Ick! Lice!!

[kim]

Got the notice home from school... or rather, Liam managed to lose the notice on the way home from school and found out from a random comment from Fiona that there have been several cases in their hallway at school. Likely not in Fiona's class, but I'm now paranoid. I'll have to spend some time looking in her hair in the morning. We love her long hair (so does she) but this is one of those times that makes you wonder. Ick. My skin is crawling and my head is itchy just thinking about it.

Anyway, I have no first hand experience with this. Are they easy to spot? Easy to pick out? If she were to get them, are there natural ways to get rid of them? I seem to recall JoyLynn posting something a long time ago about conditioner (maybe??) and a showercap? Or maybe I'm crazy??? Help!!

[melinda]

Well a long long time ago and having 2 sisters I have gotten lice lol I remember back of necks and around ears I believe you can see nits? Which looks like dandruff but won't brush out like dandruff and teatree oil I believe my mil found a shampoo made with teatree oil in it to bathe my nieces hair since they got a bad case of it once, but the nits have a hard time latching on oily hair and the teatree oil helps that, that's basically all I know, just teach her good practice, don't borrow coats, hairbrush, pony tails barrettes, don't hang coats up next to other coats(which it should be warm now? Idk about Canada lol) and no laying on carpet floors at school, ok I think that's all I remember lol

[jen1981]

We had it once as kids, got it from the planetarium at the local science center. :P There ae a whole variety of products that can be used to kill them. Most are a shampoo that you put on, then let sit for a certain number of minutes and then comb out. Check her hair carefully, esp. the base of her hairline and around the ears. If you do happen to find some (which I pray you don't!) make sure and do a treatment that will surely kill them the first time. The longer they are around the harder they are to get rid of. You'll need to wash and dry bedding and hats on high heat and then seal or boil hairthings and combs and brushes. I believe lice can only survive for 24 hrs. without eating, but you'd want to check on that.

[kim]

Thanks for posting the link, Joy. I don't know why I thought it might be you that had posted something once upon a time. Maybe it was somewhere else. *shrug* In any case, a good hair inspection and washing of linens in the girl's room (just in case) is on the to do list for tomorrow.

[FruitfulVine]

One of the benefits of homeschooling! But before I took my children out of public school, they brought them home, and with three girls with long hair, I thought I would NEVER get rid of them! We used Nix and Rid and just about everything else they sell in the store.
The best thing was cheap mouthwash. Put lots of cheap mouthwash (the kind with alcohol, not without) in their hair, and put a shower cap on them. Leave it on for fifteen minutes, then wash it out. The most important part is the combing. The mouthwash will kill them just as well or better than the special shampoos, but regardless of what you use to kill the live ones, you still need to carefully comb out all the eggs (nits). This cannot actually be done with a comb, you really have to use your fingers and pull them out one by one. They stick to the hair, and you have to pull each one all the way down and off the strand of hair. There is no other way.
All the linens and clothing will need to be washed in hot water with Borax.
If you get all the eggs out, you will succeed. If you just kill the live ones and look the other way and hope the eggs will just fall out on their own, you will struggle for months.
I hope your family never has to deal with it, but it's always good to know what to do in case they do.
For prevention, have them wear their hair up in buns with tons of gel or hairspray. That will prevent the little buggers from latching onto their hair. They like clean dry hair, so unless you want to send your kids to school greasy-headed, lots of hair products is the answer!

(How horrible is it that I know this stuff?!)

[Madre]

Oh, Kim, I feel for you. One summer it went around our church like wildfire. Our family never got it, but everyone was checking everyone else like monkeys. Just the thought makes you itch. I hope your family escapes this trial, but if you don't, you have lots of good advice.

[kim]

So far, so good. It's a long weekend too, so hopefully it will clear up over the weekend and not continue to contaminate the school. lol

[GenLovesDen4ever]

Well, you guys are so funny, and I can understand actually. Saying that headlice is a regular occurance here. They dont do the regular checks with school nurses here, they tend to just let it run rampant. It sounds worse than it is... honest...

saying that... I know a lot about dealing with headlice and natural ways of dealing with it at that. Tea tree oil stuff is good for preventing it. To naturally get rid of headlice requires a bit of patience and a lot of combing with a lice comb. We can get them at the pharmacy. Apply copious amounts of conditioner to damp hair and comb the little monsters out along with the eggs. There are REALLY good special combs you can get over here that the lice and eggs cannot escape from.

cant find a usa or canada one but here it is on UK amazon

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Nitty-Gritty.../dp/B001PML6Y6

Wash all the bedding on a boil wash about once a week for a few weeks, do the combing, even if you dont get the special comb, every night or every other night atleast and you'll be rid of it in a couple of days really, the couple of weeks thing is just to be sure, bc you might miss some eggs and they hatch after about two weeks of being laid.

We did this, loosely, over the years and once I got the hang of it we didnt get lice again, ever really. You dont have to cut girls hair short, just put it in braids or even a bun to school, church where ever they're getting it.

It sounds like a real chore but its not as bad as it seems.

[teelee]

I had lice once as a kid. So far eldest hasn't had any. I buy this organic leave-in conditioner from a kids haircut place here and spray it in his hair and on his backpack every morning before school. The brand is Fairy Tales. I believe they have a website. It's called rosemary repel leave-in conditioning spray.

[ChamomileFriend]

When there was an outbreak of lice at the school where I taught, I used olive oil mixed with a few drops of lavender essential oil to get and keep them off.


http://herbgardens.about.com/od/herb...liceremedy.htm