we hadn't seen any actual bugs or eggs. I still combed. Then she advised us to clean EVERYTHING like we would if we were actually dealing with them...just to be safe.
 
I would pull my daughter from the camp....only because that's how afraid I am of anyone in my family ever getting lice (no one in my family ever has, knock on wood now). I have read about how awful it is to have and get rid of. I think of gymnastics camp - and all the kids lying down, tumbling, doing forward rolls on those mats. Sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

This is what I was thinking too. Hopefully the camp is getting things cleaned up as much as they can. I would def. get more info from them about what they are doing.
 
Here where I am, if there was a child with lice they were sent home and couldn't return until the problem was fixed and the head was checked.
That is now NOT allowed, yup, a child cannot not be sent home or kept out of school if they have head lice.
What a recipe for disaster.
One of my daughters best friends is a kindergarten teacher and she caught them as did her 1 yr old daughter, grandma and auntie.
Poor family.
We have lice clinics here that will take care of everything, but its $$$$.
Cost our friend over $500.
 
Here where I am, if there was a child with lice they were sent home and couldn't return until the problem was fixed and the head was checked.
That is now NOT allowed, yup, a child cannot not be sent home or kept out of school if they have head lice.
What a recipe for disaster...

I believe they quietly made the same changes here, and it blows my mind as well! In my opinion, we need to stop tying funding to attendance, but that's a whole thread on it's own.
 
My daughter goes to a gymnastics camp during the summer. We were told that kids are showing up with lice! They have been checking the kids twice a day every day but told us to not wash her hair just to be safe. Apparently they like clean heads? Who knew....

I've never dealt with lice before thankfully. What else can I do to be sure she doesn't get it? Should I slather her up with mayo? Will that kill everything if she has it??

HELP!!
Can she just not go to camp? i wouldn't risk it IMO.
 
Prevention is the best answer. They have to go to school even if it's going around. But they don't have to go to gymnastics camp. I'd seriously consider keeping her home.

I became the head police when my kids were little. Exposure prevention is key. I would dive from the opposite side of the room if my kid picked up a hat (or even ears at Disney) and looked like they were going to try it on.

Lice don't jump, so require contact to spread. You must teach your child to minimize opportunities for direct contact.

The other important piece of information is that they only live for a couple days without a live host.

If you are treating a person, you need to be treating the house and anything else their head came into contact with. This is a huge amount of work, but needs to be done. Things that can't be washed or sprayed can be bagged and set aside for a week or so.

We went through lice a few summers ago after my kids attended an event where they all got to try on a fireman's hat and someone in the group overshared by giving everyone lice. We did the standard OTC products and got it taken care of in a little over a week.


People hosting an event like that should know better. Shame on them. They had a speaker at my daughter's grade school where they asked for a volunteer to try on some pioneer clothing including hat. I cringed when my daughter said she had volunteered. I immediately became "that parent" and called the principal to give her a piece of my mind. They should know better
I worked at a camp once where the source of the lice were the helmets (for zip lines, bike riding) - and they lived from one season to the next. So be careful of helmets as well as sharing other head gear.

We were fortunate DD never got them (and she did gymnastics for many years), but I always kept lice treatment on hand in my bathroom closet just in case, given what I saw at the camp.

Our first case came from a shared batting helmet at the YMCA. I was young and naive then. ;) I got a crash course in lice treatment soon after when both boys started scratching. The fact that one of the boys on the team had shaved his head recently and showed up with his own helmet then made more sense. Shame on those parents for not warning everyone. My husband started coaching after that and I started every season by explaining to parents why they needed to buy and use their own helmets.

I'm pretty sure my boys also got it several times from one of those chain haircutting places. It abruptly stopped for good when I bought my own clippers and taught myself to cut hair.
 
Last edited:
Oh my goodness I feel for you. After dealing with it 3 times now in my 14 years of motherhood, I’m constantly on edge. “Why are you scratching? Get the comb I’m checking your head!” My kids love me....

If you have it in the budget, and have it available in your area, take them to a place that will deal with it for you. The peace of mind that it was being handled thouroughly and professionaly was worth the money.
 
Get a metal comb, the plastic one in the kit was not helpful to us. Wet hair, cover with conditioner, split into lots of sections, and comb each section out. We would comb each section until we could get 100 strokes nit free. Then move on to the next section. Repeat that process 2x per day. After we stopped seeing them, we dropped it down to 1x per day for several more days just to make sure. I didn't get them, and I had been laying on her pillow tucking her in the night before the infestation was found.
 
Get a squeeze bottle, fill it with coconut oil and diluted tea tree oil. Squeeze onto the roots, comb through.

As I understand the #1 treatment is combing and combing and yet more combing.
 

GET A DISNEY VACATION QUOTE

Dreams Unlimited Travel is committed to providing you with the very best vacation planning experience possible. Our Vacation Planners are experts and will share their honest advice to help you have a magical vacation.

Let us help you with your next Disney Vacation!










Top