How do I get rid of my kids head lice???

Question

I have tried Rid and Nix and both have been horrible failures!

I just washed my daughters hair with Nix today and then four hours later found a huge one on her head very much alive. I am going bonkers!

Answer 1

i know this sounds bad but use advantage flee and tick shampoo it does work... my mother-in-law works at a school and she gets it from time to time

Answer 2

I'd be careful of using Rid or Nix anymore because they have neurotoxic features. I've heard that the mayo treatment works. But they're right about cleaning everything in the house really well, because you could be reinfecting. The nit combing business is important. Cut the hair shorter if you possibly can (I'd consider shaving boys if it's bad, and short hair for girls; I did cut my girl's hair to just above the shoulder when she got them), because it can be time consuming to nit-comb, and it sounds like you'll be busy with other housework.

Iron your mattresses, then if you can afford it, buy hypoallergenic mattress bags for them, I've seen them recently at WalMart in the $35 range, which is a big improvement from the $70 I paid last year at JCPenneys (Walmart didn't have any then). Wash everything you can get into the machine in HOT water. Isolate anything not washable in a sealed plastic bag for ... I don't know how long, 3 weeks? It should say somewhere on the internet. You may need to rent a Rug Doctor and shampoo the rugs and furniture, then you can iron the furniture too, if it's cloth.

Good luck. You'll get rid of them if you keep after it.

Answer 3

you must follow the directions on the bottles exactly to the letter.

and you will have to pick out the nits on your own - the shampoo doesn't do that.

here's what we did (my daughters both had long hair and both had lice at the same time)

use the shampoo. then pick nits.
that night, slather your child's hair with olive oil and put a shower cap over their head to sleep in.
in the morning - wash their hair and do the following:
fold a soft towel and lay it on your coffee table. ensure that the position of the table is such that when your child lays their head on it, they can see the TV, cause you'll have put in a good movie by then.
while the child is comfy laying on the table, use a fine tooth comb to part the hair in very thin slices and watch carefully for lice and nits. Lice are easy to spot, and you simply kill them, but nits are like this: they are small and attachedd to the shaft of the hair. they are any colour from white to black, and if you run your fingers over it and it moves, it's probably dandruff or lint. If it doesn't move and feels like a grain of sand, it's a nit and you need to remove it by gripping it with your fingernails and sliding it off of the end of the hair shaft.
yes you will have to do this over the entire head of hair
yes it's tedious
yes it's gross
and yes, it's tiring.
but it's the only way you will get rid of the lice.
you will have to repeat this over the next few days - oil, sleep, wash, pick.
then after 7 days, you use the 2nd dose of shampoo just to be safe.
I actually had to do it for 2 weeks, because I didn't know about the oil method the first week, and like you, the shampoo was only semi effective.
my daughters have never had lice since.
after the ordeal is done, take your kids out for burgers and ice cream for a treat and maybe a movie.... lice is not fun for them either.

footnote: vacuum your house and furniture and put your pillows in a hot dryier for 10 - 15 minutes. also your kids blankets and sheets and stuffed toys. You can probably wash them anyway cause we never wash them often enough anyways do we? The hot drier will kill any stray lice.

Answer 4

You have to also make sure that you get rid of them off of blankets, sheets and stuffed animals. You don't have to wash them just putting them in a dryer will kill the lice. Who ever has lice in your house should not sit on the couch or chairs without a sheet or blanket under them and put that in a dryer as well.

Here is good website. This has some natural remedies. Using too much lice shampoo is not good but these ones you should have no problem using as often as you need to.

http://www.wikihow.com/Get-Rid-of-Lice

Answer 5

Hi

I take it you followed the instructions in the package . have patience , lots of patience .Those plastic nit / lice combs are not of any use. Maybe try a metal lice comb from a pharmacy .
Wash your daughter's hair , blow dry it , then sit her in a chair , use a lot of light , sunlight is best and start combing them out . As mentioned a lot of patience is required .
Lice don't like dirty hair either , so you may want to put gel in her hair or hairspray .
I had the same problem with my daugther when she got head lice , took almost a week before she was totally free of nits .
Apparently lice don't like teatree oil , so now I add a few drops to her shampoo as well .
You may also want to wash her bedding in hot water .If she has any stuffed toys , put them in a garbage bag ,out of site for at least a month .

Answer 6

Try the rid or nix again, sometimes you might need more than one treatment, also remember to wash all bedding clothes everything. . It that does not work a doctor might perscribe a stronger treatment. But usually rid and nix work for that.

Answer 7

you have to wash any hats clothing and bedding that they use.
the lice nits will attach to their pillows and covers and just continur to re-infest them.

lice like many insects breathe through their bodies.

now this is a little gross, but coat their heads with crisco cooking lard. it will smother the lice, and will not hurt the hair. leave it in for about 30 minutes.

then comb out their hair with a very fine toothed comb the comp will pull most of the crisco out and the nits and eggs will stick to the crisco.

after that use a high quality lice shampoo like lice-ex . repeat the shampoo treatment every 3 days (lice nits take 3 days to hatch)
for 9 days or 3 treatments. wash all pillows and bedding and hats and coats when you re-do the treatments.

check with your pharmacist on how often it is safe to use any lice shampoo. you soulw not want to cause any skin problems.

head lice have been very bad this year.

Answer 8

My neice went through this, she lives with her mother, but stays with me more, so, I was stuck to deal with this, and I just about went nuts, they kept comming back! Actually, I guess all the nits were never all removed, and I washed her hair in medicated shampoo, every 7-10 days, like it said. We got some different shampoo from the drug store, it is called Permethrin Lotion, but is actually a shampoo, and it worked, just do exactly as it says.I know this is hard to deal with, so good luck to you. Also, we had her hair cut before I put the new medicine on, the hair will always grow back, it was definetly worth it.

Answer 9

What Jessica said, or insteaad of vinegar you may have to put some cooking oil or a thin coat of vaseline all over hair..Both will suffocate lice and they will die...Leave on hair 1 hour....The only way to wash it out of hair is to use DAWN soap lliquid..You may have to wash hair 3-4 times to get out oil or vaseline...But it will work..........Use a fine comb afterwards,....You will find tiny white nits on hair strands and you will have to take each strand with your finger nail and rub all the way down, scraping off white nits.
Been through this ..it is such a pain.....And yes, put all blankets, pillow cases, sheets, stuffed animals in dryer.vacuum room real good, and the rest of the house..............Good luck..

Answer 10

Try this........put mayo on here hair thouroughly and put a shower cap on her head obver night wash all linens hats vacuum carpet and notify her school that is going around she probably is getting reinfested from another kid.....in the am after the shower cap deal comb hair with the mayo in it, wash her hair with palmolive dish soap and then wash with reg shampoo and condition........repeat next nite if necessary! The mayo is too slippery for nits to stick....and helps to comb em out! Take care!

Answer 11

You have to consider everyone in the family and all bedding and furniture. Vacuum furniture, change all sheets, wash all clothing and every head in the house. Then repeat in two weeks as it says in the instructions on the box. Then there is the friend next door, etc.