Okay we have never had lice, I don't know what they look like. But my 7 year old has been scratching like crazy, I have had 3 different people look because there HAS to be soemthing wrong. Well so this afternoon after a LONG look he does seem to have something on his hair, mostly just in front (maybe 20-30) all near his bangs. Could this be lice?

What color are the nits? Would I see bugs? What color would they be? His hair is brown if that makes a difference. Would I just KNOW?? So what do I do?

By Bobbie~moderatr on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 08:09 pm:

Here are some pictures..

Lice

And if he does have them it really isn't that big of a deal. There are ways to get rid of them and there are ways to keep them out of his hair. So, does the pictures look like what you are finding in his hair??

By Marcia on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 08:15 pm:

If you google lice and look at images, you will see what the nits and bugs look like. Also, if you can easily flick them off of the hair, it's not lice. They are glued on, are teardrop shaped, and are attached at the pointy end.
The key is an excellent lice comb, not the plastic ones they supply with the shampoo. I spent $25 on a good comb, and it works wonders! We've just been through it with 2 of the girls, and it hits us yearly. I'm so glad they stress it happens to clean people, not dirty!!

By Kaye on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 08:17 pm:

Well maybe There really are just so few of them. But yes, I guess they have to be nits. These are brown, does that sound right?

off to the store for the brush just in case!

By Reds9298 on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 08:20 pm:

Also get the shampoo. It is expensive, but if you don't get rid of them you might be sorry. Plus, they are soooo easily transmitted. It doesn't mean you're dirty at all. Wash all sheets and dirty clothes right away in HOT if possible. I taught in a school where lice is practically epidemic and they can really be a pain.
There may be a few that you see, but they can lay eggs quickly (which are pretty transparent) and then you get into bigger troubles, harder to get rid of.

By Kaye on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 08:27 pm:

You can't flick them off, but you can pull them out pretty easy. I sent hubby to get a comb, i figure that will be our first start.

they are right in his bang area, no where else. he has been scratching for days, on the crown of his head, only today did i notice the bangs with this stuff. I guess i want to think he got something in his hair..LOL.

Is it normal to not be all over? I just always thought I would KNOW, but I am not sure. I haven't seen bugs.

I have a couple of calls into friends who have dealt with this (a year ago), so I guess they will know right?

By Crystal915 on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 08:37 pm:

I've never seen them, but I had them as a child. Hugs to you both!! They are AWFUL!! My head itches just thinking about it. I remember when my mom checked and found out I had them, she had seen one move at the nape of my neck, and I definitely had nits all over my head, but I'm a girl, and had long hair, so I don't know. If really in doubt, have a nurse check.

By Paulas on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 08:39 pm:

If you are unsure, ask your school. They usually do head lice checks and there might be someone there who is able to check for you. Otherwise, you can also go to your public health nurse and she will check as well.

If it does turn out to be lice, don't panic but be prepared for some work. Vaccum all cloth furniture (don't forget the car), dry clean pillows or put them in a bag for 10 days, wash all sheets, coats, etc. Try to wash in as hot a temperature as the material will allow.

Please treat everyone I know it's a pain but it really is necessary.

By Kaye on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 08:45 pm:

We just got out of school last week. I am thinking of taking him to the ped tomorrow. BUT whatever is in his hair should be washed/brushed out, so I am not sure if going to the ped will make a difference.

I know this is common, people deal with it all the time, but I will just say that I am freaking out about it. It is really just the last thing I can handle in my world right now. I think i will start drinking now.

and crystal, my head is itching too, i wonder if that will EVER go away now

By Dawnk777 on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 08:50 pm:

Sarah had lice once and the gave it to me. She was two and got them at the babysitter's house. I was pregnant with Emily, so my doc had to check with OB, to see what I could use. They recommended Nix. It was such a pain to wash everything, vacuum everything and put the stuffed animals in a bag for 2 weeks. We must have done a good enough job of it, since we never got them again.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 08:57 pm:

The best thing to do, is to just treat it as if it is lice and get on with it. More harm in leaving it go than just treating incase.. Get some of the shampoo and a comb.. Clean his beding etc.. With a boy you can always skip all the treating and combing and shave his head tight, not bald but tight. The lice attatches so far up the shaft of the hair and a tight shave takes the nits right off. He will need to be nit free.... The health department up here will check for lice for free...

By Kaye on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 09:49 pm:

Well after combing his hair, I can say that Yes my son has lice. UGH! So the treatment and cleaning begins. the upside, my daughter is out of town, so it is just boys and me. The down side we have been running so much it will take me a LONG time to get everything clean, I have to actually find the floor to vacuum. We were out of town from the end of school on friday till tuesday and 3 cases of throwing up. I am not really loving my life right now.

gotta get to work, thanks for all your advice.

By Crystal915 on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 09:58 pm:

Like others said, put anything you can in plastic bags, like stuffed animals, pillows, etc. Whatever you don't NEED to use on a daily basis. Trash your brushes, and get new ones, just to be safe. Be very careful while treating him, or you'll have them as well. Can dad buzz his hair, so you don't have to? Good luck, I hope he's "cured" easily. Oh, and whomever he has played with in the past few days, call their parents. Even if his playmates aren't the source, they need to be on the lookout. ((((Kaye)))) What a drag!

By Annie2 on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 10:07 pm:

If you can buzz the hair...do it. Then treat with the shampoo. We did for our son. For our daughters we nit-picked for hours, treated, retreated, reinfected.......pain in the butt!

Do call all friends that came in contact and the school. Believe me, if you don't, you'll be reliving the lice infestation for months! Which will become very expensive.

By Ilovetom on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 10:17 pm:

Wow. I find my head is itching from reading this.

By Pamt on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 10:27 pm:

Ugh! So sorry Kaye. Sounds like a major PITB. (((Kaye)))

By Dana on Thursday, June 2, 2005 - 10:27 pm:

You DON"T need to purchase stuff to kill them. Infact, for some children, the bug killer can cause problems for them. We dealt with this in K w/ very long hair and LOTS of hair.

Treat the hair with cooking oil, doesn't matter what kind olive, regular veg oil...whatever. Rub salt all over the hair. This is suppose to strip the nits and also dehydrate them and pop them open to keep from hatching. The oil sufficates the lice. DO NOT let your child sleep in bed without totally washing it first. I made that mistake. I wasn't sure if it was lice so I just sent her to bed after pulling about 20 nits, not even thinking the lice might be in the bed. DUHHHH. Spent the next several days picking nits, daily and hourly. Oh, back to the oil. I would cover DD's head w/ a shower bonnet and let her sit for however long I could make her. Then I would wash w/ shampoo. Then nit pick again. I did the oil for several days and I guess up to 3 times a day. My friend told me about the salt, but that was after we had already gotten rid of them. It took us days to get rid of all the nits. No one else got them and we did not have them return. I left the pillows and toys in bags for EIGHT weeks. I did not allow guest to even come into our home. And poor DD to this day can not stand in the sun light w/out me doing a quick search for nits.

No one I know has used the store brands of killer. We have all used oil with much success. Wait, one person I know used Nix, and had a reinfestation. She used oil after I told her about it.

FYI, my head is all itchy now.

By Kaye on Friday, June 3, 2005 - 09:05 am:

I am better this morning. Mentally a bit stronger. I can say not much equals a tired mommy being told at bedtime, you need to clean for several hours!

So his head is clean. His hair is nitpicked. All sheets were stripped, minimal sheets were put back on. I vacuumed. I guess now I mostly wait. I think I will comb his hair daily for a week. And change the sheets daily for that long too. Then see what happens.

I had to wake him to do this, that is probably the worst part of it. He was so tired and then once he got awake he sure didn't want to go back to sleep.

the best part is my dd isn't here. So chances are she is lice free. She is with my dad for two weeks..woo hoo!

My boys both have super short hair, i would have never thought they could get lice. But this is why i didn't notice it, it is in the front of his hair, not the nape and above the ears like most people. It almost looks like he had dipped his face into a lice nest.

ah the fond memories of motherhood.

By Reds9298 on Friday, June 3, 2005 - 12:44 pm:

Dana - I've never heard of this method but am going to copy/paste your instructions and save them in case we ever need it. Thanks!

By Debbie on Friday, June 3, 2005 - 01:19 pm:

{{{Kaye}}} I am glad you are feeling better about things this morning! Crossing fingers, that you have seen the last of the critters! We haven't had to deal with lice, and I am hoping we don't ever have to.

By Marcia on Friday, June 3, 2005 - 03:15 pm:

We've used oil, but now use conditioner. You can smother them by using a full bottle of cheap conditioner on the hair, and leaving it there for 3 hours. It does the same thing as oil, but washes out so much more easily. Do it every 3 days for a couple of weeks, and anything that hatches won't mature and be able to lay eggs.

By Trina~moderator on Friday, June 3, 2005 - 03:18 pm:

HeadLice.org

By Unschoolmom on Friday, June 3, 2005 - 06:26 pm:

The only thing that really works is just sitting down and picking them out. I found about half a dozen nits (never saw the actual lice) on my daughters head one night last year. We did the nix shampoo thing and picked every night for a week. Shampooed again and did another week. In ALL the treatments I saw mentioned on the net and such the constant was to pick the nits. That's what gets them.

Anyhow, we vaccuumed, washed sheets and stuffed animals (one we couldn't wash so it went to the freezer for a couple of days with hair stuff). They don't live for very long off a host so there's no reason to bag anything up for more than a couple of weeks at the most.

Honestly, I didn't find it a big deal. If it had been my son who was two at the time, yes. But otherwise it was just some extra washing and some time with my daughter.

By Kaye on Friday, June 3, 2005 - 07:06 pm:

For me the huge deal is washing the bedding from 4 bed (one a kind and one a queen). On top of being behind on laundry from being behind from vacation.

It is frustrating because i combed, shampooed, picked out nits, and then this morning it looked like i had done nothing. Still several live lice. WE have shampooed with different stuff today (oil, lavendar, etc) twice today. Have picked out nits twice today. I have spent at least 5 hours with him dealing with it. I only got 5 loads on laundry done, I have 10 left.

It is a big deal. Probably a bigger deal because I am stressed that if we don't get rid of them this time it will likely be more than one child, and if it happens to be my daughter than you can just shoot me now!

I bought a homeopathic shampoo for tonight, we will all use it, tea tree oil (melaluca) and some other stuff.

By Vicki on Friday, June 3, 2005 - 07:29 pm:

Are you using the special shampoo for lice?? Thankfully I have never had to deal with this, but I thought the shampoo killed them??

I agree with you that it would be a big deal!! I imagion it takes hours to deal with and with just getting home from vacation, I am sure you have enough laundry to deal with!

I hope that todays treatment gets them all and you can be done with it!!

By Paulas on Friday, June 3, 2005 - 08:23 pm:

I have had this personally THREE times! One of the pleasures of working with very small children who like to hug. I used the NIX shampoo and found it worked well. I have since heard that adding a little teatree oil in your regular shampoo will also help.

By Reds9298 on Friday, June 3, 2005 - 08:39 pm:

Lice are definitely a pain because you're just never quite sure if you're truly rid of them. You think you are and then they pop up again. I have know people who did everything and still had trouble getting rid of them.I hope all goes well for you!
Good info about the conditioner 'smothering' thing, too, Marcia.
I'll have some good tips for some of my 'parents' at school when I go back!

By Sue3 on Friday, June 3, 2005 - 11:10 pm:

(((Kaye}}}
I feel for you ! We had to deal with head lice last fall with my oldest.
I would have never expected for her to bring it home.(just thought it was more common with younger kids)She is twelve.
It was horrible,not so much the lice thing but the cleaning of EVERYTHING !
I had never delt with it before and boy was I over whelmed to say the least.
We seemed to try everything on the market but the one thing that worked the best was the olive oil treatment that Dana mentioned.
and the metal comb.
I put the oil in her hair and put a plastic baggie over it and let it sit on her head for 5 hours.
I remember getting a lot of info on the internet. Good -luck !!!!
and hang in there !!!!

By Karen~moderator on Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 08:31 am:

We lived the headlice nightmare when J & J were in preschool. 3 times in one year. We used Nix and something else, can't remember what it was. DEFINITELY something I wouldn't want to experience again, since Jules and I both got them from the younger ones the 3rd time. UGH!

Dealing with girls' hair is so much harder. I know people who have used *home* rememdies to get rid of the lice, some say it worked, some say it didn't.

And yes, it is a MAJOR pain!!!!!!!!! The Nix works though.

By Dawnk777 on Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 10:04 am:

Nix worked for us. That happened when Sarah was 2 and now she is 15 and we have never had to do it again.

By Marcia on Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 01:23 pm:

Just a reminder, nix and the other store remedies are pesticides, and not something you want to do often. It's much better, health wise, to use the oil or conditioner after the initial treatment.

By Livvy on Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 03:19 pm:

My hairdresser swears by a group of hair care products called "Fairy Tales." I also use them on my DD who is 7 and has VERY long hair.

There was a break-out in her DD's kindergarten class and as soon as she heard she used the shampoo, conditioner, and gel in her DD's hair. She then called me because my DD's class is across the hall from her DD's. Neither of our DD's got infected!!!!

It is a group of products that are all natural and organic called "rosemary repel" and are "infused with pure rosemary oil, not extracts - which have been shown to repel lice and other insects from the hair." (that is right off the bottle)

I use the shampoo, conditioner and leave-in conditioner on my DD and cross my fingers every day that it keeps those pesky critters away!!!

I am pretty sure it can only be purchased thru hair salons, not in stores, so they are a bit pricey $8-9 per bottle. They may be available online also at www.fairytales4hair.com !!
Good luck!!

By Colette on Saturday, June 4, 2005 - 03:33 pm:

Thankfully we've never had to deal with lice. Another oil that you can use is tea tree oil. My dd has hair down to her butt. Every child except for 5 in her first grade class got them. She was one of the 5 who didn't. I would put a few drops of tea tree oil on my hands and smooth it over her hair and then braid it.