Arthritis Foundation Forum / Juvenile Arthritis / Parents and Parenting / Head lice / Latest Posts

RE: Head lice

CatP — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 10:12:30 GMT

From my experience, oils and things used to suffocate lice do not actually kill them, they just temporarily immobilize them. I actually experimented with a few things on my son and my little brother several years ago. The lice would appear to be dead but shortly after removing them from the hair they would start moving again. I did recently see an article that said there is a new safer shampoo that has been developed. Here is the link: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100224083052.htmWhen my son was little and he had lice I would cut his hair very short and use a nit comb and just kept working on it until I no longer found traces of head lice. I would do all of this over newspapers spread out on the floor. Then I would put petroleum jelly on his hair to help prevent immediate reinfestation. I refused to use a pesticide on my child's head. Now I have girls and I am not looking forward to dealing with head lice and long hair when they start school. Ugghh. Thankfully they are coming out with a safer treatment for it.

RE: Head lice

celena burkhammer — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:15:06 GMT

When my kids came down with head lice at school I used an old home remedy my grandma said she used on her kids. I put distilled viniger throughout there hair(make sure to get all the way down to the roots) and a form fitting shower cap on there heads for 30min. Then I shampooed and conditioned there hair real good and took a fine tooth lice comb through the hair till it came out clean. It killed all the lice and nits but I repeated it anyways about 5 days later cause they had went back to school and I was scared they might get it again. After I did their hair I washed all there bedding and coats and bagged up the stuffed toys for a week to prevent it from coming back off things in the home. I also vaccumed the floors and furniture. As soon as The school sends home a letter stating its in the school I check them and so far nothing(fingers crossed). The kids didn't like the smell but it worked wonderfully and it was all natural and made there hair nice and shiny.I hope this helps.

RE: Head lice

Laura Faust — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 13:39:33 GMT

My JRA dx daughter's preschool had a bad case of it this Spring - every child in her class got it but my daughter. We started using Fairytales lice repellant shampoo and spray in conditioner. I really don;t know if we were lucky or if shampoo helped. It is all natural. We also washed everything the moment she got home and used lice comb each night. We still use the repel shampoo and spray in conditioner. It smells great - and makes combing a lot easier....

Hope this helps.

Meg

RE: Head lice

vicky mccre — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:37:20 GMT

Any oil(crisco,olive)or the hand cream(or vasaline) to suffacate the lice. A good lice comb.

We have used fairytale shampoo to reduce the risk. We also have the kids change clothing as soon as they get home from school.The kids get the fine tooth comb run through their hair before they shower and change clothes. A friend of mine who does medical fostercare told to do this when we got a letter about lice years ago.So far we have avoided any little critters(knock on more wood). We also follow the afterschool/work shower plan when things like the flu are going around.

RE: Head lice

Tracy1 — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 00:36:58 GMT

THANK YOU for sharing this! We haven't had to deal with lice either (knock on wood) and I had already decided against using the lice shampoo b/c of the pesticides in it, but hadn't thought about it for Cassie's JA in particular.

I have heard a lot of success w/ using a thick coating of Crisco and wear showercap overnight. So that is the route that I would/will take.

Again, THANK YOU!

RE: Head lice

Amy Jones — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 05:42:41 GMT

A nice safe and natural alternative is to coat the hair with olive oil and the cover it with a shower cap over night. The oil sticks to the lice and suffocates them. The shower cap helps with keeping the pillowcase clean!

RE: Head lice

Myasmom — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 09:38:19 GMT

I was just at Trillium Creek Dermatology two weeks ago, and read an article about what the dermatologist says to use for head lice. Cetaphil cleanser, you saturate the hair with it, blow dry, and then wash in the morning. Apparently, this suffocates the lice. At least this would give an alternative to harsh chemicals, but I haven't had to personally try it.

RE: Head lice

MMom — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 22:49:42 GMT

I bookmarked the site in case I needed it, but didn't look for alternative solutions. The site does not make it very easy to find information! I found one little blurb on the FAQ page here:

http://www.headlice.org/faq/questions.htm

about manual removal and using a special comb. My sister had lice in the 80s and my mom said she removed the lice and nits with tape and a special comb. She said she didn't remember there being a shampoo or maybe the doctor didn't suggest it.

RE: Head lice

Suzanne321 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 12:19:21 GMT

Thank you for this, although I didn't see any specifics as to what you should use instead! I was hoping to see a list of recommended alternatives - did I miss it?

We haven't dealt with lice issues at my JRA daughter's schools yet - knock wood. Lice went around twice at my older daughter's preschool, so I thought it was very common back then, but I guess not really. She made all the way to middle school with no more notes sent home. Both times when she was in preschool, I went ahead and bought the shampoo and used it on her, just in case, because it said it would keep them away. She never got lice and the shampoo never bothered her.

Head lice

MMom — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 23:10:34 GMT

My daughter's school sent an email to parents tonight saying there is a lice problem at her school. They sent some URLs for sites to visit for more information and one was headlice.org. I went to read about what to look for since we haven't dealt with it before and noticed "Jesse's Project". I read Jesse's Story and was glad I did. In a nutshell, the FDA-approved medicated shampoo that the mother used on her children turned out to cause cancer in one of her son and it took the boy's life. Other family members who used it also developed cancer and other health issues. They warned that children with autoimmune diseases should NOT use lice killing shampoos that include pesticides. I wanted to share this with you all just in case you ever have to deal with head lice at school. I had no idea that this could happen and I'm glad I saw the story.

Here's the direct link to Jesse's project: http://www.headlice.org/jesseproject/index.htm