Head lice! Freaking out!

[lunalocks]

Are you able to do head lice checks on the kids you teach? Parents need to know.

[RedBlue]

My mom used to slather my sister's hair and my hair in mayonnaise when we had lice. We would have to let it sit for at least a hour before rinsing it out.

[jeanniet]

Make sure you let the school know so they can do head checks. If they don't figure out where the lice came from, there's going to be lice all over the school. Here I think schools are supposed to notify parents if lice have been found, and (not sure) kids are kept out of school until they're nit-free. I'm not positive on that because my kids went to private school and that was their policy, so may not be true in the public schools. When my older son was still in public school he brought home lice and when I told the office they said they would send out a notice but never did. I was pissed. I found out about the lice when I went to a salon for a cut and they booted me out with a 2" piece cut out of my hair. My husband had to butcher (er, I mean "finish") the rest of my hair. I didn't even know I had lice! Ugh.

Be very diligent about cleaning your flat. Wash everything you can in hot water. If you can't wash it, seal in plastic bags for two weeks. If you can't wash or seal it up, vacuum, vacuum, vacuum. You have to keep it up for two weeks and it's a real pain in the butt, but a nightmare if the little sh*ts come back!

[joflakes]

Thanks, all.

The school are aware of the problem already, they send letters home regularly but it doesn't seem to work. Some parents take the stance that they keep coming back so why bother. Which is awful. =(

[leslissocool]

Oil fights off lice! Squeaky clean hair tends to attract them, at least that's what I was told. I got them a lot as a kid, but ever since I started oil my stepson had them, and so did my husband, and the only one that didn't have them at home was me (which is really a first!).


So my advice, oil you hair, buy the little tiny brushes and brush your hair, soak again. Use oil as leave in. I use oil as leave in for my kids too. And yes, seal all the pillows and the fluffy stuff in plastic bags for 2 weeks, and vacuum a lot.


ETA: Oh man that sucks! Poor children, lice were terrible for me I am still traumatized now, I can't understand leaving children with lice just because they keep coming back . Actually, some places in the US will send your kid home with lice and won't take him back until they are gone. I think the twin's school is like that, my stepson's school was like that.

[cathair]

Last time I had head lice I think I got them from my little brother. He had long hair at the time and they made his head so sore and scabby he had to have it undercut, the doctor wanted him to have it all shaved off but he didn't want to. We tried all kinds head lice treatments prescription and none prescription and none of them worked.

The only thing that helped was absolutely saturating the hair with cheap conditioner and then combing over and over again with a really fine nit comb. The conditioner stops to head lice and the eggs being able to cling to the hair so much, so they area easier to comb out. We would have to do this every day probably for a month to get rid of all of them, it takes a lot of persistence. I don't think you will get rid of them without combing regularly. These combs are pretty good at getting lice off (I don't know if they are good for your hair), each tooth has a sort of spiral in it, like a screw, which helps scoop them off:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nitty-Gritty.../dp/B001PML6Y6

If you decide to try any head lice treatments, I would avoid anything that contains permethrin. It can cause pretty dangerous side effects in some people and animals. I think most modern treatments probably don't use this any more.

[PrincessIdril]

When I was a kid my mum always used an electric head lice comb like this:
http://www.boots.com/en/Boots-Electr...ce-Comb_47060/
on me and my brother.

Works a treat as it kills any lice it comes into contact with rather than removing them alive (which we always found normal lice combs did). And it's totally hair safe.
(Also an awful lot easier and quicker than saturating the hair in oil/conditioner .etc!)

[SerinaDaith]

Is it Borax and hot washing for your laundry to kill the little monsters? Just a thought, while you are oiled up you should probably be doing the laundry, I know you can also sprinkle borax on carpets and furniture with fleas but I am not sure if the same would be so with nits. DE is supposed to kill off bedbugs... I know that lice are not the same critters but both of those options may help get your house deloused.

[an-anachronism]

The last time I had lice as a child my babysitter put a very deep conditioner on me, and had me sit in a cap for about two hours at a time, and then combed thru my hair. It took a few days but it worked, luckily I wasn't that bad, I actually hadn't noticed that I had them until the school nurse checked everyone who stayed at a weekend camp out because someone had gotten it too. The last time I was around it was when my roommates 1 year old got it from her cousin o.o that was a nightmare, the only thing we were able to do is comb and treat the hair with vinegar and that worked fantastically.

[Herb]

Ugh. I know your feelings. I work with little kids, too, and got lice last year. It was awful. I mixed strait acv with super-sulfatey Head and Shoulders, left it on my scalp for 15 minutes, and the adults all washed out, mostly dead. That's probably damaging for hair but it did the trick cheaply. For weeks, I saturated my scalp in mayonnaise, olive oil, and essential oils at night with a shower cap and towels wrapped around my head to suffocate any new hatchlings. The best thing is to have someone who will nitpick you -- I'm very grateful to my mama for that.

Anyway, I'm sorry for your infestation. It sucks. *hugs* <3 You can get through it!