wtf - my toddler has lice. how to treat?

3003girl

My MIL went and bought all the lice treatments and they are all basically permethrin.

Do I really want to spray this around the house? And shampoo my LO's hair with it? 

I need alternatives! Anybody have any? tia!!!

littleanomaly

I saw ads a few weeks ago for a new one that is supposedly non-toxic.

Also! Tea tree oil! If your LO has long enough hair, slather with TTO and do tight braids. Another thing to try is Dr B's TTO soap.

Heather & Dave

Pesticide does not always work because the lice can become immune and it is icky anyway.  What worked when my niece and nephew had it was mayonnaise.    Put it in her hair, careful to get all the way to the root and cover her head with a shower cap.  This suffocates the lice.   Then comb all of the nits out.  For you house you can vacuum, steam or iron bedding carpets and furniture.  The dryer works for pillows and stuffed animals.  You can also tie them up in a garbage bag for two weeks. 

 

After one week repeat the process to get any that have hatched out. 

 

Sorry you are having to deal with this.  It?s no fun.

c_washington

I second the mayonnaise and the TTO. then spray their hair with hair spray to prevent new bugs from attaching.

 

 

MawrtyrB

We had it last year and I just about lost my mind. I have really long hair and I was still breastfeeding the twins so pesticide treatment was out for me too. The LiceMD is pesticide free (Walmart and Walgreens carry it). It's just an oily (for lack of a better word) shampoo to help loosen the nits. So the basic theory is that you loosen them and them comb the ba-jeezus out of the head to get rid of them all. I did it repeatedly for a few days until my scalp was raw. But we knocked it out. The twins were easy becuase they basically had no hair but my daughter age 2 was more difficult. I had to do it in installments and kept a shower cap on her the rest of the time.

I washed everything in the house. Pillows, pillow pets, bedding, stuff animals, anything that had been in the bedrooms.

I learned after the fact that depending on where you live there are special "salons" that will do the comb out for you and are very good at doing it. I don't believe they use chemicals becuase they are finding out that more and more the lice are pesticide resistant anyway. It was on an episode of Dirty Jobs.

 Good luck. Deep breaths.

daisies916

My sister and I got it twice when we were kids (long, clean hair plus movies theaters = lice for us!). My mom probably tried everything known to man. What worked best was plain Listerine. Soak your hair with it, let it sit on there for 15 minutes, rinse. Comb with nit comb until your fingers fall off.

Definately vacuum like a mad woman, and toss the bags (or dump the container) and clean the filters immediately. Wash and dry everything on the hottest setting you can. Seal everything- stuffed animals, pillows, blankets, etc...- in black trash bags with the air squeezed out of it for 1-2 weeks. The longer, the better. Then wash and dry everything on the hottest setting again.

Good luck. It's crappy, but you'll get through this!

3003girl

Thanks everyone. We did the mayo treatment and nit comb. We also did a hot hair dryer on us. It seems to be working - we haven't seen any lice since last week. We were gone all weekend, so that's good too. It sucked. It also turns out we got it from MIL! She is mortified.