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Yeesh

One of the directors told me she thought she saw my daughter scratching her head but we couldn't see anything. I bought some preventative shampoo/conditioner & a nit comb. I combed through all of her hair and saw nothing - but I don't really know what I'm looking for. Did I mention she's blonde? I haven't seen her scratch her head. She doesn't really play with the kid who has lice (it was pretty easy to figure out). What are the chances we might dodge this???

[This message edited by JanaGreen at 9:28 PM, August 6th (Wednesday)]

Speaking as a mother to three children, assume the worst. Of course none of my children's friends ever had it, so the ones which showed up on my kids' heads - and mine, too! - must have just spontaneously generated out of thin air.

IMO, it is well worth it to go to a professional delousing salon & pay to be checked and, if necessary, deloused.

People are very strange about lice. Some people simply do not care if they get it or spread it. Others care very much (that would be me). The OTC products don't work well, although there are combs which work better than anything. Just go to a professional salon. Peace of mind when it comes to lice is priceless.

Now I'm itching.

Me too! I feel SO itchy.

I found a company that comes to your house and debugs it. I am keeping them in mind just in case.

Lice. FFS!

Look up a picture of a not. Looks like a tear drop and will not just come out of hair without the comb or your nails.

Check your child's hair every night section by section. Live bugs will be in the area behind the ears and at the back of the head. They are fast and you can miss them.

Make sure the director is on top of it and checks the kids because I worked at a place that didn't take it serious enough and it took the entire summer and a no nit policy in the end to beat it

I would keep checking just to be sure.

How I treat lice:

Boys: shave head

Girls; fine tooth nit comb with shampoo; follow directions and repeat in one week

[This message edited by purplejacket4 at 11:57 PM, August 6th (Wednesday)]

I recently had to deal with this for the first time. At first I was horrified, and scared we may have spread it to the cousins! I needed to avoid using the chemical shampoos so I bought an electric comb called a Robi by LiceGuard at CVS that electrocutes them. I am happy to report it worked great! We combed her hair twice (or 4 or 5 times...) a day initially and then once a day for two weeks. And then every other for the third week. I never found anything after the first couple of days, but you have to make sure no new lice hatch if you missed any nits. Some hair textures would be more difficult but really, this was not near the headache I anticipated!

You can use the Robi to comb through proactively if there is an outbreak at her center. The reviews online were mixed, but it worked well for us. The key is being thorough with whatever method you choose.

[This message edited by lknup at 7:24 AM, August 7th (Thursday)]

Lice are freaking awful.

My poor DD got it at the beginning of the school year first, second, and third grade.

She has ten tins if thick light brown with natural blond highlights. The schools have a zero nit policy. So they don't let you come back until you are clean for 24 hours.

When I was about to loose my mind I ran into a mom of 4 girls. She gave me the most helpful information on how to treat. Plain old mayo on their head with a tight plastic baggie. Leave on at least 4-6 hours. Rinse out most of the mayo and then apply mousse. It made those little bastards puff up. She saved my life.

Lice also love clean hair. I know it's the opposite of what you were told. So when you wash her hair put product on it, detangler, mousse. Etc.

Once you have the creepy crawly itchies from the paranoia of them it takes a bit to go away.

I watched her like a hawk this morning and never saw her scratch at her head. I'm HOPING we avoided this but I'm trying to be realistic.

Honestly if she comes down with it, I'm going to call a service to come in and check her - and me - and DH. I'm intrigued by that electric comb. I think that's my next purchase! I pulled her hair back tight into a braid and sprayed the shit out of it with this preventative spray.

Jana, lice love clean hair and do not like hair that has any type of product in it. Start putting some type of mousse or gel in Baby Green's hair to help ward them off.

I just hope it's not too late.

Plain old mayo on their head with a tight plastic baggie. Leave on at least 4-6 hours. Rinse out most of the mayo and then apply mousse. It made those little bastards puff up.

Well I'll be damned! I copied/pasted to a Word doc as reference for potential infestations of the grands in the future! When the puff up, are they dead or does that just make it easier for you to see to get them out?

My 2yo GD did not get lice when her room had a few cases. She was lucky. If she would have gotten them, my DD was going to do the delousing professionally as a couple of the other posters suggested.

We were very lucky when my kids were little as they never got it. One day, every girl in my DD's class was sent home because lice were found, EXCEPT for my DD! She also had very long hair at the time. What is even more interesting is that one of the little girls who was sent home was in our house that morning, waiting for the bus with my kids! Yet my kids did not get it. I was feeling sort of smug like we had a special immunity. I also never had it myself as a child (and none of my siblings had it either) even though we were raised in what many would consider a situation of neglect with lack of parental oversight of cleanliness.

Well, I have gotten it a couple of times as an adult and I got it from my grandchildren! My grandchildren have cousins on their mother's side who ALWAYS seem to have it. My DIL has finally decided it is time to seriously limit how often they see their cousins, and sadly this is the reason.

I know that paranoia and automatic itching that comes with just hearing about it. However, at least in my case, if you have it, you will know something is seriously wrong and you will also see that your children have it because the itching is quite severe and not just an occasional feeling of needing to itch your head. It will be more around the hairline, neck, back of ears rather than just anywhere on your head. The lice themselves are extremely difficult to see. With older eyes like mine, I think it is impossible to actually rely on being able to see them. If you are pretty sure you or a family member have it, then treat it. I recommend a product called LiceFree. All the medical websites seem to say these natural products don't work as well as the ones with poisons to kill the lice, which makes me suspect of the entire medical profession. I am here to tell you the natural products work just as well, and maybe better than the ones with the chemical poisons.

Also, tea tree oil works as a lice deterrent.

I got lice once as a pre-teen and was absolutely mortified. Mom used the shampoo and comb. We also bleached all our bedding and boiled all our hair stuff (brushes, combs, scrunchies).

The idea behind the mayo, tee tree oil or any thing that coats it is to smother the little bastards. The Nits are in a protective coating, and the poisons don't necessarily get through it. That's why it takes so long to do it. The 6 hours smothers them good.

Lala, I don't know why they puffed up, but they do. And it makes getting the Nits out a heck of a lot easier.

Bobbi -- I don't know about the medical professionals in your area, but when I called the pediatrician and demanded something to kill them, and didn't care if my kid was exposed to insecticide, they said no. It doesn't work. They too recommended the natural stuff, and wished me luck.

I don't know about the preventative sprays, but I do know that daily mousse kept her from getting it again.

Figuring out who the harbinger of the lice was helped as well. I told her to stay away from the kid that I knew she was getting it from, when I saw them moving on her head myself when I was her GirlScout leader.

Oh God, I'd die if I saw them moving on a kid's head.

I feel terrible for the little girl who has it, because she's new. What a way to make an impression - introduce lice to the class in your second week at school. At the same time, I can't help being glad that Sadie didn't take my advice to play with the new girl . . . although Jessie played with her . . . and Sadie played with Jessie . . .

and be sure to tell her not to touch anyone else's hair... or to let anyone touch her hair. little girls are notorious for playing with each other's hair.

don't use anyone's comb or brush. don't use their hairbows, barrettes, hair bands. nothing. EVER.for the rest of her life. (j/k but on the rest of her life)

check the coat rack at school- are the pegs real close together? (coats or jackets/sweaters touch each other?)

if you have to comb thru her hair yourself. bright sunlight and a metal nit comb. every day.

ditto on running anything their hair touches thru the hottest dryer it will stand.

stuffed animals in a plastic garbage bag.

ask me how I know... (who has a dd with enough hair for 2 kids) ugh. seriously. I combed hair til I cried. for a week.

Just wanted to add that I've been told you can delouse items like sheets, towels, stuffed animals, etc by throwing them in a high heat dry cycle or sealing them in a plastic garbage bag for 48 hours.

I was told the schools here don't do anything in the classroom when there is an outbreak. Apparently, the weekend (48 hours) without a body for the lice to adhere to is enough to kill them off.

I'm itching now! Whenever I remember, I spray my kid's hair with the natural tea tree oil hair spray (I think it is called fairytales) on the way out the door to school and go crazy with the shampoos, mousse, and spray when I get the letter home that someone in the classroom has it! So far so good!

Other things I've done to prevent lice from happening again (that one time was enough for me!) is to braid my girls' long hair every day before school. If not a braid then in a ponytail with multiple bands on it all the way down. Then spray the shit out of all three kids' hair with a spray that has tea tree oil and other things in it (that I got from the delousing salon).

I also forbade my kids from hanging their coats up in the coat area, and forbade them from putting their backpacks in the backpack area. For a while I forbade them from bringing backpacks to school altogether. At the time the school had a "we don't give a shit about nits" policy. Your kid has lice? No problem. Still has nits? No problem. No need to stay home. No need to check heads. Consequently lice were a real problem there.

My DD got it about a year and a half ago when she was 5. Now, she has lots of hair, but it's thin so I think that makes the treatment a lot easier. Kids with thick, course hair probably have more trouble because there are so many more places for the nits to hide.

I used the over the counter treatment shampoo and then tried the mayo cap. It didn't work. I combed out to live bugs the next morning after we washed it out. Since you can only do the shampoo once and then have to wait several days before the next treatment, I talked to the school nurse to see if she had any suggestions. She told me that she's seen people have luck with regular Listerine. My mom then read that washing with Blue Dawn dish soap also helps.

So, for the days in between treatments, I had DD sleep on a leather couch with Listerine slathered all over her head and a winter cap placed over it. In the morning, we would wash her hair out with the blue Dawn soap and use the special comb.

We got rid of them within two days. I luckily never got them and neither did DS.

It's a total pain in the ass because, not only do you have to be diligent about the kid's head, but you also have to wash and bag just about everything that would be susceptible to them - pillows, sheets, blankets, stuffed animals, etc., etc.

After we got rid of them, we got some little kid hair spray with tea tree oil and used tea tree oil shampoo. Also, DD has never gone to school again with her long hair down - it's always either in a pony tail, a braid or a bun. The school nurse told me that it can spread so quickly in school because, especially with little kids, they put their heads close together for doing projects and reading books. When the hair is down and swings, the little bastards jump. For older kids, believe it or not, the prevalence of taking "selfies" together is a huge risk - they all put their heads together for the pictures.

Good luck - I hope she skates out without a problem!!

If I remember correctly we used Tide laundry detergent and that special nit comb.

I know blue Dawn works for fleas it may work for lice as well.

Listerine is interesting!