A topic I cannot discuss without scratching my head: lice. If you’ve got it, take a deep breath and check out this excellent video from BabyCenter: Head Lice Survival Guide
Other great resources from BabyCenter include this .pdf checklist which has a good sketch of what at nit and louse look like on the hair.
Bing a professional delouser in your area. Ours is Lice Knowing You out of Mercer Island, WA. We did one session with them and I learned everything that BabyCenter video had…I wish the video was available when our kids were going through it. However, Lice Knowing You has been very good to us, and we still buy the School and Play Spray to deter those little bugs.
Below is my detailed list of what we have done in the past to delouse the house:
House/bedding:
- Wash sheets, vacuum and iron bed; I flip mattress and do both sides, some people steam the beds
- Kids sleep on the floor for the week on camping mats, which I vacuum every day and the floor. Sheets get washed every day.
- Quarantine rooms from kids, and only allow them to stay in rooms like kitchen or bedroom. (no family room) If multiple kids have it, let them sleep together in one room, so you don’t have to clean two rooms each morning.
- Vacuum all rooms once, couches too. Don’t let anyone in these rooms until the lice is gone.
My “lice kit” that I have on hand contains this:
- The oils and nit deglue-ing products from Lice Knowing You. I use them as directed:
- Spray nit deglue on hair
- Put on shower cap and wait 30 minutes or more.
- Then put on killing oil. Wait 1 hour.
- Comb through using very good, metal comb, not the plastic ones that come in the over the counter boxes.
- Lots of large plastic bags. Use them as ponchos for you and the kids, place on the floor where you’re working, and for trash.
- Rolls of paper towels: fold towels in quarters and use them to wipe the comb every time you comb through the hair; look for bugs on comb.
- Salon style hair clips. Get them at beauty parlor stores; but I found some smaller ones at the grocery store, that still worked. These are for pulling back the hair.
- Boxes of Latex gloves.
- Shower caps.
- Vinegar and plastic cups. Place vinegar in cup and dilute with water, and use it for clips coming out of the hair and to rinse on comb occasionally.
- Large plastic combs to comb through hair. Keep these in the vinegar solution.
- New brushes (I buy new brushes so I have something to brush their hair after shampooing)…I toss the old brushes.
- Olive oil.
The key to combing is this:
- You take a section of hair (start at the front bangs) and comb once through the size of the comb (which is about an inch long).
- Now, lets say the hair is in the shape of a square when you are holding it. You hold that section of hair and comb right side of it; then you wipe the comb,
- And then you comb the backside of that section of hair, wipe comb,
- And then you comb the left side of that section; wipe comb. Make sure you get in really close to the scalp.
The treatments from Lice Knowing You, uses the nit deglue one day with their killing oil; then the next day you just put regular olive oil on the hair and comb it through; then I use a shampoo with no conditioner. You then repeat with the deglue & oil the 3rd day, and olive oil the 4th day and it continues like that for a week.
I hope the best for you and that you should know that you are not alone in this! There are many, many businesses out there making money on this – so there are a lot of people in need of these services – which means you are not alone!
