If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Combing out Lice (Photo credit: {studiobeerhorst}-bbmarie)
Head Lice seems to be going around. I’ve heard people talking about it, my kids have come home with the informative papers about lice, and just last night a friend of mine said to me, “My daughter has lice what do I do?” I have become the lice expert apparently. After literally spending months when my son was a newborn battling lice with my two oldest girls I just might be the lice expert. I tried it all, literally!
And truth be told, the best cure comes from Brazil. Find yourself a friend from Brazil. Seriously, the one thing that finally worked was a pill that my friend from Brazil gave me. It’s not approved here in the US, but I was desperate. Seriously, it had been months. And if you have seen my daughter’s hair, they have a lot of hair. Combing through their hair it was hours long process and then the cleaning on top of all of that. It was exhausting.
So while normally I wouldn’t give my kids something not approved by their doctor I was at my whits end. And knock on wood, they have been lice free ever since. That’s 5 years without lice for either of them. I was honestly considering shaving their heads when my friend rescued me. And little girls should not be traumatized like that. If it were my son, no big deal, but I couldn’t do that to my daughters. That would be so hard to deal with.
Facts About Lice
Lice does not mean a person is dirty. As a matter of fact lice prefer clean heads to dirty heads. So don’t ever feel ashamed like you are dirty people because you have lice. Lice don’t hurt or carry disease. They do bite which can be itchy and the scratching can cause an infection. So you want to make sure you get rid of them and watch for any sores on your child’s scalp and neck. At any sign of infection you want to call your doctor.
Lice are very tiny. An adult lice is brown/gray in color. The eggs or nits are white and resemble dandruff. However, it sticks to the hair shaft and does not fall off like dandruff does. That’s how you can tell the difference.
Lice do not jump or fly. They can only be passed human to human and with close physical contact. That’s why sharing brushes, combs, hats, and hair accessories is not recommended. These sort of activities are what cause the spread of lice.
It can take about 7-10 days for a nit to hatch. So because of this if you find out someone has lice you will want to keep checking your child’s head for a few weeks. Paying close attention to the nape of the neck and behind the ears.
You cannot get lice from your pet. Only human to human contact can cause the spread of lice.
So now I’m sure you’re wondering how do I get rid of lice? I mean short of having a friend from Brazil who can give you unapproved medication by the FDA which mind you I do not recommend at all. While I swear by the stuff I have absolutely no idea what’s actually in the pill as I cannot read a word in the box. It was probably an extremely foolish idea on my part, but did I tell you we had lice in our house for MONTHS? I tried every treatment possible. Lice are becoming resistant to our available treatments.
How To Delouse Your House
Here’s what you need to do…
- Go to the store and get any over the counter lice shampoo (Rid, Nix, store brand – it doesn’t matter, they’re really all the same). Make sure it has a nit comb, but grab a 2nd one in case you can con someone into helping you comb. Pick up some Dawn dish detergent while you’re there.
- Gather up all stuffed animals and place them in an air tight bag for two weeks.
- Place all bedding in the washing machine and wash on extremely hot water. This means sheets, blankets, pillows, and don’t forget your carseat covers too.
- Vacuum all beds, couches, and carpets. Remove couch cushions and get in the crevices of the couch and chairs too. Anywhere hair can get that you can actually wash, vacuum it.
- Gather up all hair combs, brushes, hats, and even bike helmets. Anything that can be washed soak in extremely hot water and rubbing alcohol. Wash with Dawn dish detergent. Anything that cannot be washed (bike helmets) put in an air tight bag and stick it in the freezer for at least 12 hours. This should kill the lice/nits so you can use them right away.
- Now to treat your child – Start with the lice shampoo. Do not shampoo or condition your child’s hair first, just apply the lice shampoo at directed on the box. Put your child’s hair in a shower cap and let sit for however long the instructions say.
- Rinse the hair and apply the Dawn dish soap to help aid in the removal of nits. Rinse again and now get your nit comb. Have a towel for wiping the comb.
- In very small clumps starting at the nape of the neck slowly begin combing through the hair. Make sure you get right to the scalp and work your way around the head. Look closely you want to get as much of the nits as you possibly can. Make sure everyone’s in a comfy spot because this is going to take a while. Especially if you have a child with a lot of hair.
- Comb the hair like this, while wet, every day for the next two weeks.
- One week after the initial treatment, treat again just to make sure you got them.
Now if after 2 weeks you still have lice, call your doctor. There is a prescription they can give you, but it is highly highly flammable. They made me swear that I would not light a fire around my children while doing this. That means no hair dryer too. This is done the same way as the over the counter treatments. You’ll need to comb through the hair still and honestly my kids complained that it burned their scalp from what I remember. And in the end it didn’t even work.
I was either dealing with particular aggressive bugs, or there was a serious undiagnosed problem at our school. I think the school was contributing to the problem. When I told the school that my girls had head lice, two weeks later the nurse hadn’t even checked the students. Who remembers in school going down to the nurses office as a class so she could comb through our hair checking for lice? I remember doing that and I expected the same to happen to my kids. Instead, every time I set foot in the school office (which was a lot, I was the PTA president) I would see the nurse sitting in the office chatting with people. When I questioned why she wasn’t checking the school for lice she said there wasn’t enough time for that because she was all by herself. So needless to say I think it was just getting passed around their school.
Prevention
Lice generally is a right of passage of any parent/child I would think. I remember a few times of going through this drill as a child. I also remember hating that my brother could just get buzzed and be done with it, while I had to go through the long tedious process of sitting there and getting my hair pulled and combed through. Little did I know then how hard it was on the one who was doing the tugging and pulling. So while you probably can’t completely avoid the lice drill, here are some reminders for your kids and things you can use to deter the lice.
- Remind your child that brushes, combs, hats, and hair accessories (or really anything that goes on your head or in your hair) are not to be shared.
- Encourage your child to avoid getting too close.
- Remind your child to hang coats and hats up separate and not to toss it in a pile with the rest of his classmates.
- Rosemary is supposed to repel lice. There is a leave in spray conditioner called Fairy Tales Rosemary Repel Leave-in Conditioning Spray that is supposed to repel lice and other insects from the hair. Get some and use it throughout the school year on your child’s hair. There is also a Rosemary shampoo you can get. I purchased it through my hairdresser.
- Use plastic mattress and pillow covers.
Most important, don’t panic. This is very common and it’s really just annoying and a lot of work. If there’s one thing I’d really like everyone to take from this though it’s that head lice does not mean you’re dirty, it means you’re clean. So it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Make sure you tell administration at your child’s school or sports coaches and the parents of children who might have recently slept over. Finding it early is important to tackling the problem.
Are you prepared now to handle head lice should your child get it?
