What to Do When "Rid" Isn't Getting Rid of the Lice??

Hello there. Yeah rid doesnt work. It even says on the internet that the lice are ammune to it now. Growing up i and my sisters kids got it from school. And believe it or not mineral oil works the best. At night put a full bottle of mineral on there hair... Let them sleep in it. It takes a long time to wash out but it works. Do that every other night for a week then look throughly through there hair to see if it is done with. :) good luck
-C.
p.s. The mineral oil sufficates the bugs

Whatever you do, PLEASE stop using the chemicals, including bleach, RID, dog shampoo. Those chemicals are extremely toxic and can cause serious long term effects. Please take a look at this website. http://www.headlice.org/

I have heard that lice don't like heat. So, even if it makes poofy hair, dry everyone's hair with the hair dryer. Also, use the curling iron, hair straightener as well. Use a leave in conditioner, they can't get a grip on slippery hair. It might make everyon's hair look gross, but so does lice.

Take all stuffed animals and extra pillows and blankets out of every room, bag them in a large trash bag and they need to sit outside, or in storage/the garage for two weeks or more. They can't eat if they don't have a host and will die. Every night before bed and every morning after getting out, put all bedding in the dryer on high for a half of an hour.

If all else fails, die your hair, and your daughters. It can be the same color you have now. But don't get a henna or wash out die. Get a regular, full chemical die.

I hope this is stuff you haven't tried. Don't get discouraged! Good luck...~D.

Actually, home remedies work. You can check with your local health department, but part of the issue with Lice products is that they no longer are as effective - due to overuse, the lice have become resistant. Also, to continually use the chemicals in products like rid is hard on your daughters hair and scalp - they are a pesticide product. Home remedies that may help - and which have worked for me or people I know personally at one time or another:

saturate the hair with tea tree oil, wrap in saran wrap and a towel and leave on hair for a while - I always went for at least a couple of hours, but that is because I had extremely long hair. Some people find that tea tree oil burns and do not like this remedy. You can also add a couple of drops of tea tree oil to your regular shampoo and conditioner to use as a preventative measure, or buy tea tree oil infused shampoo and conditioner at your local health food store.

Alternatively, a friend of mine has used olive oil. It smothers the nits and she swears it softened her hair as well. Another friend treated her teenager with mayonnaise - it supposedly works well to break down the glue that the nits are attached with.

The combing is critical. You have to do it every day. Safeway sells a special metal comb - much sturdier and more effective than the comb that comes in the Rid box. It was $14.95 several years ago, and I had to ask the pharmacist for it - she kept them behind the counter.

I haven't read any advice that you've received but, I must tell you mine. My daughter has the thickest hair alive! She was 4 or so when she got lice from day care.
Go to the store and buy some coconut suave shampoo and conditioner. Wash with the shampoo and rinse. Put the conditioner, a lot (half the bottle if you have to) on h/her hair and wrap it in a shower cap over night. For some reason the coconut kills the lice. Don't ask me how this works. But, it does! It's cheep too :)
Good Luck!
S.

Either contact your doctor and have prescribe a prescription shampoo for lice or call beauty supply shops and ask for Tea Tree Oil. The only other method is mayonnaise. I just went through this in December with my 8 year old son. I had to spray all the furniture, wash all the bedding, dry all the pillows in the dryer, put all stuffed animals in black trash bags and put in attic and vaccum real good.

What a pain. My daughter kept getting it and it wouldn't go away. When she was 5, she is now 13, her daycare told me to use mayonaise. I caked is ALL over her head and left it on for a long time. Can't remember how long I did, but it was for a few hours. It worked. About 3 years ago, she caught them again. I had to get her grandma involved, Mrs. Research Woman:) and she had me use Selsen Blue shampoo (sp?) and tea-tree oil shampoo and conditioner. (Again, spelling is probably wrong, sorry!) She has been lice free since. That RID makes those little buggers immune after awhile. Try those. Good luck.

Find a hair coloring treatment the same color as your daughters hair, and color their hair. i know it sounds crazy, but the lice cannot lay eggs on the slick, coated hair shaft. Once you have washed, and colored hair...dry it with a hot blow dryer, and if they will tlerate it, curl all the hair with a hot curlin irn. The live bugs cannot stand th heat.

Also, in order to get rid of lice you lterally need to think of EVERTHING. It is SO much work...but you need to bag EVERY stuffed animal in th house for months, you need to run pillows through a hot dryer for an hour...bag ALL coats that are not washable... wash the backpack...Everything you wash must be able to stand the HOT cycle...Vaccuum every inch of floorspace...the mattresses...all brushes and combs need to be boiled, and for little girls, all their hair stuff...just replace it. Be sure to lookfor doll combs etc that need to be cleaned. Do not forget to vaccuum the car too. Good luck, I feel for you!!!

If you know anybody the distributes Melaleuca they have a product called Sol-u-mel 16oz bottle $24.78 that's in a concentrated form. it will get rid of lice, fleas, stains anything really. I spilled red paint on my beige carpet let it dry and Sol-U-Mel got the stain completely out. Nail polish on couches. You name it this products will make your problem go away. It's the safest, best product I have ever used. If you don't know a Melaleuca distributor e-mail me, I am one and can get you a bottle.

GOOD LUCK

You need to talk to your pediatrician about a prescription treatment. Lice now-a-days are often resistent to treatment and are getting stronger with each generation.

We had trouble with head lice (including re-infestation) a couple of years ago, and my sympathies go out to you. What a nuisance! Here are some tips that worked for us.

Read-up on the life-cycle of head lice to understand how ANY undiscovered nits will go on to reproduce (they seem to be born pregnant!) after the 7-10(?) day incubation period and subsequent brief maturation phase. Err on the side of caution (i.e. stay vigilant longer) with regard to believing you are "all clear".

Sometimes, the nits are hardly affected by the 10 minute RID treatments. Try increasing the treatment time to 20 minutes. (My husband found some technical info about this on a medical website that indicated the 10 minutes recommended is the minimum effective treatment time, but 20 minutes will be more effective. Over-the-counter "drugs" are provided to the public with the most conservative/minimal dosages. With RID products, they must weigh the effects on the lice against potential absorption by your child.) We had good success with the 20 minute treatment.

Use 48-hour freezer treatments (bag and put inside freezer) for stuffed animals or other items that can't be washed or subjected to high-heat dryer treatments. "Quarintine" other nonwashable items inside large zip-lock bags for 3 weeks.

Treat everyone in the household with RID, including yourself.

Other children not in your household may be a source of re-infestation. No hat or pillow sharing. Cover areas in the car where their heads rest (we used a bed sheet). Be mindful of where your kids tend to rest their heads.

Clean, clean, clean. All bedding should be cleaned and subjected to drying at high temperatures. We had our son sleep on his bed in his sleeping bag for a couple of weeks, putting it (and his pillow) in the dryer daily for 30-40minutes, just to be on the safer side. Vacuum all upholstered furniture.

Good luck!

i had this same problem my 4 year old got them at daycare/preschool. i went online to get other ways to get rid of them. rid is a pesticide like ant spray. i used rid thought everything was fine. then 3 days later she was crawling again. so the advice i found online is to use baby oil(i used a spray) and a rid comb not the one that comes in the kit but the 2 pk one you can buy seperately its the short one. the oil loosens the nits(eggs) if you don't get rid of the nits you get more bugs. my daughter also had really long thick curly hair and i had to cut it from the middle of her back to her chin. the oil made it easier to comb out too, i also would rinse the comb in a bowl of warm water to see if i was getting less and less every time i did her hair. with in 5 days she had no bugs, no nits and i didn't have to use pesticide on her hair. the other thing i did was bag up any stuffed animals, washed all bedding, vacuumed the couch and rugs, and all pillows. and the coats, my daughter that is in grade school also had them but i think hers came from a friend she spent the night with. all of the winter jackets got washed and after i found more bugs they got washed again. some schools have a community coat area or as i call them a breeding ground for lice. so now she has to put her jacket in her backpack. the advice i got was on a website that was created by a clinic in florida that only does lice. good luck

Your pediatrician may be able to prescribe something stronger--Another idea (to get rid of them in the house, anyway) is to leave for 3 days. I think if they don't have a host within 48 hours they die.
It is no fun-- Good luck- it can be a long process!

Oh yes, the dreaded head lice. My daughter had them this year and it just made me sick to death. I felt so bad for her. I found that you have to do something at least every day. Yes, you treat with Rid or Nix or whatever, but in between treatments I found that the nits were still hatching (even though the bottle leads you to believe that it is also taking care of the nits in addition to the head lice). I used mayonaise every day on my daughter. I would put it in her hair and cover it with a shower cap while she played in the tub. Mayonaise, like the mineral oil suffocates live lice. Remember, as long as there is live lice, they can continue to lay their nits. I could not see putting more chemicals on my daughters head every day and doing a mayonaise shampoo wasn't too bad. I would still spend at least an hour going through her hair with a nit comb afterwards. I also got really discouraged with nit combs. They didn't seem to be doing their job. I finally sat my daughter down and with small scissors, cut out all of the nits strand by strand. Time consuming yes, but I think that is what ultimately got rid of the nits. Good luck! I know it is very difficult

I had a friend whose 2 girls had lice and it wasn't going away. Our pediatrician told her to use Mayonaise. The Mayonaise "suffocated" the lice. I know it sounds wives tailish, but it worked. She left it on for 1 hour with a plastic bags over thier heads (hair) so they wouldn't get Mayonaise everywhere. Just make sure you really get the Mayonaise into and on the scalp and hair. She also, had to change and wash (with hot water, bleach, and good detergent) thier bedlinens, sheets, and blankets on a daily basis. She also washed clothes continuously.

K. ~

I have had this same problem. My daughter has long hair and I have long, very thick hair. She brought lice home and since I used my brush to do her hair, I got it as well. We tried Rid and Nix. Neither of them worked. I was pregnant at the time, so the thought of using pesticides over and over again was very disturbing to me. I researched online and found a few things to do. The hardest part is just doing it consistently.

~ Get a big bottle of rubbing alcohol to soak your brushes and combs in. I kept mine in a glass full of this at all times until ready for use. Then I returned the brush to the alcohol after use. It kills the lice within seconds. I even tested that (morbid, I know) by finding a bug and putting it in the alcohol to time it.

~ I soaked my hair in alcohol by starting with dry hair, and a bowl of alcohol. I saturated my hair with the alcohol and then wrapped it in a towel overnight. This killed both the bugs and nits. I did not have to repeat this at all.

~ Tea Tree Oil. I used this on my daughter. Dilute it with a little water and rinse the hair with it. Then wrap it in a towel. Also, add a few drops to your shampoo. It helps to keep them from coming back once you have gotten rid of them. You can find it at Walmart, Wild Oats, Etc.

~ Blow dry the hair daily. The heat dries up the bugs and nits and kills them.

~ Use a lice/nit comb morning and night to remove everything from the hair.

~ Vacuum the floor and furniture daily and either throw out or freeze the bag immediately. I have a canister vacuum, so it was easy to empty everything each time.

~ There are sprays for your furniture and house, but once again, it is pesticide that you are spraying in your house. I spoke with my pediatrician about these and was told that they really don't work very well at all and the risks out-weigh the benefits received.

Good luck with this. It is time consuming, but very effective.

Check out this website and download their home remedy program. I used it and so did some other moms at my daughter's school. Even if you do it a bit less strictly than they suggest, it works! http://www.headliceinfo.com/treat.htm. It's worth downloading just for all the sensible advice and information.

Also excellent is the Cetaphil treatment you can find by Googling "head lice home remedy, cetaphil". I alternated that with the above website's olive oil regime and it worked. I was pregnant and got the lice too, and it worked on me with no chemicals.

good luck!

You will need to clean everything they can get on. Bleach sheets and pillows. Steam clean matresses and carpets. Soak combs and brushes with bleach water or vinegar. Make sure all the clothes are clean too. Make your girls change in the bathroom or something so you can spray walls and floors with bleach water when they go to bed and put all the clothes in the washer right away. After treatment follow it up with lavender and olive oil. The lavender works as a deterent like ceder does for moths. I don't know if you would be willing to thin out your oldests hair but it might help you control it too. Also ensure they know not to borrow brushes and combs or anything that touches their heads like hats!

try dog shampoo and at walgreens they have an battery operated shocking lice comb it's $35.00 but it was the only thing that worked for us the bug's get amuned to RID good luck louiseD

Dye your hair and theirs. That's what the last 2 gals that have done my hair say. Lice can't attached to colored hair because it becomes slick to them. Choose a color really close to their natural one. Easy cheap and apparently it works well.
Lucky me, I have 2 boys and their hair shaves off easily.

I didn't find that rid worked either. My oldest daughter has incredibly thick hair. I worked for two hours every morning and every evening -- picking out nits and bugs. Each night I soaked her hair with a mixture of tea tree oil and olive oil, and every morning washed it well with a mixture of shampoo and malathion (1 tsp to an 8 oz bottle). It does take a week. You have to wash all the bedding, pillow, toys and clothes they wear. Spray down your house every morning and evening with Lysol (where they go) -- anything with FABRIC that their heads might touch. It should take a week to get rid of all of them. Yes -- this is an expensive and time eating solution -- but it works.

Fast -- buzz their heads, wash everything, dry everything in a HOT dryer, spray everything down with Lysol about four times for the next three days.

Good luck!