<p>Some school districts allow students with known head lice to stay in school, some districts send the kids home. I don’t think head lice are a real public health menace, though lice sure are a nuisance for the person with them. My sister picked up head lice in high school and we’re pretty sure she got them from the high school cheerleading squad she was on. Too, a number of the girls picked up MRSA, thankfully my sister didn’t catch MRSA. The school took away tumbling mats that might have contibuted to spreading the stuff, and likely the girls practicing together and being in close contact didn’t help things.</p>
<p>The lice were a nightmare! My sister tried everything to get rid of the lice including: medicine, RID, mayonaise, olive oil, vinegar, Listerine, lots of nit picking by me and my mom at night after school. Getting rid of the lice is not as easy as it might seem…it took a long time and a lot of patience. I’m not sure what finally did the lice in; I do remember it wasn’t a one or two day deal for sure.</p>
<p>CIEE83–best advice I see at the moment from someone who had to do the unfortunate research. Best way to avoid–don’t hug each other. Skip the scarves and hats. Lice don’t live long–science says bagging stuff and washing everything is a lot of work and a big waste of time. True. But still hot wash the pillow cases…
You’ll know if you get them 'cause it itches like crazy and drives you nuts. They hang out around the ears but seem to be everywhere.
If you DO get them–use RID (not Nix). RID really kills the live lice (Nix not always due to immunities the lice have developed) BUT will not kill the eggs (which NIX claims but doesn’t do 100% which is fairly useless). You have to use a GOOD steel comb to get rid of nits–run about 7-9 dollars years ago. Walgreens sold one. The wires are so close together you wonder how hair could even fit through it. But it does. Throw away that plastic thing they call a comb that comes in the package–it is totally useless. Forget all the other useless home remedies (green tea, mayonnaise etc) and get the RID and the comb (which really is the most important part).</p>
<p>The shampoos will kill the bugs, but not the nits, which are the eggs. That’s why the shampoo alone is not effective. The one time my D got them, we shampooed her and then spent a looong time (several hours) with her sitting in a chair (watching TV) while I went over her entire head looking for nits and picking them out with my fingernails. The nits seem to be most prevalent near the neckline and in the roots behind the ears. I was extremely thorough and the problem was solved. (I tried the comb first but it clearly was not getting them all.) I’ve been called a nitpicker before and since, but this was the only time it was literally true. :-)</p>
<p>We also did a lot of clothes and linen washing and drying, and running things in a hot dryer and putting things in plastic bags, but I don’t know in retrospect if that was really necessary.</p>
<p>My family actually had a pretty successful experience with using mayonnaise instead of the shampoo. When I was in grade school, we had a few bouts with lice (my middle school aged sister was actually the culprit) and when my parents used the shampoo on me (RID) I kept getting sent home by the nurse on checks for the terrible dandruff I got from it (not a nit in sight). My mom would painstakingly go through my hair section by section and pick out every single nit on my head with her fingernails. We did not have a Walgreens at the time and could not find a metal lice comb anywhere. </p>
<p>The mayonnaise method really worked though, for us at least, but it was DISGUSTING. We had our hair saturated with mayonnaise, covered in a shower cap for 6 hours. I have such distinct memories of the smell and having to have a paper towel to mop the dripping separated mayonnaise on my neck. I can’t eat mayonnaise to this day.</p>
<p>But, in our case it killed the lice dead, and then the nits were super easy to pick off because it made the hair really, really soft.</p>
<p>Years ago we battled a case of head lice using a method much like the mayo in the above post. We did use the shampoo first, but what was really helpful was slathering the head with creamy baby oil, putting on the shower cap and letting it stay on overnight. We then washed the hair with baby shampoo and used the fine metal comb to get out nits. The baby oil seemed to help loosen the nits grip on the hair shaft. After blow drying the hair we could easily pick out any remaining nits. It was, nonetheless a tedious job. I was thankful it only happened once!</p>
<p>I took her to school this morning so that the nurse could take a look. Luckily , she didn’t see anything. Regardless, I am still going to be cautious and go thru her head again, at least once more.
Now I am a little angry because I was the first parent to bring it to the attention of the school…I know we were not the first to HAVE the lice. Judging from the size of the lice I saw, she didn’t get them overnight. </p>
<p>I find it very irresponsible to not report it and possibly contain the spread , or at least give parents the chance to become proactive .</p>
<p>I spent 10 hours doing laundry yesterday between clothing, bed linens, pilows and towels.
I wouldn’t want others to have to go thru this just to spare myself or my daughter a little embarrassment</p>
<p>I do think they can be spread with clothing. My twins kept getting them in pre-k. They were months apart each time but they kept getting them back. I would check often after the first time they had them. I was notified by school one kid had them in their class on Halloween. I could not understand why they kept coming back. We did get rid of them but two months later they would be back. They only got them mildly because I had caught them so early. I worked with the school nurse each time. I finally realized that my kids art smocks were being used by many kids in the class. They were the typed that had to be pulled over their heads. Since they were my kids art smocks, they always used them to do the art activites. I had them bring me back these cute little smocks and I sent them in with ugly old tee shirts. They didn’t get them the last month or so of the year. After school let out for the summer, we had a little play date with girls from their class. They were blaming us for the lice because I had asked there mom if they had gotten them during the year. Of course, we get the you are gross look. Other moms girls didn’t get them during the school year but had them about a week after visiting us. We didn’t have them all but this mom came to me blaming us. I checked my girls but nothing. This mom found out after returning home that her older dd had them bad and that is where her other daughters(twins) had picked them up. </p>
<p>For us Lice MD worked the best. We have thin hair so the combs where not that helpful. I had to picked with my fingernails. Use bright light and a magnifying glasses to help you seen them. I takes weeks to get rid of them. Oh and look out because I got them by picking my twins hair. While at the doctors, I had have him look at my head(dh was out of the country) and he said I didn’t have them. I had a city going on a week later so I had them at the doctors office. I was the only one to get the allergic reaction because I had them so long. It takes about 3 weeks to get the allergic reaction.</p>
<p>Years and years ago, I got the dreaded phone call. My beautiful curly headed kindergartener had lice! Lice like all hair types! Apparently her whole girl scout troop had it as confirmed by the school nurse! The troop went on an outing to an apple farm and stacked coats on top of each other. One girl had contracted lice from a sleepover beforehand and it spread from there. The funny thing was, I saw one of those bugs in her hair on the day she got it. She came home from the girl scout outing to the apple farm and her hair was a bit of a mess. She wanted me to braid her hair. That’s when I saw that darn louse… It was pretty tiny, but I got it, not knowing what it was and not before it lay eggs in her hair. I thought it was a bug from the farm. Fast forward a few weeks and she was complaining of an itchy head. It wasn’t until that unfortunate phone call from the nurse that I put it all together. Luckily she only had a few nits (eggs) in her hair and we easily got rid if it without it spreading around the family. </p>
<p>BUT…</p>
<p>I am very thorough and paranoid. I washed EVERYTHING in hot water and bagged EVERYTHING she owned. I put plastic on all of the furniture. I used the nit comb religiously and and I greased her hair with Vasolene. The nits did not stand a chance! Others in the troop had a terrible time getting rid of their case. Not us. That lice was GONE! But it was a pain in the neck to deal with. </p>
<p>I know from working in a school setting that lice can be transmitted from clothing but the easiest way is head to head contact. Hairspray can be used as a preventative and greasing the hair appears to work although it isn’t super attractive!</p>
<p>Tomorrow is the day of comb thru number two. I bought hair clips to make it easier to get thru the hair by sections. I am going to be extra careful and diligent to prevent another episode. Wish me luck !</p>
<p>Make sure you check your dd for several weeks. If one of those nasty nits gets to adulthood, you will be doing this for months on end. </p>
<p>My kids were only 5 when they got lice and I never forget how sad they were when I had to bag up their stuff animals for months. I had destroyed a couple of stuff animals in the wash before I decided to put them in bags.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, a timely thread for me. I brought my 10 year old for a haircut, and they found one on her.</p>
<p>We went right to the drug store, she’s been treated, and we’ll be combing for nits daily. </p>
<p>I have been through this a few times over the years; what seemed to work well last time, in addition to the cleaning and nitpicking, was giving a second treatment prophylacticly at the end of the incubation period,</p>
<p>I am going to do another treatment since the Nix recommends it. My daughter is terrified of getting exposed to it again.
I contacted my hairdresser to see if she had any recommendations and she told me that is an epidemic in the area right now . She found it in three girls that had haircut appointments. She did say she has some repellant product , so I think I will swing by and check it out. If there aren’t enough parents being honest about it, I can see this being an ongoing issue</p>