Help!!! Sent kid to camp and came back with LICE!!! RidX is $10.00 for 2oz bottle. Any other remedies before I have spend that much.

-- jamie (jamie@nowhere.com), July 17, 2001

Answers

Kerosene. Rub it on. Wash it off.

-- walt (fairleafarm@hotmail.com), July 17, 2001.

There is a comb available especially for ridding hair of lice. It is safe, natural, and effective. The one downside is that it takes times to comb through the entire head of hair to eliminate lice. I believe I saw the comb listed in a Consumers Report magazine last year. Check your local library for back issues of the magazine, or ask your local pharmacist. I would choose the comb rather than treat my kids with all those chemicals in their hair.

-- Liz Rhein (merhein@shentel.net), July 17, 2001.

I think this is in the archives, but goop up all the hair with mayo, then wrap with plastic or a shower cap, and leave it sit as long as you can stand it, wash well, and repeat in 4 or 5 days.

-- Eric in TN (eric_m_stone@yahoo.com), July 17, 2001.

I hate to say it, but we are experts here at that. I found ridx not to be as effective as another brand whose name I can't remember. Nothing will work as well as using your fingernails and removing nits. This must be done every day. Also, Rinse hair with vinegar (it loosens--so they say-- the "glue" that holds the nits on the brush). Use a dense brush every day--100 brushes-- to remove nits. Wash all combs and nits in the dishwasher or in boiling water for a minute to kill nits and lice. Change your bedsheets and pillows and blankets everytime you do a lice treatment. No sense in re-infecting after you go through all that. Hope that helps. It always took repeated treatments to get rid of ours.

-- Ann Markson (tngreenacres@hotmail.com), July 17, 2001.

After you get rid of the initial infestation,strong parsley tea helps.Sheets in the dryer on high work too.I won't put chemicals on my kids head,we use something from the health food store,its kit but I can't remember the name either !!!

-- teri (mrs_smurf2000@yahoo.ca), July 17, 2001.

My apologies to Walt, but DO NOT USE KEROSENE -- or gasoline, or turpentine! These remedies do work, but the chance of accidentally poisoning yourself or your kids....or worse yet, setting somebody afire...are real!

Here in the Ozarks, a few years ago, a teenage girl was badly burned during a kerosene treatment -- apparently a spark of static electricity turned her long, thick hair into a flaming nightmare. She ended up in a burn ward.

Oil treatments -- someone mentioned Mayonnaise -- work by smothering the parasites. If you want to do the job, you must treat and retreat every 3 days for about 3 weeks....but it's cheap and makes your hair REALLY soft.

-- Anita Evangelista (evangel@atlascomm.net), July 17, 2001.

Thank God those days are over. Kids are all teens now. If you dont mind a grease mess for a few days this will work. Vasoline or patrolium jelly, smother the hair in it and have child sleep with a shower cap on. It will suffocate the lice and eggs. The hard part is getting the vasoline out of the hair. Dawn dish soap works but you have to wash more than once and then use conditioner. Been there done it.

-- tracy (murfette@stargate.net), July 17, 2001.

Extreme, but effective - shave 'em. Another possibility - the Indians used to plaster their hair with river mud if they got lice. You could use some heavy-duty mud face mask that sets up solid (something with peppermint or other strong smelling additive might make it more effective). Leave it in overnight, or even a day or two if possible, before washing out. Repeat a couple of times a week for a month. A thought comes to mind (you can tell I'm in construction!) - use drywall mud - it's fairly cheap, comes in a 5 gallon bucket (reusable!) and washes out with pure water. Just goop in in really good, let is set up and sleep in a shower cap.

-- Soni (thomkilroy@hotmail.com), July 17, 2001.

I didn't know that about the Indians. Very interesting! As I sit here my head's starting to itch. Anybody else? But what we used was olive oil. It's the same idea as the mud, mayo, etc. It suffocates them. Put the oil on and then a shower cap overnight. You still have to pick out the nits. I checked the kids everyday for a week and redid the oil treatment again for good measure. Oh, and don't forget to launder everthing and vacuum like crazy.

-- Denise (jhammock@cinci.rr.com), July 17, 2001.

jamie,

From the exclamation in your post, this must be the first time you've had these little visitors. Relax.....it probably won't be the last. Here's what works for me....

I mix tea tree oil and olive oil about half and half. Work it into the hair really good. Use a blow dryer set on low to get the hair as warm as the kid can stand it for as long as they can stand it. Comb thoroughly and remove nits under a strong light wearing magnifyiny glasses.

Whatever method you use, it's going to take more than once. I recommend investing in one of those nit removing combs. It'll be worth it. IMO, the most important step is examining the hair and removing eggs under a strong light.

It's a long ugly battle, but you can win!

-- Mona in OK (modoc@ipa.net), July 17, 2001.

I teach Kindergarten and have children so I am familiar with lice...unfortunately. NIX is the best I have found. It's like a cream rinse and it really works. It's not cheap though... Best of luck!

-- Debbie Christiansen (dc1253@hcis.net), July 17, 2001.

When we were kids we got lice very bad one year from our neighbor's kids. Seems they had a cat that would sleep with a different child every night, spreading lice to all 6 of theirs and to me & my siblings as we were there alot too. My mom tried everything, but finally found that the green colored Hart dog shampoo (yuck!) works like a charm! It is available at just about any Kmart or grocery store and is fairly cheap. Also, be sure to wash all the bedding & clothes in HOT water, vacuum alot, and treat any pets that might harbor the critters.

-- elle (eagle-quest@juno.com), July 18, 2001.

When my daughter was in the 5th grade her whole class came down with lice. The school nurse suggested I cut her waist length hair which for us was not an option. I spent hours combing out her hair almost strand by strand with a lice comb and my fingernails to remove the nits. Yes, it took a long time but daughter was definite about not cutting her hair. What we found was most of the nits were near the scalp anyway so we would probably have had to shave her head to get rid of them. Fortunately, she was the only family member who got the lice and she was very willing to sit there for hours while I combed them out.

Good luck and don't forget to treat cloth car seats and stuffed animals in addition to sheets and pillow cases. Don't forget to treat the pillows, too.

Thanks for reading.

-- Trevilians (Trevilians@mediaone.net), July 18, 2001.

When I was a kid they just shaved your head or washed your hair in Turpentine, not kerosene, turp was used as a medicinal.

-- hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), July 18, 2001.

I recommend tea tree oil. It is not harmful, like the commercial lice products, and it is very effective. You can coat the hair with the oil and then wash it out after half an hour (it is strong smelling) or you can add some tea tree oil to shampoo and use it that way.

-- Cindy Clarke (rclarke@revelstoke.net), July 18, 2001.

If price is the problem use flea and tick shampoo for dogs and cats.It is cheaper and the active ingredient is the same as in the RidX.The soap formulation in it is actually milder than the shampoo sold for humans.Of course you can always smear the kids head with condiments.......You guys make me laugh.

-- nitwit (nothere@yuckybugs.com), July 18, 2001.

The otc products are all good and well if they work! The reason some of these other approaches work better is that lice are becoming resistant to the chemicals in Nix and such. I used the olive oil approach because the doctors office recommended it after the Nix only stunned them and made them move a little more slowly!

-- Denise (jhammock@cinci.rr.com), July 19, 2001.

Didn't someone mention using Listerine in the past?

-- Dee (gdgtur@goes.com), July 21, 2001.

There is a site www.safe2use.com that sells an enzyme that works to kill lice and scabies. It is expensive but safer than the poison in NIX and other chemical lice killers. Mary

-- Mary Fraley (kmfraley@orwell.net), July 21, 2001.

I did everything when I got them....yep, me, not the kiddies. Thick coconut oil on the head overnight. Prell to wash it out. Bought natural shampoo to use. And also did the toxic stuff. Then did rubbing alcohol on head, and washed it out. I did something new every day. Overkill, I know, and I only had two lice ever. Wash everyone's bedding.

The comb didn't help. I did have tons of nits (I caught them just in time). We picked them out by hand, and literally picked the piece of hair out of the scalp rather than risk dropping the nit back in. I mostly did the coconut oil with the showercap overnight and the natural shampoo.

The rest of you put rosemary/lavendar/tea tree oil in your hair to help keep from getting it.

Honestly, it wasn't tthat big of a deal. It made me slow down, stay home with the kids. It was a blessing in disguise at that point in my life!

-- Marcee King (thathope@mwt.net), July 22, 2001.

I heard someone from the Mideast suggest coating the hair in honey and shampooing out the next day. Also on an aromatherapy list they discussed a combination of essential oils that together worked magic..I think it might have been lavendar and rosemary. I don't know if it was in shampoo or what. mg

-- m garvey (mgarvey@pacifier.com), October 04, 2001.

Please be careful with Nix—it's been associated with cancer in kids. (See the Nov/Dec issue--coming soon!)

Try Planet Solutions, 5601 N. Powerline Rd., Suite #301, Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33309; www.planetsolutions.com; ph 954-229-3007.

Sorry, I don't know the price.

-- Anne-marie (annemarie@tds.net), October 04, 2001.

I have a natural remedy that should be on the market ridding us of these chemicals that they recomend to kill lice. I've sent it to all the realitives and all our friends and their children, its also great for your hair. The way we use these chemicals of all kinds scarring our childrens future. Read the warning labels do we want these skin soaking compounds on the heads of our little angels. Getting the word out to the masses,informing people about the link of these chemicals and leukemia. After your done washing out these chemicals out of your little angels hair lets just put it down the drain into our water supply and turn on the tap and get some of that recycled water. Anyone interested in vesting in this solution and helping our planet?

-- Greg Volz (volzelectric@msn.com), November 24, 2001.