Lice - please talk me down

[Anonymous]

I have lived in fear of lice since becoming a parent. I don't have anxiety about most things in life but I do about lice. Owing mostly to some really long-term lice problems my family had growing up. It was awful.

So after sailing past the early childhood years, my 11 year old somehow got lice. Here's the timeline and what happened:

Day 1 - some itching noted but we thought it was something else. But checked head daily and never saw lice.
Day 4 - Increased itching but still no visual confirmation
Day 6 - combed with fine tooth comb and found 3 live lice. Treated that night and combed out 12-15 dead lice but had a hard time finding nits. At this point I treated my hair and we found two lice in my hair.
Day 7 - We found a live louse in my child's hair. Made an appt at lice clinic. They did heat treatment and combed my daughter out. They found 4-5 lice/nymphs and some nits, though they said not a ton. They found no lice on me and found 4-5 nits on me.

So please tell me that we likely caught this and it is over. I combed my daughters hair out today and it was 100% clean from what I could tell. But I am so worried about it reappearing.

[Anonymous]

I am not familiar with heat treatments, but if you want extra peace of mind I would do a complete comb through every other day for a week. The last time we got professional help with this (years ago before heat treatments were an option) they said to divide the hair into 6 different segments and put a rubber band around each section. Use the tip of a comb to section the hair very neatly (no overlapping pieces between sections). Undo one section at a time, spray with water and rub a bunch of Pantene conditioner in. Then run the lice come through several times and wipe the comb on a paper towel after each pass-through. Run your fingers through the conditioner residue each time and you will see if there are any nits or bugs. Do this for each section. Make sure you are scraping along the scalp with the comb When you are done run the lice comb through all of the hair again (this time not in sections. You’re just passing back through to make sure you didn’t miss anything between sections). Hope I am explaining this ok.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am not familiar with heat treatments, but if you want extra peace of mind I would do a complete comb through every other day for a week. The last time we got professional help with this (years ago before heat treatments were an option) they said to divide the hair into 6 different segments and put a rubber band around each section. Use the tip of a comb to section the hair very neatly (no overlapping pieces between sections). Undo one section at a time, spray with water and rub a bunch of Pantene conditioner in. Then run the lice come through several times and wipe the comb on a paper towel after each pass-through. Run your fingers through the conditioner residue each time and you will see if there are any nits or bugs. Do this for each section. Make sure you are scraping along the scalp with the comb When you are done run the lice comb through all of the hair again (this time not in sections. You’re just passing back through to make sure you didn’t miss anything between sections). Hope I am explaining this ok.

Agree with this. Lice are a pain, but this solution is pretty much foolproof. I've done it for actual lice about three times and for soooo many lice scares.

[Anonymous]

The heat thing works. Next time just go straight to doing that.

[Anonymous]

There's no shortcut. Get a flea comb from pet smart and use cheap conditioner. Let her watch her favorite show while you do it. Agree with the PP do this every other day.

[Anonymous]

Have you dried the pilliows/bedding and frozen your hair brushes overnight? Also wash/dry any coats she's worn recently.

[Anonymous]

Don't panic. It's actually not that hard to get rid of lice if you are diligent. I freaked out the first time my kid got it - like, really really freaked out. But by the 4th time, it was really no big deal. Especially not after bed bugs.

Just follow this routine for two weeks:

1. Treat the hair of EVERYONE in the house. If you can't use chemicals (like if you're pregnant, for example), then you can use detangler and do your own combout every night with a lice comb. Do one major close combout a week, and then for the next couple of days just do it in the shower. Do a combout every night, at least briefly, even if you do use chemicals.

2. Take all the bedding, blankets, anything fabric that people sit or lie on or play with, and wash it. If you can't wash it, just put it in a plastic bag and seal it up tight and put it in an unused corner somewhere for a couple of weeks. Be sure to dry everything thoroughly on high. DRYERS KILL LICE.

3. After the big wash, take all the bedding each night and run it in the dryer for 20 minutes every day. That will kill any lice that got onto it. Do the same with coats, hats, etc.

4. Contain laundry in plastic bags while waiting to wash or dry it. Vacuum regularly.

Keep this up for 2 weeks and the lice will be gone. Keep the brief combouts (like in the shower) going for a bit longer. You can even do them preventatively once a week once the lice are gone.

[Anonymous]

PP from above here - this is actually a bit of overkill with the dryer every night, but if the infestation is bad it can't hurt.

[Anonymous]

Combing out every other day is the most important thing, and avoid head to head contact/hugs/etc. unless you are combing everyone.

The obsessive washing, drying, and vacuuming won't make a difference. Healthy lice live on heads, not stuff. When people think lice are gone and later find another it is not because they caught it from a pillow. It's because they combed once or twice and missed some nits on the head.

[Anonymous]

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/jforum/posts/list/401192.page

licemeister and conditioner is all you need. Insecticide will never kill the eggs.

[Anonymous]

Make sure you pick out literally every egg. You have to use your fingernails, the comb doesn’t catch all the eggs. Doing this consistently at least every other night for two weeks is the key. I hated those things so, so much. Spread to my entire family which meant this process occupied two hours of our evenings for two weeks. I enjoyed drowning each of them in alcohol after removing them and really hope they suffered.

And yes to hot washing and drying every towel, all the linens that were exposed.

[Anonymous]

Lice are annoying but I don’t understand the anxiety. There is literally nothing that happens. No disease, nothing. Your head itches. There’s a social stigma. It’s a pain in the butt to comb your hair to check for them every day.

But to have fear? It’s just small bugs that are less harmful health wise than mosquitoes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don't panic. It's actually not that hard to get rid of lice if you are diligent. I freaked out the first time my kid got it - like, really really freaked out. But by the 4th time, it was really no big deal. Especially not after bed bugs.

Just follow this routine for two weeks:

1. Treat the hair of EVERYONE in the house. If you can't use chemicals (like if you're pregnant, for example), then you can use detangler and do your own combout every night with a lice comb. Do one major close combout a week, and then for the next couple of days just do it in the shower. Do a combout every night, at least briefly, even if you do use chemicals.

2. Take all the bedding, blankets, anything fabric that people sit or lie on or play with, and wash it. If you can't wash it, just put it in a plastic bag and seal it up tight and put it in an unused corner somewhere for a couple of weeks. Be sure to dry everything thoroughly on high. DRYERS KILL LICE.

3. After the big wash, take all the bedding each night and run it in the dryer for 20 minutes every day. That will kill any lice that got onto it. Do the same with coats, hats, etc.

4. Contain laundry in plastic bags while waiting to wash or dry it. Vacuum regularly.

Keep this up for 2 weeks and the lice will be gone. Keep the brief combouts (like in the shower) going for a bit longer. You can even do them preventatively once a week once the lice are gone.

I caught it from my then 2nd grader... We did all of the above. And, I immediately scheduled an appointment with the Potomac Lice Lady. Lauren is amazing and 2x now has gotten rid of our lice. https://www.potomaclicelady.com. We also had our kids use the rosemary shampoo for about 6 months until lice was no longer a concern at their school. https://www.target.com/p/fairy-tales-rosemary-repel-daily-shampoo-12-fl-oz/-/A-14349928?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tgtao&DFA=71700000012510706&CPNG=PLA_Beauty%2BPersonal+Care%2BShopping%7CBeauty_Ecomm_Beauty&adgroup=SC_Health%2BBeauty&LID=700000001170770pgs&LNM=PRODUCT_GROUP&network=g&device=c&location=9007537&targetid=aud-1739091817641:pla-894573305499&ds_rl=1246978&gclid=CjwKCAiAjs2bBhACEiwALTBWZV_X1qrSuqU2XvPDKbfNNWQl4kt_tINf1yVlqUKu8gMvjozNZmb7vBoCAKwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Make sure you pick out literally every egg. You have to use your fingernails, the comb doesn’t catch all the eggs. Doing this consistently at least every other night for two weeks is the key. I hated those things so, so much. Spread to my entire family which meant this process occupied two hours of our evenings for two weeks. I enjoyed drowning each of them in alcohol after removing them and really hope they suffered.

And yes to hot washing and drying every towel, all the linens that were exposed.

Washing is good, but so is quarantining stuff. Lice can’t live without a host for very long. So just put the blankets/linens in a room and don’t let anyone (or animals) go in there for 2 days and you’re good.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Combing out every other day is the most important thing, and avoid head to head contact/hugs/etc. unless you are combing everyone.

The obsessive washing, drying, and vacuuming won't make a difference. Healthy lice live on heads, not stuff. When people think lice are gone and later find another it is not because they caught it from a pillow. It's because they combed once or twice and missed some nits on the head.

I have actually found live lice and lice eggs on bedding. While that might not be the most likely source of reinfection, you have to get rid of them before you can worry about reinfesting. Getting rid of them will be much easier if you make sure you don't have any live ones hanging around the house.