How to treat for

**kabin63** · 09-05-2006, 03:16 PM

Head lice.

Ok, ladies, not sure if this the right area to post. We had 2 house guests last night that, as it turns out, have head lice. One a baby, another, an adult.
I have heard of using mayonnaise to treat his and wanted to know if anyone else has ever tried it. Right now I am just deep cleaning the areas they were in, but wanted to know if they happen to show up on DD, DH, or myself.
My DD had them when she was younger, but I didn't want to have to buy that expensive stuff. I had a friend whose children got them this summer. She spent 3-4 weeks and over $500.00

to get rid of them. I can't ban the people from ever coming over again as they are closely related, but man, could've warned there might be a problem.

Any information would be helpful. My head is already

getting itchy thinking about it...

TIA

**MarshHen** · 09-05-2006, 05:42 PM

My Aunt has been a foster parent for years and has had many children come into her home with head lice. I called her and asked her about using mayonnaise to treat it. She said that mayonnaise will kill the adult lice, but it won't kill the eggs that they lay. She said that contrary to popular belief, head lice do not jump from one person to another, and are spread by head to head contact, sharing of combs, brushes, clothing and bedding. She said you should vacuum areas where they were very well, and to be on the safe side, toss the vacuum bag. If baby played with any toys, especially stuffed, place in a plastic bag and seal for at least a month.

**I was amazed when she told me that one adult head louse can lay 100's of eggs a day! Buzy little buggers!

If any of you played with or held the baby, you want to do a daily head check just to be safe. Said the trick to getting rid of them once infested, is to make sure all of the eggs are removed from the hair. She said two good treatments, 5 days apart, will normally do it. Also be sure to comb through the hair with lice egg combs. Said most treatments come with combs.

She also said that some people use dog flea shampoo to treat lice infestation, but again, it will kill the adult lice and not the eggs. Best to use lice treatments, but only if you know for sure that you or someone in your family has them. I guess only you know for sure how much contact was made with them.

Hope this helps.

**Emerald_Mommy** · 09-05-2006, 06:03 PM

I've used olive oil with great success. I bought a good quality nit comb at a pet store to use as well. The most important thing is to get the nits out. So, after smothering the hair with olive oil, heating with a blow dryer, & shampooing the final most important step is a thorough combing with a special nit comb. I do comb throughs for several days, just to be sure I got everything. HTH!

**pita1213** · 09-05-2006, 06:51 PM

if you have to do it, try doing the comb throughs in sunlight. my daughter has blond hair but has many colors in that blond and it made it a lot easier to find nits if we were in teh sun.

**dwallyfam** · 09-05-2006, 08:58 PM

Also run the bedding through the highest setting in the dryer. This will kill anything on the bedding.

**LastDragonfly** · 09-05-2006, 09:04 PM

Our local health department will give the expensive shampoo away. Check there to see if they will provide you with some.

**MOMMYDEAREST** · 09-05-2006, 09:19 PM

i swear by the baby oil. my daughter had it really bad & the expensive shampoos didn't do it for us. after spending about $150.00, i smothered her hair in baby oil & after 12 hours they were gone.......100% gone!!!! cleaning is a big job too, just make sure you clean completely otherwise they will come back!!

**kabin63** · 09-05-2006, 09:47 PM

thanks for your input everyone. So far, my DD has checked my head and not found any nits or live lice, but I will keep watching daily. Also washed all the bedding and not much to vacum here with construction, so just keeping eyes peeled.

I just heard from someone else today too, that after using the shampoo to run vinegar through hair as a final rinse to loosen the glue of the nit to the hair. Makes sense too.

**kabin63** · 09-13-2006, 07:43 AM

just an update......no signs of headlice here...Yeah!!!!

**many houseapes** · 09-13-2006, 09:34 AM

olive oil is an excellent choice...it smothers the live ones...but to kill the eggs, you have to go through your child's hair thoroughly everyday by sections to check for them & pull them off of the hair. my older 3 dds had it and they have seat-length hair...so I spent ALOT of time doing this(I did it 2X a day)........for my boys....daddy grabbed the clippers(which the boys didn't mind too much). But through determination,we got rid of the unwelcomed guests without having to use pesticides & breaking the bank.

**Daisygirl** · 09-16-2006, 11:52 AM

Eww, cooties. We have had them several times here. I have found the most reliable way to get rid of them is with the commercial treatments like Rid. Now as far as keeping them away, we alwas put a few drops of tea tree oil in our shampoos and conditioners and have not hada reoccurence since we started doing this. My kids are both blond and it is SOOOO hard to find the stupid nits. I still check their heads a couple of times a week or anytime I see them scratching during the school year.

Another tip -- lice don't like hair gels and hair spray and the like, so we always put some of that in our freshly washed hair.