My youngest daughter came home with lice before Christmas break. I only found 2 adult lice & no eggs. I made the mistake of shampooing her with the lice shampoo (which I now know was a mistake) and bagging everything in the house that had fabric on it, vacuuming every day like a mad woman and washing or drying every towel, sheet, pillow, etc in the house every day (read: 10 hours of non-stop laundry per day)and re-treating with the shampoo after 7 days and continued combing with conditioner and a metal lice comb twice a day. I was confident they were gone by Christmas day, but continued to watch for them.
She went back to school after break for 1 1/2 days and on the second day, I found 2 more lice in her hair! I shampooed her again, but found another louse 2 days after that so it obviously didn't work or another one hatched. Since then we have had 8 more days off due to weather and I've done nothing but comb her hair with the METAL lice comb every day, then comb it a second time with a Robi Comb (electronic comb that "zaps" and kills live lice) in addition to continuing the laundry cycle/vacuuming every single day.
I have not seen any live lice for 6 days, but today, during my hair by hair manual exam with a magnifier in the sunlight (a FOUR hour process), I found 6 more nits (close to the scalp, not old empty shells)! Even though my husband has checked me (& shaved his own head as a precaution) I have been treating my own hair as well and doing the combing on my hair too. I spend (literally)9-10 hours a day going through hair with combs, etc.
I guess what I need is some reassurance that this IS going to come to an end because I am exhausted and on the verge of a literal nervous break-down. I am absolutely terrified to send her back to school on Monday. I have begged the school twice to send a note home and they have not. I purchased a natural spray from the makers of the Robi Comb that is supposed to deter lice, I will put her shoulder length, fine hair in a pony tail with mousse in it and we are using Teatree & Mint shampoo with coconut conditioner.
I have told her no hugging, her coat goes only inside her backpack etc. Still...if she gets them back again, I don't think I can take it.
I am seriously about to lose my mind! I have spent hours on the internet gathering information. This is driving me crazy! If you've been through this, how long did it take before you were "over it" and not paranoid about your child even being at school?
I've learned a lot through this experience so I thought I'd share. The key is going through the hair very, very carefully and checking for eggs daily and then loading the hair up with conditioner and using the METAL lice comb to carefully comb out each section, removing any missed eggs and lice (rinse conditioner out when done). Nothing kills the eggs and they will just keep hatching...they MUST be physically removed! If you feel you must try anything to initially kill the bugs, I would do the listerine process below, once. Even listerine can be harmful to your child in too many doses. We used a Robi Comb (available in many drugstores, about $25) which actually "zaps" and electrocutes the lice when they come into contact with the comb...best $ I ever spent! It really worked and no more "zaps" after the first 3 or 4 days! Remember to clean your lice comb in denatured alcohol after every use, along with all your other brushes and combs....
Also, when checking hair for eggs (in the SUNLIGHT--next to a window that gets good sun, every day for at least 10 days) you need to check very small (1/8 inch rows) sections of hair at a time, holding them straight up and looking at them from both sides in the sunlight. When I started doing this, I had thought we were lice free with NO eggs & found 5 more eggs that first day doing it this way. Remove them by cutting the whole strand off and flushing it down the toilet or combing the egg out and washing it down the sink (forget wasting all those tissues!) You should also get a good magnifying glass (in walmart by magnifying eye glasses near pharmacy). Another helpful tool is at least 6 big metal hair clips like hairdressers use for sectioning off the hair as you do each section.
Each egg you miss can start the cycle over again quickly so it's important to spend the time finding those eggs so they don't hatch!! This is a pretty good video as far as the combing technique but you really just need to use regular conditioner and I use running water to rinse the comb so everything goes right down the sink...and I did this every day for the first 6 days and then every other day for the next 8:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jV8fzb-4gdU
For more information check out the official website of the "Lice (pediculosis) Association"-- http://www.headlice.org/
Even they are NOT recommending the lice killing shampoos like Rid anymore....there are stories about children getting brain damaged from them on there....DON'T panic and use the shampoos, it's so not worth it!
Drying the pillows, pillowcases and sheets every morning is very important (30 minutes on high heat) during the 10-14 days of combing and treating. Also, I now make my daughter keep her coat in her backpack at school, then she leaves the backpack in the car and brings the coat in to go straight into the dryer for 30 minutes just in case. Her hair is braided every morning and then I spray it with Fairy Tales leave in Rosemary Repel leave-in conditioner and then the Rosemary Repel Spray and Shine. I don't plan on ever having to go through this again!! We have been lice free for at least 3 weeks now...thank you God!!!
i think its oil & vinegar, or mayonaise that worked for my girls, lots of combing while oily. Its part of childhood unfortunately. I was crazy itching myself, though i never got them. Its very annoying, but normal.
when my step-daughter had lice, i looked online to fig out what to do, and i came across Mayo. You put it in their hair and wrap it up to where it can not breath, and let them keep it in their hair for 4-8 hours, then wash.
It seemed to work with us. Good luck
What type of comb are you using? The Robo comb does not work very well. Plastic combs do not work well either. I found that metal combs work well if you completely comb them through hair. It is hard to get rid of all the nits. Your best bet get a script from the Dr for lice treatment. Last time my kids got them it was only that and going through with the metal comb that got rid of them.The prescription stuff needs to be on for a good 8 hours.It may be the same infestation and not new.. believe me after it taking 6 mnths to clear them up I check all the time now. Good luck getting rid of the little buggers
Sorry to hear your struggle with these insidius beasts! I went through months and months of the same. My daughter had very long hair, which was promptly cut short. One of the things not mentioned was LICE LOVE CLEAN HAIR! Believe it or not they do. The cleaner the better! I know it sounds nasty but ...you may not want to wash her hair as often. That is atleast after you get rid of them (or think you did). They cling onto the clean hair but with dirty hair they can't get a grip! Also, make sure the school is doing their part and informing the other classmates parents. We had to fight the district and nurse for months. They were blaming us and it ended up being onther child who was totally infested but theparents had NO idea. It might be embarressing but remember they like clean hair so it shows she is clean! Good luck.
We're dealing with this problem and it's driving me crazy too! My youngest daughter first brought them home early last summer. Just when we think we've gotten rid of them, another round starts whether it's from school, a neighbor kid or family. We did the harsh shampoos from pharmacies but it didn't even get half of the lice. >.< We did Lice Free too and absolutely loved it. I didn't have to worry about leaving it on my kids head and I NEVER found a live lice after an application. I got much more for my money and the included comb is really nice. They don't like tea tree oil as so many have already said but they also don't like rosemary, menthol and eucalyptus. Just make sure to buy the best essential oils, none that have additives or synthetics. It may cost a little more, but it works better and lasts longer. Also olive oil & coconut oil is the best (and only) oils to use on them since they're the only ones that will dissolve the exoskeletons. Here's a link that really helped us.
http://lacetoleather.com/keepliceaway.html
I found this last fall and the stuff they recommend is safe & natural and really works. I used it in conjunction with Lice Free. We were free from this cycle for over a month after doing it that way. This newest outbreak is sort of my mothers fault. My son stayed with my parents over X-mas break and my nephew brought lice home from daycare. My mom didn't tell me since she had checked my son and didn't see any on him (probably because he has such thick hair). Hah. He was crawling with them when he came home and he had passed them to his siblings before my brother happened to mention it (he thought Mom had told me). Grrrrr
I feel like pulling my hair out too! It's so embarrassing to be called to the school to take your kids home because they have lice! I do like my schools policy though. If they're found with 1 or more adult lice, they're sent home for 24 hours and as long as they're bug free they're aloud to come back the next day. No more staying home until you're completely bug free (as in no nits either) like when I was a child. I'm always paranoid about sending them. We comb them every morning before school just to make sure there's nothing there. My kids are so sick of this (I don't blame them) and they're starting to fight us over it. :(
Hang in there. This really will come to an end. Oh, and stop doing so much laundry! You don't have to do everything you have every day. You only have to wash what has been used. So your daughters bedding and her towel. If you encase her pillow in plastic under the cloth case, you also won't have to worry about washing her pillow either. And I have put plastic cases on all of our mattresses under the sheets. Do take away all of her stuffed animals & toys with fabric. We bagged ours up and put them in storage for two weeks. I also found it helpful to throw the kids' hats, coats, etc. into the dryer for a quick spin when they got home to take care of anything they might have picked up from school. At night when they get ready for bed, we comb their hair and that days clothes goes straight into the washer on a hot cycle. And try the method recommend in the link. If nothing else, you'll smell really good! Big hugs and good luck!
A friend just went though it and it took about 4 days. She did all that you did but the school nurse HAD to be notified and supposedly it is school rules that the entire class HAS to be cleaned so everyone MUST be notified. I hear that mayonaise kills it. Try slathering her hair in mayo to the scalp and leave it on for 15 mins to smother them. sounds like you did everything you could. I heard the coconut conditioner and the mousse really does prevent. You might even make a phone call to the health dept and see if they have any ideas. Good luck, it is almost over!
It will come to an end! I know it's crazy, but it does end.
What we did (bear in mind this was several years ago):
1) Left the shampoo on overnight with shower caps on their heads.
2) Sprayed and treated everything - coats, hats, bedding, hair brushes...
3) Combed our girl's hair out nightly and braided it as tight as possible for school the next day.
4) Reminded the kids not to share hair things, coats, hats, brushes....
5) Investigated and found the source so the lice could be stopped between households. (But sometimes you just never know.)
6) Gave the children shampoo with tea tree oil in it. Apparently they don't like it.
Remember, it's not about being dirty or being lazy. It's a pest that's been out there forever and a lot of people end up with them at one point or another. While I'd probably go a less chemical route than RID if it happened again with our youngest (who is 2), I'd do much the same - bagging toys, washing bedding, braiding...I think the brushing and braiding, while tedious, really helped. We put her in the bathroom on a chair we could wipe down (lawn chairs work well) and put a sheet down on the floor. That way we could bundle up the sheet and wash it immediately.
Hang in there. It sounds like you're doing a lot of what we did. I think after a month we breathed again.
Oh, and we had to tell several of her friends who had spent time with her/us/in the car (fabric seats...) that she had lice. Most people are very understanding, especially if you give them a head's up before they find the bugs on their own.
As a mom who went through the lice infestation this past Summer, the only thing that worked was manually removing all nits/eggs from my girls hair. I thought that just doing the shampoo and combing would take care of it, but it did not. We spent countless hours picking stuff out of their hair. It is truly back breaking work and a whole lot of patience is needed but that was the only solution to our lice problem. I am petrified that my kids will get it again so I would say that I still suffer the fear of them getting it again. My oldest was INFESTED w/ it, so I now check her at least 1-2 times a week and she'll even asked to be checked if she knows someone at school had them. I didn't make a huge deal about it in front of my kids but my oldest knows that she would prefer NEVER to have to sit for hours on end or have mayo in her hair or olive oil again. My 2nd child who also got it, had much easier hair to work with and I didn't have to tackle her hair more than once, thankfully. I did find a few things in my hair although my husband thought I was just being completely paranoid, I still did a treatment. I wish you the best of luck, you are certainly not alone... I spent a good month and many hundreds of dollars trying to rid our house of them and I did, thank goodness!!!
Also, the mayo or olive oil did NOT work on my daughters hair so she was pretty much tortured for about 3 hours having that on her head for it not to work.
My daughter got lice 2x. Once in kindergarden, that time I used the store boughten stuff and combed and cleaned. The second time was the begining of first grade. It was awful we could not get rid of them. Finally I did the rid stuff followed by the mayo treatment then the tea tree oil. Then I combed 3x per day and washed her hair everyday with the tea tree oil shampoo. It took a while though. I still wash with tea tree oil shampoo sometimes just to prevent. I am very paranoid!
Honey, I've been paranoid for the last 24+ years since I run a daycare. Even though I haven't seen any for the last 5 years, I have dreams about it at night. Any time I see a child scratch their head I take them to the light and check and I cringe until I see they are fine. I wish I had something more postitive to say. It sounds like you are doing everything right.
Have you read much about the early years of this country, even before we were a country? People couldn't get on a ship unless they passed inspection and still ended up with lice and body lice, shaving heads etc. It's always been a big deal.
Continue doing what you're doing with the fabric items in your home. Don't forget the car! Also, at night, COAT your daughter's head with mayonaisse, cover with a plastic kroger bag and tie tight. You want those critters to smother. The next day, comb, comb and comb some more with the mayo still in. Then wash with a natural shampoo containing tea tree oil (health food store). The next day, COAT with vaseline, just to make sure those little boogers are smothered. Let the vaseline stay in as long as you can. If you have to go out, let her wear a hat or bandana for disguise! Comb comb comb. Wash again.
I did all these steps with my little guy, and refused to use pesticide shampoos. The lice were gone quickly and never returned.
Good luck!
Well it sounds like you're doing everything you can. Our house was attacked as well with lice last year. The combing seemed to go on forever! It took a solid month to be completely free of those nasty things.
As you may already know, winter is when we really have to keep our eyes open for them. Scarves and hats can easily help distribute lice if our kids are not careful.
As far as treating goes, I can't imagine spending 4 hours combing. That's a bit much. You don't need to use those poisonous shampoos. As long as you shampoo her with her usual products, you can comb out her hair with a regular comb, larger side then the smaller. Then you should go through her wet hair with the metal lice comb in small sections. Try angling it so you don't stab her scalp and pull the comb all the way to the end of her hair. I would wipe the comb with a sturdy tissue each time I'd find something. When you've gone through her hair once, wet it again and comb through one more time. THAT is when you'll find the one that hid from you the first time! If you get the adult, you stop the egg laying. Combing shouldn't last more than an hour at a time--once in the morning, once after school and right before bed.
To sanitize your combs, drop them into a tall glass filled with rubbing alcohol and let them soak at least 20 minutes.
Remind her that there's no sharing combs, brushes, hair bands, hats or scarves...unless she wants to go through all that again.
It sure feels good once you've gotten rid of them. Have a party!
I was about to rave on the success we had with Tea Tree Oil, but I see others beat me to it. I diluted it 50/50 with water and sprayed it on their dry hair till it was good and wet. I sprayed it on all their bedding, stuffed animals, and after coming out their hair, we never had any more lice. AND I love the smell of it.
I had this happen years ago with my oldest at summer camp... I was going crazy too. I had to take off from work and I was a single mom. I couldn't afford it but they wouldn't let her come back.. After 3 times I decided I'd move her to another summer camp but then come to find out she had been laying next to a girl at nap time that had them. The parents said they were doing something about it but they were not. Sooo that was the issue, she kept getting it from the same girl. I was furious. So it wasn't us at all - it was another child that kept infesting her.. I've been told that lice don't like dirty hair so if you don't wash your child's hair every night... they won't get them... So far with my youngest, it has worked not had any issues... Could be that it isn't true?? But it is worth a try tough.. Best of luck
oh my! i feel for you really. i went through this about 6 months ago, & it drove me crazy! you sound like me although you are doing quite a bit more combing than i did. but after all my research, this is what really worked for me: out of all the over the counter stuff, i liked LiceFreee! the best. so, i did a treatment of that. 4 days later, i did the olive oil treatment with a shower cap over the head. they say you can do this overnight, but i just did it for 6-8 hrs. during the day. than 4 days later, i did the licefree! Look this youtube video up (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCoZP5Aso5U&feature=re...) & you will understand why i did this. also, i did comb through her hair everyday for about a month. and although i worried for the next few months that it wasn't gone, it was. actually not a few months, but actually just last month, we went to a professional lice removal service, & had my hair & my daughter's checked, & we were clear. :) look up hairfairies.com & see if there are any lice removal services in your area. they are costly, but in the end you spend the same amount of money, if not less, and they do a lot of the hard work.
good luck!
One thing I've read elsewhere is to also spray the hair w/Listerine after the shampoo/comb-out - don't know if it helps, but figure it might be worth a shot!
