I'm SO mad!

[HotHolly]

My kids school has had lice issues of Bibilcal proprotions since school started. I've kept them away, braided hair, checked her and ugh!

Last week I was sick for 5 stinkin days...now she has a head full of lice, and it spread through the house!

I wanna beat someone on Monday...

Need to teach hubby how to braid...

I just spent $100 on stuff to give one go around on all of us and our house. This so totally stinks. Someone said I could use mayo - is that true (like it works) or are they totally nuts? YUCK!

[Hanky]

I heard on Paul Harvy radio show that a new cure is available. Simply expose indevidual to 30 minutes under a hair drier to kill them. (LOL the lice that is) Supposidly the folks that figured this out are trying to get FDA aproval on a fancy hair dryer cure device.

[Huck]

I saw the same report as mentioned above, but be careful with the temp. of the dryer.

My kids have had the same problem at their school. Glad to hear we arent the only ones going through this.

[HotHolly]

I use a flat iron every day and heat the tar out of my hair...At this point, it looks like I may have it too. :o(

Where was that article/ report? Anybody got a link...Im new to this whole thing. Never went to camp and our schools kept it under control when I was little. My daughters school pretty much piles coats and backpacks 3 deep. Im guessing thats the issue here...

Ive never read so much about lice. YUCK! If I was a guy, I'd just shave my head...

[Adcox]

This article was in Forbes

Hot Air Spells Death for Head Lice
11.06.06, 12:00 AM ET

MONDAY, Nov. 6 (HealthDay News) -- A contraption that looks like a cross between a vacuum cleaner and a hair dryer could rescue children from the scourge of head lice, a new study claims.
According to one of its creators, the device has a near-perfect success rate at killing off both lice and any of their eggs lurking in kids' hair. And the little critters shouldn't become immune to the so-called "LouseBuster," as they already have to some pesticides.

"It's extremely effective and extremely safe, and we think evolution-proof," said study co-author Dale Clayton, a University of Utah biology professor. "It would be very hard for insects to develop resistance to this assault."

According to Clayton, an estimated one in four American children will get infected by head lice. The tiny insects -- about the size of a sesame seed -- can be very difficult to eradicate.

One way is to get rid of them is to use repeatedly use special lice combs on children's heads, but this approach is so time-consuming that it can overwhelm parents. A variety of anti-lice shampoos are also available, but some parents don't like the idea of using insecticides -- including Malathion -- on their kids. Also, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says some lice have developed immunity to the chemicals used to kill them, although such problems are scattered.

Enter hot air, which some specialists think may be better at killing lice and their eggs.

Clayton and his colleagues tested a variety of hair dryers -- including handheld and "bonnet" models -- on 169 local children who were infested with lice. Their findings appear in the November issue of Pediatrics.

All the hair dryers killed at least 89 percent of lice eggs. But only one -- the specially designed "LouseBuster" -- managed to both kill eggs (98 percent) and wipe out high numbers of living lice (80 percent). The remaining living lice appeared unable to breed, perhaps due to stress or sterilization, the team said.

So, according to the study, the heads of children treated with the LouseBuster were free of lice one week after the half-hour treatment.

"We think it has a delayed effect on the lice it doesn't kill," Clayton said. "When you go back a week later, there's nothing there."

The air produced by the LouseBuster is hot -- much warmer than a typical hair dryer. Also unlike a hair dryer, it has a special handpiece designed to expose the roots of the hair.

The device apparently works by drying out the lice and their eggs, not by heating them, Clayton said.

The cost of the device is unknown, although Clayton estimated it should be in the hundreds of dollars, not the thousands, making it affordable for school districts. He predicted it could be on the market within a year or two, and added that the time required for treatment could eventually shrink to 15 minutes.

Dr. Craig Burkhart, a dermatologist at the Medical University of Ohio who studies lice, doubted that the device will be a success, however.

"The problem with the treatment is that it takes a half an hour at least to destroy the lice and the contraption is somewhat expensive and very cumbersome," he said.

What to do? "As with all bugs, insecticides remain the treatment of choice," Burkhart said.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Holly I would raise holy hell with the school and how they are creating this problem. As a kid we had a hook that we hung out coats on which reduced total contact between the clothes and to be honest I know of no one that faced this problem back in the 50's/60's but did hear about it occuring elsewhere.
I could see heat killing them off, what about the old 60's style hair dryers that were basically an eslasticized hood that fit snugly on the head and then had a hose that ran off to the heater/blower system. You could move around since the hose is flexable vs the old beauty shop hairdryer that was on a chair with a big hood.
http://www.folica.com/Jerdon_Soft_Bon_d1132.html is an example that I found with a quick search.
May even find something like this at a walmart and if it doesn't work you get a hairdryer out of the $ at least.

BTW my mom had one like this and sometimes in the winter as a kid I would use it (hair was usually a bur cut in the summer anyway) and it would get plenty hot! You just would have to explain to your child that they will have to wear it for quite a while even though it will be hot and noisy. Actually if I did it I would wash=dry then immedietly wash again (get the stunned critters out of the hair) then dry again and see if that work. (second dry is to knock any that lasted through the first treatment out).

[photobykim]

WOW Holly, when my niece got it they would not let her come back to school until it was GONE. my sister sat and picked through every strand of her hair one day. She used vinigar (i believe, I'll have to check with her) and tons of other stuff. the bad thing about buying products for removal is that you have to wait a period of time before you can do it again or it'll create bigger issues like scalp burn, hair falling out etc. But the day she brought my niece back to school they sat in the nurses office that morning and waited while the nurse looked. If she had found even 1 she would have been sent back home.

Be sure to wash everything really good. Vacuum your floors, couches anything that someones head might touch. Our house was never so clean. I have 3 kids and my sister has 2, so trying to keep it from the other 4 when she got it was a pain, but clean, clean, clean and it will help minimize the spread because no one else got it.

Good luck!

[zargon20]

The mayo thing works like a charm. My daughter had it when she was like 18 months old and the Nix was the only one I could use. It didn't work needless to say. And getting an 18 month old to sit still long enough to get all the eggs and bugs out was not going happen. So I put mayo all over my daughters head and left it there a couple of hours and then tried to rinse it out. That's the only thing that sucks it didn't wash out. She looked like a grease ball for like a week or two. I just put her hair up in pig tails and she was good to go. The mayo works cause even if the bugs live through that there is no way for them to lay eggs cause the eggs won't stick to greasy hair. Well, good luck. I finally got rid of mine after passing it around to everyone in the house.

[Duffy Pratt]

We prefer Miracle Whip.

Duffy

[NoLight]

Just use RID and the comb its not the lice that are alive you need to kill its the eggs. These little guys lay eggs daily and hatch really soon too. Heat works well but like above be wary of the amount of heat. LOL I love the mayo story I have heard this works but we have been really lucky so far!!!

[photobykim]

the mayo works like the vinager it releases the bond that was created when the eggs were laid.

[JackieHH]

When my son's school had an issue with lice (we missed it, thankfully!), they made all of the kids put the coats and backpacks in black trash bags with their names on it to keep everyones things apart. The kids shared lockers and cubbys.

Our last school district had a "no nit" policy where a student was not allowed to return unless they were found to be free of everything. I had a friend whose daughter had lice, and when they took her back to school the nurse wasn't there to check her, nor was the principal. The school secretary checked her head, found an egg, figured it wasn't viable after the treatments and allowed her back into the classroom. Two days later she was out again, with lice. Is the school following their own policies? Ours didn't.

Also, something to look at: When my daugher was in kindergarten they had a bathroom pass which was a lanyard with a fish hanging on it or something. I noticed it at the parent meeting and told them that my daughter would not be allowed to wear the lanyard because it goes over too many heads a day for me to allow it to go over my daughters head. They changed their bathroom pass to a clip-on keyring instead, saying they hadn't thought about the lice factor. Look at your child's classroom, you may find a few culprits there that need to be addressed. Do they have paint shirts? Dress-up clothes? Over-the-head bathroom passes? This was the same classroom as the friend whose daughter had the lice issue. I was sure glad I said something after that!!

[HotHolly]

Originally Posted by JackieHH

When my son's school had an issue with lice (we missed it, thankfully!), they made all of the kids put the coats and backpacks in black trash bags with their names on it to keep everyones things apart. The kids shared lockers and cubbys.

See, I would have thought that after 6 months they would treat this more seriously and take precautions like that. My mom taught 1st grade for over 30 years...she NEVER had the back packs touching and made sure each kid put their coat IN their backpack and zipped it shut. When outbreaks did occur, they took extra precautions.

Nice holiday present, right? I'll be retreating everyone on the 20th - when we are 1/2 way up to NY. Ugh.

Im glad to hear the Mayo works. A grease bomb would do my doo some good. Right now I look like this...That stuff dried out my hair really bad.

That's not me - but I'm equally ecstatic!

Ugh, and I was going to take today off. Now Im going to be ripping apart my house and combing my kids. I think Im just gonna shave my hubby's and sons hair. But I like their hair. But my daughter had it so bad I dont see how its just going to disappear with no major action.

To top it off, my washing machine caught fire this morning. Happy 2nd Sunday of Advent - You have a plague! And my washing machine was smite-ed! Ugh. And I still have to do all that and make my youngest manacotti for dinner...Happy Sunday!

[Michelle Allmon]

I Hate Lice!

[laurielblack]

A few years ago we had a lice outbreak (if you can call two kiddos an outbreak) at the child care center my program operates...we gave the parents the RID system to use, including the house spray, and it worked like a charm.

Please don't be too angry with the school...it's so difficult to keep kids' things away from each other, especially this time of year with heavy coats, hats, scarves, and all. The likely culprit is that one child or more are not being treated properly or thoroughly (including the bedding and clothing being deloused) at home, therefore "reinfecting" everyone at school, even if it's just bringing one more egg back into the classroom. Good luck in your battle with the little buggers.