Have you ever found lice in your kids' hair and NOT reported it to the school?

[Anonymous]

Yes, they were the ones to tell me to check my kid as that's where he got it. I checked him daily for a month. It was awful. Now I'm itching.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child got lice at school and it traumatized me, it was so gross. I treated it with powerful shampoo, did nothing. I smothered it with conditioner, still came back; flat ironed every strand of hair and combed with a nit comb, still returned. Finally I figured out though research how to permanently rid her of lice and now her hair is in tight braids every day. The lice today are called super-lice for a reason, and they are basically endemic at this point, so parents should laser focus on prevention.

What did you do that finally worked? This is my nightmare TBH.

DP but what PP did wrong was thinking you could treat once and get rid of them. The problem is that none of the treatments are guaranteed to get rid of all the nits (eggs). If even a single nit survives a treatment, it will hatch and become a nymph, and then mature and lay more nits. So the key is to treat multiple times over the course of several weeks until it's not possible that anything could have survived. You also have to combine whatever treatment you use with nit combing, and keep nit combing at least every few days until you are done. Total treatment usually takes about a month.

Another reason it can recur is if your kid is getting re-exposed at school. So when there is lice going around, you should be nit combing weekly, wearing hair in braids, reminding your kid not to share hats or jackets (they can travel on collars or in hoods), making sure no one shares brushes, etc. There are also some things that might repel lice though it's not proven -- there are sprays with rosemary or tea tree oil or you can use shampoos or even just apply oil to the scalp. I don't think these are fool proof and would continue to nit comb weekly as long as I knew lice was around, but the tea tree/rosemary products can't hurt.

The key is to attack them on multiple fronts and to keep it up until it's eradicated. If your kid gets lice or even just nits, you need to assume you will be treating for a month, minimum. There are not quick solutions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child got lice at school and it traumatized me, it was so gross. I treated it with powerful shampoo, did nothing. I smothered it with conditioner, still came back; flat ironed every strand of hair and combed with a nit comb, still returned. Finally I figured out though research how to permanently rid her of lice and now her hair is in tight braids every day. The lice today are called super-lice for a reason, and they are basically endemic at this point, so parents should laser focus on prevention.

What did you do that finally worked? This is my nightmare TBH.

DP but what PP did wrong was thinking you could treat once and get rid of them. The problem is that none of the treatments are guaranteed to get rid of all the nits (eggs). If even a single nit survives a treatment, it will hatch and become a nymph, and then mature and lay more nits. So the key is to treat multiple times over the course of several weeks until it's not possible that anything could have survived. You also have to combine whatever treatment you use with nit combing, and keep nit combing at least every few days until you are done. Total treatment usually takes about a month.

Another reason it can recur is if your kid is getting re-exposed at school. So when there is lice going around, you should be nit combing weekly, wearing hair in braids, reminding your kid not to share hats or jackets (they can travel on collars or in hoods), making sure no one shares brushes, etc. There are also some things that might repel lice though it's not proven -- there are sprays with rosemary or tea tree oil or you can use shampoos or even just apply oil to the scalp. I don't think these are fool proof and would continue to nit comb weekly as long as I knew lice was around, but the tea tree/rosemary products can't hurt.

The key is to attack them on multiple fronts and to keep it up until it's eradicated. If your kid gets lice or even just nits, you need to assume you will be treating for a month, minimum. There are not quick solutions.

All of this. I also just combed my daughter's hair once a week at that age. We used the sprays and treated the brushes once a week also, but mostly, I just combed her hair out every weekend from ages 6 to 10. It was not great, but it was better than combing out lice myself (itching just thinking about it) or repeatedly paying $600 for someone else to do it to her, me, and her younger sister (DH exempt with photographic proof of buzzed hair).

[Anonymous]

So I’m sure I’m alone in this, but yeah lice are annoying but they’re also…. Wait for it…. Harmless. They don’t spread disease. Kids are rightfully not excluded from school just for having lice. Like…. if your kid comes home with an itchy head, treat it and move on. No one is dying or behind hospitalized because of head lice.

[Anonymous]

Pretty much all live are super lice and don't respond to shampoo or chemical treatments. Don't even bother. We go to a lice center and they have a heat treatment plus combing that has worked every time.

[Anonymous]

Ivermectin shampoo works really well and kills the eggs as well as the lice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Pretty much all live are super lice and don't respond to shampoo or chemical treatments. Don't even bother. We go to a lice center and they have a heat treatment plus combing that has worked every time.

You can also do it at home and save a lot of money, but it takes diligence. I became good at nit combing the hard way, but now if I ever spot nits in my kid's hair (and I check weekly), I am confident I can take care of it at home. Key is multiple treatments and careful nit checks and nit combing.

The nice thing about treating it at home, in addition to not costing hundred ever time there is a lice outbreak, is that it is way less stressful for your kids. My kid knows that nit checks/comb outs are a time when she gets to sit and watch whatever TV she wants, and I'll give her a smoothie or milkshake to sip on while I do it. It takes the stress out of it and just makes it a normal grooming thing. She no longer minds the metal nit comb (which she used to absolutely hate) and in a weird way it's bonding time. We do it every Sunday evening during the school year.

[Anonymous]

Our DCPS reports lice. I still deep condition and comb out my kids’ hair with a flea comb every 2 weeks, no matter what. I assume lice is just endemic at school; there’s always a chance of outbreak, and I’d rather catch it early. I have found that many parents do not understand how to properly treat lice, so the same outbreak just keeps going around.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child got lice at school and it traumatized me, it was so gross. I treated it with powerful shampoo, did nothing. I smothered it with conditioner, still came back; flat ironed every strand of hair and combed with a nit comb, still returned. Finally I figured out though research how to permanently rid her of lice and now her hair is in tight braids every day. The lice today are called super-lice for a reason, and they are basically endemic at this point, so parents should laser focus on prevention.

What did you do that finally worked? This is my nightmare TBH.

I learned that basically all forms of treatment work to “suffocate” adult lice, the eggs (nits) are very resistant to treatment and even one singular nit missed by the comb will restart the whole process. So the key is to kill all the adult lice, and the only 100% effective treatment is dimethicone, which you can buy super cheap on Amazon. You apply dimethicone mostly to the scalp and wait 20 minutes, wash out and done. Then precisely 10 days later you repeat the process for all the nits that hadn’t yet hatched. Baby lice can’t lay eggs, so two-three times of this permanently rids you or them. It also saves so much time and money because you don’t have to locate every egg or comb every day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My child got lice at school and it traumatized me, it was so gross. I treated it with powerful shampoo, did nothing. I smothered it with conditioner, still came back; flat ironed every strand of hair and combed with a nit comb, still returned. Finally I figured out though research how to permanently rid her of lice and now her hair is in tight braids every day. The lice today are called super-lice for a reason, and they are basically endemic at this point, so parents should laser focus on prevention.

What did you do that finally worked? This is my nightmare TBH.

I learned that basically all forms of treatment work to “suffocate” adult lice, the eggs (nits) are very resistant to treatment and even one singular nit missed by the comb will restart the whole process. So the key is to kill all the adult lice, and the only 100% effective treatment is dimethicone, which you can buy super cheap on Amazon. You apply dimethicone mostly to the scalp and wait 20 minutes, wash out and done. Then precisely 10 days later you repeat the process for all the nits that hadn’t yet hatched. Baby lice can’t lay eggs, so two-three times of this permanently rids you or them. It also saves so much time and money because you don’t have to locate every egg or comb every day.

This is good but I would treat a third time on day 20 just in case. Especially if you found any mature live in the hair initially. I was told you need to treat three generations to ensure no recurrence. A lot of the dimethicone treatments sold only have enough for two treatments (or even just one of the hair is thick and long), so I always keep multiple bottles on hand.

I also personally started wearing my hair shorter. DD wears her hair in braids at school but I don't want to wear mine in braids all the time. A shorter cut makes it easier for me to not comb my own hair, which I do anytime I find nits in DD's hair. We don't share brushes or hair ties, but just through hugs and snuggles, it would be so easy for it to move. Ugh!

[Anonymous]

Alicia Elliott's memoir A Mind Spread Out on the Ground has a powerful chapter about lice. There are so many social (and sometimes social class implications) to sharing information about lice. It's best kept private. I've dealt with it three times in my life, first as a teenage babysitter and the second two times as a parent; lice are easy to get rid of non-chemically -- I used basic hair drying a few times a day plus a gel product Whole Foods sells -- and I think the stigma is really a lot bigger than the problem.

[Anonymous]

I have only ever known one person in my life that ever had lice, and that was decades ago, just a boy in school who was almost homeless, alcoholic dad and his mother had run away, so he rarely bathed.

School shaved his head and he got to come back to class next day.

Cannot imagine anyone in this day and age having lice. How gross!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have only ever known one person in my life that ever had lice, and that was decades ago, just a boy in school who was almost homeless, alcoholic dad and his mother had run away, so he rarely bathed.

School shaved his head and he got to come back to class next day.

Cannot imagine anyone in this day and age having lice. How gross!

Well, you are wrong. I work at summer camps- the super expensive NE kind that cost several thousand dollars. Many kids arrive day 1 with lice- as in double digits.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Our DCPS reports lice. I still deep condition and comb out my kids’ hair with a flea comb every 2 weeks, no matter what. I assume lice is just endemic at school; there’s always a chance of outbreak, and I’d rather catch it early. I have found that many parents do not understand how to properly treat lice, so the same outbreak just keeps going around.

Our DCPS constantly has lice circulating among the long-haired girls but thus far it hasn't hit my short-haired boys.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Ewww - endless posts about not wearing shoes in the house but yall are sending your kids to school with lice. So nasty.

The people who have the culture of "no outdoors shoes inside the house" are not the people who are sending their kids to school with lice, dumbo!