HELP! LICE! HOW DO I CLEAN FURNITURE? DOES LYSOL KILL LICE?

[Anonymous]

Caught lice from my child's friend and have no idea how to clean house from lice. Does lysol kill lice on car seats etc... that I can't put in the wash? We used Nix - do I still have to comb their hair every day? Help! What if we have it too?

[Anonymous]

I just posted about lice too!! I feel your pain, and yes, I did catch it from DD, and so did my mother!! UGH!!

[Anonymous]

bump

[Anonymous]

No, Lysol does not kill lice. Unfortunately most over the counter remedies are not useful anymore either. The key to lice is getting the nits ALL the way out of the hair and then repeating that process in 7-10 days. You do have to comb the hair daily.

There is a prescription for lice but it is pretty scary stuff to use unless you absolutely have to do it.

Vacuum everything really well, wash everything (linens, stuffed animals in hot water and dry in dryer if you can). And get those nits out.

Mayonaise under a shower cap for 15 minutes will suffocate a lot of the live bugs. Vaseline is damaging to the hair (drys it out) but some do use it as a last resort. Use baby oil to wash that out if you use it and don't overdo.

That's all you can do. Good luck!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No, Lysol does not kill lice. Unfortunately most over the counter remedies are not useful anymore either. The key to lice is getting the nits ALL the way out of the hair and then repeating that process in 7-10 days. You do have to comb the hair daily.

There is a prescription for lice but it is pretty scary stuff to use unless you absolutely have to do it.

Vacuum everything really well, wash everything (linens, stuffed animals in hot water and dry in dryer if you can). And get those nits out.

Mayonaise under a shower cap for 15 minutes will suffocate a lot of the live bugs. Vaseline is damaging to the hair (drys it out) but some do use it as a last resort. Use baby oil to wash that out if you use it and don't overdo.

That's all you can do. Good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I need to comb the hair everyday? How do I clean a car seat that doesn't have a removable cover?

[Anonymous]

Where are you?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just posted about lice too!! I feel your pain, and yes, I did catch it from DD, and so did my mother!! UGH!!

Ugh...so do they need to stay out of camp/daycare and if so for how long? Who do I need to tell? How do I clean furniture? Any help would be appreciated!

[Anonymous]

Please tell us where you are?

[Anonymous]

Please tell us where you are?

[Anonymous]

Hi, you can vacuum the car seat and you can get the home/bedding spray for lice. They carry it at CVS or any local drugstore. And yes, the best thing is to go through the hair for nits every day until you are sure they are all gone. Then shampoo it again with the treatment for any newly hatched eggs in 7-10 days. Get rid of all combs and brushes or boil them for 5 min. if you can. Tell anyone that the kids have played with, etc in the last 2 weeks just in case.

Also, lice LOVE clean hair. So despite the stigma, lice really like cleanliness. It is much easier for them to cling to clean hair shaft then dirty. So, as a preventive measure in the future you can put DD's hair up in a ponytail and spray with hairspray to help keep them out.

[Anonymous]

Another option, if you have more than 1 car seat, is to put the car seat in a black trash bag for 2 weeks. Same treatment for stuffed animals and other non washable items. Unfortunately this whole process will probably be all consuming for a week or 2 between cleaning, combing, etc.

[Anonymous]

Most people overreact. This happened to us last summer and I changed the bedding on every bed in the house every day which was probably not necessary. The thing you should do is change the pillowcases every day for a couple of weeks.

Lice do not fly or jump, they crawl (very quickly) from hair to hair. Much more common with little girls with fine long hair, they just play close to each other and the little disgusting bugs move from one little girl to the next. Do not let little girls share combs, brushes, or hats. They are likely not on carseats or furniture unless they are attached to hair that came out. So vacuuming the car seats is the best remedy, do not spray, that stuff is toxic.

Get the licemeister comb. It sounds silly but it works. They sell it at the little pharmacy located in Spring Valley on Massachusetts in the Children's Hospital outpatient center building near Yuma street. They also sell less toxic treatments and if you use them together with combing (I recommend every other day for 3 weeks but I am a little obsessive) it works.

The problem is that the treatments kill the live lice but they do not kill the eggs aka nits (which are basically glued to the hair shaft). The nits then hatch and you have a window to get them out of the hair before they mature enough to lay eggs of their own. That is what is behind the timing of the first and second treatments. you want to wait long enough for all of the eggs to hatch but you want to kill the live ones before they have a chance to mature. comb hair when it is wet. The wet paralyzes the lice.

Also, bag anything soft you can (pillows, stuffed animals, etc) in plastic for two weeks. Wash and dry all your linens on HOT.