Disclaimer---you may get itchy and you may get grossed out but I'm writing this to educate you!!!!
I bet you noticed I was missing for a while. I wasn't taking pictures, I wasn't finding ANYTHING funny. I wasn't eating and if you want to know how serious this really was, I wasn't even drinking my wine!
"Why?" you ask.
Well, let me tell you. I wasn't going to post about this because it really was a horrible, terrible nightmare for me.
Remember
this post about putting the fear of God into Sasha about lice? And then remember how relieved I was
here with the letter that someone in her class had lice?
Yeah. Well...just a few weeks after that letter, Sasha was the reason the letter was sent home and parents shuddered.
Sasha.had.lice.
I was combing her hair before school and I FOUND my nightmare. I found a FEW of my nightmare. I called to Matt and he says, "Is it moving?" Uh no. I just pulled a piece of fuzz out of her hair to show you. YEAH IT IS MOVING AND OH MY GOD THERE IS ANOTHER ONE!!!! I actually had to leave the bathroom because I thought I was going to pass out or throw up or both.
Par for the course, Matt was getting ready to go out of town. I had just enough time to run to Walgreens and buy Rid (that was the only brand name I recognized) ***SHUDDER*** and a
$30 electronic lice comb. Before you laugh, that electronic lice comb KICKED ASS! I actually looked up reviews on my cell phone before shelling out the dough for it and it got 5 stars in like billions of reviews. It catches the live bugs and zaps them. It's like one of those blue bug lights on a comb except it doesn't zzzzzap, it buzzes. And it really does catch and kill the live bugs.
I'm getting ahead of myself.
I really wasn't going to write about this because it really was terrible for me. I know there are worse things that could happen to your children and I hope this is the worst we ever have. In my world, at this time, it was bad. I spent a lot of time fighting back tears or just sitting down and crying because it sucked. It really sucked. After 10 years of teaching, and numerous years working with children before that, the worst I ever encountered was chicken pox my senior year of college.
Matt spent the Lice time in Miami. Yeah, he was working but I would have rather had him here.
My arms were so stiff from doing laundry, loads and loads and loads of laundry. I vacuumed the entire house every day for about almost 2 weeks. And I combed and combed and combed poor Sasha's hair. I was so tired. I was so afraid that Eliana or I were going to get it so I tried to check her hair as often as possible. Have you ever tried to look closely and longly(?) at a 2-year-old's hair? Thankfully, we were all clear. Knock on wood. (I had to add that in there for my mom's sake.)
This is getting too long as it is and my main purpose for this post is to tell you what to do if it happens to you AND to tell you what I've learned to prevent it from happening. I'm sure it doesn't surprise you to know that I have done TONS of research since that first sighting.
TREATMENT:1. DO NOT run out and get Rid or whatever other stinking terrible chemicals there are on the shelf. There really is no need. The chemicals can't kill the eggs/nits and there are better ways to clear it up FAST. Before you run to the store, go to this site.
You see, all you need is some
Cetaphil Gentle Skin Cleanser.
2. You also need a GOOD lice comb. The plastic pieces of crap that come in the kits don't do anything. When I posted about the Letter that someone in Sasha's class had it, a friend of mine recommended a
good comb. I actually thought to myself that I should buy it "just in case". I didn't and I really should have. If lice is common where you are, buy one. Have it on hand. Really, these combs are DA BOMB and pretty much all you really need. I had to order mine online because every drugstore and Target in the area was out. I can personally recommend the
LICENDERS Comb and the
Terminator Metal Comb. Yes, in addition to my
$30 electronic bug zapper comb, I now also have 2 metal nit combs.
3. Comb the heck out of your child's hair. And then comb some more. Once I started using these metal combs, we had no more bugs. They are wonderful.
4. After treating your child, do laundry. Wash all bedding, even yours. I am dreading our electric and water bills this month. If you can't wash it, take it to the dry cleaner. I threw away all of our pillows but I read that you can actually just put whatever you can't wash or dry clean into the dryer on high heat for 30 minutes. I can tell you that this house has WAY too many blankets and WAY too many stuffed animals. Do NOT every buy us another stuffed animal or blanket, please! I double-bagged all of the stuffed animals. This suffocates the lice but you have to leave them bagged for at least 2 weeks in case there are any eggs that hatched. You can also put them in the dryer on high heat but again, I didn't know that until after they were all bagged up.
5. Change the child's bedding every day and wash his/her clothing every day. I made Sasha go straight to the laundry room to change after school. Then I would comb her hair and make her change again! I also put her backpack in the dryer for 20 minutes on high heat. I did this every day until I didn't see any live bugs (usually babies) for more than 3 days. (I also knew that more kids were sent home from her class that week so I was extra diligent.)
6. I vacuumed the house (especially sofas and her room and mattress) every morning after she left for school. You have to throw away the vacuum bags after using them. The guy at Sears laughed when I bought 4 2-packs. I didn't bother to explain.
PREVENTION:1. I found the best organic haircare line to help prevent lice. Apparently, the little buggers don't like tea tree oil, citronella or rosemary oil.
Fairy Tales Hair Care for Children has a line of products proven to repel lice. Needless to say, I ordered every single product...TWICE! Both bathrooms are stocked now. The best part is that the stuff smells so good. I use it, too. You can use the spray on backpacks and jackets AND it works as a bug spray, too!
2. Sasha will now have to wear her hair up every day. Braids or buns are best. We are actually having fun coming up with different styles for her hair.
3. Lice don't like dirty hair. It sounds weird, doesn't it? They can't cling to dirty hair or hair with products. So let your kids go without a shower or at least without washing their hair (they'll love you for it!) and give them a good old-fashioned hair-sprayin' every morning before school! I tell Sasha that I am shellacking her hair. Haha.
4. If you know there is an outbreak in your school (one school down here sent home 60kids with lice, 60!) get out the comb and use it a few times per week. It can't hurt.
And that's about all I have to say about that. Hopefully none of you reading this will ever have to reference back to this post. But if you do, I hope I've helped you!
May you always be lice free.
Your LiceMeister Queen
