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My son (now 15) got lice two summers ago from living in a furnished, temporary housing for two months as a family. He is the only one that got it... I had his hair shaved off after several weeks of trying. Finally got rid of it by using the RID shampoo several times, I washed everything he came in contact with, I got him a new pillow, etc. It took a few months, but it finally worked. Now, I realized he has the eggs again. Not that many, and very small, but he has them. Is it possible that we never got rid of it in the first place? Or maybe we did, but some were left in his mattress? I did spray his mattress with a special spray, but what if I didn't get it all? I am so tired of fighting this, I don't know what to do any more. What I read on this post helps a lot, but I need to know if I should get rid of his mattress and buy a new one. Any suggestions?
There is one more thing I don't think anyone has mentioned. Somehow clean their backpacks. Coats/hoods/hats/scarves/brushes/combs need to be treated but so do backpacks.
DO NOT use peanut butter....Yep, someone years ago told my wife to do that and she did....We like to have never got the peanut butter out of our daughters hair...
I have never heard that pb would get rid of lice; bubble gum YES, but not lice.
When the kiddo get em, we used this stuff called Lice Freee, and it worked SO well. It also smells like licorice, and not like nasty chemicals, so it was fairly pleasant to do.
My son (now 15) got lice two summers ago from living in a furnished, temporary housing for two months as a family. He is the only one that got it... I had his hair shaved off after several weeks of trying. Finally got rid of it by using the RID shampoo several times, I washed everything he came in contact with, I got him a new pillow, etc. It took a few months, but it finally worked. Now, I realized he has the eggs again. Not that many, and very small, but he has them. Is it possible that we never got rid of it in the first place? Or maybe we did, but some were left in his mattress? I did spray his mattress with a special spray, but what if I didn't get it all? I am so tired of fighting this, I don't know what to do any more. What I read on this post helps a lot, but I need to know if I should get rid of his mattress and buy a new one. Any suggestions?
I highly doubt that your son is getting head lice from his mattress. If he was you have seen them much sooner than two years from when he first had head lice.
Sounds like your son just got himself a new case of them. If you use RID again, be sure that he washes his whole body with the shampoo and not just his hair. The lice will find other places to hide while washing the hair and then later crawl back up to his head.
I highly doubt that your son is getting head lice from his mattress. If he was you have seen them much sooner than two years from when he first had head lice.
Sounds like your son just got himself a new case of them. If you use RID again, be sure that he washes his whole body with the shampoo and not just his hair. The lice will find other places to hide while washing the hair and then later crawl back up to his head.
I also kind of doubt they came from the mattress. Yeah, sounds like a new case of them. As I posted earlier in this thread, I think the docs have some new prescription arsenal to battle lice. I think you should call your family physician as the lice have seemingly become for the most part resistant to the over the counter treatments like RID.
My son (now 15) got lice two summers ago from living in a furnished, temporary housing for two months as a family. He is the only one that got it... I had his hair shaved off after several weeks of trying. Finally got rid of it by using the RID shampoo several times, I washed everything he came in contact with, I got him a new pillow, etc. It took a few months, but it finally worked. Now, I realized he has the eggs again. Not that many, and very small, but he has them. Is it possible that we never got rid of it in the first place? Or maybe we did, but some were left in his mattress? I did spray his mattress with a special spray, but what if I didn't get it all? I am so tired of fighting this, I don't know what to do any more. What I read on this post helps a lot, but I need to know if I should get rid of his mattress and buy a new one. Any suggestions?
No. Adult lice can only live a day or too off the host and the eggs hatch in about two weeks. If there's no host for them to live on, they die.
Your son must be reinfested.
We had good results with the mayonnaise treatment, and also using Lice Free. But the important thing is the relentless combing on long hair. You have to get every last egg or the whole cycle starts again.
Thank you, all. I took my son for a very short hair cut last night. We've done the treatment with RID two nights before. We'll have to see how it goes, and if needed we have have to look into other methods. I agree that his mattress may not be the cause, but just wanted to get others opinion on the matter. My son did go on a three night field trip recently, and he thinks that's when he got infested again. He may be right... Thanks again.
My daughter goes to a school that is loaded with "new" citizens to our country. The school nurse tells us there is an epidemic of head lice, and she struggles with the teachers not keeping the students away from particularly problem kids.
Over the last two years we have had a couple of scares where I found some nits, but only a few and I never found any actual lice. We always used over the counter RID and PRONTO and had good results.
That changed last week when I found her head/hair to be full of nits and actual lice.
I spent hours with a nit comb and a vacuum cleaner, removing the bugs and nits from her hair. It was very traumatic for her. I would isolate one, and another person would use the vacuum (dyson!) to extract it - but there were a lot.
I checked her brush and found them hiding behind the flexible cushion that the bristles are connected to. I have heard conflicting reports about how long they can live away from the host - anything from one day to one week.
One interesting remedy for the actual head lice - I shocked our swimming pool and then let her swim a few hours later. She spent a lot of time swimming under water, and once she got out I checked her hair and could find nothing.
I have decided to let her take a nice long swim every day after school - those bugs seem to be sensitive to light, and even dry air - but I think the chlorine atoms in the pool water cause them to abandon ship!
Thank you, all. I took my son for a very short hair cut last night. We've done the treatment with RID two nights before. We'll have to see how it goes, and if needed we have have to look into other methods. I agree that his mattress may not be the cause, but just wanted to get others opinion on the matter. My son did go on a three night field trip recently, and he thinks that's when he got infested again. He may be right... Thanks again.
Boys are so lucky because all you have to do is shave the head
I finally got rid of my daughter's head lice by doing an olive oil treatment every 4 days. I let olive oil sit in her hair for a few hours under a shower cap, then washed it out, then combed section by section and pulled out lice & nits. We did this consistently for about 2 weeks. Also we took precautions such as putting her sheets/pillowcase/comforter in the dryer for 20 minutes every day. I cleaned the house, put stuffed animals in garbage bags for 3 weeks, bug bombed my house, etc. We washed stuff like bookbags, hats, gloves, etc.
I think the key is to retreat because you will never get ALL of the nits out. Once the nits hatch all it takes is a few to reproduce all over again. I was sick of the harsh chemicals, so that's why in the end I chose the olive oil. It doesn't kill the lice as well as the chemicals do, but it slows them down enough so you can catch them and extract them.
About a month ago I discovered head lice on my daughter. We spent about a week and a half trying different treatments and did lots of combing. I also realized a few days into the ordeal that I had it as well. I think I know where we got it from, and we haven't been around that person again. I thought the problem was gone, but a few days ago discovered lice on my daughter's head again. I had someone look at my head, and I have it as well. Most of them are babies, so I am assuming we missed some nits last time, and they have hatched and laid more eggs. It is possible that I never fully got rid of them on my own head the first time. I had to rely on my boyfriend to do the nit-extracting on my head...and he can't even part hair, much less thoroughly get all the nits out!
We have tried Nix (which seems to work the best at killing the live lice), olive oil, tree tea oil, lotions, mouthwash, vinegar. I have tried to pick all of nits out of her hair (several times....this is the tedious awful part!) but every time I look at her head again I find more. I have been washing sheets and blankets daily, and spraying daily, etc. All of her stuffed animals are still tied in plastic bags in her closet from last time. Luckily we have hardwood floors in most rooms but I still vacuum the rugs. So in other words I am doing all of the correct procedures to clean the house.
If anyone has any ideas, please post them! She can't go back to school until all of the nits and lice are gone, and has missed too many days of school because of this problem!
after you treat her hair with medicine...Put baby oil in her hair and run the llice comb thu it the nits will slide right off..
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