Lice is just another word for H-E-L-L on Earth for a parent. {and anyone who has it}
It’s embarrassing to talk about for most and quite possibly that’s why it can so easily become an epidemic.
{Swallow pride} My family got it. All. Four. Of my children.
Wait, don’t freak out on me yet! If you really know my kids and just gave them a hug yesterday, that doesn’t mean you have the bugs crawling on you today.
Our infestation {wording for effect}occurred this passed July.Wait still don’t freak out!
I called (texted) all the moms of my kids’ friends to alert them of the possible spread of bugs.
For those who really know me, know my aversion to all things tiny and crawly. You understand how this topic is disgustingly my least favorite and can imagine the emotional pain I had to endure during this time.
I’m just now writing about this because of the mental and emotional effects it had on me. I was angry, sad, traumatized and embarrassed. Yes, it is a hard pill to swallow to find out your kids have bugs in their hair. What will others think? Will they shun you and your kids, lose friends over this? Who. Cares. (purposely a statement). The ONLY way to prevent lice from spreading and ultimately returning to your family’s heads, is to inform those you’re in contact with so they can check and possibly eliminate any further infestation. In the Winter months, when kiddos are piling up their hats and jackets in the classrooms, guess what, lice goes crazy. So here I am, again swallowing my pride and trying to keep all of this from spreading. I’m here to let you know that no matter how clean your house is (I’m known to be slightly OCD), how clean your kid’s hair is (lice loves clean heads) you are not safe.
Did I mention it was H-E-L-L? It was. Here’s my hellacious experience in a nutshell. I NEVER want to live through this again.
As my 4 year old was sitting in my lap one day I noticed the infamous dark brown bug crawling close to his forehead. I tried to grab it and missed, but Daddo managed to catch it quickly. We looked at it squished on his finger and both were in shock. I immediately knew. I’ve never seen lice that close, but as an elementary school teacher, it is always a reality in the forefront of my mind. Daddo said ‘no way.’ Where we were, we had to get all four kids in the car and to the nearest drugstore to buy all of the needed supplies to get rid of this. I knew but didn’t want to look at the rest of my kids’ heads until we got home safely in my bathroom. I easily spent over $100 in a matter of minutes in Walgreen’s. I got three treatment packages, extra wire combs and two bottles of the fabric spray. I returned for more of this in the two days ahead.
As we drove home, my mind was planning how I would ‘safely’ get the kids in the bathroom (like they were covered in syrup and couldn’t touch anything), manuever them one at a time in the shower, then to the floor for ‘picking’ and ‘combing’, then straight outside to Daddo for the ‘shaving.’ A natural assembly line. The big boys didn’t know why and we just explained to them that Rhett had one bug in his hair and we wanted to treat all of them to be safe.
Once home, the kids and I went straight back to my bathroom, they sat on the tile floor waiting their turn for the sink. First I did the 20 minute treatment just on their head in the sink. Timers going on two different phones and one clock. Then they moved to the side of the tub where I washed out the first treatment. During this time is when I noticed the dead bugs falling out into the bath water. I cringed and wanted to scream at the top of my lungs but I knew I couldn’t. My oldest is equally freaked out by bugs and germs, and to him this was like a nasty disease. I tried to stay calm through all of this. But it became increasingly difficult as with each of my four kids I noticed more and more bugs falling out into the tub after the 20 minute treatment. From the tub rinse, they took turns sitting in the floor with me as I combed through their hair and picked to their scalp. I was reminded of the momma monkey at the zoo checking her babies for bugs. Literally that was me. As I did this I waited for another 20 minute alarm to go off for the next kid’s rinse. For the boys, as soon as I was finished picking and combing, I sent them out to the far back yard to Daddo where he was waiting with a chair and his electric hair trimmers.
* Let me add here, it is only an advantage to shave the hair when trying to get rid of an infestation. Having super short hair will not prevent new bugs….. nits can cling to the hair follicles at just 1/8 of an inch from the scalp.
After they were shaved, the boys came back to me for another check. Most of the live bugs were gone, but I still had the nits to pick out. Seriously they were attached so close to the base of the hair follicle it was even harder to remove them once their hair was shaved. Yes harder. After Daddo was finished with his job, he began stripping bed sheets, pillows, blankets, decorative pillows and our furniture cushions outside in the hot July sunshine and sprayed them with the fabric spray.
Once I picked through the boys’ hair a third time, they were instructed to go swimming.
* Chlorine or salt water pools do not kill or prevent lice. We have a pool and swim daily in the summer. At this point in my treatment of them I just wanted them outside. Later I found out that the treatment works best if the hair isn’t washed or submerged in water for 24 hours. So I had to retreat them again that night. :/
Poor Cora Love, my daughter with the thick, wavy, sandy blonde hair. She was barely two and had no idea why she had to sit in the bathroom floor, completely still, between my legs while I picked through each and every hair. She went from crying, to whining, back to crying until finally 2 hours into her treatment, the poor baby fell asleep sitting up with her head resting on my knee. It. Was. Hell.
I try to refrain from using bad language around my children. By the end of 3 hours of this and still finding tiny bugs in my baby’s beautiful hair, I just let them have it and started cussing at the tiny parasites that were attacking my family. ATTACKING. Cussing at bugs. That’s how I felt.
I had Daddo check my head in which he insisted I was clear. I checked him and miraculously
he too had none. How in the world did four kids have lice and neither
parent? I couldn’t believe it and had my neighbor check my head more
than once. I also checked her’s and she checked her son who is my son’s
best friend. All in the clear.
A process that started at 12:30 in the afternoon, by 5 pm, I was finally finished with treating my children and washing all of the sheets, towels, pillow cases, blankets and recently worn clothes. Once dried, I had each load go another 20 minutes on high to kill any remaining nits or bugs. I made another trip to the store to buy more fabric spray and spent the rest of the evening spraying everything…… bed mattresses, furniture, rugs, my car. Then I vacuumed my whole house and my car, throwing out the vacuum bag into the outside trash can. Two days later, I repeated the spraying and vacuuming. All of my killing and prevention tactics I simply got from the internet. Every remedy I found, I used. I called other moms and described in detail what I saw. I talked to
my friend, a hairdresser, who gave me tons of info. I also found out from several other parents that they had already
experienced lice with their kids and this wasn’t as rare as I thought.
Two days following the initial treatment, I still found nits and small bugs in my daughter’s hair and on one of my sons. Finally on the third day I couldn’t find a single bug or nit. During this time, I was still spraying the house and car and rewashing sheets.
Seven days later, three buzz cuts, two treatments on each kid and myself, I did the post-treatment head check and found no bugs. For weeks and months after that, I checked my kids’ heads weekly if not more. I found myself picking through their hair anytime they were sitting or standing near me. Even in public until one of them would dodge away in embarrassment.
I never want to live through this again, but realistically I know it’s almost impossible. My kids go to school every day, play contact sports, wear hats all the time and are just, well, kids. They don’t think about this as much as we do. In August at the start of school I bought the natural herb Tea Tree oil that repels lice. I put two dropper fulls in a basic spray bottle filled with water and use this on my kids’ hair before school each morning. I also spray this in their hats, baseball helmets and in my home. This is an inexpensive way to help prevent a very expensive outbreak.
This week as my kiddos headed back from the holiday break with their toboggans and jackets in tow, I knew kids everywhere were doing the same….. and laying their jackets in piles, sharing hats and bundling up together. I’m writing this to help parents everywhere realize none of us are immune to the transferring of lice. It is a horrible nuisance I wouldn’t wish on anyone. The more of us who practice these simple preventative steps, the less outbreaks we’ll have to deal with. Most importantly, if someone in your family catches lice, TELL others. Tell their school, friends’ parents and anyone else who may have contact with them. Otherwise you can just catch it again from a person you originally gave it to.
Have you been itching your head while reading this? Me, too. I check my head a lot. I can’t help but stare at other people’s heads, too. After experiencing it, you can’t help but think about the reality…. and never wanting it again.
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