Join Today & Get 4% Cash Back Then 6, 7...Up to 10% Off Reorders!

June 9, 2008, 7:11 am
Flag as Inappropriate Simplyme  

There are so many treatments out these days and almost everyone of them hits the pocket book pretty hard. Well my kids ended up with it last year so I started trying different things to see what would work. I had bought the hair shampoos and foams and it seemed that even keeping up on it it was really hard to get rid of. Now this may not work for everyone but here is what finally ended up working for me and only cost about $10 all together so simple:

Splurge on the metal lice comb ONLY forget those plastic things they don't work worth a darn. Now all you need is to use regular shampoo clean the hair then add lots of conditioner making sure to use your fingers to detangle the hair...Now Comb while the conditioner is in the hair-repeat as necessary...That simple had to do this regularly every night to every other night for the first week cause we wanted to be sure and sure enough 3 months later still clean!

My daughter apparently has the perfect head of hair for lice because she caught them every time you turned around when she was younger. I tried everything but she'd still get them back. I finally purchased an item called a Robi-comb. This thing is the best invention ever in this case. I used it on her hair every day or two during the fall and whenever I heard they were back in the school and she never caught them again. The lice have become resistant to all the special shampoos and they don't work well anymore. The Robi-comb doesn't involve chemicals at all.

Here is a good piece of info I found on head lice at http://pediatrics.about.com/cs/conditions/a/head_lice.htm.

What You Need To Know

Don't Panic About Head Lice - Unfortunately, the first reaction for many parents in dealing with head lice is to panic. Panicking is not going to kill the head lice though and will likely lead to over-treatment and anxiety in your child who may be concerned that they have "bugs" in their hair.

Nits hatch in 7 to 10 days and develop into an adult in another 7 to 10 days which can then lay more (up to 100) eggs. So it is important to remove all of the nits to break this cycle. Also, since anti-lice shampoos don't usually kill nits, you have to usually retreat the child in 7 to 10 days to kill any newly hatched lice.

Children are often misdiagnosed with head lice because they have hair casts that resemble nits, or they have dead or empty nits that are far away from the scalp. If you think your child has lice but you don't actually see any live lice, see your Pediatrician to confirm the diagnosis.

Be careful before trying 'alternative' treatments, like mayonaise, vaseline, olive oil or Tea tree oil. Although they are 'natural' treatments, they are untested, and products like mayonaise can be hard to get out of a child's hair (dishwashing is supposed to make it easier though).

Alternative medications for resistant lice might include Ovide (malathion, an insecticide), the antibiotic Bactrim (which kills symbiotic bacteria inside the lice), Ivermectim, or using Elimite, a stronger version of Nix which is usually used to treat scabies.

Do your homework or see your pediatrician before treating your child with multiple remedies. This head lice information sheet at the Harvard School of Public Health and the The National Pediculosis Association are great sources of detailed information on head lice infestations.

I am a little confused on the mayo being hard to get out of hair, I know its been used before for conditioners and whatnot but if it can get rid of them, isn't that a good thing? I mean, I know people that have used only this method and it worked....

We too had a head lice problem last year, and we invested in one of the metal combs, and did as you did, and it worked eventually, you just have to keep on top of them.

Also now as a preventative measure i have bouoght some supermarket own brand tea tree shampoo and conditioner and so far this year we have no lice!

The metal combs are the way to go. We just use it with normal shampoo and that seems to do the trick as long as you do it regularly.

Sometimes lice are difficult to get rid of because people forget that all of the bedding, and some of the furniture, has to be washed in hot water, treated some other way, or thrown out, to prevent reinfestation.

I have never heard of furniture being thrown out because of lice. Lice cannot live without a human host for more than about 24 hours-they will die in that period without a meal. So if the worst comes to the worst, close the door to the room and don't let anyone in for 24 hours, and then vacuum when you go in to get rid of lice corpses-and yet of course even that isn't really necessary!

No need to throw things out, just give it a bit of time.

Head lice seems to be a growing problem anymore as I know many times my kids pick it up at school from others. It is a growing problem. I did hear that mayo does work to get rid of head lice. I have never tried it though.