Lice - Winter Springs, FL

I have a granddaughter with long hair (7yrs old). I used the rid shampoo twice and in between shampooing I used VO5 ointment on her very long hair and used the lice comb to get out any adult lice, then I actually went thru her hair and pulled out the eggs with my hands. That is the only way I have ever done it and it works. It is a tedius job but I put on a good childrens movie with her portable dvd player in the bathroom by the sink and took out all eggs that I could see by hand, it took me three days to get all eggs. Good luck!!
Sincerely,
Lorrain Jacobs

Have you spoken with the camp about it? Is it possible they are getting re-infested? It sounds like you are doing everything right, so it makes me wonder if they are being re-exposed. Also, if their hair is long enough I think braiding it is supposed to help. Good luck!

Oh my gosh- you absolutely do NOT have to wash all of your carpets, rugs, etc!!!! That would mean households with carpet that get lice can never get rid of it! Lice only live for 12-24 hrs and can not jump or fly, therefore if they do not have a host to live on within that time, they will die! Carpets and rugs can be treated naturally with DE (Diatomaceous Earth-Food Grade ONLY). It is also called Fossil Shell Flour and works mechanically by creating small cuts in the skeleton of any hard shelled creature such as fleas, lice, roaches, bed-bugs, etc. It is safe for kids and pets and can even be digested - it does not work chemically. Borax can be used in the house, but is very UNSAFE for kids and pets. DE can be ordered online (www.dirtworks.com is one site). It is VERY cheap.

There are safer, more natural things to use to treat for lice. Nix and other chemical treatments are very harsh pesticides, something you might want to read about, research and think twice about putting on a child. Most unknowing parents follow mainstream advice and just buy whatever says it works -regardless of knowledge of risks or safety, but nowadays with research available and toxins being avoided, parents are looking at other safer alternatives for food, toys and personal products. There are MANY natural remedies and just as with the chemical treatments, the key is following up with combing and retreatment after 7-10 days to take care of any hatched eggs that didn't get combed or rinsed out.

I researched natural methods when my 4 yr old picked up lice last year....we completely covered her scalp and hair with room temp mayonnaise (new jar), covered her hair with a shower cap and left sit for 2-3 hrs....long enough for some board games and a favorite movie. After that sits (suffocates all living lice) you rinse well, 2-3x. Follow up with a good rinse with vinegar (this loosens the glue that sticks the eggs to the base of the hair shaft). Rinse very well. I then used a nit comb and combed her entire head, section by section, killing any eggs found remaining.
We did a follow up 10 days later and did not have a recurrence. We washed everything she would be using that day in HOT water,such as bedding, car seat cover and towels/blankets. We treated the car and household fabrics with the powder DE.

I felt far more comfortable and at ease using natural products with known postive results vs exposing my little ones to toxins....both will work if used correctly and followed up but one has far less risk.

Oh H., I feel for you. My oldest came home with nits last year and whew, it was a nightmare! First things first. You need to treat your children's head...one child at a time. This will take hours, so get a friend or relative to help you! The school gave me a natural product (no harmful chemicals) and I sprayed it on her hair and used the special comb to comb her hair over and over again. Keep a basin of water near you to rinse the lice and/or nits out after each comb through. You MUST do the hair in sections. This is very important because if you don't do it in sections, you could miss one louse and or nit and still have a problem. Once you combed through a section, use hair clips to clip that section up and out of the way until the whole head is done. Once you've done the whole head, rinse your bowl, and repeat the combing through and clipping up each section. This is where you could really use the help of friends or family. You MUST de-contaminate your house immediately after treating their heads. De-contaminate one room at a time and DO NOT allow the children into the room you've de-contaminated until the whole house is de-contaminated. With my daugther, she shares her room with my second daughter so everything that belonged to my second daughter, even though she had no lice or nits, I had to treat the entire room. Their dresser drawers were opened and clothes had been shared so the entire dresser had to be emptied and everything had to be washed. I washed well over 20 loads of laundry in one day. I had nobody to help me, my husband was out of town for the week and I was all alone to de-contaminate my house while taking care of my three children. You must wash all the linens, including mattress pad and comforter in hot water and it's very important that you vacuum all rugs, area rugs, the couch, and your vehicles that the children have been in. Anything on the floor must be washed. Stuffed animals can be put in large plastic bags and tied up for 2 weeks. If you can get help with this, it will go much faster. Your bedroom must be de-contaminated...every room that your children have visited...even closets. If you have rugs, you must vacuum them thoroughly and even under beds and dressers. Have somebody check your hair for nits and your husband as well. The lady who watches them must also be checked for nits/lice. The nits attach to the hair strands and they are easy to find in dark hair...nearly impossible to find in light hair. Nits do NOT come off easily. You have to comb them out but when you do, make sure to rinse the comb every time you run it through the hair. You don't want to re-distribute the nits back into the hair once you've combed them out. When I had to do this, I made my children sit on the dining room chairs or the floor until the house was de-contaminated completely.

My family struggled with getting rid of lice once when I was a teenager. (There were 8 in our family!) We had it for 4-6 months, and we tried EVERYTHING! The way that we finally got rid of it was to use dog shampoo for a week or two.

Dear H.,
Everything, rugs ect have to be washed! Also put the Borax cleaning powder on mattresses. and on floor after cleaning! Lice get into and on everything! Also be sure to use the special combs. They do spread quickly to the whole house, pets ect.. I wish you the best of luck! They are truly nasty little bugs!!! Don't forget curtains also. You must leave the Borax (at Publix in a green box) on floors for at least 2 weeks to smoother the little creature! Works great on sand fleas also. God bless you all...
Truly,
Kathy N.

Olive oil is a good base. So is Aloe gel. add drops of lemon and lavendar essential oils. This is a good deterrent to the vermin, including mosquitos...
There's also a product at the health food store 'Not Nice to Lice" which is an organic product, or so they say.
It's a bear to take a hold of...been there. Wait til the dog brings in fleas and ticks. It's like WW2...

Try Lice MD. I used 3 different other brands, thought they worked but they didn't. It was an on going battle. Then I finally bought this and it worked fantastic!! It has a really thick, oily consistancy and you leave it on for 10 minutes. When I went to comb out our hair, before I rinsed it out, all of the bugs were dead and the eggs had detached from the hair, so all I had to do was comb it. I highly, highly recommed it. Hope this helps, good luck!!

Wash,
DRY with a drier
then use olive oil.
(we wrapped it up in plastic wrap a while,
and tossed all stuffed animals in the zip locks
for up to a month, apart from the home...
heat is a great deterrent,
if you have a terribly hot place to put it, good.
We've also used hot hot hot driers)

The oil suffocates the bugs on the hair.
Then, no kidding, with my fingernails,
every
single
hair on the head
gets attention.
Nits must be slid off the length of the shaft.
I drop them in a bowl of oiled water too,
just in CASE...for when I find a bug)

Its daunting work;
put on some relaxing music and be mellow with it.
Its a CHALLENGE for the kids to stay still
and for you to keep your cool.

There's a mom owned business here on Mamasource
which I've heard great things about,
called the Nit Fairy, or the Lice Fairy, or something.
Moms say she'll come to your house,
help you in all ways you need,
and relieve your stress.
Cheap? She SHOULDNT be!
Valued? She'd BETTER be!
(I WISH I'd had help back in the day
when I was experiencing such issues)
(there are also archived questions about lice)

I would NOT use kwell or any other pharm remedy
since they are toxic on the child,
and often ineffective, anyway.

GOOD LUCK H.!
(and teach those kids to NEVER share hats, brushes, etc)

Lice MD you can get in Wallmart or Walgreens. No chemicals and works great, safe for kids. Just follow the instructions.

Good Luck!
Sincerely,
V..

Hi H.! I tried a few thigs on my niece when she had lice. I don't like using harsh chemicals so I tried a more natural route. What worked best was a product called tea tree oil. But some people say mayonaisse works!

I also wanted to stay at home instead fo working, so I started working from home for a great wellness company.If you want more info go to www.T..greenunitedteam.com or www.enjoyworkathome.com and request info. The company carries safer, healthier household alternatives to what is being sold in stores.

Good luck!

The horror of lice kept me awake when it invaded my daughters hair. I tried different approches, as well as you did, and what helped was a shampoo named RID and combing their hair every day with a fine tooth comb. Those brown things you see are the lice eggs and if you don't eliminate those, you're not finished. The comb used to be for babies fine hair but it is invaluable in the treatment for lice. It comes in plastic or what seems to be stainless steel and you can find it at any drugstore. Good luck.

Hi H.,

Ugg-my daughter had this and it was the worst! The best solution I found was a prescription shampoo from my doctor. I called and they gave it to me over the phone (called it into the pharmacist). Nothing else worked this well. There is also a special nit comb you get online at: www.LiceMeister.org
This comb is the best-way better than the ones that come in the Nix package. It is well worth the money!

My mom is a hairstylist and when I had lice....she lost it. She used every kind of product and nothing work. Until we used Pronto which is a conditioner rather than justa shampoo. It smells horrible but it does work....that did the trick with one or two washes. We had the door open to let ventilation in since it smelled strong. Of course you comb out the stuff but sometimes when the eggs are dead they still linger in the hair. Eggs don't mean the problem still exist, you have to check if the eggs are still full...then you move on to another product.
Good luck... those things are terrible.

put the stuffed animals in a big garbage bag and leave them there for a few weeks. and I know that this is going to sound strange but you can use mayonnaise in their hair.

Hi my name is M.. Just what I can suggest is to continue to use the shampoo and go thru your childs hair everyday. Lice can multiple very easily. But, very important is wash everything and dry twice. Everyday, as I said earlier is to go thru your childs hair that's the most effective way to get rid of all of them.

In your a little about me, you mentioned about being able to stay home with your kids all the time...have you ever considered working from home? www.maketime4family.com

I feel your pain. We've been dealing with this for 3 years now. Nothing works, at least not for us. I've cleaned everything, washed everything, thrown out stuff. Had prescription medicine, used Fairy Tales shampoo/conditioner (ordered online), used lotion (ceptacel) with a hair dryer per the pharmacist. Pick for hours upon hours. My kids keep getting re infested at school, camp, etc. When I lived up north I never had it as a child. I'm so over lice I could scream. My kids are at my parents house for the summer and they have it again. Short of coloring my kids hair to get another chemical on it, I don't know what to do. We can't afford to pay someone to pick out the lice and charge a fortune. Plus my kids won't sit for them anyways. Good luck and if you find some miracle product that works other then all that was mentioned, please let me know.

H. get some tea tree oil and mix with water spray bottle and spray the hair each day and you will see the lice go away guaranteed ive told several people about this and it has always worked its all natural and inexpensive.it smells when first sprayed on but the smell starts to get much lighter in about thirty or forty minutes.its the best thing and effective too.all parents need to know this.it works.my daughter was constantly fighting lice until she came on tea tree oil.found out about at the health food store.you will find out the smell is easier to tolerate than constantly fighthing lice.celis swanson.and alot cheaper too.get it at walmart.cheapest.

Hi H.,
Our pediatrician recommended Nix. We used it three times, and it still didn't work. The pediatrician said to put it on and leave it overnight with a shower cap on. I wasn't comfortable with this advice, since the instructions said to not leave it on for more than 10 minutes. Instead, we used a natural product from Walmart, called "LiceFreee!" We had to use it twice, but it worked great! It comes with a very good metal comb. Just follow the instructions.
Getting rid of lice is a huge project, I really sympathize with you! The worst part is washing and vacuuming everything! On the bright side, you'll have the cleanest house ever!
Good luck!
M.

All great responses so far but I wanted to add that if you are repeatedly getting live lice infection you need to remember to treat your car and car seats too.

H.:

I see that you received some great information from many moms. If you are still struggling with lice, please give me a call or check out my ad or reviews on mamasource. I am The Nit Fairy and I treat families for head lice. It is important to check everyone that lives in the house. I would also make sure that the babysitter is checked. As a rule, by the time you see nits in the hair you have had lice for 3+ weeks. I will be more than happy to help with any questions or concerns you may have.

As a teenager I had really long hair and I had lice one time that I got from school. Honestly the best thing to use is dog shampoo (the one that the shampoo is green). It works hands down the best!! Try it

I had this problem for a while last year, with recurring from one child to another. The biggest problem we had is that my little boy's head was so sensitive it was like torture putting the comb through his hair. We went through hell just trying to comb his hair, and had a terrible time getting everything because he was in so much misery. The first time we got rid or nix and did all our heads, and followed all the typical protocol, then followed up ten days later. It worked but was misery. Buy the way all the stuffed toys we packed up are still packed up and never taken out. I think we'll just get rid of them since the kids don't seem to notice now :) Anyhow, a few months later it happened again, but I did not want to use the chemicals again, so I looked for a more natural product. It came with the stainless steel comb which works way better then the cheep plastic ones, it was still hell to do my sons head but still easier and more thorough then the plastic combs.

After that they got reinfected later and I was getting so tired of it and actually called the pediatrician for advice, on if there's anything different we could try, and that the chemicals were too much of a concern to me, especially with my sons sensitive head. She suggested I use mayo or cetophil for a couple hours to suffocate the lice, then go through them with the comb and wash well a couple times. Mayo was so easy and we had plenty, plus I knew it is good for hair. It worked well, made their hair so soft and silky, and because it was so soft the eggs came out easier. Everyone commented about how clean, soft, and shiny their hair was after using the mayo. I also tried gel in my boy's hair to keep eggs off, but I really did not like that. It was just so sticky and messy. Really, the mayo worked very well and is very healthy. The stainless steel combs are also a good investment. I went back to wallgreens and got a pack with 3, one little one even had a tiny magnifying glass. That wasn't much help though, it seems to take too much coordination to look through the glass, position the comb, and get the lice or egg all the way out. It seemed easier to just use really good lighting and my regular eyesight.