head lice ... GRRRR

[Guest guest]

I let my 10 yr old go stay the night with a friend whose family just

called & said they found lice. Anyone know of any *good*, natural lice

treatments?

I feel for this family, their step daughter goes to her mother's for

the weekend & comes back with lice. They've asked the mother several

times to treat her home, she says she does but who knows. All I know

is I'm itching from thinking about it!

Debi

[Guest guest]

one has to treat more than just the head of the person, you have to

spray of the mattresses and sofas and all cloth furniture, you have

to vacum every day all carpet areas, you have to bag up all stuffed

toys spray of them and tie the bag shut for 2 weeks. and then you

have to treat the hair brushes, combs, and things that will be to go

to the hair. then treat of the child again 7 days later because the

nits will hatch and reinfest so on the 7th day you have to redo all

the spraying of things , changing all berd sheets and launder then

quickly and into hot water cycles. for safe percautions one might

want to repeat one more time in 7 more days again just encase one nit

somewhere survives, also it is of important to use of the nit comb

and remove all nits you can and do this nightly for the 7 days they

hide behind the ears, and neck lines. But the most important things

is making sure you know where the sources of the lice bugs are coming

from,

years back my Aimee had of a friend to come over and the kids got of

lice but I to not connected because that is of not how my brain works

that the kids were of getting them from this child. so we would do

everything the paper shared for us to do and we would rid of them and

this girl would come over and reinfest of us again. talk about

sensory overload and for me who is terrified of most bugs but the

thinking of them being in my hair causes me great stress every day

and yet as mom had to find the nits in all of the kids. the boys were

of easy shave of them bald for a while, the girls not so easy with

their long hairs. we did of the coconut oils too and it did not rid

of them but it did make of the hair shiny.

I to just read of an article on lice a few weeks back and they have

found in research that over drying the hair also dries out the nits

and kills any bugs but they say to do this in caution so not to burn

of the scalp or damage the hair. the nits survive if the hair stays

moisturised from the shapooing and such, and the oils from

conditioners and such because the nit is in a case of protected by a

sticky oily based subtances, so if that stays moist it allows it to

survive, but if it is of dried out and over dried it destroys the oil

and subtance of the nit case so to speak and the nit cannot survive

then. that was what the new research was of discovering on lice.

Sondra

[Guest guest]

We've dealt with this only twice since I've had my daughter, although

as I recall, it was a much more frequent problem for my family when I

was a child. I can tell you from personal experience, if you do not

treat your bedding, you will get reinfested. Nits can be laid up to 4

days after a louse has left it's food supply, the nits can then take

up to 10 days to hatch, and it can take several hours for the newly

hatched louse to die without food. This is the MAXIMUM life span, not

typical, but barring any freekish circumstance, taking all bedding and

unneccesary clothing and keeping it away from human contact for 2

weeks is sufficient if you prefer not to use chemicals or launder on

HOT with HOT dryer.

Also, the last time we did this I found this ingenious little device.

I don't remember the name, it was some play on words with nit or

something. It's a comb you use on DRY hair. There is a mild

electrical current that runs through the comb. The teeth are really

close together, so when the comb hits a louse or a nit, the electrical

curent fries it. It is totally safe, and runs on one or two AA

batteries. It also helps to check the head, but for sensory issues

may not be so friendly, cause it vibrates slightly and there is a

light " hum " that pauses each time a bug is zapped. It really helped

us get rid of everything last time, as was said before, nit picking is

the #1 most important thing to stop a lice infestation. Even the

products that say they will kill nits do not kill them all.

Also, if you choose to use an oil-based remedy, it is important to

keep a shower cap or plastic wrap over the head to protect your home,

as the olive oil/coconut oil/tea tree oil/patrolium jelly must stay on

your head for at least 48 hours.

Below are the household guidelines for treatment of bedding and

home as copied from the website of the US Center for Disease Controll.

(www.cdc.gov)

Follow these steps to help avoid re-infestation by lice that have

recently fallen off the hair or crawled onto clothing or furniture.

To kill lice and nits, machine wash all washable clothing and bed

linens that the infested person wore or used during the 2 days before

treatment. Use the hot water (130°F) cycle. Dry laundry using high

heat for at least 20 minutes.

Dry clean clothing that is not washable, (coats, hats, scarves, etc.).

OR

Store all clothing, stuffed animals, comforters, etc., that cannot be

washed or dry cleaned into a plastic bag; seal for 2 weeks.

Soak combs and brushes for 1 hour in rubbing alcohol, Lysol*, or wash

with soap and hot (130°F) water.

Vacuum the floor and furniture. The risk of getting re-infested from a

louse that has fallen onto a carpet or sofa is very small. Don't spend

a lot of time on this. Just vacuum the places where the infested

person usually sits or lays.

[Guest guest]

sharon that is of interesting to read of this. In my areas it is of

stressed over and over about washing bedding, treating stuffed toys and

the cars and sofas and brushes. Sondra

[Guest guest]

Hi Sondra

Yes I am ...i live in New Zealand and mainly lurk on this list as much of it not

relavant to me with me in another country and my time so limited online etc,

when i had who by the way will be 6 in feb, i just did not have time to sit

at computer all day.

is going to be 16 in April and growing into quite the young lady, we are

currently going thru new assessments of her tho as not had any since she was

younger and now she in teens she different to when she was younger.

Soiling was and still is our major issue but finally getting referred to see a

surgeon and check out the medical side of it, as i convinced more going on than

behavioural.

I have read some of your posts at times and wondered if you remembered us

Sharon

New Zealand

sharon are you of the one I to use to know much so and had of a

daughter named of sarah? If so how is of she doing and how is of the

baby one doing.

Sondra

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