Head lice

[marmee]

:gasp I have survived them for nearly 9 years. My 8 year old son and my 4 year old daughter (with *very* long hair) aren't the ones with the head lice...it is my 2 year old son!

Bugger.

I have sat here for the past hour pulling out eggs. My SIL was around today, cutting out hair when she found one adult crawling through DS's hair. I have just pulled out about 20 or more eggs.

What do I do now?

I am bound to have missed a few (or a lot). Please help. I have no live treatments of combs in the house and it is 8.30pm!

[Stardust]

Do you have coconut oil? Someone told me that works.Maybe any oil on the hair would work? T-treecombed through? I've not had to deal with this yet,so not sure. Hope the beasties leave you soon!

[marmee]

Yes! I have coconut oil...but does that kill them? I also have Tea tree oil - does that kill them? What kills them? :rofl

[emd]

Do you have soap nuts? They can be used for treating head lice. Recipe for soap nut shampoo here:
http://www.brindabellababy.com.au/content/naturally-clean-soap-nuts-recipes-and-uses

How about mayonnaise? Cover scalp and hair with mayo, cover with plastic wrap and leave on for 30 minutes. Shampoo and remove all the nits or eggs.

[Aine]

Ok from a hairdressers point of view you treat everyone with your chosen treatment. You wash all beding towles clothing hats facewashers combs brushes EVERYTHING the little buggers can live up to 24 hrs with out a host body then in a weeks time do it agaiun and do it again in 21 days as that is the length of there breading cycle and some can and do get missed in the first treatment. Using conditioner to comb them out only works if the cement that the louse uses to bond the nit (egg) to hair is weak... If you add a few drops of tea tree oil to your shampoo this can help to preven further infestation

[marmee]

Mayonnaise? What you trying to do to me now, Em???

:rofl

And no soap nuts either...although from the sounds of it, you should be rolling around with those soap nuts! Mayonnaise! Say what?

:rofl

[Aine]

to find something to kill them you need to see a chemist or a hairdresser... LICE are tough buggers

[marmee]

Mon - what is your chosen treatment?

And WTF? Everything? No way. I'm going to go get my mayonnaise....

[marmee]

But if I get the eggs out - they can't be there, right?

Should I get the whole egg mayonnaise for added quality? :rofl

[emd]

I haven't had to try the mayo treatment on my own kids, no idea how it's supposed to work. The soap nuts seem more likely, or adding tea tree oil to your regular shampoo.
We had all sorts of cooties regularly as kids (farm life - lice, fleas, ringworm etc) and Mon's right about having to treat everything. The eggs and live bugs can be living in bedding, worn clothes, and hair brushes. Has he got long hair? Worth cutting it short or tying it back til it's sorted.

[Aine]

its been a while since i was in a salon ill go look. I cant see how the mayo would work

[Aine]

If your child is 2 years old or under, you should not use medicated lice treatments. You'll need to remove the nits and lice by hand. just thought i would pass this on i have not heard of it before.. PPS do a good spray it doesnt kill the lice but it helps with the condtion of the hair after you have treated it making combing out of dead lice and nits easier
(Combing Spray)
PPS FRIED LICE COMBING SPRAY is a mild, but gentle conditioning product, that detangles hair permitting easy screening for headlice, and helps with the removal of headlice eggs (nits). PPS FRIED LICE COMBING SPRAY is ideal for daily use as a leave-in conditioning product. Protecting hair from breaking, splitting and dryness. Use as often as needed.
FEATURES & BENEFITS
• permits easy screening for headlice
• helps with easy egg removal
• removes knots and tangles
• allows eggs to slip and slide from the hair
• smoothes hair with Silk Protein
• protects hair from splitting and dryness
DIRECTIONS
PPS FRIED LICE COMBING SPRAY assists with easy egg removal and detangling, it does not treat headlice. Spray on PPS FRIED LICE COMBING SPRAY and comb through with a fine toothcomb. Wipe combings onto tissue to check for headlice. If headlice are found DO NOT RINSE (as PPS FRIED LICE GEL should be applied to dry hair). Prompt treatment with PPS FRIED LICE GEL is recommended to control the spread of headlice.

[Nyree]

:rofl @ "fried lice"

Nads & Moov do natural treatments, available at pharmacies & supermarkets.

Leaving a blend of olive oil & thyme essential oil in the hair is a good preventative, too.

[Kathryn]

I just went through sectioning all the hair and pulling off all the eggs. My girls' hair was way too fine for the combs so went through and pulled them off with my fingernails. Vile, but I felt better knowing that they were definitely all gone. Not easy on a 2 year old though. I used the Moov stuff (http://www.moov.com.au/moov_products.html?s=909519874)on us all to make sure too. I thought they couldn't survive without a head? I didn't wash absolutely everything, but the manual removal plus Moov did the trick and we didn't get them back.

[marmee]

Moov it is then! Tomorrow...

Thanks everyone

[wems]

What kills them?BLOODY NOTHING :(

We have been battling them since the beginning of the year.....I want to know where they are coming from

9 years of kids and never a lice/nit now we can't get rid of them

I even shaved off my 3 baby boys beautiful hair .......and cried and cried and cried

I honestly don't know how they are living here

Towels are now washed every day in hot water.....bedding changed ever couple of days.....all brushes, combs, hair pretties etc live in the freezer......hats washed every couple of days.......hair washed with lice/ nit tea tree shampoo every 2 days (I have tried everyone one on the market)......hair sprayed every day with tea tree oil and lavender

AND STILL THEY LIVE ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:(

they are the coachroaches of hair :rofl

ETA a vinegar rinse of the hair will help shift the eggs......I just mix some vinegar in a jug of water and pour it over the kids/our hair before they get out of the bath/shower and then comb their hair with a nit comb and it does make a difference

[Merlion]

a couple of years ago Jess got those horrible horrible creatures and it took months and months of treatment and finally got rid of them. one way of me getting rid of them i moved house.

[wems]

one way of me getting rid of them i moved house.Probably cheaper then all the money i have spent trying to treat the 9 of us for the year :(

[marmee]

Far out, wems! I should shut up. My one little man is nothing in comparison to that xx

[Merlion]

well actually we were moving house as we had bought about the same time Jess got lice.

[mrs fox]

I use moov, our school is rant with them. Once a f/night I treat eveyone and I also wash their hats, bags, lunch bags, bedding with soapnuts and then spray the mattress and carpet with tea tree oil & water(I am obessed with not having them). If I run out of moov I use conditioner to smoother them and then comb out.
I have also used moov to get ticks off the boys too just put a bit on it and 10 mins later it was dead and came off easy.

good luck marmee!

[Bron]

We've been fighting them all year. Over and over and over. Coconut oil didn't work, by the way. Just made the head really oily :rofl (but I was using it to try and strengthen X's hair).

I always wondered about how long they lasted off the head (cos the thought of vacuuming, washing etc filled me with dread) and was so happy to find this

DO I NEED TO SPRING CLEAN THE HOUSE?

Definately not! Head lice die if they leave the head. The only way head lice can get water and food is by sucking blood from the scalp. A head louse not on the head is a head louse in a desperate situation! Head lice will dehydrate when off the head. The rate at which this occurs depends on the amount of water vapour in the air. In an air-conditioned room, head lice will be severely dehydrated after a few hours. When it is wet and raining, head lice may live for 24 hours. We searched the floors of 118 primary school classroom carpets for head lice while the pupils were out of the classroom. We also checked the children's heads. We found no lice (ZERO!) on the floors and 14,033 lice on the heads of the 2000 or so children using those classrooms. To treat head lice concentrate on the head!
A small number of lice do move down to pillow slips at night. So change the pillow slip when you are treating your child, or heat it up (hot wash, iron, hot dryer) to kill any head lice that may have walked across to the pillow slip. However, focus your main efforts on the head, not on the environment. The head is where the action is!



from here


http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/phtm/PHTM/hlice/hlinfo1.htm

[wems]

Yeah I read that too Bron and thought yipeeeeeeeeeee

But when we just keep getting them I had to think it was crap and started the overboard cleaning to try and deal with them :(

[soulmama]

the ex has kept some in a chinese takeaway container for a week he says.. so it's crap. :rolleyes

[Natenimiri]

Head Lice are HELL! We avoided it for 5 years until she went to school then it was constant, kept getting them from the other kids and they would mix their hats up! AAAAHH! We have done everything but I would try and go natural - Moov was good. But the key is to get all the eggs otherwise its a waste of time and money. I did combing with conditioner and then went through it myself and picked them out and they were still there!!!!! NOW we haven't had them for a year THANK GOD and each week when i wash their hair I put the conditioner in and do a comb through. There is a good preventative spray out there that is all natural but it has nuts in it and my girls are allergic so we can't use it but other people swear by it - OR tea tree oil helps. Hope that helps!

[mama_bel]

Ugh, lice! The first 2 times I used conventional lice treatment, washed EVERYTHING and went ballistic about them being in the house.

A couple of years or more later they got them again, and again, and again - 1-2 times a year I guess for 4 or 5 years running... I have always only changed their linen on the first day (or pillowcase in the very least), but I have conditioned their hair and lice-combed it every morning, everyone's pjs into the wash with the washers and towels I've used for the hair treatment. Then I shower and wash my own hair (the itch of invisible nits usually - just the thought of it, ugh!) Everyone gets done, not negotiable. When I've let someone skip a combing as they're 'sure' they don't have them, it all goes round again. Some kids keep the conditioner in all day, others plait their hair, others have a shower and wash it all out (full shampoo and conditioner wash, then comb again). Sometimes I've sprayed essential oils on, or a mix like Chelle's (Green Tree Frog) Chest Rub oil, is it called (I forget, it ran out with the coughs this winter)... It's great for lice too, apparently! :)

It takes me an hour or two every morning to do this, but after a few days I know that I've been thorough. I then check a week after then, and the next week, etc. By checking I mean I take them outside in daylight, section their hair and LOOK, or nit-comb. I also watch for scratching.

So while we've had it several times, I think that's just part of mixing with heaps of different kids, and coming home to a large family... And yes the first 3 or 4 days are HELL, but it's worth the effort, I think.

For combing conditioner, I normally just buy a big bottle of home brand. Not something we'd normally use, but less nasty than regular lice chemicals and I don't mind using great big globs of it on everyone's hair, at a couple of dollars a bottle.

And for combs - I use a regular comb for knots, then a plastic lice comb for knots and big fat lice, and then a metal lice comb for lice and eggs. I also look and use my fingernails for missed eggs if I need to.

Good luck!

[marmee]

I am hoping I got all the eggs last night....crosses fingers....still off to get some Moov...

[Pinky]

I've heard the only way to kill 80% of them is the nasty chemicals from the chemists... which no one wants to do..

and still you have to manually get rid of the last 20%...

So I've heard that combing through is the only way to go.

the tea tree oil is supposedly effective for prevention. and strangely letting your kid go to school with greasy hair is also effective.. Lice like clean hair. go figure.

I've also heard if you have a girl and you pull her hair back into a tight braid or bun and then spray the hair with cheap and nasty hair spray it actually creates a physical barrier they can't get into!

My daughter just started school and we got the lice newsletter.. so far so good. but I'm sure I'll deal with this before the year is out.

[Rinelle]

Ugh. Glad we haven't had to deal with this (yet). Good luck Marmee. Hope you get rid of them quickly.

[ali_celt]

we just had them. I soaked everyone in the Nads nitwit foaming stuff. Left it in for about an hour, washed it out, chucked in the Moov conditioner, rinsed it out. Sat in front of the fire and combed out the only one with ACTUAL lice and eggs present. Combed out quite a number of lice - all dead ones, so obviously the Nads stuff worked on killing them. Then combed out the egg side of it.

Washed all sheets, pillowcases, PJ's, towels. Soaked hairbrushes and headbands.

Doing it all over again on Saturday (makes it 7 days, apparently just when the next lot from any missed eggs are hatched, but not big enough to lay fresh ones)

Also I ALWAYS tie my kids hair back. and I ALWAYS spray them with either the Moov lice deterrant spray, or a home-made one with diluted tea tree and eucalyptus oil in it. If they keep coming back I'm buying Neem oil as I've heard good things about that too.

[mama_bel]

Neem oil stinks!

My hair is the cleanest in our family and not tied back and long-ish and thick and I don't use any 'products' in it (mousse, spray, etc). But when the kids have had lice I've never got them. I've had one or two crawling on my shirt when I'm combing the kids, and I itch like MAD 'cos of the *thought* of lice, but they haven't moved in... I've noticed the same in our family - I don't reckon the clean hair theory rings true as some of my kids with unkept hair (feral kids! LOL!) get lice, some don't. I mean, we're a whole case study of 8 people, but that's my observation...

Before I had Chelle's oil I just mixed oils I had and sprayed on their hair if we had trouble (or friends) with lice. Are the bought products any different I wonder?

[Kathryn]

Think I tempted fate when I posted here. Rhiannon's come home with crawlers today. :(

[soulmama]

Eek Kathryn! :ohmy

[Pinky]

oh no! Well we've not had 'em yet (knock on wood) so I'm just spreading hearsay!

[Hailstorm]

We've never had them but doubt we'll be far off getting them with Haze at school kinder and school next year. I'm just wondering about lemon juice? Would that do anything? and what about chucking sheets and things into the drier?