*Warning* The following post is almost guaranteed to make your scalp itch and your skin crawl.
It's not a pleasant experience to get a call from your child's school, asking you to come pick them up because they've got head lice. And then you see them and you wonder how on earth you missed the little sores all over the top of their little head, when you just washed their hair two nights ago.
It's also rather scary to google head lice and come across articles which tell you that most over-the-counter medicines and shampoos are useless because, just like Golden Staph, repeated exposure to various anti-Lice chemicals has built up their immunity and we now face...SuperLouse!
But discovering your child has head lice doesn't make you a bad parent...although there must have been a bad parent somewhere way back when who sent their child to school with lice and let them infect everyone else's kids, including your own.
It's also interesting to discover that the carpet in a classroom can be completely free of lice despite the room being occupied by kids infested with hundreds of lice, because lice need to eat about every 6 hours and don't survive very long when removed from their human host. In fact it's downright pleasing to discover that, because it means if you can get the lice off your kid's head and keep them off your own, you can eradicate the problem within 24 hours.
So they say the shampoos may not work, but guess what? They still make us parents feel better. And at least we're doing something, right? And maybe they don't kill the lice outright, but getting covered in irritating chemicals still can't be a pleasant experience, for a louse. And being repeatedly tugged through the teeth of a very fine comb can't be very pleasant, either. And combining the two experiences is almost guaranteed to make your average, common, everyday louse (and maybe even SuperLouse) lose his group on your child's hair and get washed down the drain.
So, while lice may be becoming resistant to anti-lice shampoos and washes, I'd still recommend using them as directed. And before rinsing the shampoo out I suggest using that little fine-toothed comb and comb through their hair first, yes, shampoo and all. Do it with your little one standing in the shower or bath and immediately rinse the comb under the water before running it through their hair each time.
And if all else fails, there's always MagiComb!!!
Now if you'll please excuse me, my scalp is itchy and I need to scratch!
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9 comments:
the REAL crappy part is that you have to clean your whole house to make sure that there are not any waiting to re-infest ...
(hugs) man, I hated it when it happened to us. I finally brought the kid that was causing the problem home with me to clean it up. THEN we had to deal with the parents...
:(
'cuse me... now I have to scratch...
Scratch scratch! Growing up in Hawaii Uku's (what we call them in Hawaii) was something EVERYONE had, just like cockroaches in your house. Didn't matter if you came from the rich part of the island, or hick-landia like my side of the island it was a part of life. What really sucked is a whole lot of us girls had really really loooong hair (a product of hula lessons and you're forbidden to cut your hair if you're in hula). So pair really really looong hair, with nearly yearly or so infestations and you got crazy times. I can remember one day during a inside rainy day recess we found uku's on someone and they got sent home and all of us kids immediately, instinctly sat around picking through each other's hair like monkeys. The BEST uku brush ever found was this little wooden two sided thing we got from an asian market. I think i remember my grandma saying it took 3 hours to comb through my big bushy looong hair once. Oh and the bobby pins! ouch! Each finished section was bobby pinned tightly up and then re-done when finished. What a totally lame afternoon for everyone!
Amber has really thin hair, I used to complain that she didn't inheritate my thick hair. After the lice incident, I will never complain about it again.
Well, those little buggers can't be accused of discrimination can they? Long, short, thin, thick light or dark hair - they'll climb on board and stay till we kill em.
LiceKiller is a super way to kill em naturally - no chemicals, just oils & enzymes. Ever heard of it?
Sheran
School nurses are responding favorably to a service for parents like yourselves where folks can call and talk to volunteers. It's www.headlicehotline.org Check it out.
I'm glad someone realizes that your house is not infecting you! As the owner of The Hair Whisperers lice removal service in LA I see frantic moms cleaning everything and taking the carpets out to be steam-cleaned. It has nothing to do with how well you keep house, or how often you wash your hair, it's just "lousy" luck to get lice, and only the things that touch your head can really re-infect you, if that.
Dear Hair Fairy -- why would you think that a home is exempt from being a source of re-infestation? Head-to-head contact is one way to get head lice, but what of the dozens of fallen hairs in our environment with nits that are ready to hatch? Once they hatch in the environment, they can find their way on to a head by crawling on any fibrous surface like a sweater tossed on a bed, or clothing laid near the newly hatched egg on a hair shaft that was on the ground or sofa or chair...or even the automobile (which most don't think of treating), and there you have it, a nimph crawling back on to a head to join it's buddies. So, while I don't think one should go to extremes, I do believe the environment is an important factor in eradicating the problem of re-infestation. There are really two problems -- lice on your head, and lice in your environment. To treat one and ignore the other is an invitation to repeating the cycle all over again.
ive read somewhere that you can get rid of
head lice if you freeze them or heat them using hair dryers, i think it makes really sense that kill them by heating them up.
is this true?
David, from what I've found, a Hair Dryer set to Hot is one chemical-free method of killing lice & their eggs.
However!
I also saw that caution must be used when using chemical treatments and a Hair Dyer because some of the chemical treatments are quite flammable.
So, yes, a Hair Dryer would be a feasible way to fight head lice & their eggs, but you probably still want to cut your hair short to make it easier. Just be very careful not to burn your scalp.
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