Brace yourselves! Breezy Mama has previously covered how to prevent head lice but never QUITE LIKE THIS! In fact, one of the cleanest, diligent and, well, anal moms (no offense) I know has had a run in with those disgusting critters like no other. Asking to remain anonymous, this amazing mother of two explains battling head lice THREE times in a row recently (seriously the LAST person I would expect, too), what she’s learned the hard way and more (yes, I’m scratching, too).
From She Who Shall Remain Anonymous:
LICE SUCKS!
I was on a business trip when I got the dreaded call. Okay, maybe I’m being a little melodramatic. No one was dying or hurt and for that I am grateful. Still, the call jarred me. My daughter had lice!
As a self proclaimed germaphobe, this sent an instant jolt of anxiety straight to my gut. Just hearing the word “lice” literally made my head tingle (admit it, your head is suddenly itchy too, right?). Being states away and unable to go into combat mode, I started Googling everything on lice and immediately called my parents who where helping to watch the kids. I’m also in a meeting at this time so this was all the more stressful. I start rattling off a list of things to do: treat all heads, wash all bedding, disinfect brushes and hair accessories, vacuum the couch and car seats, call son’s daycare so they will check him, inform parents of daughter’s friends who’s house she was just at, the list goes on……
So, what did my parents do? They only treated my daughter’s head and didn’t even check my son. My Dad also went all old-school gangster on us and bought the strongest bug bomb and bombed the hell out of our house. This completely disregarded all websites that said you do not need to do that. I know they only meant well, but as I’m not a fan of pesticides and harsh chemicals, I wasn’t pleased. Plus, it didn’t work.
Lice must be horny little suckers. They multiply and spread like wild fires. They should be included in word problems for math students learning about exponential growth. So, two days later, the entire family has lice and we now have about 15 loads of laundry to do. I spent hours each night between laundry, vacuuming furniture and combing heads researching products and tactics for killing and preventing lice. Over a hundred dollars later, I have ordered an arsenal of products from Amazon, Whole Foods, and the local children’s hair salon.
I wish I could say that all of these products worked and that was the end of lice. The problem is, my daughter is in Kindergarten, and not every parent is as obsessive and diligent about fighting lice. We rid ourselves and our house, but she still had to go back to school. Mind you, this is a charter school in a great neighborhood. So, needless to say, she gets it again. At this point, I am one step away from trying to find a seller of the banned DDT from another country (do they sell this on eBay?) or just shaving our heads. In the midst of this, my daughter gets a birthday party invitation from a classmate for a hair and make-up party. We “regretfully” decline and sure enough, come Monday, 6 kids get sent home from school with lice. She gets it again on the one day we forgot to put her hair up and use the repellent spray. In a 2 month period, we had 3 bouts of lice.
This entire experience has been exhausting, not to mention expensive. At least I have a totally supportive husband who is equally as determined to get rid of lice. We were literally combing each other’s heads and searching for nits like monkeys. Unfortunately, he now knows just how much gray hair I really have and it got old hearing, “I can’t tell if you have nits because you have so many white roots”. Thanks. Loved hearing that.
I am now totally obsessed with lice and thought I would provide a list of facts, products and tactics to help fellow lice victims. If all of us are diligent, we can prevent the spread of lice. Disclaimer: I am neither a lice expert nor a trained medical professional.
These are the products I used and recommend.
· Comb: Nit-Free Terminator Comb (click here) – a must have tool!
· Hair Treatments for Killing lice – Hylands Wild Child Quit Nits Complete Lice Kit (click here), Fairy Tales Lice Good-Bye Mousse (click here)
· Preventative products: Rosemary Repel Shampoo (click here) and Rosemary Repel Spray and Shield Hair Spray 8oz (click here)
· Non-hair treatment for killing lice – Rid Lice Spray (click here) – for car seats, couches, furniture (this is the only non-all natural product I used)
Facts:
· Lice are the live bugs, nits are the unhatched eggs
· NO shampoo can get rid of lice/nits with one treatment. If ALL nits are not removed they will hatch into crawling lice and generate a self re-infestation.
· Nits must be laid by LIVE lice!
· Nits cling to hair about an inch away from the scalp – they are tiny almost clear looking and sticky. If you blow on the hair and the debris moves, it’s likely dandruff.
· Nits take 7-10 days to hatch, and another 7-10 days to lay their own eggs.
· Lice can only live off the human head for 24-48 hours.
· Eggs under 4 days old cannot be killed by shampoo and MUST be manually removed.
Tips for detecting lice:
· Excessive head scratching
· Scratch marks on skin near ears and the neck of the nape
Process for treating lice/nits:
1) Do treatment (using Fairy Tales or Hylands) immediately after being diagnosed. Treat siblings and family members. Repeat 7 days later – if you don’t, remaining nits will hatch. Be sure to communicate to classmates, daycare, and/or friends that you have frequent contact with.
2) Use the NitFree comb when hair is wet. I also followed up when hair was dry. Use the comb every day each day thereafter. This is really the most important step.
3) Do not shampoo hair every day. Lice can’t cling to oily/dirty hair.
4) Wash all bedding, towels, clothes, etc. the night that you do the treatment in hot water and dry for 20 minutes on hot. After twenty minutes, you can switch to your regular setting. The next days after treatment you can just stick the pillows and bedding in the dryer for 20 mins. You do NOT have to rewash each and every night, though I did change pillow cases each night.
5) Change towels each night.
6) Vacuum couches, mattresses, throw pillows, etc. I even sprayed some furniture firs with the lice spray.
7) For two weeks, cover couches with sheets each night and change sheets each day.
8) Place all stuffed animals and non-washable clothing in a plastic garbage bag – keep them in the bag for at least 14 days tightly sealed.
9) Spray and vacuum couches/chairs, backpacks, car seats.
10) Treat brushes, hair accessories, sunglasses, helmets.
11) Put long hair up every day and spray with a preventative lice free spray – truthfully, I think the hair up is even more effective than the spray.
12) After coming home from school, check hair and put all clothes immediately in the hamper.
13) Teach your kids not to play with each other’s hair!!!!
14) Avoid playdates within the first few weeks of a school’s outbreak.
15) No hair parties!!!!
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OMG. First, to the mama who lived through this, my heart goes out to you. I have a couple of friends who have told me how frustrating and hard this is. My 8yo has had two friends get them, and I panicked (and scratched: I’m itching my head as I type!).
The only thing that made me laugh is that I’m constantly battling with one of my kids to wash their hair and ironically, maybe their oily hair will keep the lice away!
I seriously hope I never need your advice, but if I do, I’m coming right back her and doing what you’ve listed here, word for word.
Robi comb! Robi comb! Robi comb! You can literally see it zap the lice. I used it on my niece, who had multiple outbreaks, and we’ve never had a problem since. It’s a little expensive, but well worth it.
Ugh- what a miserable experience! I still remember getting lice when I was 7 and I’m almost 29 now. It kept going around the school; my siblings and I had at least 3 different bouts. My mom could always tell because the napes of our neck would turn bright red. In fact, I ended up going to the dermatologist because the special shampoo was causing my hair to fall out or break off. Good luck Moms!
My two girls had a MAJOR problem with lice (believe me – three times seems like a breeze comparatively). Tried every treatment on the market. Didn’t work. We actually spent in excess of $1,000 to have professional treatment done. Didn’t work. Here is what did work:
- Spray the hair with Listerine mouthwash — the original (amber color). Saturate the hair and put a shower cap on.
- Park the kid in front of a favorite video for two hours.
- Remove shower cap. You will hopefully see dead bugs in it! Rinse hair, add a conditioner (leave it in).
- Comb, comb, comb. Section the hair and comb through. The conditioner helps (actually does the same work as the pricey lice gels). You want to use a good-quality lice comb here. Make sure you hit every section of the hair. If your child has longer hair, then put up in a pony tail.
Here’s the most important part…
- Every other day for the next TWO WEEKS, after showering or bathing, apply conditioner and comb through again.
- If your child has longer hair, keep it pulled back and up when they’re at school.
Your lice will be gone!
What happens is that the Listerine seems to kill the live bugs, and by then repeatedly combing through you will not only remove any eggs, but catch any bugs that somehow escaped the Listerine death.
This is less toxic and less expensive than other treatments. I can seriously say this worked for us. It was a NIGHTMARE situation of recurring lice.
Wash bedding and stuffed animals during the Listerine treatment and vacuum as well. Frankly, I’ve heard you don’t have to go too overboard on this as the lice can only live on human blood, so will not survive long in bedding, furniture, etc.
Good luck to any of you going through this.
Being a teacher I have had my share of lice outbreaks. Chelsea you gave a great list of how to treat it. One addition I have is after first treatment put coconut oil in your hair. The oil smells good and makes it so the lice can’t attach in the hair.
It is an exhausting process….you hope it only comes into your house once or even better never!