The best remedy for self-treatment of Lice

Two posts ago I lamented about finding a head full (and I do mean a head full) of lice in my daughter's hair. It has been a rough week, folks... Going through all the "traditional" treatments... The NIX shampoo, the lice combs, the rosemary essential oils preventative shampoo, handpicking out every single lice egg I could find... I think I've already spent over $200 on specialty lice removal items. My goodness.. changing everyone's sheets daily... combing out every strand of hair, cleaning like a mad woman, it's just all a bit much, after a 10 hour work day. At last things are getting better. We are having "Lice Wars" to see if we can find any evidence on any of the kids' heads at night time bath. 1 point for a nit, 2 points for a nymph, and 3 points for a fully grown bug. (It's the game you really want to lose, trust me.)  I search and search and after very thorough nit-picking, I can usually spot one egg and/or one baby lice on a head. Now I really freaked out after finding a single bug on the baby's head! (We are still co-sleeping.) Great, yes, I checked myself and found a microscopic bug and a nit or two. I was so thoroughly disgusted. I just don't have time for this! It's gross. And you want to hear something crazy??? I washed my daughter's down comforter that was quarantined after the initial finding... and had stuck it in the dryer to "kill any remaining eggs" it was ever-so-slightly damp when I pulled it out, so I spread it out and left it on top of the dryer to air dry. In the middle of the night, I went down to put in another load of clothes, and when I flipped on the light I saw what must of been a dozen lice crawling around on this white comforter. What the .... ? I have no idea where they came from (did the eggs hatch after taking them out of the dryer or did they crawl off the other clothes from my daughters' hamper?) Who knows. I put everything in garbage bags and tied them up and I am still trying to wash and vacuum, wash and vacuum, and not caught up yet.

As if that is not enough, today at work I was in the ladies room, and I glanced down on the linoleum floor.. and... I saw a small little bug the size of a pin point.. I had to focus to see it, and I recognized it right away, as a single louse crawling around in a circle on the bathroom floor.. whoa.. this was there before I walked in, so it wasn't from me... I am just paranoid now that these guys are everywhere. Please be on the lookout! I cannot be alone in dealing with this.

Anyway, of all the crazy remedies, this is the cheapest and was extremely effective for self treating myself. I found this on the Internet and it really works! Here is what you do...   Wet your hair with hot water. Douse your hair with baby oil... work it in everywhere and saturate your entire head with it. Get a high quality inexpensive vinyl shower cap and put it over your hair. I put this on and let it sit for several hours. The heat from your head combined with the oil with suffocate the lice. After a few hours, you can remove the cap, and sit down in the shower and begin to comb out your hair with a lice comb. It will be extremely easy to comb out because of the baby oil. Any bugs or eggs just slide right out effortlessly. I would comb once and then wipe with a tissue to check for any evidence, then repeat until I have touched every hair on my head at least a few times. Once you feel that you have gone over everything, wash your hair normally with shampoo to get out all the oil. The added bonus is that your hair will be extra soft because of the baby oil "conditioning treatment". This worked better than using the harsh chemicals and the bottle of NIX. I'm posting this, not to gross you all out, which I probably already did, but in case you ever have to deal with this, you will have an inexpensive and safe alternative for dealing with these horrible bugs. Hopefully, you will not need to!