I don’t know anything about mint oil spray, but I know people who swear by tea tree oil shampoo for a preventative.
I have also heard they have a hard time infesting hair that gets a daily dose of hairspray or gel. Of course, this requires that you put product in your kids’ hair every day, and wash it every night. . .
If you have a girl with long hair, tight ponytails and braids help, just by virtue of less hair flying around for them to migrate onto.
At our house, we seem to be getting the problem under control, thank goodness. Plus, I pushed a dose of Benadryl on her earlier (her tummy was hurting; if she truly has a sinus infection, I’d surmise the tummy ache is based on sinus drainage), and when she woke up she was feeling well enough to laugh at the TV shows she was watching, and to want to print out, color, cut and hang, some Halloween coloring pages.
Cool! I’m glad mudgirl is starting to feel better!
Did anyone else read “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn,” by Betty Smith? I remember the part about Francie having her hair very tightly braided and covered in kerosene, and she and Neeley were made to wear cloves of garlic around their necks. They may have smelled, but by golly, they never got sick or head lice…
I recall with disturbing clarity the night I had to sneak into my son’s room, on doctor’s orders, and get a “tape swab” of of my sleeping child’s butthole.
Now I want to go down a bottle of Pin-X *and *wash my head in napalm.
The Bodoni family has never had a pinworm infestation, though we did have one round with head lice. Just researching that report was enough to make me scratch myself, or want to scratch myself, for days. I looked at some rather disturbing images, too.
:eek: What ?? you can catch them from reading this thread? Nooooooooooo!
But seriously, questions here from a non parent.
Why is this a notable time of year for them? In long hair do they stay close to the scalp or wander along the strands? Would not some alcohol based treatment kill them? Can you treat them systemically, give your kids a pill or something which is taken up by the louse when feeding? Can you buy hair/head bands equivalent to animal flea collars? Can you buy treated bed pillows that will protect while sleeping?
When will my psychosomatic itching stop? I have no intention of clicking on the pin worm itch.
Oh lawdy. I’ve scarcely recovered from the Kegel thread, and now I can’t stop reading this one and getting the heebie-jeebies. And just about every kid on our street has head lice right now. My littlest girl has waist-length hair.
at least you can kegel and comb for lice at the same time:D
Two reasons this is a notable time of year for them. One, kids are back in school. The more time the rugrats spend congregating, the more likely they are to spread. Two, it’s cold enough now for sweaters and jackets, and most elementary school classrooms have a fairly small space for all the kids to hang their coats up. So, little Suzy has lice, there are a couple of live bugs or a strand of hair with a viable egg attached to it on her jacket, little Bobby’s jacket comes in contact with little Suzy’s jacket, and a bug or the hair with the egg migrate to little Bobby’s jacket, and before you know it, little Bobby’s got head lice, too!
They tend to stay close to the scalp. They like the warmth, plus they need to eat blood, which you can’t get from the hair itself. They will feed on the scalp or the back of the neck, usually.
Alcohol does not kill them. Neither does chlorine.
There seem to be a couple of kinds of antibiotics that kill the little fuckers (the lice I mean, not the kids 
), but with all the worry about antibiotic resistance, most doctors are hesitant to go that route.
If someone came up with products like this that actually worked, they could make a fortune! Hell, enough people make a ton of money selling anti-lice crap that doesn’t work!
It may be worth noting that the better flea meds for cats and dogs (Frontline, Advantage) have been shown to be very effective in treating headlice easily, as well as preventing re-infestation. However, the FDA has not approved it for this use, so it cannot be recommended. Some folks put their tinfoil hats on and theorize that the headlice industry actively prevents the FDA from testing these medications, because they are effective enough to put Nix and company out of business.
Why can’t they make some sort of human Frontline? Just apply it between their shoulder blades and it kills vermin.
StG
I have wondered that, myself!
It’s my understanding (though I have no reliable cite) that in France, Frontline is actually labeled to treat head lice (and for all I know, pubic lice as well) in humans.
It is also my understanding that even though it is not FDA approved, some mothers in this country (and in the UK) become so frustrated, they use it anyway. The reasoning (and I can’t really argue with it) is that it is probably no more harmful (and probably less so) than Lindane, which is what prescription head lice shampoo is. Plus, Lindane gets washed off the hair, putting a dangerous insecticide into the water supply. . .
I don’t know. Maybe it’s true that so much money is made every year on non-effective stuff to fight the infestations that there is really no good incentive to approve something that’s actually effective.
This is true. Also, when I went to school, girls would try out each other’s hair accessories, and I’m sure that some lice and/or nits got exchanged. Boys might snatch each other’s hats and try them on, too. Of course, I’m 52. Perhaps these days girls snatch each other’s hats, and boys try on each other’s hair accessories, I dunno.
Actually, except for very special occasions (like School Spirit week or something), I don’t think kids are allowed to wear hats at school anymore. Of course, in the winter, they still wear hats to school, but they have to take them off once they get there. A couple weeks ago, mudgirl’s school was having a fundraiser for a couple of kids at the school who have cancer. On that Friday, kids were allowed to wear their favorite hat or cap to school, if they brought in a quarter to donate. I don’t doubt that a lot of kids were trying on each others hats that day!
Here, hats are compulsory for primary school kids. They aren’t allowed to play outdoors without one.
M’daughter is now in high school (year 7 of a K-12 system), and has never gotten head lice. Heads to the right of her had them, heads to the left, best friends had them, but not her. We’ve always said it’s cos her hair is so messy that no self-respecting louse would set claw in there. 
I actually bought anti-lice treatment soon after she started Kindy, as it was so common. The stuff sat in the back of her bathroom cupboard till I threw it out a couple of years ago, as it was well past expiry. If she got them now, I would use a comb and heavy conditioner, as recommended by our Department of Education
Here, the school board website also sets out information for “Nitbuster Days”, aimed at doing an entire primary school population in one day. Oh, and that head lice are tiny Tarzans - they swing from head to head on strands of hair. They aren’t spread via hats, pillows, bedding, and
From the NSW Dept of Ed website:
And please, be aware that tea-tree oil is a sensitising agent for many people. It may be natural, but it sure ain’t safe for use in strong concentration.
I don’t think anyone here is recommending tea tree oil in strong concentration; I personally put about six drops in a 16oz bottle of shampoo. Frankly, it’s to expensive to use in strong concentration anyway. I paid somewhere around $8.00 for a 2oz bottle!