I knew it was coming. It's inevitable these days now that they don't send kids home from school if they have lice. So the kids just pass it back and forth, especially in Texas and the south where lice can live and breed easily. But still I was somehow hoping we would get lucky.
Well, we didn't get lucky. In fact we got very unlucky, because by the time we figured it out, my husband and I also had lice. That's right I had lice for the first time at almost 42 years old and my husband at 43. Somehow our son managed to pass by unscathed, likely because he has very short hair and he doesn't lie down in our daughter's bed at night and read with her (such a sweet moment led to our epidemic).
For those of you who have already experienced this rite of passage - kudos to you for not losing your cool and recognizing they are after all just little bugs, not the plague. For those who have yet to have this joyous experience I'll share what I've learned about ridding our house of the lice epidemic.
First and foremost, you should know these things are tiny...very, very tiny. I mean I knew they were tiny, but I had always heard them described as the size of a sesame seed. Well, an adult louse is the size of sesame seed. But it takes quite awhile for the lice to colonize and grow to that size. So what you are looking for is either tiny white dots (eggs) that are smaller than the size of a pinhead OR a teenie tiny brown thing that looks like a microscopic piece of brown rice. I mean it's no more than 1 mm long. And if your kid has brown hair, you'll never see those because they blend in perfectly with their hair.
I tell you this, because my child had been complaining that her head was itching for at least 10 days. I kept looking and looking and I didn't see anything. I even thought I was smart, because I knew to look at the base of her neck and behind her ears first. Still I never saw anything. (Although if you have a boy with short hair, you should look where their hair is longest first.)
I got more suspicious when my head started itching at the base, but after my husband examined me several times, we both concluded we didn't see anything on either head. I even had the pediatrician look at my daughter's neck, and she said it was just sensitive skin.
So I turned to Google to uncover the source of itching. Mom after mom said it's lice...you just can't see them. That night after bath at about 7:00 at night (of course), I combed her hair and I saw a white dot...then another. Then, I saw something move. Crap. My husband told me he didn't see anything, but I knew. And I knew it was after 7:00 pm and my daughter had to go to school the next day and we were about to embark on quite an effort that evening.
Luckily, I have the best next door neighbor in the world, who has been through this and she had a spare lice removal kit at home which she generously offered to give me. But this leads me to my next piece of advice - Once your kids start pre-school, purchase a lice kit. It's going to happen and most likely you will discover it at night. So be prepared and that will make your first experience far less stressful.
The next thing to consider when the time comes is what your de-lousing method of choice will be. What are your options you might ask? Well, you can go the chemical route. Or you can go the organic, natural route. Or you can go the professional route. At one time I thought the pro idea seemed awesome, but keep in mind that they charge around $150/person. So for our house, that would have been $450 (our daughter, myself, AND my husband). And they aren't open at 8 pm at night when you really need them. So that leaves chemical vs. natural. I would have typically been inclined to go chemical - I mean I want something that's going to kill these buggers. But it turns out that nothing really kills them. You are just trying to dissolve the glue they use to attach to the hair, and then pick out the eggs and lice. So I would lean to the natural side. I used Nit Free, well, because beggars can't be choosers and that's what my neighbor had. But it seemed to work well, it's natural, and it comes with a great metal lice comb (very important part of the process).
To condense the next steps and not make this the longest blog in the world, here's the gist of what we did:
1. Used the kit mousse and comb to carefully comb out as many eggs and lice as possible that night. Comb one tiny section at a time and comb the hair on all four sides.
2. After finishing the combing, we washed with a lice shampoo to deter lice that might be in the house from jumping back onto the head.
3. Blow dry our hair! Holy cow. I had no idea this was so effective. But I began thinking about if the heat in the dryer kills these things, won't heat on your head kill them? Sure enough, the air will dry out the eggs and heat will even kill lice. In fact, I found data that suggested blow drying was more effective than the combing process.
4. Washed all of our bedding. Anything that couldn't be washed that had touched heads (like stuffed animals), we put in the dryer on high for an hour. If you have items (like plastic hats) that can't be put in the washer or dryer, just put them in the garage for 48 hours. Lice die if they don't have human blood for 48 hours.
5. Vacuumed the carpets and rugs especially where the kids play. Lucky for us our cleaning ladies had been at the house that day and done that already.
6. Put hats, combs, brushes, backpacks, bathrobes, anything that has touched the lice-filled hair in the washing machine or dishwasher. I even put couch cushions in the dryer just for good measure. But you should know that lice don't jump. They don't want to be off a human head, so you do not have to go wash everything in your house when this happens.
7. Then, I continued to wash pillow cases, hair brushes, and anything that had direct contact with our heads everyday until the 3rd day. I also made sure we used the lice shampoo and blew dry everyone's hair each day.
8. On the third day, we did another comb through for everyone. I was clean. My husband was clean. But my daughter still had 10-15 bugs. So we continued the process for her until the 6th day. That day, we did another comb through and she was clean.
Whew - we survived the epidemic. So I'm determined to do a better job of prevention from now on. I'm now using lice shampoo and conditioner on both of my kids. It won't kill lice. It just makes their hair smell like rosemary, which apparently lice don't like. I would love for my daughter to wear her hair in a pony tail everyday, which would help. But she refuses, because she says ponytails hurt. (I guess I could master the french braid). I bought tea tree shampoo and conditioner for myself from Trader Joe's. Apparently, lice don't like tea tree either. (BTW it's only $3.99 a bottle at Trader Joe's, not the outrageous price on Amazon.) I also will no longer use my comb or brush on my daughter's hair when I'm feeling too lazy to go get her brush. And I vow to blow dry my hair at least every other day and my daughter's hair at least once a week.
My last piece of advice, if your kid says his/her head is itching for more than 2 days, just do a treatment. If you don't comb anything out, great. But I now know you won't be able to see these things until you have a serious infestation on your hands. So don't be like me, just do some combing with a nit comb as soon as someone says, "Mom, my head itches" and you will conquer this lice epidemic!
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