just me venting...i HATE head lice!!!!!! (very long)

my daughter has gotten lice from her best friend when we lived in california. we'd get rid of it only for her to pop up with it less then a month later :mad: (apparently her friend's mom could never get rid of it cuz she wasnt going about it the right way).
with head lice, not only do you have to wash the hair with a special lice killing pesticide, you have to cut it...very short :(.
then comes the care of the items in the home/bedroom.
you have to wash everything that will fit in the washing machine. (clothes, stuffed animals, pillows & ALL bed linens) .
then you have treat all fabric furniture & carpet with said pesticide as if IT has lice.
oh...did i forget to mention the interior of the family car(s)? if there's any fabric inside of it/them.
this whole nutty process is the only fool-proof way to REALLY get rid of those darned bugs. so, we did this several times in california.
& now 2 times here in south carolina! me, my son & my daughter came here, apparently & unbeknownst to us, carrying the bugs with us. the school found it on my daughter & called her brothers school & then called us, asking us to pick her up & not bring her back til it was gone. minutes later, my sons school called us asking us the same thing after finding bugs on him. go figure. that was last year.
yesterday...my daughter began complaining of an itchy head. my heart sank as i dreaded the coming search for bugs. i checked her head...and sure enough she had bugs!
so, again we jumped on the head lice merry go round & started with our hair clippers. last year i had my fiancee cut my hair down to an inch so i could get rid of my bugs. it worked. & so did the house/car treatments.
i swore i would never cut my hair like that again after how long it took to grow it back out but...
there i was, on mothers day, near tears, getting my hair cut down to an inch again. i wasn't completely sure if i had it or not, but decided to cut my hair just to be safe. i always say "better safe then sorry." :rolleyes:
my son had slept in our bed & he had it, after sleeping in his sisters bed for a week while we repaired a hole in his bedroom wall. (ok lemme explain that...normally it doesnt take a week to repair a hole :colbert:, but he kept messing with the spackle, making us put on more. it takes 24-48 hrs for it to dry, when left alone. when we finally were able to get enough on to cover the hole & let it dry, we were able to sand it down & re-paint over it with the blue paint that covers the rest of his bedroom walls.)
so anyways, the kids can return to school today cuz i have taken care of their bugs, they are bug free :) but...wait for it...
now i have to notify the school nurses & teachers :oops: so the rest of the classroom students can get checked, since we know which student it came from this time.
i told my daughter that now, not only is she not allowed to share any hair/ clothing items with her friends :colbert:, she is no longer allowed to hug them to where their heads touch :colbert:. thats how she got it this time. my daughter is a very big hugger, she looooves a good cuddle :P. but i cant have this happening again.
i absolutely HATE this whole damned problem :rage:. this problem tops my list of hateable problems/situations!
its a pain in the arse & its embarrassing :oops:...cuz alot of people think that head lice comes from being dirty & thats not true :colbert:. we are very clean people here in this home :D. im allergic to dirt & dust so i keep this place tip top to the best of my abilities.
ok im done.
thanks for those of you who took the time to read this and/or respond.
thank you for letting me vent.
im pissed off right now & rightly so. :rage:
i thought we were done & could close that chapter of our life & move on from it. [shakes head]

I feel your pain, been through it myself with my step-sons. My hubby, his ex and their kids dealt with it often. After I moved in, we dealt with it several times (like after the boys visited their Mother's house...grrrr). During the process of redecorating the house, I yanked out all the old wall-to-wall carpet, replaced the carpet in the basement and left the entire upstairs carpetless. We have hardwood and vinyl throughout with a throw rug in the living room and have been lice free for 4-5 years...woohoo. Of course, I still cringe if I see anyone scratch their head while in my house, which I'm sure you understand. Hope you've gotten it nipped for good this time.

thanks for the response. my daughter's teacher says its more common then people think.
ugh i didnt like hearing that cuz that means we may not ever be done with it for good. have you talked to the other mom or are you guys not on speaking terms? you should let her know whats going on & have her treat herself & her house. hopefully all goes well with your situation as well.

This was also several years ago for us, thank doG, but no we are not on speaking terms with her and she would blame us for the lice even though the boys would be lice free when they went to her place and come back scratchin'. I have also heard it can be quite common and lice prefer clean heads/homes :confused::O:mad:

been there many tmes with my niece. Igot hold of some strong chemical's and made them all leave their trailer for a full day sealed it up and more less bombed the entire place. it killed the lice,eggs, and many other critters that were comingg in from outside.(heck even critters under the trailer )which led to us finding a few mice holes into the trailer. My niece had her hair washed so often from the lice shampoo that she had some minor chemical burns.. (They found out her so called best friend was the carrier and was getting reinfested everytime she was visiting her father on weekends)

wow. its such a pain in the butt to get rid of too huh? i especially hate how i have to wash everything. that's time consuming & raises bills.

*raises hand*

Been there too! When I was younger we got it from a household I was babysitting, treated and where reinfected twice, as well as infected a visiting family till we figured out where the source was coming from. We never cut our hair down I probably would have freaked over that, but I remember sitting with the burning, nasty shampoos, spending hours with the lice comb, washing anything and everything in the hottest water possible, replacing all the hair brushes and hair bands. Bombing the house once or twice.

Its definitely an ordeal and I remember my parents being embarrassed about it too. We were home schooled at the time, but whenever we went out it was understood we werent to pick at our heads as much as possible.

Now I dont think our dogs ever got it because I dont remember treating them, but I do know that one <just once but thats certainly enough for the family trying to combat an infestation> we did have a golden come into the groom shop just swarming with lice. So while its unlikely, check those furred pets too just incase!

whoa animals can get it?! hmm i didnt know that. we dont have any furry pets (my in-laws are allergic & they own our house so...they said no furry pets which is why im going with a bp).

This is what I have been told by several hair dressers. Lice hate hair products #1....use them everyday. And #2 wash their hair once a month with listerine....this will ward them off. I have no idea why it works....but knock on wood we have never had to deal with this and I work at school! Hugs are everyday by hundreds of kids for me.

Lice is species specific . Human head lice can not survive/thrive on other animals.

Lice is a PITA. My daughter has brought them home from her moms twice. Very frustrating.

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Originally Posted by mommanessy247

whoa animals can get it?! hmm i didnt know that. we dont have any furry pets (my in-laws are allergic & they own our house so...they said no furry pets which is why im going with a bp).

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Well thats one less worry atleast! though like I said none of ours got it that I recall and before hand I didnt actually think it was possible. But you cant argue with seeing it with your own eyes :/. A rare case is a case none the less.

Suggestions for the next time you have long hair and get headlice.

There are many things that lice hate. # 1 dirty heads, I used so much hair products ie. mouse, gel, hairspray, flat iron. # 2 if you wash you hair with any of Selsen Blue (sp) products and or coconut containing products they tend to leave you alone. # 3 do not wash your hair every day the natural oils in you hair will help keep them out.

They also do not like intence heat, blowdrying can help kill any eggs left on the strands.

There are so many different home remedys out there that do not include cutting anyones hair.

I am sorry you had to go through this.

Oh man lice and fleas, the two things you NEVER want in your house! I had lice when I was kid because my aunt neglected to tell my sister and I that our cousin had lice and my aunt made us all sleep in the same bed! I was so mad at my aunt for knowing about the lice! :mad:

I haven't had lice now that I have my own house, but I had to deal with fleas last summer. That was horrible!!!!

Sorry you have to deal with all of that! I feel your pain! It's so hard to get rid of lice/fleas! It takes a lot of time and a lot of cleaning!

Many of the lice shampoos don't work anymore. The lice are immune.

I had to use an olive oil hair bath to suffocate them (water doesn't work) and comb out all the eggs with a special lice comb every day for about a week.

The shampoo never did anything.

A tip to make things easier--the stuff you can't wash or don't want to wash can be put in an out-of-the-way place or sealed in plastic bags. Just leave it for 14 days. Once 14 days have passed...there will be no more lice. 14 days is actually longer than is needed...their lifecycle is short, and they cannot survive for long without a host.

This is much easier than trying to wash a bunch of stuffed animals. Just bag them up.

Lice aren't very mobile, either--they can't jump, and they can't move very far.

This is good to remember if you have problems with furniture and mattresses. Just clear them off of the people, camp out elsewhere for a while, and the problem will solve itself.

Someone brought these suckers into the house a couple of years ago, and we went on a camping trip. We didn't discover them until we were on our way home! Everyone got shampooed, the car upholstery got sprayed, all the clothes and sleeping bags got bagged up...
...and thankfully that was all we had to do. We'd been gone over a week, so the house was clear! No more bugs.

Wow. And I thought getting rid of mites on snakes was bad...

I know how you feel! When I was a kid, my best friend always had it. I got it several times. And my sister's best friend also had it. So she would get it... I don't even know how we managed to get rid of it for good. I had it so much as a kid I itch just thinking about it. I use head and shoulders (And blow-dry, then use a flat iron) so I guess I'm in the clear! Thank goodness... I don't even know what I would do if I had it as an adult.

I've never had lice, but I do shave my head more regularly during the warmer months. I find it helps keep the ticks off me.

OH GAAAAAWWDD!!!!! I gotta stop readin' this thread!!! It's makin my skin crawl!!!

lol crystal now your feelin' my pain. i flinch every time one of my kids itches their heads, then i check for bugs & am relieved when i find none.
[shudders] ugh i wanna take a shower now.

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Originally Posted by 4theSNAKElady

OH GAAAAAWWDD!!!!! I gotta stop readin' this thread!!! It's makin my skin crawl!!!

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Me too...

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Originally Posted by BPelizabeth

This is what I have been told by several hair dressers. Lice hate hair products #1....use them everyday. And #2 wash their hair once a month with listerine....this will ward them off. I have no idea why it works....but knock on wood we have never had to deal with this and I work at school! Hugs are everyday by hundreds of kids for me.

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Yes...Children of Color or those that have a variable hair texture, (or their parents)that use oil based products on a req'lr basis, report dramatically fewer cases of head lice. I have also heard that Tea Tree Oil prevents lice, but I have never used this on my children. I do use a castor oil based dressing on my children's hair EVERYDAY and pray that we never have to encounter head lice. I know its horrible and I empathize with anyone who has had to address it.

You think thats bad.. Try getting rid of scabies! Here is a scary story..

I had to do my laundry at the laundrymat quite a few years ago. For some reason I went to one I hadn't gone to before. It looked clean and was fairly new but on a not so good side of town. The next day I put on my clean clothes. By that night my chest was on FIRE! Within 2 days the itchy rash went from bra-line to waist and up to my shoulders. These are microscopic bugs smaller than lice that spread like wildfire and itch so bad you cant even sleep. I went to the Dr and was given an insecticide lotion and told to bleach everything in my house. I didnt leave the house for a week due to cleaning and not wanting to give it to anyone else. I was rid of them quickly thankfully.

So good luck on your lice mission and BEWARE of laundry mats!

wow thats scary. ive heard of scabies but even worse i used to do all my laundry at a laundromat including my infant daughters clothes...wow thankfully we never got anything. thanks for the heads up. you'd think the bugs would be killed by all the soap & water & the cycling of the washing machine...that makes me wonder if washing everything really gets rid of lice...

That's why we just bagged everything up for 2 weeks, and THEN washed it. If soap and water don't always kill them, it's absolutely certain that time will.

The parent of the kid who brought them to the house in the first place had 'treated' them with tea tree oil...doesn't work, obviously.