Parents, I am a Social Worker and I had to check for lice yesterday?

A couple of years ago my 8 year old got lice from a friends house. I did not want to get it and neither did my other daughter & hubby. My grandma told me about this way to prevent getting it ( it is a little weird ) but you have to lean over a sink and pour olive oil all over your hair and then put plastic wrap on your head for like 2 hours. We all did that and no one got it. My hubby of course was being a baby about it but I just watched TV and had some wine...the time flew by. Good luck! See below -

"Olive oil treatments work well, but the oil must remain on the hair and scalp for at least 2 hours. Head lice can survive if they are only in the olive oil for 1 hour, but will suffocate after approximately 2 hours. The treatment may need to be repeated after a week has passed, to suffocate the lice that may have hatched. "

Put some a drop or two of tea tree oil in your shampoo. Use the shampoo till it is gone. This will prevent lice from getting on the head. They HATE the smell of tea tree oil. Also wash everything you can in the house. Vaccum the carpets, furniture. Try to make everything as clean as possible because if his head was infested bad then they have been there for a while so chances are the lice is the house. Actually if you have one of those machines that are used for steaming clothes , take that and use it on your furniture. I bet the steam would eliminate anything that was on your furniture. Try to keep your house as clean as possible and keep the tea tree oil in the shampoo till you are sure the lice is out of the house. Find out where the lice came from and try to eliminate it from that source or keep your son away from whoever has it. Best of luck!!

Many times it is all in your head. I am a veterinary technician and when I see an animal that is covered in fleas then I do the same thing. I itch all over, but I have never found fleas on me. It's all in your mind most of the time. However, I do take precautions just in case. It is very possible to take home fleas when you work with animals or take home lice when you work with children. But chances are a brief encounter with a child with lice (or a dog with fleas) will not spread the infestation to you. It is natural human behavior to itch after being around someone who has lice, but it doesn't mean you have it.

However, if you are concerned (which I can understand) you can also get some of the lice killing shampoo from the store and treat for it. What I do when I come home from work after being around an animal that was literally covered in fleas is use one of those lice combs. They will pick up any lice or their eggs (or fleas) that happened to get in your hair.

buy some tea tree oil and put a few drops into your shampoo, and some in a bottle of water. Wash your hair with the shampoo and the other people in your house hold should also use it. Spray your hair with the water on days you do not wash your hair. It has a little smell but the lice do not like it. Also keep your hair tied back in a braid if possible and with a little hair spray in it, apparently they hate dirty hair.

It is fortunate they are imaginary itches, the unfortunate part is you are most likely going to keep having them for a bit (a neighbor of mine, upon returning from vacation brought cockroaches back w/her and unfortunately they creeped into my house, it only took a day to take care of because we caught it quick enough but if I even so much as see something they could have remotely resembled a cockroach in my home I have issues sleeping for weeks). The best way to not pass on your imaginary itches to your husband and son is to not even mention it to them.

Were your clothes washed in hot water? Let them run through the dryer for some extra time to be safe but don't worry. You probably have nothing to worry about. I had my niece come stay with me when her head was swarming in them too, my sister was having a hard time getting rid of them so I took her for a few weeks to get the head picked through properly and cleaned up after everything she touched so her room at home could be exterminated.

No one in my family got them (and I have hair to my waist).

Lice don't jump, they sometimes fall and they crawl. That's it. So unless you were rubbing heads you're fine. I'm sure you were careful to tie your own hair back while you were searching and not sticking the child's hair in your pockets or anything, lol. Relax.

and how is being a social worker relevant to your question? one would think someone with an advanced degree would know that there really aren't any precautions other than waiting and watching for signs of the little critters on yourself. Then use the lice removal system if you should notice any. I wouldn't be in a hurry to volunteer to do lice checks in the future if it gives you the willies.

actually, that was not the best thing to do. What many people don't know is that lice like cleaner environment more than dirty ones. If you want to be cautious/ better yet, if you actually get them... go buy mayonnaise and ketchup. Lather them in your hair. i know this sounds gross, but take it from someone who has dealt with children and lice on more than one occasion. :) The acids and oil will kill the lice and lice eggs if you have them. Has always worked better than anything else for me. good luck.

Don't sit to closely lice can jump something crazy like 3 foot. Don't share head items ie, hat, comb, brush, shirts, hoodies, hair ties, towels, etc.

I am going to assume you are talking about a child from a school. If your son attends the same school I would just randomly keep checking his head. Because if her head was that bad I will guess she has already passed the lice onto other students.

btw: thanks now you got my head itching. The thought of lice always give me the crawling feeling.

Sorry yes I was wrong about the jumping thing it has been almost 12 years since I have had to deal with lice.

Dap some tee tree oil behind your ears, it's a natural preventative.

But the best way to check regularly is to condition the hair and run a nit comb through. The nit comb will disturb any eggs therefore they will die rather than hatch and the nit comb will catch any lice present.