Head Lice - Treat Everyone in the Family?

When my DD was in pre-school she had it. We treated the whole family in a way I guess. Hubby shaves his head, so he was not affected in the least, my son's hair was cut very short, and my DD and I were treated. We have super thick hair, so it took a long time.

Remember that the eggs will NOT die just because you treated her head. Have you found any nits? It is a timely & tedious job but must be done efficiently. Otherwise they will never go away. And as far as the pesticide chemical goes, I would never use it. Learn the very specific technique to get rid of the eggs with a specific comb, not the ones you get in the box. There is also a product that you spray on the hair & it 'slows down' the louse so you can get rid of the live ones and concentrate on the eggs so they don't hatch.

If you want specific info, PM me. I learned quite a bit last October when my daughter caught it on picture day (kids shared a comb).

No, I would not. I would not have put pesticide on her either.

Please go to headlice.org and read the instructions there.

Simply washing her hair and then going through it thoroughly is sufficient. You can do this every evening or every other day. If you find nits with babies simply use your fingernails and slide the nit down the shaft of hair and drop it into a glass of water. If the nit is white then a baby has been born and you'll need to keep your eyes open for it.

You can use a head gear magnifying glass that you can buy at Hobby Lobby or some other craft store or you can use a magnifying glass that attaches to a table at a business supply like Staples.

I like the head gear the best because it is much closer to my eyes and I feel like I get better sight this way.

I make sure her hair is super wet and section it into several areas. Each of those is fastened and out of the way. Then I use a rat tail comb and take small sections and go from the root to the bottom of the hair and look for nits and bugs.

The bugs often look like a shadow that should not be there. They are easy to spot once you are used to this procedure.

Even when there is not a head lice scare I do this every weekend. If I find anything I make sure I repeat this every other day.

Her hair is almost waist length and thick. I can do her hair in about 20 minutes.

There are lots of natural removal sites on line. Just google them and you will find that there is so much that everyone thinks they have to do that is just old wives tales.

There is no disinfecting of a child care center. They can just take the pretend play clothes and other items such as stuffed animals, wash them, dry them, then set them aside for a week or so. Head lice don't do anything to disinfecting cleaners.

TO PREVENT ANY FUTURE INFESTATIONS YOU CAN GO BUY A SPRAY WATER BOTTLE AND SOME TEA TREE OIL. PUT A COUPLE OF DROPS OF THE TEA TREE OIL IN THE WATER BOTTLE THEN FILL IT UP.

USE THIS BOTTLE OF WATER EACH AND EVERY MORNING WHEN YOU "STYLE" EVERYONE'S HAIR. SPRAY IT ENOUGH TO GET IT DAMP.

Lice do not like Tea Tree Oil. It stinks. They also cannot stick their eggs to oily hair.

Tea Tree Oil is sold at Walmart in the Ethnic Hair Supplies. Ours is on the same isle as the hair color kits. The oil is on the 2nd row from the top in the middle.

it's only a couple of dollars for a small bottle that should last you at least a year.

My son got lice a few months ago and he had slept in my bed. I have long thick hair and I was paranoid I would get them, but I was fine.

I have never treated myself or my hubby when GD had head lice. I wash, blow dry and put hair spray on my hair every day. Just the blow drying would keep me from having an outbreak. My husband's hair is short and thinning (don't tell him I said that!) so he has never had a problem. We do not, however, use the same hair brush and GD was not in our bed.

As for the stuffed animals, they need to be put in a sealed garbage bag for at least 2 weeks. Lice can live for about 48 hours without a food source. I wouldn't trust just washing them; I always quarantine them and pillow for 2 weeks minimum.

Also, I suggest getting the spray and spraying the kids' mattresses and any cloth funiture (couches, chairs) as well as going around and spraying the carpet. She could have laid her head down on the carpet and like I said, they can live without food source for a limited time. If you don't spray, she could get reinfested from cloth furniture, her mattress, the carpet, or the stuffed animals.

P.S. Did you really take her to a shop for a haircut knowing she had been exposed to lice? I am chosing to think you did the haircut yourself at home.

No! Only treat if there are lice!

There are shampoos with tea tree oil. I would get it. The lice will jump right off. Works like a charm.

I have friends who have used several different lice treatments (without success) and ended up going to The Texas Lice Squad. They will check your family and show you how to check them so you don't have to treat them if they don't have it. They do charge a fee, but they will also help with all the misconceptions about treatments and lice. If your family members have lice, they can treat it (again, for a fee). Good luck!

Here's their website:
http://www.texaslicesquad.com/index.html

Yes, treat everyone. They may not have slept with you, but I would bet a great deal of money that you have hugged them at least a few times. :)

When I was working at Chuck E Cheese as a teenager, there was this little girl screaming because she couldn't find her parents. When I came out to help her she automatically reached her arms up for me to pick her up, so I did. We found her parents right away, but I held her long enough for her to give me head lice. :( ( I will admit that I may have gotten somewhere else, but I had my hair cut a few days before that (and no lice)and went to a Glamour shot three days later and had them, so I am pretty sure that's where I picked it up at.)

treat everyone. and also in case you haven't done it use the spray and treat the backs of the chairs, the car seat backs and any and all pillow's she may have been on. also any hairbands/ ties/ barretts etc

I would treat everyone and everything the first time. Then follow up with any child that needs it. My SD kept getting lice and nobody else did - because she shared a room at her mom's with the carrier. For months, DH literally sat her in the bathroom on a chair draped with a sheet and combed out nits from her hair, and tightly braided it every day. So while he didn't re-treat SS, he did keep a close eye on SD since she was a known vector and it took a while to figure it out. He went the chemical route first and then just nit picked after baths (conditioner can slow the lice down enough to get them). You can also use tea tree oil in shampoo as a preventative.

Maybe not go all-out treating, but I would at least do the shampoo... just to be safe. Even if you haven't been snuggling in bed, I'm sure she has at least sat on the same couch... which would be unlikely to pass them along, but it could... :)

Treat everyone and everything! What a pest! Now I am itchy!
Good luck!

We've gone through this twice! First time, we all got treated -- didn't know what we were looking for, but only the two kids had it. The second time, I found one on ME first, then checked the kids and my son had it (he and I had been snuggling a lot) -- not my daughter or my husband. So I checked and checked and checked the two of them and only treated my son and me.

I check the kids and myself once a week for signs since the schools no longer check the kids or notify if there's an outbreak.

We shaved all the boys heads and treated my daughter and I when she got it several years ago. Frustratingly enough...we had friends that really were not all that diligent about...and kept passing it back....seriously drove us INSANE!