Lice-what do I do???

[RangerPooh]

It can be a nightmare to get rid of. DDs both came home from summer camp with it a few years back. Our oldest has super thick hair, and at the time it was well past her butt, it was frustrating to comb multiple times a day, taking at least 60-75 minutes each time and we did it twice a day. Tea tree oil did help. The product that we use once we have it is Lice Free Spray, it has worked the best out of all over the counter options that we have tried.

If she still doe snot yet have it, keep her hair bound tight and spray it down. Avoid others heads and monitor it morning and night. Don;t share headbands, hats, towels, brushes, etc.

 

[robinb]

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.

This.

My DD had lice years (and years) ago and shared them with me. The lice laughed at lice shampoo and tea tree oil. I thought I got rid of them and *poof* they came back even after multiple shampoo treatments.

I used a variation of your method called The Lice Program, but one that included days off from combing:
http://www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/theliceprogram/index.html

I originally didn't want to do it because it takes 3 weeks and I didn't want to spend that much time on it. After 2 months of battling lice using other methods mentioned in this thread, I figured I had nothing to lose. It worked like a charm! The second time my DD came home with lice I went right to The Lice Program and the were gone in 3 weeks with no messy olive oil or mayo and no pesticides. The other thing I liked about this method is that it doesn't worry about nits, just live lice as you can miss a nit and the process starts all over again.

 

[portocall]

My son got them from a summer camp when he was four. I was so thankful he was at an age where we could shave his head. I got lice when I was ten and my mother was so dramatic about it. Of course, it is assumed that I brought it home to the whole family since my head was the worst but I can still hear my mother's screams.

You have gotten very good advice. Prevention is so much better than dealing with those little bugs. Good luck.

 

[aprilchem]

As a mom who has been through lice many, many times (my kids go to a low-income school where many families can't afford lice treatment, so there's usually 5-6 lice episodes per class per year) including once just last week, I've gotten pretty good at getting rid of them, and I've never had them "come back" or spread to another child in my house. Here's what I've found:

• Mayo, coconut oil, olive oil, and all the other home remedies don't work. Tea Tree Oil doesn't work - we've tried that several times and my children still got lice. The leave in conditioner spray (Fairy Tales) doesn't work - my daughter got lice twice when we were using that stuff religiously.
• In my area, at least, the chemical treatments (RID and Nix) do work - lice aren't resistant to them. I find Rid to be a bit more effective than Nix, but I never find live lice after treating with either. Nix makes their hair look terribly greasy for a while so I try to get RID if I can.
• Treating carpets, mattresses, rugs, etc. is useless in my opinion. We get rid of them just as easily by only treating the bedsheets (washing in hot water and drying on hot), bagging stuffed animals for 2 weeks, and putting the pillows on the couch in the dryer for 30 minutes. The first few times we went crazy cleaning everything in the house - I even treated every area rug we had. But I don't see a difference if I don't.
• A good lice comb makes a big difference. My favorite is the Nit Terminator comb, which I bought on amazon. I usually don't see any lice or eggs at all after the 2nd day of combing if I use the Nit Terminator, whereas it takes 4-5 days of combing with a regular comb.
• If it's during the school year and they're wearing a coat, don't let them put their coat on the hooks on the wall. I feel like that's where the lice usually spread in the classroom, so I send my kids with a plastic bag and have them keep their coat inside their backpack inside a plastic bag.
• Here's how I comb - I get a spray bottle and put water and some conditioner in it and shake it really hard to mix. Then I sit on the couch and have the kid sit on the floor in front of me. I spray their hair and get it good and wet. We turn a good movie on so the child sits still and it makes it more pleasant for me. Then I section the hair off and comb each section, wiping my comb on a white paper towel after each combing, and dipping it in rubbing alcohol occasionally. I comb each section until I can comb 20x and not see any eggs or lice, then move on to a new section. I probably do 20-30 sections in total.
• Then, each day after that I section again and comb through each section until I can go 20x without seeing an egg or lice. This goes faster, because I usually get almost all of them on day 1.
• I continue combing until I go a whole session without seeing any eggs or lice on the entire head. After I do that I comb every other day for 2 go arounds, and if I don't see any eggs or lice I stop.

I've treated the way I describe above the last 5 times or so my kids have brought home lice. We've never had a reinfection doing it this way and lice has never spread to anyone else in the house. I always treat myself with the shampoo every time my kids get lice, even though I've never gotten it myself. My rationale for that is that I can get rid of lice on anyone in my house, but nobody would be able to comb my hair if I got it myself (my husband would be useless).

 

[NYCgrrl]

From the NY Times:

How to Get Rid of Lice
By Malia Wollan

• May 12, 2017
• • 
    
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Image

CreditIllustration by Radio
“There’s no reason to be ashamed,” says Barbara Frankowski, a Vermont-based pediatrician who helped shape the American Academy of Pediatrics’ head-lice treatment guidelines. The sesame-seed-size insects don’t care if you’re rich or poor, clean or dirty, rural or urban. Research does suggest that girls are more prone to lice than boys and African-Americans are far less likely to host the bugs than people of other races.

First, make sure you’re dealing with head lice and not, say, dandruff. Look for minuscule, oval-shaped eggs, called nits, firmly attached to the hair shaft close to the scalp. “Full-grown lice are fast and harder to see,” says Frankowski, who recommends checking children’s heads once a week. You’ll need an insecticide, but Frankowski believes we’re at a tipping point where enough lice in the United States have evolved resistance to certain over-the-counter drugs that patients may be better served using newer, prescription medications. Check with your doctor: Some insurance companies won’t cover the cost of the pricier drugs until the over-the-counter varieties have proved ineffective.

To prevent overexposure to chemicals, carefully follow directions. Avoid drips down the neck and shoulders by applying the treatment over a sink rather than in a bath or shower. Brush through hair with a fine-tooth comb to remove any remaining nits. Don’t apply mayonnaise, vodka, WD-40, kerosene or any of the countless other unproven or potentially dangerous home remedies. Wash items that came in direct contact with the infested person’s head in hot water and dry on high heat.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are as many as 12 million infestations yearly among 3- to 11-year-olds in the United States. Frankowski has seen parents, especially wealthier ones, become irate over lice outbreaks, yelling at school nurses and even janitors. Don’t do that. You won’t get diseases from head lice (whereas body lice, which are far less common, can transmit illness, including typhus). The social stigma against lice is driven largely by squeamishness; Frankowski says the common cold is a more serious threat. Primates have been evolving together with lice for more than 60 million years; as long as there have been humans, there have been lice feeding on them. You’re not the first to confront the itch, and you won’t be the last. “Keep your sense of humor and perspective,” she says.

 

[aprilgail]

Not much you can do to prevent it other than putting hair up. If she does get them I would recommend NOT putting those pesticides form the lice treatments on your child's head. There are plenty of places that do lice removal without using pesticides. My daughter got lice from a friend of hers- at summer camp- the other kid gave them to her mom dad,2 sisters and grandparents, the other girl gave it to her mom and luckily for me my daughter kept them to herself (which was amazing since she slept with me!!)- we went to a place called licebustersnyc - they slather up the head with regular conditioner (NOT pesticides!) and then comb and pick until they are all gone took just about an hour a person and that was it-DONE- you go back in a week and if they are not gone they retreat for free (though NONE of the 10 of us needed any type of retreatment)-
"All items, such as bedding, clothes, hats, and plush toys, must be washed. Furniture, mattresses, rugs and other items require a thorough vacuuming. Soak items like brushes and combs in ammonia for at least 5 minutes. Other items can be placed into an airtight bag for a minimum of two weeks to completely smother the remaining parasites." It says soak brushes in ammonia- we tossed all of ours and bought new, same with all of our pillows. It truly was gross and I shudder thinking about that whole episode but at least they were easy to get rid of. Driving to the place I made my daughter wear this tight hat with her hair bundled up in it so no more would spread to my car!

 

[aprilgail]

From the NY Times:


First, make sure you’re dealing with head lice and not, say, dandruff. Look for minuscule, oval-shaped eggs, called nits, firmly attached to the hair shaft close to the scalp. “Full-grown lice are fast and harder to see,” says Frankowski, who recommends checking children’s heads once a week. You’ll need an insecticide, but Frankowski believes we’re at a tipping point where enough lice in the United States have evolved resistance to certain over-the-counter drugs that patients may be better served using newer, prescription medications. Check with your doctor: Some insurance companies won’t cover the cost of the pricier drugs until the over-the-counter varieties have proved ineffective.

To prevent overexposure to chemicals, carefully follow directions. Avoid drips down the neck and shoulders by applying the treatment over a sink rather than in a bath or shower. Brush through hair with a fine-tooth comb to remove any remaining nits. Don’t apply mayonnaise, vodka, WD-40, kerosene or any of the countless other unproven or potentially dangerous home remedies. Wash items that came in direct contact with the infested person’s head in hot water and dry on high heat.

.

Wow that is so sad they recommend putting poison on your kids head when there are other ways to deal with it!

 

[NYCgrrl]

Wow that is so sad they recommend putting poison on your kids head when there are other ways to deal with it!

I must of missed something- what poison?

 

[aprilgail]

I must of missed something- what poison?

"to prevent overexposure to chemicals, carefully follow directions. Avoid drips down the neck and shoulders by applying the treatment over a sink rather than in a bath or shower."

 

[mjkacmom]

Not much you can do to prevent it other than putting hair up. If she does get them I would recommend NOT putting those pesticides form the lice treatments on your child's head. There are plenty of places that do lice removal without using pesticides. My daughter got lice from a friend of hers- at summer camp- the other kid gave them to her mom dad,2 sisters and grandparents, the other girl gave it to her mom and luckily for me my daughter kept them to herself (which was amazing since she slept with me!!)- we went to a place called licebustersnyc - they slather up the head with regular conditioner (NOT pesticides!) and then comb and pick until they are all gone took just about an hour a person and that was it-DONE- you go back in a week and if they are not gone they retreat for free (though NONE of the 10 of us needed any type of retreatment)-
"All items, such as bedding, clothes, hats, and plush toys, must be washed. Furniture, mattresses, rugs and other items require a thorough vacuuming. Soak items like brushes and combs in ammonia for at least 5 minutes. Other items can be placed into an airtight bag for a minimum of two weeks to completely smother the remaining parasites." It says soak brushes in ammonia- we tossed all of ours and bought new, same with all of our pillows. It truly was gross and I shudder thinking about that whole episode but at least they were easy to get rid of. Driving to the place I made my daughter wear this tight hat with her hair bundled up in it so no more would spread to my car!

My kids have been to licebegone twice, when I didn’t have time to do it myself (once we were going on vacation the next day). They told me that not only do pesticides make the nits stick to the hair shaft more, but in order to comb out all of the nits, you will get all of the live ones anyway. Lice removal is big business, I trust them. Our elementary school had such a problem, they implemented a no nit policy, and the PTO purchases a giant lighted magnifying glass for the nurse, who classes were checked daily. Coats and backpacks were stored in hefty bags, and all the girls wore their hair up.

 

[maddiel]

As a mom who has been through lice many, many times (my kids go to a low-income school where many families can't afford lice treatment, so there's usually 5-6 lice episodes per class per year) including once just last week, I've gotten pretty good at getting rid of them, and I've never had them "come back" or spread to another child in my house. Here's what I've found:

• Mayo, coconut oil, olive oil, and all the other home remedies don't work. Tea Tree Oil doesn't work - we've tried that several times and my children still got lice. The leave in conditioner spray (Fairy Tales) doesn't work - my daughter got lice twice when we were using that stuff religiously.
• In my area, at least, the chemical treatments (RID and Nix) do work - lice aren't resistant to them. I find Rid to be a bit more effective than Nix, but I never find live lice after treating with either. Nix makes their hair look terribly greasy for a while so I try to get RID if I can.
• Treating carpets, mattresses, rugs, etc. is useless in my opinion. We get rid of them just as easily by only treating the bedsheets (washing in hot water and drying on hot), bagging stuffed animals for 2 weeks, and putting the pillows on the couch in the dryer for 30 minutes. The first few times we went crazy cleaning everything in the house - I even treated every area rug we had. But I don't see a difference if I don't.
• A good lice comb makes a big difference. My favorite is the Nit Terminator comb, which I bought on amazon. I usually don't see any lice or eggs at all after the 2nd day of combing if I use the Nit Terminator, whereas it takes 4-5 days of combing with a regular comb.
• If it's during the school year and they're wearing a coat, don't let them put their coat on the hooks on the wall. I feel like that's where the lice usually spread in the classroom, so I send my kids with a plastic bag and have them keep their coat inside their backpack inside a plastic bag.
• Here's how I comb - I get a spray bottle and put water and some conditioner in it and shake it really hard to mix. Then I sit on the couch and have the kid sit on the floor in front of me. I spray their hair and get it good and wet. We turn a good movie on so the child sits still and it makes it more pleasant for me. Then I section the hair off and comb each section, wiping my comb on a white paper towel after each combing, and dipping it in rubbing alcohol occasionally. I comb each section until I can comb 20x and not see any eggs or lice, then move on to a new section. I probably do 20-30 sections in total.
• Then, each day after that I section again and comb through each section until I can go 20x without seeing an egg or lice. This goes faster, because I usually get almost all of them on day 1.
• I continue combing until I go a whole session without seeing any eggs or lice on the entire head. After I do that I comb every other day for 2 go arounds, and if I don't see any eggs or lice I stop.

I've treated the way I describe above the last 5 times or so my kids have brought home lice. We've never had a reinfection doing it this way and lice has never spread to anyone else in the house. I always treat myself with the shampoo every time my kids get lice, even though I've never gotten it myself. My rationale for that is that I can get rid of lice on anyone in my house, but nobody would be able to comb my hair if I got it myself (my husband would be useless).

This is all really good advice. I would add a couple of things:

- What you do when you are concerned you have been exposed to lice and when you do when you know your child has them is different. Don't use lice shampoo unless you know that your child has been affected. Combing and lice checks work for both though.

- Make sure you know what lice and nits look like and what they don't look like. The first time we had lice, I spent the first couple days taking out hair casts and not nits, then the experienced school secretary showed me what I should have been looking for. If you don't have an experienced friend, there are websites with good up close pictures that can help you. A high quality metal nit comb is your friend and if your eyes aren't as sharp as you'd like, a pair of magnifying reading classes and (don't laugh!) a head lamp like hikers use can make it easier to see what you are looking at.

- Lice do not have superpowers and cannot fly and they can't live an extended amount of time off a host. They are also way more prevalent than most of of us realize. You need to be more vigilant when you know there is a known risk, but a once or twice weekly check with a nit comb should be part of your routine when your kids are young even when there is no expectation that there are lice in their environment.

- The best tool for reducing the spread of lice is communication. If your kid has lice, pick up the phone and tell the school and their close friends' parents. I have been on both ends of that phone call and neither are fun, but I have more trust and respect for the friend that called me to warn me than the one who tried to hide it. We need to take the shame out of catching lice. The reality is that it happens to all classes of people.

- If you are spending $500 to get rid of lice, something is wrong.

M.

 

[NYCgrrl]

"to prevent overexposure to chemicals, carefully follow directions. Avoid drips down the neck and shoulders by applying the treatment over a sink rather than in a bath or shower."

Chemicals are not neccesarily poisonous yet even those that are can be found in many homes. Ammonia, liquid bleach,nail polish remover, perm kits, hair dyes, certain makeup and assorted other found in many household products are .posonious but we use them with the caution and moderation needed. Same can be said for the OTC products used for lice removal.

My kids have been to licebegone twice, when I didn’t have time to do it myself (once we were going on vacation the next day). They told me that not only do pesticides make the nits stick to the hair shaft more, but in order to comb out all of the nits, you will get all of the live ones anyway. Lice removal is big business, I trust them. Our elementary school had such a problem, they implemented a no nit policy, and the PTO purchases a giant lighted magnifying glass for the nurse, who classes were checked daily. Coats and backpacks were stored in hefty bags, and all the girls wore their hair up.

That sounds a bit self serving and what I'd expect workers of this expanding money making service to say, LOL. Not that I begrudge them the funds; I'd go there in a nanosecond if I'd anyone with the need. It's painstaking work and I can make more money doing what I know how to do.

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

Get the tea tree oil and hairspray it until your heart's content. Otherwise, just calm down. Yes lice are a PITA - I have lived through it with mine, but they are not a threat to anyone's health and pulling your kid from a camp is silly. Lice live on a head, not an inanimate object, so they are getting it from certain campers not the mats or pit. And to all the posters saying "no camp" who are fortunate enough to never have had a true health scare or illness with your kids, just stop.

 

[robinb]

Chemicals are not neccesarily poisonous yet even those that are can be found in many homes. Ammonia, liquid bleach,nail polish remover, perm kits, hair dyes, certain makeup and assorted other found in many household products are .posonious but we use them with the caution and moderation needed. Same can be said for the OTC products used for lice removal.

The OTC products for lice removal are insecticides. I used them and didn’t feel very good about it. I was glad to find a solution that did not involve me using an insecticide on my DD again.

 

[aprilgail]

Chemicals are not neccesarily poisonous yet even those that are can be found in many homes. Ammonia, liquid bleach,nail polish remover, perm kits, hair dyes, certain makeup and assorted other found in many household products are .posonious but we use them with the caution and moderation needed. Same can be said for the OTC products used for lice removal.

.

Would you soak your kids head in Ammonia, Liquid Bleach, Nail Polish Remover etc???

 

[NYCgrrl]

The OTC products for lice removal are insecticides. I used them and didn’t feel very good about it. I was glad to find a solution that did not involve me using an insecticide on my DD again.

We all have to do what we feel most comfortable doing.
Just a somewhat related question though-how do you keep you and yours from getting bit by ticks, "sketters" and the like since I assume you don't use DEET products either? Decades spent camping taught me that nothing else works beyond Permethrin (another chemical) but am always ready to learn something new.

 

[mjkacmom]

Chemicals are not neccesarily poisonous yet even those that are can be found in many homes. Ammonia, liquid bleach,nail polish remover, perm kits, hair dyes, certain makeup and assorted other found in many household products are .posonious but we use them with the caution and moderation needed. Same can be said for the OTC products used for lice removal.



That sounds a bit self serving and what I'd expect workers of this expanding money making service to say, LOL. Not that I begrudge them the funds; I'd go there in a nanosecond if I'd anyone with the need. It's painstaking work and I can make more money doing what I know how to do.

But if insecticides were the easiest way, I’m sure these places would have their own products. As someone with first hand experience with lice, there is no way live ones will remain after the thorough combing needed to remove the nits, so there really is no reason to use chemicals on small children (and I have used them, they small dreadful).

 

[NYCgrrl]

But if insecticides were the easiest way, I’m sure these places would have their own products. As someone with first hand experience with lice, there is no way live ones will remain after the thorough combing needed to remove the nits, so there really is no reason to use chemicals on small children (and I have used them, they small dreadful).

I never said pesticides were the easiest way. The doctor in the article I posted stated it was the most effective way with the proviso that the insects seem to becoming immune to certain chemical based products used in the past. Makes sense from what I know of pesticides used for other insects commonly found in residential, commercial, and institutional locales.

I will say if you've the skill and time to painstakingly remove them by combing your child's hair in the recommended manner whether using unproven and possibly dangerous products or nothing but manual lobour, I commend you and say go for it. Or pay someone to do it. Or use the OTC products where you still have to take care to comb the hair through. Seems like meticulous hair combing is an integral part of the process for the above methods.

My firsthand experience is......31 years and 11 days old. They are still using the same formulations in OTC products then as now.
How do I know the exact date? Youngest son was off to France to visit the ex (able to celebrate 4th of July in USA and Bastille Day in France) and upon taking him to the barber shop it was discovered he had head lice which I thought died out with the Bubonic Plague. Ohhhh the horrors!
Off to the doctor, a quick run to the drugstore and Rid it was. Got on the plane the next day head lice free. Had they low tech head lice removal services then I'd of jumped on it quick fast and in a hurry no matter the cost. The son is still grossing about the Air India JFK-CDG flight but not the hair lice.

I'm all for "cleaner" living particularly in the food chain where no child I care for eats chicken nuggets, anything an unatural shade of orange or pre-formed burgers or meat in tubes from the supermarket out of my kitchen. Still you have to know when to fold and I think at this point moderation in the use of chemicals is a good thing and part of today's life. I don't want people to smell me coming so I apply antiperspirant deodorant; I prefer not to be a living blood donor for bugs so I use repellant. i could go on and on but you get the point. Chemcals are all around you and in regular use.

As for businesses that remove head lice many DO sell products and generally for much more than at the pharmists'.

 

[robinb]

We all have to do what we feel most comfortable doing.
Just a somewhat related question though-how do you keep you and yours from getting bit by ticks, "sketters" and the like since I assume you don't use DEET products either? Decades spent camping taught me that nothing else works beyond Permeation (another chemical) but am always ready to learn something new.

DEET is not an insecticide. It's a repellent.

 

[NYCgrrl]

DEET is not an insecticide. It's a repellent.

DEET, and Permethrin, are both in fact pesticides and pretty effective ones in the proper percentage, as well. One is also an insecticide (Permethrin). They are both manmade chemicals in mass production and applied directly to the skin in normal application.

I thought I said that further up thread but maybe not.