Home Sweet Simple Home

We may have control

Well, yesterday I wailed about our lice infestation. The info you can find on the web just about sent my head spinning. I decided on course of action that didn't require me to purchase anything else- baby oil. I soaked my daughter's hair in baby oil and covered it with shower  cap for 12 hours. Sounds easy but you try keeping a shower cap on an active 5.75 yr old for that long. It was a long and tedious day . . . . more laundry, more vacuuming, more laundry, more vacuuming and on and on. One blessing is my house is very clean! lol

After 12 hours I went thru her hair with the special lice comb and then washed it. Reg. shampoo doesn't get all that oil out so I opted for dish soap. Worked like a charm. She got the okay this morning from the school's office and was able to go to class. I am so thankful. She was beside herself with worry/anxiety about it all yesterday and didn't want to go back to school. We aren't out of the woods yet- we need to remain vigilant (vacuuming, laundry, washing hair daily and next treatment @ 10 days). We continue to pray about it (even my toddler ds prayed about "them bee-bugs").

Thank you all for your prayers.

Untitled Comment

12:25 PM, 2006-Jan-5 .. Posted by kayinpa

Glad you were able to get it all under control!

Untitled Comment

12:33 PM, 2006-Jan-5 .. Posted by HandsNHearts

another tip...put (at least) 1 oz of tea tree oil in a typical-sized bottle of baby shampoo (well, any shampoo would work, but a mild one is best) and use it at least weekly.
we battled the dreaded little buggers a couple of years ago....with 2 daughters with the thickest, longest hair you can imagine, and 2 younger ones that were just plain antsy and hated being still long enough to comb their hair. UGH! It was a mess. The super-duper clean house was a bonus, but the headache of it all was terrible. The RID chemicals absorb through the skin, so I was leary using it for children. I ended up having to color my hair (they can't live in the chemicals of coloring), and used FIT (the local brand of veggie and fruit wash) on the girls and went for the shaved-for-almost-summer haircuts for the boys. We use the tea tree shampoo every other day now and haven't had another bout -- thank you Lord!

Thanks. I appreciate YOU!

1:14 PM, 2006-Jan-5 .. Posted by YPAmy5

Thank you for the ideas. Maybe I should color my daughters' hair? lol. Course I love my oldest's red hair and the blonde is sooo cute. Maybe I'll buy their same hair colors in a bottle! lol
My husband was seriously thinking of cutting off all their beautiful hair! I pray it doesn't come to that!

Tea Tree Oil

9:04 PM, 2006-Jan-9 .. Posted by halfpint5

This past summer my girls both came home from school with lice (two days before school let out to boot). I treated them wit the over the counter stuff, picked with my fingers, combed with combs and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned! This went on for three months with me trying new treatments (healthier ones by preference) before I finally broke down and cried!! I told my husband we were going to have to shave their head. I was so upset I couldn't quit crying. So I called the school nurse the next day and she told me what to do and Praise The Lord it worked!! She told me to get balsam suave shampoo and a conditioner. Get a bottle of real tea tree oil (WalMart for about $5 or $6 by lice treatment) and fill both the shampoo and conditioner with half the bottle of tea tree. Wash the hair, let set for about 10 minutes and rinse. Condition hair, let set for about 30 minutes and rinse. Buy one of those packages of steel looking lice combs from WalMart and use those as they are so much better. I didn't pick this time. Just combed every day for a week and they were gone. I also bought baby shampoo and put half a bottle of tea tree oil in it to bathe my animals. I also bagged up all the stuffed animals and left them that way for a month. All this stuff FINALLY worked. Then right before my girls came home for homeschooling they came down with another case of lice. They cried this time because they thought it was going to be just like last time and go on for months. I knew just what to do this time and it worked again. The best part is that I am not putting that medicine on my childs head anymore...it is completely natural. Just a bit of information in case you ever encounter this again because I know all too well how you feel. We also wash with this once a week now.

Edited by halfpint5 on 2006-Jan-9 at 9:09 PM