Help a Mom: New drug kills lice in one treatment; what's worked for you?

A new drug is on the market that appears to kill 75 percent of lice cases after just one treatment. How have you gotten rid of this childhood annoyance?

Posted 1:45 a.m. Nov 7, 2012 — Updated 1:45 a.m. Nov 7, 2012

Sarah Lindenfeld Hall

Apologies up front if your head starts itching after reading this ...

Lice, that common annoyance of childhood, has a new enemy. It's ivermectin, a drug used since the 1980s for parasitic diseases. A study has found that a single application of an ivermectin lotion kills lice in three out of four children and with no nit picking. The product is being marketed as Sklice and is available by prescription only.

Read this Reuters story for more information about the drug and the study, which was published in the New England Journal of Medicine last week.

Let's just say that I have some experience with this scourge and any drug that might work the first time is big news for my household. We have used Nix lice treatment, combined with vigilant nit picking, successfully, but I know that there are concerns that some lice are becoming resistant to medication.

I have a friend who successfully used Cetaphil, a three-week treatment described here in The New York Times. A Go Ask Mom Facebook fan said she successfully used a mayonnaise treatment as well.

Here's how she described the treatment: A nurse told me to slather my daughter's head in mayonnaise before bed and then cover it with a shower cap secured with hair elastics. From the Dollar Store, this treatment was $2 and I had a pile of leftover shower caps for the next time. In the morning, we got in the shower and the dead bugs poured out of her hair. Sheets and towels washed it hot water and we were good to go. This works because the mayo suffocates them. They can only hold their breath for like an hour. After that, they die.

Has lice hit your household? What treatment worked for you?

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