From the article: Lice - Lice Pictures
How did you know your child had head lice? Did your child complain of itching? Did you see them? Or did you get a call from school about them? Parents Respond
Who would have thought...
- ...that you would get lice from going to movie. Our once a year treat is to go to the theater and sure enough, my son and I got lice. We never go anywhere else nor do we see other people very often so it had to be from there. I was a preschool/toddler teacher for years and never got it when an infestation hit my classroom. Luckily, I knew what to do when my son complained of his head itching and I saw the adult lice on his head. I was never itchy at all but sure enough, there were a few crawling on my towel that night too. 70 million loads of laundry and several hours of vacuuming later, my home should be free of the adults. Now we just have to deal with the daily combing for 2 weeks. My son's hair is lighter in color so it easy to see the nits and pull them out. My hair is darker so I can't see them at all. I'm seriously considering bleaching my hair so the nits can be seen. Oh, we also had a friend buzz cut both of our heads so we are rocking the Sinead O'Connor look now.
- —Guest freaked when it happened
Round 3...
- My daughter has very sensitive skin, so last winter when her head itched I just thought it was the shampoo, WRONG! Her head was infested w/bugs, so was my younger daughter's (they share a room) as well as the friend who had spent the previous night w/us. It is mortifying for my daughter who is 9. I think it was going around school, b/c then she got it about 4 months later, and last week we got a phone call that our church's VBS had an epidimic outbreak of headlice. Even the adults got it! We used mayonaise, and it worked great. Along w/daily head checks. This time we found out immediately after the exposure, hopefully no 6-8 weeks of head checks!
- —Guest mokanemomma
Dealing With Lice
- I knew my kids might get it because we found out that they were exposed to lice at a family member's house. I had been checking their heads everyday and found 2 bugs in my daughter's hair. I was a little confused because I have never seen them before and have no idea what they looked like. I ran out and bought the shampoo, gel, fine tooth combs, and spray. We treated all three kids and ourselves. I didn't find a single other thing on my daughter's head. Only the 2 bugs, no other ones and no nits. Is this normal? No one else had any. Regardless I bagged up every blanket, pillow, and towel in the house and washed them in hot water at the laundry mat. I soaked all the combas and brushes in hot hot water and threw out all her hair ties and barrettes. Maybe I went overboard but better safe than sorry. We also bagged all stuffed animals and put them in the attic. I hope this gets rid of them! I never want to have to do this again!
- —Guest Mel
untreated family members
- After treating and finally beating lice - yay! I discovered the family members with no adult louse and no scalp itch could also be infected. If you treat these non-symptomatic family members you will find they carry lice only in the nymph stage. The lice go undetected until they reach adult stage and move to another member of the family. i thought we were reinfected! The"uninfected" family member may have only a rash at the base of the neck, an itchy nose they scratch and pick at, itchy ears they keep putting their fingers in, a red irritated eye, itchy beard or mustache, or what appears to be contact dermatitis, dry rash or impetigo. Save a lot of time and money and TREAT THE WHOLE FAMILY! You will find nymphs!
- —RNliceexpert
Not Again!
- The first time my daughter had lice, she was in daycare. While daycare blamed a child in attendance, it turned out to be her own daughter who was infested. It took a lot of money and time to get rid of them. Paranoid isn't even the word for it. Now for the third time, she is now 9, she has gotten them again, but I don't know where from. Time to go through it all again. Not much you can do but deal with it. Take all precautions and do what the experts tell you to. Should be able to get rid of them within a week if you do it right!
- —Guest PC Mom
YIKES
- My daughter has been scratching her head for more than a month. She knew she had lice but wouldn't tell me. Eventually I found out and treated it immediately with Nix. NEVER in my life have I seen so many lice. When she went to school, she got a letter stating she had lice on her head. I was totally distraught and gave her quite a earful. The treatment is not working for her. Should I cut her hair? Most girls nowadays hate cutting their hair. And my daughter was one of them. We even tried vinegar treatment. I just hope with all my heart that the lice goes away. But I've learned one thing. NEVER blame your child for the lice. It makes them scared and sad which is not their fault. Blame LICE! And all lice always goes away......eventually.
- —Guest Mae
Very large head lice are possible
- I have searched and searched the internet for reference to giant head lice and can't find anything saying they get larger than a sesame seed. I am here to tell you they can. When I was in junior high I got them. We have no idea where they came from other than probably the locker room at school. I don't know how long I had them. I washed my hair every day and never knew. It had to have been a very long time because I had a lot of them when we finally noticed them. I actually had them falling out of my hair. They were at least 1/2-inch long, probably more. The first one I saw I freaked out and asked my dad, who was an entomologist, if it was a louse. He said no, it wasn't possible for them to get that big. But then when a few more fell out and my mom started checking my head, she freaked. They were most certainly head lice, and there were nits everywhere. My dad was stumped -- he'd never seen or heard of them that big. Now I'm paranoid my kids will get them, so I check all the time.
- —Guest M
Late Night De-Lousing
- My daughter has been scratching her head for about a week. Checked her scalp and saw no dandruff or rash. I figured she wasn't rinsing her hair well enough in the shower. Just tonight was checking again, and found little white spots in her hair, but not on her scalp. Sure enough, it was lice. It took 3 hours to comb it out. Lesson learned... when a child is repeatedly scratching her head, know to check it for lice. Also, feeling like a terrible parent about missing it, but it does seem to be a common situation. Just know that lice happens to all kinds of families. So don't feel bad or embarrassed.
- —Guest MLSthelou
Don't Over-react!
- It concerns me that so many folks used Nix, etc. after seeing just one nit. Read the other articles; if the nits are not close to the scalp, and there aren't bugs, you don't need to use toxic chemicals. Overuse of them makes resistant lice! Don't panic! If you just see older nits and no live lice or you just see one bug and no nits, just remove it, don't use poison. Talk about overkill!
- —Guest NaturalMom
WOW
- Okay, my daughter spent the night with 2 friends last February. A couple weeks later I noticed some white stuff in her hair. So i called my sister, who has already experienced this. Well, the next day, we called the kids parents who she had spend the night with and found out they both had it too. Well that day I got a call from my daughter's BFF's mom/my friend and found out that she had it too. Well it took about a month too COMPLETLY get rid of it. But its been a year and 2 months with NO lice! YAY!
- —Guest mom2
Shared with a friend
- A friend of my daughter's thought she had dry scalp itch so when my daughter said her head itched, we thought it was the same problem. Turns out, it was lice. We treated with Nix Thursday night and combed through it all AM & PM since then. We also tried putting mayo on her head with a shower cap over night. It's supposed to smother the lice. I definitely think it worked because I found 2 dead lice yesterday morning. I also poured vinegar on her head after shampooing the mayo out. The acid in vinegar is supposed to loosen the glue that the nits use to stick to the hair strand. Today is 3 days after finding them on Thursday and she has no more nits & no live lice.
- —Mypal06
Thank you
- I want to thank you for having the "real" pictures available on your website. I thought my daughter & her best friend had dry scalp but I kept checking the web. After finding your website, I knew it was lice and a friend who is a hair stylist checked and confirmed. Your website helped me finally diagnose it. Thanks so much!!!!!!!!!
- —Guest Pam
Lice treatments
- I found one live louse crawling on my 3 y/o daughter's head and tried the 'Cetaphil' treatment on her. My husband and I tried RID. The next day I did the Cetaphil, my husband tried Listerine. I think he also tried vinegar. Anyway we were so paranoid we called a specialist company to come out to clean the house. My daughter and I were essentially clean but my husband had quite a few. I think the combing is the important thing - twice a day for a week! Ick!
- —Guest MD Mom
talk about mortified!!
- I have three kids, and have NEVER had a lice problem. Last night, giving them their shower, I noticed a bug on my youngests' head, it was MOVING!! Instant freak out, I had never seen one, so looked it up on line, and sure enough. Be warned, NONE of them were itching or complaining of anything like that. It takes 7 to 10 days to manifest from nit to louse. So, I treated all three girls, and myself, just as a precationary measure. What next?? Hope this works!!
- —ballerinamom3
Don't panic
- The good news is that head lice don't transmit disease. But, many of the "Home Remedies" are not proven to work. You mentioned blowing your kids hair dry. Lice don't like heat, but one concern is that you could actually burn the scalp with heat from hair dryers. Richard Pollack is a Harvard researcher, his site has good information on head lice: http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/headlice.html You can also find FDA-approved head lice treatments at this site: http://www.myheadlicetreatment.com/head-lice-treatment-options/
- —Guest DanaW
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