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Lions, and Tigers, and Lice! Oh, My!
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Picture this: a mother serenely brushing the hair of her two beautiful children after their baths. Storybooks are piled on the bed in happy anticipation of their peaceful bedtime ritual.
Little does this mother (ok, it was me) know, but something lies waiting beneath her son's tawny tendrils. Something shocking and vile. Something that will destroy any promise of serenity that the evening held.
When I first catch a glimpse of movement ("What the...?"), I merely think that my eyes are deceiving me. I blink. Shake my head. My hand goes to my own scalp almost reflexively because I'm suddenly itchy. And at that very same moment I realize that I'm staring at a bug on Henry's scalp.
And just when I think it can't get any worse, I see that the bug has friends. Everywhere. That's when my inner teenager comes out and I'm yelling, to my great embarrassment, something I haven't said in 20 years: "Gross me OUT the door!"
When things like this happen -- you know, disgusting things that appear out of thin air and have to be dealt with -- I wonder how I suddenly became the responsible adult in the room. Really? Me?
But there I am, with my sweet children, who are in need of a mother who can fix it all and make it go away.
Since lice is such a rampant problem these days at elementary schools, most school nurses are very experienced in dealing with it. I contact ours immediately and she is extremely helpful, explaining how to get rid of them and directing me to the website www.headliceinfo.com.
After I learn what needs to be done, I stock up at our local pharmacy for essential lice-removal kit items: olive oil, plastic shower caps, tea tree oil, Dawn dishwashing liquid, lint removal brushes, and Licemeister metal lice combs. After we treat the kids' hair and scalp with olive oil, we nitpick for many hours over the next few days until we're sure the little buggers are gone.
I learn so much about lice and re-infestation prevention that I'm sure I'm entitled to some sort of certificate. Now Henry has a shorter haircut, Julia ties her hair back, and they've both been instructed not to share hats or baseball caps. At any notice that lice is going around, I put tea tree oil in their hair before they go to school.
Like most things, once you deal with having lice, it's just another notch in your mommy belt. And to my mommy friends (who of course didn't witness my initial freak-out), I say, "It wasn't that bad after all. It's empowering. My new mantra is: Bring. It. On. I've conquered lice."
Are you a "lice survivor"? What did you find worked best to get rid of it? Click the comments link below to share ideas.
Member Comments On…
Lions, and Tigers, and Lice! Oh, My!
In March, I found out that my daughter's mom was dealing with it since the school year began in August from her oldest who is in high school. Needless to say, be careful...they found out that the jackets on the back of the chairs in the classrooms were how they were being spread about.
After that, we then had bedbugs brought in from a relative visiting from Europe. We beat that too. Did you know that those buggers can live for 18 months without eating???? YIKES!
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For my daughters birthday, we let her have a friend sleepover. She gave her lice. That was 2 weeks before Christmas. We went and visited family, and by that time, we had a full outbreak. Well, none of the adults had EVER had lice, so we didn't know until the end of the vacation when someone at my in-laws church pulled them aside and let them know. We got the church & our family without knowing the culprit until MARCH!
We tried mayo and vinegar. We had SIX reinfestations. Guess who visited every 2 weeks or so? We found that you can use mayo, but if you don't get EVERY egg left in your hair with a good metal comb, it won't matter. We washed every piece of linen, bagged up every toy that couldn't be washed/dried in the machine, vacuumed, scrubbed furniture down with bleach solution....
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sorry got cut off there. my advice is PREVENTION!! Put up any long hair, also using any hair products does help. I put moose or gel in, also keep boys hair short. I was also shocked to find my schools policy on lice and telling people. THEY DON'T TELL!!!! All that is done is the infected child is sent home, asked to be treated and nothing more. By then it's tooooo late!! Be alert and do whatever you have to!!! Good luck!!
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I too have been there, unfortunately 2 times. The first was in preschool- we were re infested 3 times on top of the first. I can honestly say that if the strain is sooo resistant, call your doctor. We tried all the over the counter and holistic methods, it took a prescribed bottle of the nastiest stuff. Bagging all, yes ALL our pillows blankets and non-essential clothes in large black bags, then "cooking"them in my husbands capped pickup for 2 weeks to kill the little buggers. We also had to take all the bedding and clothes needed for us all to the laundry place for a knock em out cleaning before we were able to sleep for that 2 weeks.
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y 8 year old ended up getting lice for the 1st time tis past year and our 2 year old got it too. What a night mare! We had a hard time getting rid of it. I actually couldn't see the lice at first. I would pick out the eggs dailyand never seen the bugs. I even had a lice comb to help. I was removing them all wrong. I used the expensive medicine and everything. But all I needed was a good eye and a comb. All I done to get rid of them was to scrape the comb against the scalp and away from the hair. I killed each one as I found them, wiped them on a paper towel and threw them away. We haven't got them back since.
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I work for a compnay that has something like tea tree oil but it has this "natural" oil in it's shampoo and you can buy it by itself. we used this once and the little bugger's where falling off the kids haif!! I give all my friends a bottle when I hear the word .."LICE".
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My 3 kids had lice just this past winter and after days of picking I finally called a professional "nit picker" - - yes, there are such people. This one was an RN and was GREAT. I would have never gotten through it without her. She cost alot of $$ but I was so worn out from washing everything and trying to pick the hair I just could not do it. She also helped me understand it all and what to do so it was worth every penny. The olive oil definetly helps. I pray I don't go through that again.
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We have gone to adding a few drops of Tea Tree Oil to each bottle of shampoo (doesn't matter what kind) once the lice are done and out of the house. We have not had an epidemic since! My oldest daughter is a camp counselor at a sleepover camp and we send her out with a bottle of shampoo especially prepared and she was the only counselor last year who did not have a problem when there was an outbreak of lice at camp. We also do this for our son when he heads to Boy Socut camp for the week- but we really have no guarantees that he actually used it after all since he is a boy!
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I have been warned that lice spreads like crazy during baseball/softball season because the kids all share batting helmets. Needless to say my child has her very own...and in this case...sharing is NOT allowed!!
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I'm glad I'm not the only one battling these tiny evil villans! My poor kindergartener has been dealing with these pesky bugs since March! Just when I think we've gotten rid of them all, they are back. I am in full agreement that the over the counter medicated stuff just doesn't work. I have done the mayo stuff and that's a pain to get washed out. I am going to try and find the tea tree oil and see if that or the olive oil works. If anyone has suggestions or directions on how to use them, I'd love to know! I'm also interested in that zapper comb. We don't have a Walgreens (yet) but I'll check the other stores. What really puzzles me is the fact that it's only my 6 yr. old who is getting them, not my 3 yr old, or 19 month old, or my husband and I.
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