Lice, Give me all of your best tips. I need help, desperately.

We found lice on Samantha's head last Sunday after a week of itching, a rash, and a Ped visit. We did a treatment (on her and the house) that day and again today. Nobody else seems affected, but she definitely still has it today (and we had four guests this weekend plus a sitter and her two girls, so now I'm stressed OUT).

Give me all of your best tips. I need help, desperately.

 

Unless you removed all the nits, the treatments will only kill the babies and adults. The nuts (eggs) can survive most treatments.

We finally hired a company called Lice squad to go through my daughters hair, as well as her brother and myself. It was not cheap, and it is too treatments done 3-5's days apart. We did not have any reoccurrences though, and I learned I was not getting the nits, only the adults when I searched.

Good luck. It is not fun to deal with

 

My mom's co-worker did the same thing, she hired an outside service to get rid of the lice when both of her daughter's got it from daycare.

 

Both times my girls had lice, the day we discovered it ( or the day after) I had them wash their hair leaving in the conditioner.  Then I covered their head in coconut oil, which I let sit on their head for at least an hour ( i had them wear shower caps).  I then used the metal lice comb to go through their hair.  I put the comb in a bowl of boiling water after every swipe through as well as wiping on a paper towel.   Then i had them sleep with their hair covered in the coconut oil that night as well.  
 
I repeated almost the same thing about 2 days later, then again a week later.  
 
 
Make sure you do your hair as well as your DH's.  Good luck.  

 

I just went through and read all of our lice archives after discovering a live one in my hair this morning. I'm starting the whole process over again today in hopes that I can do paul when he gets home and (please, please) have handled it.

You know, I can't find any lice policy at our school. So am I safe to send them in tomorrow if their heads look clear? Tomorrow is their grandparents day performance and they'd be so upset to miss it.

 

You made my head itch.  
Did you call the school today?  Last year I called the nurse to let her know that my girls had lice.  I wound up getting the machine, i left a message telling her that the girls had lice, and that I had treated them and was going to recomb out their hair the next day.  She never called them down to check or return my call.
 
This year i didn't even bother calling, but I let the mom of the girl who sydney was sitting with on the bus know only because the day before we found the lice, sydney said their heads were touching.  Figured if she gave it to sydney- or if sydney gave it to her, I didn't want to get them back.   

 

Oh Stephanie, that sucks! I hope they were able to go to their grandparents' day!! Our school policy is no live bugs, but nits are allowed bc most people cannot get the boys right away and kids can't miss days and days of school.

I hope you were able to get it all taken care of. Hugs to you!!

 

Holy heck, I dealt with this almost 1 year ago. Those suckers are hard to kill. My girls have very thick hair and it is the color of sand, lice blend in. We did treatments, tea tree oil, linens hot water washed, no stuffed animals and searched heads with lice picks. After 2 weeks they were back- so we did prescription lice meds. Gone!!!
Best of luck

 

Ugh, sorry Stephanie that you are dealing with those nasty little things!  We have always been lucky here (knock on wood!) but last year I started using Fairy Tales Rosemary Repel shampoo on my kids.  So far, so good.  I can't say for sure it has worked, because who knows if they would have gotten them without it?!  But it doesn't hurt and if it might help then it is worth it to me!  On days between washing, I use the leave in conditioner spray from the same brand and comb it through their hair before school.  Something to think about trying once you get rid of them!

 

The key is really comb their hair and outsource, that's what we had to do...it sucks.

 

The combing was awful.  It was a little painful, and it killed me to sit there for HOURS going through all of my kids' hair.  4 of 6 got it last year and I was mortified.  Combing through the girls' hair was the worst.  I literally took 5-6 hours combing all of them.  But I was over the top thorough, because I didn't want to have to repeat.  I used the nasty chemical stuff on some kids and some holistic stuff on the others.  No particular reason, I just decided to try them both.  Both seemed to work, but I think it was in large part because I was so thorough about combing, and treating all the bedding.  I also used that comb on my own head for weeks, LOL (and did a mayo treatment, wrapped in plastic... even though my husband checked my head and said I was fine).  If my head itched at all, I'd grab it.  I was super freaked out by the whole thing.

 

I think we're officially on the other side. We're going to do one more treatment tomorrow (8 days since the last) and another sheet and coat wash. I didn't find anything in their hair today, but I just don't feel confident that it's done.

And let me just tell you, bringing licey children to my mother's house for the holiday- with signs of live lice or no- ratchets the tension up 400%. The whole family was paranoid and itching and it wore me out to do scalp checks with my neurotic mother breathing over my shoulder. Never. Again. We will stay home next time.

 

Let us hope that there is *no* next time .... Amen