Somehow at the end of the school year, between end of year parties (and hugs) and a pool party at a local public pool, my 8 year old ended up with head lice for the first time. Her endless complaints of an itchy scalp made me investigate and not just chalk it up to dry skin and dandruff. To my horror, I found not only live little lice but nits. This discovery prompted crying (her) and running to the drug store that night (me).
Here is what we did:
Day 1 - Nix kit (1% Permethrin) as directed; left on for 10 min. and then rinsed thoroughly. The kit came with a cream rinse along with a gel designed to make combing out nits easier, and a spray for furniture and bedding. The best thing about the kits, in my opinion, is the fine tooth metal comb - essential for combing out the nits that remain. After treating her and combing her head really well, I stripped her bed and washed all the bedding. I discovered an entire colony of stuffed animals in her bed - they promptly went into trash bags that I tied off. According to what I read, several days in the bag should be good enough to kill live lice, but we decided to leave them in the bags for 3 weeks (just to be safe!). As a good scientist, I put several lice in a plastic baggie so I could "watch" them.
According to the package insert, if they are moving slowly or not at all after 24 hours, then one can assume that the 1% Permethrin killed them. If they act like nothing fazed them, then the lice may be resistant to the Permethrin.
Day 2 - In addition to the planned inspection and recombing/nit removal, I decided to use Lice Freee spray, a concentrated salt water solution that is designed to kill both active lice and eggs (nits), I presume by drying them out. Lice Freee is designed to be used on dry hair, saturating it, before combing it out and allowing it to dry naturally. I was tempted to also utilize another method of blowing her hair dry on the hot setting, but decided to save this for another day. I combed out lots of nits, along with some lice - several still moving (but more slowly, it looked like). The lice in the bag are moving slowly or appear dead - all good it seems. Extra cautious, we changed and washed the bedding again.
Day 3 - We used tea tree oil shampoo, the Nix step 2 removal gel to aid combing, and combed through her hair again really well using the fine tooth comb. This time, I found some nits but no live lice, which makes her a bit happier as she has been "freaking out" about the whole lice thing. After combing, I used the blow dryer on the hot setting, which presumably helps to dry out the nits.
Day 4 -7 Lice Freee spray and combing; still think I am finding nits but no live or dead lice.
Day 7 - Retreated with Nix cream rinse as instructed in the package insert.
It appeared that we had rid ourselves of lice, but I did continue to find nits every night on combing for about 10 days. So - no matter what your treatment is, combing and inspecting every day is really important. I think I actually inspected and combed her hair every night for about 3 weeks.
Other take home points:
Follow the directions on the package - if it says apply to dry hair, apply it to dry hair. I made a mess one night applying the Lice Freee spray to wet hair (still worked, but messy). With the discovery of "super lice" in many states (lice that are resistant to 1% Permethrin), it is very important to re-treat as directed.
Being diligent about inspecting and combing is really important. It took about a week for us to be nit-free, and sometimes nit-free isn't the goal if all live lice have been eliminated. I didn't want to take the chance of any nits hatching live little guys, so we made an attempt to remove them all.
As I mentioned, the comb is really important - we liked the chunky red comb from the Lice Freee kit the best.
