I did the vinegar-and-alcohol trick on her hair tonight, and I found about 20 or 30 nits, which is a huge decrease from the past two nights. That was a wonderful tip, Persephone - the vinegar bleaches the nits out and makes them much easier to spot. Normally, they’re about the same color as her hair, which has been making life harder. I have yet to find any lice themselves since the first night.
It’s a long, involved process. First, I rinse her hair with water and towel-dry it. I part the hair so there’s a square section on the top of her head, put that in a clip, and part the rest down the middle. I clip all of one side and half of the other for later and divide what’s left into sections that are about two by two inches. Starting with a section from the bottom row, I dip the nit comb into the alcohol/vinegar solution and pull it through that section from the roots. Then, with that hair wet, I look at it closely under bright light to find any nits that are still clinging. I take those off with my fingernails, rinse the nit comb out, and pull it through from the other side of the hair. When that section is done, I twist it up and clip it away from the other hair and move on. I work from back to front and bottom to top, and I do the very top last. At the end, I braid her hair, throw away the damp paper towel I’ve been depositing the nits on, carefully gather up the newspaper I’ve spread around her, and vacuum the floor and the furniture where we were. Then I put her to bed and do laundry (like that towel I started with, and whatever we were wearing during the combing) for hours.
It took me 6 hours to go through her hair Sunday night, before I’d worked out this system. Last night, I used water instead of the alcohol/vinegar, and it took me about 4 hours. It only took about 2 hours tonight. I’m considering this progress. Every morning, I’ve been spraying her hair with water and doing a part-and-comb inspection under a bright light, and I do that to my older daughter too. I can’t do anything with dry hair, I’ve found - it’s too hard to keep track of.
Sometimes it pays to have a compulsive streak. I just hope it will be enough.
Don’t forget to vacumn the backs of chairs and couchs. Bike and sports helmets need treatment too. I’ve heard that unwashable items can be bagged and put in the freezer for three days. A word of advice? Never wash a leather hat!
Good luck!
I know I already threw in my two cents, but I have a lice related question, and I didn’t want to start my own thread, since it’s already being discussed here.
When my kids had lice, I started looking suspiciously at all the other neighborhood kids (which is where my kids got it in the first place). I didn’t want to let anyone else in the house. Sadly, not just for their own protection, but mostly for ours. I found myself idly scanning for nits on other peoples heads. I was paranoid that someone would bring lice back into the house.
Anyone else start getting paranoid? I swear that for a few months, I started looking at people simply as potential lice carriers.
It suffocates them, which is why you have to do it more than once, to get the ones that hatch a day or so later. The peditrician also said you could use peanut butter, but I haven’t tried that one because the mayo works so well, is cheaper, and makes their hair all shiny. Also we haven’t had any trouble since we started using the Tea Tree oil.
But I only spent about 45 minutes on my daughter’s hair after the first time, and about half an hour the next time, and the second time, I didn’t find any nits at all.
I also had the same problem that you’re having, though, with the hair color. My daughter also has light brown hair, the perfect camouflage for those little f******. Gaaaaagh.
God, yes. My little carrier went back to school today, and when I dropped her off I found myself eyeing all the other children suspiciously and looking for any conspicuous absences. I have to remind myself that the only child I know who has lice is my own dear child, who I like to think is from a fairly good family.
There was one bright spot today, though. The child who spent the night here last week (it had to be the teacher’s granddaughter, of all children) hasn’t shown any signs of it at all. Yet.
I’m trying to be an optimist in thought and a pessimist in action. I’ll be doing this routine for another week.
I think I’m going to get some of that tea tree oil, too. Winter is rapidly approaching, and that seems to be high lice season.
About the paranoia–oh yeah. My daughter started preschool just a few weeks ago, and I’ve been checking her head pretty much every day, even though we’ve gotten no notices or anything from school. So far, so good.
I forgot to mention, another thing I’ve used is cat flea shampoo. A year or so ago I would go visiting for weekends at an infested household and as soon as I got home, I’d jump straight in the shower with the flea shampoo. Worked every time!
