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Lice Anxiety
We haven't had head lice . . . yet. But it seems like people are going down all around us. Just this morning, The Boy's playdate got cancelled because his friend has head lice. Dodged a bullet there. But for how long?
I'm checking their heads every day and dousing their hair with Fairy Tales spray before school. Just came back from getting The Boy a shorter haircut. What else can I do?
Have you had head lice in the family? How did you beat it?
I'm checking their heads every day and dousing their hair with Fairy Tales spray before school. Just came back from getting The Boy a shorter haircut. What else can I do?
Have you had head lice in the family? How did you beat it?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by mightyninjamom on -
The Little Miss picked it up at school and managed to pass the joy to Little B and myself. Here was our plan of action:
1. Wash all bedding - I did once a week until we were sure the lice were gone.
2. Quarantine bedtime companions for a month (stuffed animals) by putting them in a garbage bag and leave in closet.
3. Wash hair and dump lots of cheap conditioner in it.
4. Comb, comb and comb some more through hair with nit comb.
5. Remove any nits or adults you may find in a bowl of hot water or under some running water in the sink.
6. Rinse hair thoroughly.
Repeat steps as necessary.
It mostly just takes a lot of patience to go through that stuff. You can get the Rid shampoo, but I've read that lice are becoming more and more resistant to it. One of the Long Haired Ladies from my hair care board works in a daycare, and she recommended to me steps 3-5. I like to use Suave - the coconut one. It makes hair nice and slippery and you can run the nit comb through it really easily. A rat-tail comb is also good for helping you part hair so you can comb through it one section at a time. The best place to check for adults is the thickest part of their hair. Adults don't like light. Also, the nape of the neck and behind the ears are good places to look for adults.
Also, just to be thorough, I used henna in the Little Miss's hair when I did mine. Lice don't like henna.
Good luck!
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Permalink Reply by MamatothaMax on -
We've dodged that bullet too. One thing is to be careful not to over wash their hair. We usually wash hair every three days or so here. The natural oils in their hair make it harder for lice to live in it.
My mom would wash anything in the house that was cloth; clothes, bed sheets, and stuffed animals all got washed. Then we would get out hair washed with this lice shampoo and she'd go over it with a nit comb.
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Permalink Reply by mcglory13 on -
I got lice after working as a camp counselor one summer. It took me months to get rid of it. I think there are professional lice removers these days. I'd hire one of those.
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Permalink Reply by Mamawho on
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My old hairstylist used to braid her daughter's hair and spray it really well with hairspray. She claims that lice don't dig hair spray.
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Permalink Reply by Mommy Monster on -
Wild Thing got it last summer. I was so glad it was him and not Raidne (whose hair reaches almost to her butt). They were an absolute bitch to get rid of and I finally had to give him a full on crew cut and use some horribly toxic prescription stuff to get rid of them. This was after trying less drastic measures for about 6-7 weeks. I was washing his pillowcase every day and not letting him sleep with stuffed animals.
Of course the three of us were completely paranoid the whole time, but we never got it (touch wood). Raidne's teacher just sent home a note that a kid in the class has them, but she's good so far.
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Permalink Reply by Herasmus B. Dragon on
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You can do what my Cuban MIL swears by and soak his head in white vinegar each morning. I secretly wonder if this works only be making sure Kiddo never has another playdate again.
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Permalink Reply by Floor Pie on -
When my dad had head lice as a kid, his Italian grandmother soaked his hair in kerosene. That did the trick...
Herasmus B. Dragon said:You can do what my Cuban MIL swears by and soak his head in white vinegar each morning. I secretly wonder if this works only be making sure Kiddo never has another playdate again.
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Permalink Reply by jenra on -
I've heard the same thing about hairspray and gel. Put a lot on as it doesn't smell good to the bugs and they have a harder time gripping.
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Permalink Reply by mightyninjamom on
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Floor Pie - I swear I read somewhere that some girl died after her kerosene soaked head caught on fire! But that's exactly what she was doing - she was trying to get rid of lice.
The adult insects don't cling to hair, they like to roam around on your kids' head. It's exactly as squicky as it sounds. The nits are usually found within an inch to an inch and a half from the scalp. Essentially, the nit is glued to the hair shaft. It will come off with frequent combing, or you can actually get your fingernails around it and pull it down the hair shaft and off. Lice don't care about hairspray or gel. They care about hair oil. Natural sebum makes it harder for them to attach their eggs. Dirty hair tends to attract fewer lice than clean hair. That's not to say that if you never bathe your child that they won't get lice - they will. They may just have fewer of them. There are important steps you shouldn't miss when treating this type of thing. Washing the hair isn't that big a deal - it's the combing for nits that will get rid of them. Also treating the source - they may set up house on stuffed animals or other bedding so it's crucial to clean those until you have the infestation gone.
It's incredibly tedious, but I didn't find it to be too troublesome. We were done with it in one month.
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Permalink Reply by Mommy Monster on
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FP, I think you jinxed me! ;-)
Raidne came down with it this week. We got a note home on Monday, I checked her and didn't find anything. Wednesday morning, she was scratching and I checked her again. Sure enough, there they were. Ick!
I went straight for the malathion. I hate putting toxic stuff on her head, but I hate worse that she had little bugs crawling on her scalp. It skeeves me out just thinking about it. And she was DEVESTATED. She cried and cried, poor thing.
But, toxic poison seems to have worked. Go figure.
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