Yikes! Help, headlice!!!! What natural treatments have you used? ***Update in OP***

[kerridean]

Head lice are becoming resistant to the active ingredients in the OTC meds.

We had an awful exposure in the summer of 2007. We initially used the OTC meds. Most of the bug were still quite alive after using as directed, to say nothing of the nits. So my situation was the reverse of kerridean's- we tried the OTC meds and then went to the suffocation methods (why it would need to be FDC approved to use a soap or food product and a hair dryer is totally beyond me, it's totally non-toxic). For us, the problem was solved rapidly after that point. Lots of combing but when we combed after drying cedaphil on the hair, the lice were actually DEAD as opposed to after the OTC treatment.

Getting rid of lice is comb dependent. You need a metal tooth licemeister type comb. The plastic ones in the OTC med boxes are worthless pieces of junk. Then you need to use it. A lot.

Good point. I will try it next time (hope there is not a next time). I swear I need THERAPY. The metal comb is imperative, IMO

[mominjune]

I forgot to say that fairy tales has great products for anyone who is still looking for/trying methods. They also sell the metal tooth licemeister comb. We used suffocation methods AND the fairy tales with great success and were diligant with combing, laundering, drying things on high heat etc. GOOD LUCK!
http://www.fairytaleshaircare.com/in...age&Itemid=107

My friend who has 3 daughters with long hair and 2 rounds of lice in their home last year before they used it, says this line product works well for them. She had tried all the other more toxic treatments and said this worked better. Also, they have lice repellent shampoo that actually smells nice so they use it on a regular basis.
I have not used any of the line except their "lice repellent spray" when there were a few cases at my daughters school. It made me feel better to send her off to school after spraying her with what smelled like citronella and rosemary. I figured it couldn't hurt.

I'm planning on buying their "bed bug repellent spray" when we go to Disneyland in a few months. With the rise in bed bugs, an inspection of the mattress and some sprays of the repellent couldn't hurt either!

[kijip]

Oh, for all of you reading this and thinking "never me" please get prepared...when you find lice you want and need to act immediately. Waiting for the right comb to come in the mail and needing to pay overnight shipping would suck. If you live in an area with a local source for the licemeister comb that is great, but many can't find it locally. I can not emphasize enough that the readily available in mass market retailers plastic combs are useless. I still have 2 licemeister combs at the ready.

As more lice become drug resistant, it will be a larger and larger problem. We got ours from my brother's kids. I didn't think anything of letting T's same age cousin share his bed...bad idea. He was 4 and I agree with kerridean- it is practically PTSD inducing. I think we used Rosemary Repel shampoo for a year or more afterwards.

[mommy111]

Aaah, OK, need to go change the plastic comb and get a metal one. I guess that is why y plastic comb turns up with nothing! The lice and nits that we picked out were my very amazingly kind neighbour here hunkering down with DD and nitpicking (now I know where that word comes from!) her head.
I already had DS's beautiful curls cut in prep for his school to where he is about 1-2inches long. However, I think he got the headlice first and because of his short hair has been hatching and shedding them so that DD git them as well. I feel all itchy myself (mostly just anxiety), I can't afford my very long hair getting any lice
I've heard about the fairy tales repellant before, I've thought about ordering it before but always thought we'd never get lice. Like Katie said, though, next time we're going to be prepared for other kids in school having lice.....when we're back in the US, we're going to order their louse repellant stuff.

[AJP]

Oh, for all of you reading this and thinking "never me" please get prepared...when you find lice you want and need to act immediately. Waiting for the right comb to come in the mail and needing to pay overnight shipping would suck. If you live in an area with a local source for the licemeister comb that is great, but many can't find it locally. I can not emphasize enough that the readily available in mass market retailers plastic combs are useless. I still have 2 licemeister combs at the ready.

As more lice become drug resistant, it will be a larger and larger problem. We got ours from my brother's kids. I didn't think anything of letting T's same age cousin share his bed...bad idea. He was 4 and I agree with kerridean- it is practically PTSD inducing. I think we used Rosemary Repel shampoo for a year or more afterwards.

My girls were 18 MONTHS and don't go to daycare. They didn't get it from their shcool-aged cousins (none had it) but had recently been to the gym babysitting/kids center and to some play place at the mall that MIL took them to. No one in the family had it so I can only guess they got it from an other child. We tried the suffocation method because we had those things on hand and I ended up ordering the fairy tales stuff with the comb the next day with - yup, overnight shipping.
We also use the conditioning spray a few times a week and use the rosemary repel shampoo a few times a week many, many months later.

[MmeSunny]

Those lice combs look very similar to dog's flea combs. Has anyone tried one of those??? I know. . . Odd question but flea combs are a lot cheaper!!!

[BarbieSmith]

Just a quick note about mayo, from someone with some food chemistry and foodborne illness background. Mayo will not breed salmonella easily. It is so acidic that it is hard for anything to breed in it. You will NOT get salmonella from putting clean mayo on your head overnight... it is plain reckless to say otherwise. But note: UNLESS you introduced water, proteins (chicken, tuna), etc. into your mayo. We have a rule in our house that only a clean/new utensil is used for scooping out mayo.

That said, I would not choose a food item as my first choice.

Barbie

ps: when people talk about chicken salad and tuna salad, etc. and say you cannot leave it out because the mayo will go bad - please silently laugh at that. It is the PROTEINS in the mix that will go bad (egg, tuna, etc.) - NOT the mayo. Mayo can make it through practically anything!!!

[nov04]

Oh, for all of you reading this and thinking "never me" please get prepared...when you find lice you want and need to act immediately. Waiting for the right comb to come in the mail and needing to pay overnight shipping would suck. If you live in an area with a local source for the licemeister comb that is great, but many can't find it locally. I can not emphasize enough that the readily available in mass market retailers plastic combs are useless. I still have 2 licemeister combs at the ready.

I have metal combs upstairs just fearing it will happen to us. We've used fairtytales shampoo for 2 years (on and off) and been okay (fingers crossed!). We also have some tree tree oil.

I'm itching my hair just thinking about this.