Question:
Lice..My daughter brought lice home from daycare and I cannot get rid of them.
My hair is so thick I can't get the damn combs through it. I think I pass it
back and forth with my child. Anyone have any advice or home remedies...I've
used every kind on the planet.
Answer:
You poor kid. There was an ongoing epidemic at my grandkid's school year
before last that continued on through the summer (there is just no _way_ to
keep kids that young from accidentally exchanging soft-ball hats during
their summer games and into the fall. Over and over, for a period of
about six months, we (inluding at her house) would get her clear and she'd
catch them again from one of the other kids. The commercial pediculicide
shampoo and/or cream-rinse treatments will help some, but the lice are
getting resistant to them. It may help to alternate the various kinds of
products because some are more susceptible to one or the other.
It's a bitch though. The only way to _really_ get rid of them with any
surety these days is (I know you don't want to hear this, sweetie) to get
_every_single_ nit (egg) out by hand. The commercial pediculicides that
are supposed to kill the eggs as well as the lice just plain don't always
anymore. Concurrently with this you have to do lots of laundry. If you
treat and then nit-pick your hair but don't wash your bedding or forget to
wash (or spray with a commercial pediculicide spray like Rid, if it's not a
washable cover) your couch cover or chairs or car seats or wear even one
item of clothing (hats in particular, but other clothes too) that has not
been washed and dried hot you will likely get them again. You have to be
especially scrupulous about towels. Anything suspect that you cannot wash
immediately must be securely bagged in plastic (stout new plastic trash
bags.. not recycled shopping bags that might have a hole somewhere) and
handled with extreme care when you unbag it. (Things that cannot be washed
hot or sprayed, including your girl's stuffed animal toys/dolls, must be
securely bagged in plastic for at least three weeks.) Every comb or brush
you use must be soaked hot and washed well with a pediculicide shampoo.
But you've still got to get all the nits picked. It takes time and is
back-breaking neck-wrenching eye-straining work, but it is the only way I
know to get rid of the little buggers as resistant to the chemical
treatments as they are getting, (gawd, I _hate_ 'em.. one of the few times
I let a hard job be fueled/energized by hate:-/) is to get the nits out.
It can take three or four or more hours on a kid. An adult with hair like
yours (I've done a friend with gorgeous long fluffy-curled hair down to her
waist) can take 5-8 hours. There is no way you can get all your own out.
Most of the so-called nit-combs are close to worthless as far as getting
nits out, though most of them will catch some adult bugs and if you're
really lucky might get a few nits. (The one exception is a nit-comb I
found with a plastic handle and a removable steel comb part that really
does have the teeth strong enough and close enough... if you cannot find
one of these where you live email me and I'll see if I can get one for/to
you. That one actually does get a lot of them, though still not all.)
Of course you have to be able to _see_ the nits to pick them. You probably
know this already, but the nits are little tiny teardrop shaped things
(sort of a dirty gray with a touch of dirty brown/gold color) that stick to
the hair shaft near the scalp. I can see them as long as I take off my
glasses and keep my eyes about 3-5 inches from the hair. If your eyesight
is such that you cannot see them clearly you will absolutely have to call
in outside help (which you will have to do to get yourself clear, too). To
tell if any egg is 'alive', as opposed to dead from pediculicides or an
empty hatched shell, get it between your thumbnails and squeeze. If it is
a live/viable egg there will be a small but distinct little 'pop' as it
crushes. Also a live/viable egg will be much more stuck to the hair than a
dead one, which will slide down the hair shaft much more easily.
To nit-pick your daughter you need a _lot_ of hair clips or bobby-pins, a
nit-comb, a rat-tail comb or chopstick or toothpick for sectioning the
hair, a cup of water with some commercial pediculicide in it for knocking
bugs/nits into as you find them, and _very_ good light. The hair needs to
be brushed/combed before you start so it is tangle-free. You should do it
shortly after a meal so you won't both be starving an hour into the job.
Depending on her age you may need to try to set this up so she can also be
watching a video or something, because it's hard for a kid to sit still for
hours, and you can't really stop for more than very brief breaks once
you've started or a live louse (all it takes is _one_ to start the whole
mess over again) can crawl from the section you haven't done into
the part you have.
Once you have all the gear together (did I mention _very_ good light?),
pick up a _tiny_ section of hair from the front (on one side or the other
of the part, if the hair is parted) and carefully (because if you do pick
up a live bug you don't want to drop it down her clothes or onto the chair
or stool she is sitting on) run the nit comb from the scalp down the hair.
Each time you do this you need to examine the comb to see if it has picked
up anything and if it has knock the bugs/nits into your cup of water. If
you get a live louse and want to make _really_ sure it stays dead crush it
between your thumbnails (they are tough.. squeezing between fingers may not
do it) and then drop it in the cup. Do the nit-comb a couple of times from
different angles.
Then examine the hair carefully, from the scalp to the ends, to see if any
nits have been missed and slide them off carefully by hand (and end them up
in the cup) if you see any. When you are sure that the first section is
louse and nit free, coil it up like an old-fashioned pin-curl and clip or
pin it down and start in with the next section. And then the next and the
next and the next ad nauseum (did I mention you will need a _lot_ of hair
clips?:-/). About half-way through your back and/or neck will be killing
you, you will likely have taken headache pills, and your eyes will likely
have started throbbing, but there really isn't a way to interrupt this job
for more than a minute or two (when ya gotta go, ya gotta go, but then you
have to get right back to it) without risking having to do the whole thing
over again.
It is _really_ hard for most kids (especially young ones) to sit still
through this, and no matter how careful you are it is bound to hurt a
little sometimes... the 'glue' those mamas stick the eggs on with is strong
stuff. If you had a boy I'd say just go get his head shaved, but that
could be pretty hard on a little girl. It may help to explain carefully
what you are doing and why, including showing the child the eggs and/or
bugs and explaining a bit about the life cycle. As things start appearing
in the cup you can show the child what you're getting occasionally, so they
know that it really _is_ making a difference. A good movie video or
someone to read out loud can help, and so might the promise of some special
treat or activity once the job is done.
Then, before you can re-infest your daughter (keep your hair pinned up and
tight under a scarf meanwhile) you need to get yourself nit-picked. There
just isn't _any_ good way to effectively do yourself. If you don't have an
understanding friend or spouse with good eyesight (quite a few old hippies
have experience with this) you may have to pay someone . I don't think we
live close or I would do it for you. If you cannot find anyone on your own
talk to your local public health people to see if they have any
suggestions.
There is a new "total lice elimination system" called Clear that includes a
pediculicide shampoo _and_ an enzyme product to use afterwards that loosens
the 'glue' so the eggs will slide off more easily. The theory is that you
put the enzyme product on, wait three minutes, and then nit-comb. The hard
part is that you have to work with it wet the whole time, so you end up
crouched over the bathtub (adding hot water from time to time so the kid
doesn't freeze) doing the same painstaking section-comb-and-pin operation,
and it's harder with wet hair. This did get a lot of nits out, but I still
had to go over it dry later on to make sure.
It won't hurt to get some tea tree oil shampoo (you may have to go to a
health/whole food store to find it) and switch you and your daughter to
that for awhile. Some people swear it kills the little buggers (but you
_still_ have to nit-pick), and it does seem to help prevent re-infestation.
Other home remedies involve saturating the hair/scalp in oil (vegetable oil
or tea-tree oil or a blend) and wrapping it in plastic overnight to smother
the lice/nits, but you still have to nit-pick afterwards. If your daughter
got them at school or day-care you may have to make a total nuisance of
yourself to get them to really cop to the situationa and cope with it or
she'll just get them again. The epidemic here didn't get under control
until the school got really serious about checking kids and not letting
infested ones come back to school until all the nits were gone.
One time when my sister's kids all had 'em, she took them to a Holiday Inn
(where there would be clean washed-hot bedding/towels on a regular basis)
for the weekend, treated them with a pediculicide at the beginning and then
let them ...
