Lice-what do I do???

smilie

I've been unwonked!
Joined
Aug 31, 2004
My daughter goes to a gymnastics camp during the summer. We were told that kids are showing up with lice! They have been checking the kids twice a day every day but told us to not wash her hair just to be safe. Apparently they like clean heads? Who knew....

I've never dealt with lice before thankfully. What else can I do to be sure she doesn't get it? Should I slather her up with mayo? Will that kill everything if she has it??

HELP!!
 
Get some tea tree oil spray. Lice are supposed to hate that smell. You could also use shampoo with that when you do wash.

Also, put her hair up in a bun if you can. Braid it, style it in a way that will not allow it to spread out much. Hold it with hairspray.

Also, if she does get them, pack up all stuffed animals, wash everything on hot, vacuum everything-even the car. There is a product that you can use on her hair that has an ingredient that dries them out. It works great and keep checking and combing for a few weeks.
 
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My daughter goes to a gymnastics camp during the summer. We were told that kids are showing up with lice! They have been checking the kids twice a day every day but told us to not wash her hair just to be safe. Apparently they like clean heads? Who knew....

I've never dealt with lice before thankfully. What else can I do to be sure she doesn't get it? Should I slather her up with mayo? Will that kill everything if she has it??

HELP!!

OMG this is the worst thing that ever happened to me when my daughter was about 11-12.
We battled it for weeks.
First, get a Tea Tree shampoo and use that, then put gel in her hair and put it in a bun everyday. They LOVE clean hair.
Tell her to not hug anyone, keep her things in a bag and make sure it doesn't touch anyone else's belongings.

ETA: She still has nightmares about it and the hours I spent combing through her ridiculously long hair. She has an 8 year old daughter now and uses gel daily and the shampoo.
 
Get some tea tree oil and put it in her products... That will repel them. The camp is right, they don't like dirty hair. Tie it back in a tight pony/braid and spray it down with hairspray.

Lice are hard to kill even with the chemicals/home cures. It's really all about physically removing the bugs/eggs. Combing the smallest sections of hair and removing ANYTHING that doesn't belong is the best way to get rid of them.
 


OMG this is the worst thing that ever happened to me when my daughter was about 11-12.
We battled it for weeks.
First, get a Tea Tree shampoo and use that, then put gel in her hair and put it in a bun everyday. They LOVE clean hair.
Tell her to not hug anyone, keep her things in a bag and make sure it doesn't touch anyone else's belongings.
And no selfies!
 


PIA.
Besides the obvious.. wash sheets, pillow cases...

boys are much easier.. cut their hair real short and tell 'em not to bath for a week..

girls, not so much. Here is what i have had success with on more than one occasion. Douse her hair in baby oil before bed and put a shower cap on... do this every night for a week..
 
Another vote for tea tree oil - get a bottle of the real stuff and add it to a bottle of her regular shampoo. It STINKS but lice hate it.

My oldest had a terrible case in the 5th grade. We had the worst time getting rid them. They little buggers laughed at the regular lice treatments and the prescription stuff didn't even slow them down. The tea tree oil did the trick and they never came back.
 
My daughter goes to a gymnastics camp during the summer. We were told that kids are showing up with lice! They have been checking the kids twice a day every day but told us to not wash her hair just to be safe. Apparently they like clean heads? Who knew....

I've never dealt with lice before thankfully. What else can I do to be sure she doesn't get it? Should I slather her up with mayo? Will that kill everything if she has it??

HELP!!

1. Don't panic.

2. Buy tea tree oil. Use a couple of drops in her shampoo. Lice also do not like coconut. I like to use coconut conditioner as a preventative. Or look for lice preventative shampoos with natural ingredients--tea tree oil, rosemary, etc.

3. I would go ahead and get a metal lice comb and pick her hair over the weekend to be sure that she does not already have it. Wash her hair, use conditioner, leave the conditioner in (makes the comb go through hair easier and slows down the little buggars and makes them easier to see) and use clips to section out her hair as you go strand by strand looking for the nits and eggs. If you do find nits and eggs, repeat this each day until she is clean.

4. You can fix her hair and spray it with hairspray in the morning before camp--the bugs don't like hairspray.

DD had it twice between the ages of 8 and 10. She has long curly, thick, blonde hair. Once she had lice the second time, she started spritzing her hair every morning with tea tree oil mixed in water. She's now 16 and has not had them again.
 
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Her hair isn't too long but it's up in a bun. She has LOTS of hair though... I'm hoping we won't have to comb through it. She isn't patient like that lol.
 
Get some tea tree oil and put it in her products... That will repel them. The camp is right, they don't like dirty hair. Tie it back in a tight pony/braid and spray it down with hairspray.

Lice are hard to kill even with the chemicals/home cures. It's really all about physically removing the bugs/eggs. Combing the smallest sections of hair and removing ANYTHING that doesn't belong is the best way to get rid of them.

I finally cut about 3 inches off her hair when I reached the end of my rope. She was so mad at me too. But now as a mother she gets it.
The worst part is she went into the girls house knowing she and the sister had lice. I wanted to kill her.
She tells us on Christmas morning, "Mom my head is itchy". Me being naive tells her "scratch it". Then she breaks the news about her friend.
We were expecting 20 people for dinner and my husband is out trying to find an open drugstore on Christmas morning....... nightmare.
 
Slather hair in olive oil and put on a shower cap. Have her sit as long as she can with it on. Rinse with vinegar and comb through.

Tear tree oil, hair styled up and out of the way, hairspray, no close contact.
 
All that slathering in mayo stuff is crap.

For now... it’s ok to wash her hair. Just use lots of styling products. And keep it pulled back in braids or a bun.

Also, you can take some time to straighten her hair. #1, it will force you to comb it througoughly. Watch while you come it for lice or eggs that stick to the hair. #2... any lice or eggs will get fried dead by the hair straightener.

So feel free to wash. Then straighten. Then pull up in a braid or bun with lots of hairspray/products.

Please don’t use the medicated shampoos as prevention. Not only is it useless, but it is causing a “super bug” that is more resistant.

Just lots of combing, lots of heat and hairspray.
 
if everything else fails, get a prescription from your pediatrician, my kids had them at the same time and it was a nightmare, and yes you need to comb is the only way to get them
out. I tried everything and only the prescription worked (with combing), shaved my boy, and my daughter took a beanie hat to school until it was cleared. Good luck :magnify:
 
During lice season at the elementary school, we kept a metal lice comb in the shower, my girls were instructed to comb a good minute after they applied conditioner. That way, if they got s bug, it would most likely get combed out before laying eggs. Bugs are easy, it’s the kid that are time consuming.
 
When my kids were very young and still in daycare, they got lice from other kids at daycare. At the time, the director of the daycare made an initially very very stupid decision and chose not to check all the kids' heads from the time that Patient 0 was reported. That went on for a month before they realized that they had a full on infestation. DOZENS of kids had it. It was awful.

I battled it for 6 weeks because ODD would get it from somebody, I'd eliminate it all, then a week would go by and it would start all over again. But once I got really diligent about this routine, it worked...
  • wash ALL of the kid's bedding every day. Hot water in the washer and 45 min in a hot dryer afterwards. EVERY DAY!
  • wash the kid's clothing in hot water & 45 min in a hot dryer, too.
  • wash your kid's hair like you normally would. That whole "lice don't like dirty hair" advice is stupid.
  • don't bother with the lice OTC treatments...the lice are now pretty much impervious to those products. Only thing that's helpful in those kits, really, is the very fine-toothed comb.
  • get a big bottle of Listerine and put some of it in a spray bottle.
  • Spray the kid's hair w/the Listerine. To the point where the hair is pretty darn wet with Listerine.
  • Now put a plastic shower cap on the kid's head and wait for 15 min. The Listerine will loosen the "glue" that makes the lice eggs stick to the hair shaft. It will also suffocate & kill any adult lice.
  • Wash the kid's hair like normal.
  • Get in a comfortable spot with really good lighting and start combing through the kid's hair with a nit comb.
  • Once you've got 3-4 days in a row of finding no nits in the hair w/this method, then back off to doing the Listerine-shower cap-nit comb routine every other day.
  • Then do the every other day routine 4 days and switch to "Listerine day 1, 2 days off." Do that 2 times. Washing all of the clothing & bedding in hot water & using a hot dryer occurs on the days that you're doing the Listerine-shower cap-nit comb routine.
  • If at any point in the above, you find more nits & more adult lice, go back to doing this once/day.
 
Thank you all SO MUCH! I'm going to get some supplies for "just in case" and use tea tree oil starting today to prevent. Hopefully it won't be an issue but I might as well be prepared. Ugh....
 

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