[Gentin]

Hey
I was hoping to get some advice - my soon to be 2 year old foster daughter who we have had for almost 2 weeks has head lice. I was told when I got her that she was treated for lice but they didn't tell me who treated her and when it was. Anyway I had to take her to the doctor within 2 weeks of us having her for a well child check and while there I asked him to check her head. First off I must say I really felt like I was bothering him and annoying him - but anyway he checked and said she was fine. Well that was Thursday 8-30 today 9-2 I gave her a bath and was doing her hair and there they were - not only nits but live lice!!! I got nix and my friend helped me do the treatment - we checked everyone in the house and I am washing all the bedding in the entire house. Is there anything else I need to do? My other concern is that she is supposed to see her parents and grandmother on Tuesday and I am not sure if they have lice as well - the doctor I spoke with today asked when she saw them last and said she probably got reinfested at her last visit with her parents. What should I do? Of course monday is a holiday and the meeting is not at DHHS it is at a place called kids peace instead. Please help with any advice.....Thanks so much

[CANICE]

Hi,
As far as treatment goes don't forget the car.
I would insist that the parents get checked before she is allowed to visit. Why should you continue to expose your family to lice and the chemicals needed to treat it.
Canice

[GaViolet]

If she has had any contact with stuffed animals and pillows put them in a garbage bag for seventy two hours. It kills the lice. I work at a preschool and we deal with it all the time. Dont forget couch cushions either.

[aimeek]

You will need to "treat" anything like mattresses, couch cushions, and even pets. So that you do not keep exposing the family to chemicals you can use baby oil. That will not allow the nits to attach to the hair and it also sufficates the bugs. If you can't get a quick resolution to the problem with the parenst you could put baby oil on the hair the night before. It would still be oily enough not to allow anything to attach.
We had a 14 month old come to our home infested very bad. We caught it as soon as she walked in and it took us 2 days to get all the bugs and eggs out of her hair, but no one else in the house got infected. Baby oil works great and its a ton cheaper. Anything that can be washed needs to be done in hot water.

I hope this helps! Have a great weekend!

Aimee

[Gentin]

I am having a hard time with this - I think that they should be checked but the problem is that they see her tuesday at 9 am and our caseworker is off tomorrow! I am going to call her monday at 8 am and the kids peace person as well. Thanks for the advice

[mommacass]

When we got the twins (9mo old) they had them. Now I talked to them a couple of times before they brought them and then made a trip to town to get what I needed for the girls. Did they bother to tell me on the phone that they had this problem? No. They got here about 10:00 pm and then they handed me the first baby and said "Oh they have lice." So I made a few calls and was told that olive oil would suffocate the adult lice. But I didn't have any so I used baby oil that night and the next morning my youngest son had a T-ball game so after that I went to Walgreens and ask what I could use on children so young. She suggested using the combs. So I went home and took them into the bathroom and started picking out all the live lice I could find. It was amazing how many they had on their little bitty heads, then I shampooed each one of them and used the combs. For about a week every time I shampooed their hair I used the combs and continued to check their hair for life. We never got them, thank goodness.

MommaCass

[volkswitt]

as a pharmacist i thought i knew everything about lice treatment. that was until my 2 long haired girls got them. what eventually worked for us was treatment with permethrin and daily use of lots of conditioner. of couse treat eveeryone and everything you can think of. i even traeted the dogs (flea shampoo works on lice). enjoy!

[Gentin]

I was under the impression that dogs and cats could not get lice from humans. I am not sure if this is true has anyone else heard this?

[emcal]

The family that we are working with has had a long history with lice. "T" who we have now came to us so bad. The wounds in her head were so deep and bad from itching, and she was so annoyed by it. we worked very hard the first three days to get rid of it and have been clean and clear for about 5 weeks untill today!

when she came her family dr. prescribed OVIDE lotion for her head and I combed it every day for three day even if i did not see any. I also check every monday.

The dcs got a court order stating mom and anyone at the visit had to go to the health dept. the day of the visit no less than one hour before visit and get checked and cleared by the health dept.

It took mom four weeks of no visits to get it done. they just started having visits last tues and wed in the home, and already "T" has them.

So long story short I hate lice!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MomwithFive]

We had a good experience using olive oil and caps on the head overnight and tea tree shampoo to keep them away and then combing, combing, combing... I am not looking forward to school starting and pray we don't have the problem we had last year. I don't think all the parents were treating their children, it was awful.

[hkolln]

Put all her stuffed animals and pillows and anything you can't wash in the dryer for 30 mins on high heat. That will kill any lice on it.

I got the spray stuff (for fleas) and sprayed our daughter entire room. (mattress and floor) We then vacuumed it all up. Make sure you throw out the bag afterwards.

The only way to really make sure they are gone is to comb the hair to the scalp every other day or so...that was what we had to do on our daughter. We did it in between treatments for about 3 weeks. We also washed bedding alot more often and treated everything even if we didn't see anything. We got rid of it and it hasn't come back.

And flea combs actually will work on head lice too. But make sure you run them thru the dishwasher afterwards to get rid of any still on them. And we also put brushes and combs she had in the dishwasher too. And don't share hats or brushes/combs!

Good luck!

[hkolln]

Originally Posted by Gentin

I was under the impression that dogs and cats could not get lice from humans. I am not sure if this is true has anyone else heard this?

No, not true. Dogs and cats and animals CANNOT contract head lice. Head lice is only a human thing. I asked our vet that question

[Gentin]

So on goes my story!!! I am getting so upset - yet again my fd has lice. She was treated before she came into foster care than she was treated by me on sept 2nd and sept 9th for preventative treatment. Well last night I was giving her a bath and noticed she has lice again. I told the caseworker and she said she was going to take care of it but it is still obviously a problem. I was told they were going to make the parents get checked out but as you can see they haven't. Nobody in my house has it but what am I going to do? I called my caseworker 4 times last week and 2 times today - I also called her supervisor and I have not heard from anyone.

[HappyMommy106]

This is making my head itch just reading this thread!

[Tudu]

We had anightmare of a lice problem for the longest time. We used Nix and theprescription Ovide. Both do well but they kept coming back. The way we finally got rid of them is simple, be diligent. You must comb their hair EVERY night with a nit comb and we switched to doggielice shampoo b/c it is a natural and can be used DAILY. Spray all the sofa, beds, back packs, car seat, and stuffed toys. It will go away but you must continue after you think it is all gone.

I would keep calling your child SW and insist on a head check before visits.