De-lousing Disaster: My Middle Child & Unsupportive Hubby

[Jessamary]

Guess what I spent the last hour doing.

De-lousing my middle child. ::shudder::

I am so grossed out! Anyone have to deal with this ever? A few years ago, my eldest son had it and I was equally grossed out then.

Then, to top it off, my husband goes to play poker on Facebook while I'm dealing with all of this. And, when I first told him that DS had lice, his first response was to run to the mirror to see if he had it. No concern about our son...just himself. What a butt-monkey.

NOT in a good mood right now. Can't WAIT to see if my other son or daughter has it when they wake up in the morning. YUCK.

 

[JAE]

Oh, so sorry! I can just imagine that I would equally be freaking out if this happened to us. My dh wouldn't play poker, but he gets pretty grossed out by stuff like this. He probably wouldn't be much help w/o a lot of wincing.

I just talked to someone today about this. Her cute little neighbor girl came over with a winter coat on and the hood was up. The little girl took off her hood to show my friend that her mom buzz cut her hair to get rid of the lice. This is the second time her mom did this to her. I guess she didn't want to work at the delousing thing. It was easier to cut the hair all the way off. Poor girl.

 

[RossDeb2]

Oh yeah! That happened to us and we had to go through the whole house and wash everything. Our kids had slept in our bed so all the bedding had to be washed, stuffed animals had to be bagged up. My daughter has really long curly hair so it was next to impossible to comb through it all. It took hours! My daughter was allergic to the hair treatment and started throwing up. My husband came homefrom the afternoon shift, got freaked out and got his hair shaved off the next day. Oh yeah, and I was pregnant. Some people don't handle things well! For monthly maintenance, just use a mixture of baby shampoo and 10 drops of tea tree oil and massage well into the hair. They don't like the smell at all. Good luck. Don't forget to check for any missed nits.

 

[Jessamary]

RossDeb2....what a good idea! I will DEFINITELY try this! Thankfully we don't have long hair here. The longest hair is mine and that's above my shoulders and stick straight.

I don't think I have lice. I went through some random sections with the de-lousing comb and didn't find anything. My husband is no help...he won't look and doesn't know what he's looking for. I looked through his hair...very thick wavy hair...and all I found was dandruff. (God, I hope it was dandruff!) Even so, I'm pretty sure we'll all have the treatment just to be safe.

Edited to say: yeah, we combed for nits and found a couple lice. Thankfully, I think he only had a dozen or so. He has blond hair and it's hard to see the nits. I must have gone over his poor little scalp about 500 times tonight. Then I shaved his head and combed through it again. Not my favorite way to spend an evening.

 

[pcchefjane]

Sorry to hear about that! We went through it a lot from one family at Daycare for several years! It would drive the teachers crazy because it was every 4-6 weeks it happened. Then once my DD left Daycare, there was a family at Church that constantly had it. The main reason was the mother refused to do all the washing, etc. required to get rid of them so they just kept on coming back! They finally reported her to DHS and was told if it happened again, that was it! I keep praying no one has it around my grandson! They are just so nasty! My mom told us once that her sister when they were little picked some off of a girl's head at school so she would have them too! My Mamaw gave her a major whipping over it! LOL!

 

[Shawnna]

So sorry to hear about your trouble. I've been there. When my daughter was in 1st grade she got it several times at school. She has really thick hair and it took hours to comb through it. I hate to be mean, but I was so glad when one little girl got held back that year. My daughter didn't have it again until 5th grade...she got it at church camp. And, then last year...she was a freshman...she got it again at school...at Christmas time. What a nightmare. I didn't find them till Christmas night and by then she had them BAD. Her hair was down to her rear end and still thick as ever. Its gross, but it is something we have to deal with when we have kids. Lice love clean hair too. My daughter now uses Sauve citrus shampoo and conditioner and also melaleuca shampoo and conditioner. The melaleuca stuff has the highest concentrate of tea tree oil you can get and it is all natural. She wears her hair up in a pony tail to school and uses a lot of hairspray. She is terrified she will get it again. I keep a box of RID in the bathroom for emergencies, but I hate to use it because it is so toxic. Just remember to keep looking through her hair every few days. You look and look and you don't see anything and then tomorrow you look again and find something.

 

[lockhartkitchen]

As a teacher, I've had it when I was 8 months pregnant. I remember crying about having to use those chemicals, which is the only way to effectively get rid of it. My children (cross hands, feet, toes, etc.), have never brought it home. I just remember having to wash all the bedding, hair ties, the laundry basket of clean clothes (because they were next to the bed), etc. Tiring and yes, it's just gross thinking of something crawling on us. We have checks each semester at our school. Thank goodness haven't seen a case in my room for years.

 

[smspamperedchef]

When my oldest son (he's 13 now) was in Kindergarten I was at home with my youngest son, I think he was about 3 and I was brushing his extremely curly hair and I found THEM ALL OVER! I was mortified. Figured that's what it was but went up to the school nurse for her to look. YUP! Then she checked my Kindergartner and yup he had them, not bad though. Then she started doing a check throughout the school in all different grades and they had ended up sending home a TON of kids! I just couldn't figure out how my youngest got them and he got them BAD! This was right before Christmas vacation and I was so eeby jeebied out. I washed EVERYTHING in hot water, vacuumed everything like a mad woman, bagged up our millions of stuffed animals and suffocated them in the garage. I then I think mayonaised the kids hair and let it sit. Mayo suffocates them and I think is supposed to be a good conditioner as well. Tried the RID stuff but didn't work as well if I remember correctly. I think I also used vegetable oil and you let that sit with a plastic shower cap on their head for a while. Then you gotta comb and comb and comb again! I just remember that was the WORST thing ever! Good luck and I'm sorry you are dealing with this. Right now my big problem is stupid fleas that our (now vacant) old neighbors dog had. GRRR!

 

[Kodeysmom]

My sister is dealing with this now with her stepdaughter.She is 4 1/2. This has been going on for about a month now. She gets rid of them and takes her back to daycare and then they call and tell her to come pick her up because they found some again. Well she got them gone again and she went to her biological moms for her visitation and sure enough came home with them for the 3rd time. So they are fighting this. It is horrible.

 

[pamperedlinda]

I've heard so much about children getting lice lately! So sorry you are dealing with it, hope they are all gone.

 

[KellyTheChef]

Yuck! My head is itching just reading about it!

Over the course of elementary school for my two older step kids (now going into 8th and 11th grades) we got to have fun with that on two different occassions. I feel for you!

 

[sk8rgrrl99]

I know I had them once when I was little. I got them from another kid at church. We used the rid and I have super thick hair so my Mom had to comb and comb and comb. And of course all the washing in hot water. The worst part was we found them at about 9 PM. Another parent at church had discovered that her child had them and started calling around to warn all the other parents. What a huge pain they are!!

 

[chefbritt]

I had them a few times as a kid. My best friend got them often, and her mom never cleaned or washed anything afterwards. I used to think my Mom was mean for not letting us have play dates, but she told me years later it was because every time I went I came home with lice. I have extremely thick hair, so it was a pain. We also used the mayo and a shower cap and let it soak in, like Sharon said. Works well.

 

[chefmeg]

Lice really like CLEAN hair~let the hair get dirty!!!!!!!!!!

 

[pamperedlinda]

Just thought I'd let you know that after reading this thread this morning, my head has been itching all day! No, I do not have lice!

 

[ChefLoriG]

this is where the term "nit picker" came from

 

[Jessamary]

Thank you all for your moral support! It is very much appreciated.

I checked my other two kids...nothing. But I'm still buying the shampoo tomorrow and doing everyone else in the house, just in case.

I did the shampoo/melaleuca oil thing this morning. I'm a customer of Melaleuca, so I have some around. I guess I don't use it straight very often...because it turns out I'm allergic! My face is all itchy and broken out, as are both my ears and little down my neck. Oh well.

Here's hoping for a louse-free school year...I think we're done for awhile.

 

[MORFIA]

big ah ha moment--USE A BIT OF HAIR GEL daily--they hate that too-Lice love clean kids hair--So the gel makes it "dirty" I can find it on anyone-
Nurse-hairdresser-