My daughter brought home head lice and...

[TreehuggerRN]

before we knew it the whole family was scratching. She is in the 2nd grade and this same thing happened last year. I've been combing the little buggers out of her hair and my toddler's hair and even my hair and doing the treatments and working on getting rid of it. I'm not looking for medical advice but I wonder why the school has not alerted us to this? Could it be because school nurses are spread so thin? Still, it doesn't take a nurse to catch head lice. When I was in school, it was a big deal if someone got pediculosis. We haven't heard a peep from the school, but I know this is where she picked it up.

Yuck!:angryfire

[tatara]

They say it is but normal for happy, sociable kids to have head lice at some point during their childhood because prevention is sometimes close to impossible. They have to mingle, to play, to interact, and get along with other children. Parents nor teachers can only do so much. Once a playmate or a classmate has it, everybody in the classroom or in the family would be scratching like crazy!

When I was in 2nd grade, I remember my mom nearly shaved my head because I brought home head lice from a girl scout camping trip and I could no longer sleep due to the itch. I would then wear swimming goggles every dreadful "treatment" day to protect my eyes from the pesticide and shampoo mixture she made and used to desperately get rid of those lice from my head. She's a clean freak and she often said that head lice is a sign of poor hygiene. I would then mumble to myself: I don't care. Camping trip is worth the itch. :wink2:

[livinthedreamRN]

The same thing happened to me. I called the school nurse to inform her. She did say that there had been one other child infected but she thought he had been rid of it. She can't tell anyone which children are infested but all the children are checked. My daughter could not return to school until she was nit free. If several children are infested, a notice is sent home.

BTW, after several treatments we finally tried a remedy that a hairdresser once told me about. Gob mayonaisse on the hair and wrap it in plastic over night. Sounds messy but it really works!!

[Jolie, BSN]

From the Harvard School of Public Health:

Scheme for managing presumed head louse infestations in schools:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/headlice/flow.html

[cjcsoon2bnp, MSN, RN, NP]

BTW, after several treatments we finally tried a remedy that a hairdresser once told me about. Gob mayonaisse on the hair and wrap it in plastic over night. Sounds messy but it really works!!

I've heard about this treatment as well as using olive oil and a ton of other treatments. After speaking with an MD and NP they said that putting any form of food products in your hair is not reccomended because it can harbor bacteria from prolonged use. If you are going to put a product in your child's hair to get rid of lice that isn't a chemical shampoo then applying a really thick hair gel or petrolium jelly and covering your child's hair and letting them sleep with it on overnight for about two weeks is a good chemical free solution.

!Chris

[JBudd, MSN]

Once in the ER, a doc yelled to me as I passed a room where she was doing a complex repair on a ripped up hand. The inebrieated homeless fellow being held onto by a couple of techs had long hair and a bushy beard, and the lice started crawling out while she was sewing. She yelled at me about the lice crawling all over, like I could do something about it:D right then and there. I looked at her and asked "what do you want me to do? Wrap his head in kerosine?" She stopped cold for a second, and started laughing.

[HyperSaurus, RN, BSN]

Teatree oil and teatree oil shampoo does wonders--worked better for me than Nix(or RidEx--I can't remember)

[jtmonique]

Here is a suggestion Lice love clean hair it is a fact african americans rarely get lice due to the fact that we oil our hair and dont wash it as often but WE CAN GET IT when I worked in childcare and we had lice we would advise all of our children's parents no matter what the race to oil their children's hair and braid it up and it worked every time. I dont know how you will feel about this but it is just a suggestion It is a trick I learned many years ago and saw results with.

[burberrylover]

I wanted to add something: Head lice is not a sign of someone being unclean or dirty. Body lice, yes. Head lice,no. My girls have had lice in the past and, trust me, they are/were cleaner than clean:)