The kid's got lice

[Ellen Forradalom]

Time for me to set aside political nitpicking in favor of real-life nitpicking.

Changed bedding? check
Swapped out mattress for spare? check
Spray his usual mattress? check
Laundered clothes? check
Treated and shampooed with lice shampoo? check
Louse combing and nit picking? check
Vacuum the house and wipe down his bedframe, probably overkill but check.

Anything else we should do?

[mokawanis]

1. Hope you don't have to repeat everything

I dealt with the problem when my 3 kids in grade-school and it drove my wife and I crazy. We'd take of it and then they'd get it again at school. I think we spent something like $600 dealing with the problem during one school-year. Good luck.

[NJmaverick]

2. My nephew and niece had this problem and it came back a few times

keep an eye out for the next couple of months, as there is a potential for a repeat performance. Remind your kids not to share hats, combs, brushes, scarves etc.

[Arugula Latte]

3. A friend of mine researched lice treatments for her kids,

and she found this stuff called Lice-Go-EZE. It's a non-toxic, hypo-allergenic shampoo that dissolves the lice eggs -- unlike most over-the-counter treatments. It will help prevent re-infestations.

http://www.solutions-4-you.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWPROD&ProdID=143

[hunter]

4. Ah, the joys of parenting...

The thing I hated most when my own kids brought lice home was that dreadful feeling that the slightest itch on my own scalp might be lice...

One thing I did was set my washer and dryer to "kill." I overcooked a lot of clothes while that was going on. Who cares about colors when you've got lice in the house?

[AwakeAtLast]

5. Hugs to you....

IF they come back use olive oil on the hair then shampoo with normal shampoo. Less toxic and works well from what I hear at school. Lice do not like dirty hair, they prefer clean.

[Ellen Forradalom]

6. I'll try that

I've already combed and picked a lotta critters out of the hair, but dang those nits cling tenaciously to the hair shaft. He proclaimed it the worst Sunday ever and I told him flatly that if that were the case he lives a charmed life.

I'm going to get a first-rate nit comb and spend a lot of quality time with my son's head while he plays video games.

[Lady Freedom]

7. Bath all furry pets!

Sounds odd, but they do get on them and back on the kid!

[Ellen Forradalom]

22. Done

The dog was getting rather rank, anyway.

[LeftyMom]

8. My sister kept getting them, until my grandfather taught my dad this trick:

1. Douse kid's head in Campho-phenique, cover in a shower cap, have them sit for half an hour

2. Shampoo, rinse well

3. Blow dry until hair is completely bone dry.

To be on the safe side, repeat in a week or so.

[Ellen Forradalom]

9. I recall reading in Mike Royko's columns

that the cure for lice in old-time Chicago was to send the kid to the gas station for a nickel's worth of kerosene. Man at the pump would say, "Got 'em again, eh kid?"

I told my complaining kid about that cure and suggested he count his blessings.

[LeftyMom]

13. Between the smelling like an old folks home and the burns and deafness from the blow drier

My sister might not have been cured of lice, but she was definitely cured of scratching her head where Dad could see.

[Skittles]

31. alas

poor people still do that - and it is very dangerous

[Haole Girl]

10. Never had experience w/lice, but found some reading for you:

I would have searched for more links, but the pics scared me!

:scared:

http://www.stretcher.com/stories/02/02feb11g.cfm

http://www.getridofthings.com/get-rid-of-lice.htm

http://www.howtogetridofstuff.com/pest-control/how-to-get-rid-of-lice/

Good luck! :hi:

[SmokingJacket]

11. I heard that a blow dryer actually kills the lice and the nits.

The heat and dryness does it. Can't hurt! In fact, it would feel great.

[Sebastian Doyle]

12. Apparently there's a big lice outbreak going around

Talked to friends the other day who were dealing with the same problem. What they heard was, once you get all the little buggers off of yourselves, you need to get out of the house for about 50 hours or so if at all possible.

Lice can't live long without a host, so even if you find them on your bedding or upholstery after that, they'll be dead.

[rurallib]

20. the beginning of every school year.

we used vaseline on the kids heads one year followed by several shampoos and the usual cleaning of bed clotehes etc. They went away fast that year.
We endured 3 years of it.

[Maestro]

14. Easy to get.

Did he get them from school? Day Care? I see them about once a month with the kids at my school, sometimes much more often.

[Skittles]

32. I got them as a child and my mum freaked out

she thought it meant something terrible but a wise woman told her lice like clean hair as much as they like dirty hair. My hair was white and it was hard to see 'em but mum kept looking because I was scratching. My dad worked on my hair for hours until they were gone, gone, gone. :)

[pokerfan]

15. I assume you tossed the pillow

http://www.southparkzone.com/episode.php?vid=1103">Lice Capades

[LeftyMom]

17. Kel-leh!

:rofl:

[pokerfan]

18. Hang on Kel-leh! For the bay-beh!

[Whoa_Nelly]

16. IF foam pillow, wash and dry it

if feather, run through dryer on hot.
If you have any of that lice/flea spray, spray some in your vac filter.

[Ellen Forradalom]

19. Thanks for all the suggestions

Just had several lengthy nitpicking sessions. Hair looks much better. One small help is that the kid's blonde hair makes the nits easier to see.

[TexasLady]

21. Im an expert!!

this is gonna sound weird, but, a few minutes of hair color zapped my kids' hair of them. I have 3 girls....

that and DILIGENCE on the combs. each day for two weeks.

We've tried olive oil, over the counter meds, mayo, combs that are battery operated costing 30 bucks, and just reg. lice combing.

Lice combing (metal) and cheap haircolor. I never left in in long enough to change the color, but it does work. Most of these over the counter meds are crap. immune even...

[Ellen Forradalom]

23. Situation much improved

Several repeat bouts of combing later, I see no more scurrying creatures, and the nits are greatly reduced.

Of course, we start all this again tomorrow.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

24. That's great news!

One thing, if you haven't already thought of it:

If your kid has stuffed buddies, stick them in a pillowcase and run them through the dryer. A nurse friend told me washing them isn't necessary as the dryer heat will kill any of the buggers.

[MsTryska]

25. people don't shave kids bald anymore?

i thought that got rid of lice.

[Ellen Forradalom]

26. I'm hoping to avoid that

Hair is all the rage here in CA.

[MsTryska]

27. *lol* good point.

I guess i didn't take into consideration the aesthetic appeal of hair.

[FloridaJudy]

28. Mayonnaise

Seriously. Slather your kid's hair with mayo and cover with a plastic cap for about two hours. It smothers the lice, and isn't nearly as hard to shampoo out as olive oil or Vaseline.

If your child's head/hair has come into contact with anything that can't be easily washed in hot water - down pillows, cashmere sweaters and the like - put the object into a large plastic bag and tie it shut. Leave it there for two weeks. Any lice that hatch will starve to death during that period. Two weeks is probably overkill - lice can't survive more than a day or two without eating - but that will make sure you don't have any surviving creepy crawlies.

edited for clarity

[marzipanni]

29. I went through that once with my son when he was almost two

Of course I had them, too.:(
After the special shampoo, lots of fine-tooth combing, cleaning, etc... My patient SIL finally combed my hair for me, because she had done it for her daughter and knew what to look for. She found ONE nit! Then, in the sun, as we were about to leave, I checked my son's fine hair one more time and found ONE louse, and that was the end of it.

Make sure no one else in your house has them. Check in the hair behind ears.

My cousin reminded me to vacuum the car.

Good luck!

[QueenOfCalifornia]

30. I am thankful

that this has not happened to us -At our house, burning down the house is in order. (read further for explanation)

A neighbor called me shortly after my daughter left her house to tell me that her daughter had a lice infestation - I was lucky that the lice had not transferred to my kid... I did stick her in the shower and do the proper shampooing and never said a word to anyone else at our house - If I had, we would have all had to be dropped into a sheep dip and have our hair shaved - then the house would have been tented and then burned - My husband is a bit of an alarmist... I was wise to keep it a secret. No lice and no burned house.

sigh.

I hope I never have to go through what you did.

[MrsMatt]

33. I empathize with you

my daughter had them two years ago.

We used mayonnaise, nix, then we combed combed combed. She had a lot of hair - it was halfway down her back and easily tangled.

If you don't (or can't) run the stuffed animals though the dryer, you can put them in a plastic bag and store for two weeks. That will kill any critters on them. We had to go that route, as my girl had some that would not have survived a trip through a hot dryer.

Good luck!

(Now my head itches.)

[Ellen Forradalom]

34. After four more lengthy sessions

the kid's almost nit free.

[davsand]

35. Gawd, this makes me itch to read the thread!

We first encountered the whole lice thing when Material Girl was about 2 and going to a home day care. It is WAY more common now than it was in the 60's because you NEVER heard about lice back when I was a kid.

Part of the problem is those little buggers have developed a resistance to the stuff in RID and the other shampoos. Another problem is that so many more kids are in day cares and pre-schools than there used to be.

Something my Fam Practice Doc told me very early on was that lice hate cream rinse. His comment was that the lice do not like "coated" hair because it is tougher to cement the eggs to. He suggested using a shampoo with a cream rinse in it, and (knock on wood) she is now 11 and we have survived unscathed every year when some poor kid (or KIDS) turn up with the blasted things.

Doc also said that if you treat with any oil based product (olive oil or mayo) it will suffocate whatever live bugs there are. He said the life cycle of the bugs was such that you could treat every three or four days, comb in between and probably be rid of the little buggers in a couple of weeks.

Dunno if he was right or not, but that cream rinse in the shampoo must have worked out ok since we never did turn up with head lice.

Good luck!



Laura