I'm pregnant and my house and animals are infested with fleas!

I know there is already a topic on fleas but I need desperate help. I'm 37 weeks pregnant and I'm battling fleas. I have tried EVERYTHING. I frontlined the animals. I have 3 Labs and 3 cats. It worked for a week and they were scratching again. I tried to shampoo my carpets, I flea bombed, I tried salt on the carpets and I tried DE. Nothing is working. I even DE'ed the dogs every day for a week and the next day they still had fleas. I'm exhausted. I spend most of my day fighting the fleas vacuuming, cleaning.. and I'm spent. I broke down the other night and just cried. I won't allow the dogs in the house now and I feel HORRIBLE about that. The cats are inside and I bathe them every night in dawn and flea comb them out... the next day they have fleas still. I wash bedding once a week and every 3 days I'll stick the blankets in the dryer to kill off the adult ones. I left DE on my carpets for a week and still I have fleas. I just don't know what to do. The DE was very dusty and it made me cough but I can't bring home a baby to fleas. Now my other kids tend to be very messy and they clutter up the toy room quite a bit. I have harped and nagged and they are finally after getting grounded from everything but breathing deep cleaning that room.
I just can't take it anymore. My docs told me I need to cut my physical activity down in the next few weeks but I can't or we are going to have to burn the house down. I'm so tired and I just want something to work!! Help! Am I doing something wrong? I thought the DE was suppose to be a miracle worker on fleas. Why isn't it helping? There are no outside fleas coming in because the dogs aren't allowed in. They are scratching and I feel bad for them but what else can I do? Nothing works. I put the DE on them and rubbed them down and they still had fleas. It's SO frustrating!!! Help!!

I have read everything I can find on how to kill fleas. I am desperate but I need to keep it non toxic now as the baby can come any day now. If there is an article out there on fleas I've read it. My husband is irritated because I will try something different and tell him it's suppose to work great and it never does. We are spending money we don't have trying to kill these pests. I just don't know what to do anymore. I've been at this battle since April.

that sucks! i am sorry that's happening. i've heard to place a single watt light bulb over a trash can and then cover the windows and turn out all the lights in the house except the light bulb. i think the trash can is filled with water. the fleas are attracted to the light and then fall into the water. AVOID using pennyroyal or other minty herbs. they are too estrogenic for you to be around. take care

Sometimes circumstances are such that you should consider stepping up to the " big guns".  It's kind of like exercising judgment to know when to use what, i.e., antibiotics versus herbs/alternative treatments. I understand the frustration fighting fleas; I do the flea dance every season.

Eucalyptus oil was what my grandmother always told
me to use. Some say you can wash your clothes and
clean surfaces with it.

Hope this helps.

When I was pregger the dog dropped a dead possum in the house. We got fleas. I used diatomaceous earth (food grade, bulk) and cleaned everything and it worked.  5 months later my daughter got pin worms from school. She and my hubby had to take a dewormer, bathe every morning and everywhere underwear, plus again a cleaning spree and diatomaceous earth. The baby is now an active toddler.

Just out of curiosity, do you see the fleas? Some flea itching takes a week to go away and DE is really drying on skin, which can cause more itching.

The original poster in this thread posted six years ago, and only ever posted two things on Permies.  It's awesome that threads like this suddenly become active again sometimes -- some issues are timeless! -- but questions intended for the original poster probably won't be seen/answered by her would be my guess.

Hi there,

The only thing that worked for me was sorezto collars, also have you considered some Guinea hens? They love fleas and ti ke and are a huge help. Great alarm systems as well.

Wilkinslady ashby wrote:I know there is already a topic on fleas but I need desperate help. I'm 37 battling fleas. I have tried EVERYTHING. I frontlined the animals. I have 3 Labs and 3 cats. It worked for a week and they were scratching again. I tried to shampoo my carpets, I flea bombed, I tried salt on the carpets and I tried DE. Nothing is working. I even DE'ed the dogs every day for a week and the next day they still had fleas. I'm exhausted. I spend most of my day fighting the fleas vacuuming, cleaning.. and I'm spent. I broke down the other night and just cried. I won't allow the dogs in the house now and I feel HORRIBLE about that. The cats are inside and I bathe them every night in dawn and flea comb them out... the next day they have fleas still. I wash bedding once a week and every 3 days I'll stick the blankets in the dryer to kill off the adult ones. I left DE on my carpets for a week and still I have fleas. I just don't know what to do. The DE was very dusty and it made me cough but I can't bring home a baby to fleas. Now my other kids tend to be very messy and they clutter up the toy room quite a bit. I have harped and nagged and they are finally after getting grounded from everything but breathing deep cleaning that room.
I just can't take it anymore. My docs told me I need to cut my physical activity down in the next few weeks but I can't or we are going to have to burn the house down. I'm so tired and I just want something to work!! Help! Am I doing something wrong? I thought the DE was suppose to be a miracle worker on fleas. Why isn't it helping? There are no outside fleas coming in because the dogs aren't allowed in. They are scratching and I feel bad for them but what else can I do? Nothing works. I put the DE on them and rubbed them down and they still had fleas. It's SO frustrating!!! Help!!

I have eradicated bed bugs from my house with a steam cleaner, washing clothes in hot water and using lots of diatomaceous earth. I'm sure that would work for fleas too