Head lice

[scottieb]

Our youngest in school has brought home a case of head lice. What a mess! At present three out of the four children have them as well as my wife.


What's the best way tackling this?

[Chappy]

Get shampoo specifically for lice at the pharmacy. Also pick up a nit comb. Shampoo, rinse, comb, repeat. Good luck my friend, good luck.
Also wash the sheets daily

[Siress]

If you've hugged, shared the same car, couch, hat, coat, chair, brush, or bed with any of the people mentioned, you should assume you have them as well. Those things are crazy contagious.

In addition to what Chappy said, wash or spray anything that passes under or within 2ft of an infestation at least once per day - especially the bed, pillows, car seats, and chairs. I've heard that each one can lay ~10 eggs per day which means you've probably got 2-3 times as many eggs to deal with when you wake up as you had lice when you went to bed.... and they're feeding on blood to do this, not just dead skin like some people think.

[Junglepeanut]

If shaving the kids heads is an option it's the easiest way to tackle it. Other than that lots of thorough shampoo soaks

[Cdn_Cuda]

Been there, done that with my girls from school as well. Find out if you have a lice clinic. They go through and get everything! My girls had long thick hair and would take hours to go through… but one visit to that lice clinic and we were creepy crawly free! Worth whatever the cost is just for the piece if mind.

[Seajay]

The shampoo and other sprays work. Lots of washing and put all the stuffed animals and other such toys in black trashbags for a week.
Shampoo stings eyes super bad though, so just be careful using it on kids.

No head shaving required.

[scottieb]

Thank you all for the advice. We are still at it. The boys have shaven heads. I did mine as well so they'd not feel alone.

Shampoo, combing, tea tree oil, and continual laundering. It's no fun.

[punkncat]

Dog shampoo. Yup, the flea and tick stuff. Don't waste time and money on the "prescription" stuff.
Take all bedding, all stuffed toys, etc. and put them in a hot dryer on a long cycle. I had to resort to putting everything in a trash bag in the attic in summer. The hardest part of that aspect is if your home has carpet. We utilized a variety of bug sprays and diatomaceous earth.
Ended up also having to get an electric lice comb that would shock the lice and then you could squish them and put them on a white towel. In addition you have to sit and go through the long hair kids and wife to find the nits. Keep in mind that even though they are "head lice" that they can live in thick body and pubic hair.

Total PITA. Our daughter caught these at school years ago, again and again. Nothing was done about the other children for reason I will not discuss here, but our daughter who was easy to see the lice within her head was blamed for the continuous outbreak one year. We could not be rid of them until we unenrolled her from that school.

I wish you the best. They are a serious issue to clean up.

[coyote]

My niece and cousins went through this a few years ago.

Sorry, it's a PITA.

[THE SHOOTIST]

Buzz cuts. Bedding washed in hot water and in the dryer on High. Head lice shampoo. Anyone with kids has had this experience.

[Falcon16]

truth the first 3 times my kid had lice he was a toddler and it was a nightmare.I gave him a 4 hair cut and went throughh is head several times over a few weeks. Thankfully now that he's older I didn't have to do that as he'd sit still for me to use a robicomb

[Knuckle Dragger]

Not sure if anyone has tried this. When my sister and I got lice from school, first used lice murdering shampoo. Then after a couple combings, he rubbed some olive oil in our hair, used a plastic shopping bag to cover our hair, then used a hair dryer on low to warm the oil and smother and weigh down what may have survived. We had to wear the bag for a few hours and he would comb and warm in between. As our hair was quarantined and oiled, we all bagged up bedding and clothes, tossed them in the sun to bake, then washed that evening. We had the infestation handled in a day, pops kept everything under control and after that incident, he would do lice checks every couple days.

Patience and persistence. Never let your guard down, doesn’t take much for a new infestation to take hold and you’re back at the beginning. Good luck

[Brandon]

The hair stylist my wife goes too says to use Tea Tree shampoo

[maggot]

Is replacing the kids an option?

[scottieb]

Is replacing the kids an option?

Not an option. These kids are great.

[maggot]

Darn, that complicates things significantly

[Falcon16]

Get a robicomb. My son brought them home for the like 4th time in his life a few months back. The robi comb kills them by zapping them like a bug zapper. Go over the head to get em then go over once a day for the next 2 weeks to get all the new hatchlings. It worked great and we didn't need to use any of the shampoos which frankly don't always work as the lice are now resistant to it.

[bellicose]

Seconded. We used a robicomb for my daughter, but caught it super early.