motherfucking lice. again.
i want to smash something, i feel so helpless right now. about a month ago DD was scratching her head alot so i did a thorough check and sure enough-- motherfucking lice. i was horrified. i've never dealt with this before, even growing up in a family of 4 kids, but i figured shit out and got it taken care of. i washed and dried every single towel, pillow, pillowcase, sheet, blanket, and item of clothing either of us had worn in the predeeding couple weeks. every single stuffed animal either went into a sealed trash bag for two weeks or was thrown into a dryer on high heat for an hour. we both used the shampoo, and then i nitpicked through her hair for hours to get every single last egg and bug. a friend who was a camp counsellor went through my hair and didn't find anything, which wasn't any consolation. i nitpicked every single night and morning for a week, and washed her blankets and pillows daily. i shampooed her again after a week, and kept checking every other day. the two days a week she goes to school they did a thorough head check during drop off for two weeks to make sure she was "clean" and they didn't find a single thing. a month went by, and i started to forget about Motherfucking Lice.
started to, anyway. kid was scratching again this afternoon, and sure enough-- MORE. MOTHERFUCKING. LICE.
everything that could went straight to the laundromat. everything else went back into trash bags. we shampooed. i meticulously and obsessively nitpicked for awhile. we stopped so she could have some ice cream for being such a good girl. i nitpicked some more. we stopped so she could take a twenty minute dump and i casually nitpicked while she was pooping. we stopped for a few minutes and went outside to do a few laps around the house so we could both get a break, and then i nitpicked some more.
i'm not seeing anything anymore. obviously i'll keep looking, morning and night. pillows and blankets will be changed daily. i'll shampoo her again in a week. WHAT THE FUCK ELSE AM I MISSING HERE?!?!?!?! her school *claims* that DD was the only kid that had it. actually, they *claim* that in the 15 years they've been open DD's only the second kid who's ever had it. i say fuck them, that's bullshit. either parents just aren't telling the school when their kids have it, or the school is blatantly lying to try to keep their lice-free badge shiny or something. anyway, they claim that all the kids were checked and nobody had anything. they claim that parents were notified and kids were checked at home, and nobody had anything.
so fucking FINE. the school must be lice-free. our house is supposedly lice-free. our car is supposedly lice free. so why isn't her head?!?!? i did it all by the book. it was supposed to be over and done with. i wasn't supposed to have to sit and pick through my kid's head again with tweezers, a metal comb, and a magnifying glass while she didn't even shed a tear as her neck cramped up. i wasn't supposed to have to be biting my nails worrying that they'll find anything on her head before school for the next couple weeks, and that i'll have to miss work because she won't be able to go and i don't have other care for her. i wasn't supposed to be making up more soothing bullshit lies about how i'm only looking through her hair for "germs". she doesn't know they're bugs, and i refuse to let her know.
for real, i want to break something with my arms and legs right now. i want to kick and scream until i fall asleep. bugs, in my kid's fucking hair. possibly in mine now, i checked the front of my head as best as i could and didn't find anything but i don't have anyone to check me thoroughly tonight. the tough luck side effects of being a single mom: nobody to check my head for lice. i'll stop at my mom's and have her check me in the morning and then deal with it if i have it too.
somehow, one egg or one bug escaped our licecapades last month and started another infestation on my poor kid's head. hopefully this time all those fuckers will die and be gone so this doesn't happen again. in the mean time, i may have to legitimately ask my doctor for some valium or something because my mind is about to explode.
fucking lice. fuck this.
/end rant
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I'm so sorry to hear, it is such a pain. My kids went through that when they were little.
Maybe try using a curling iron? Curl your daughter's hair one section at a time. Nothing could survive the heat. My grandma used kerosene, coming it through then washing it out, but that's probably more toxic than the lice.
I hope it's over for you soon.
Glamorous
Memory is a crazy woman that hoards colored rags and throws away food. ~Austin O'Malley
omg, i am so sorry. i had to laugh because i know EXACTLY what you are dealing with. it fucking sucks sucks sucks. my stepmom flew some nits over on a plane ( i think, my daughter was not even in school yet) a few years ago, and i got it from her, and it took me WEEKS to get rid of it. its horrible, not to mention expensive.
but seriously. that school is lame. ONLY TWO KIDS EVER HAS HAD IT? that is a complete lie.
some facts.
lice prefer VERY CLEAN environments. for reals.
its an epidemic in our country.
can dd get a hair cut?
it will pass. and almost everyone has had it when they are children.
dont worry. this too shall pass.
sending lice removal love.
xo
shakti
shakti
shaktisrealwords.blogspot.com
It took me 3 months to get rid of my kids' lice one summer. The thing that finally did it was tea tree oil. I did the whole Nix/ Rid thing and then nitpicked every night for a week. Then, I used tea tree oil in their shampoo for a few months. It seemed to be a preventative for any further manifestations.
Treat your hair with the tea tree, too. It couldn't hurt.
Good luck.
http://www.ehow.com/how_2188304_treat-lice-tea-tree-oil.html
There was this kid in my kid's class whose family had lice that had become poison-resistant. It was sheer hell. No RID, or neem, or anything worked. Only thing that worked was coconut oil. But the poor kid kept re-infesting others, including my kid. The problem didn't go away until I gave the mom of that family a giant jar of coconut oil. She had no idea that you can drown lice in oil, or that poison-resistance existed.
My daughter has long, thick hair, and I had butt-length dredlocks, which obviously had to go.
We were louse-combing for MONTHS!
I found out that if you dress your kid's hair with coconut oil, and put it up in braids, it smells nice, combs easily, and is unattractive to lice.
Good luck!
add it to your shampoo. it keeps it away. DD had a nasty case last year and my ped says anytime anyone even mentions lice in her office, they all douse with the stuff. she says to add some to a spray bottle with water and spray the toys and carpets with it periodically, too. keep those fuckers at bay.
that she's the only child with lice. No. Way.
Ugh i have so much to look forward to as my girl grows up.
Based on other sort of buggy experiences, I'd lace some coconut oil with tea tree oil and use that. And, so I've been told, if your girl flicks her head forward over her knees after you've got every visible lice out, and you comb her hair backwards with a fine comb, this helps get rid of any tiny eggs you may have missed. A friend of mine beat a chronic lice infestation in one of her four kids' heads doing that...hell, maybe do this every couple of days for a week, just in case.
My head is itching from thinking about this. Sending lice-killing thoughts your way,
~c
you know how it's spread, usually in winter ebcauase there are hats and coats and scarves lying around in a classroom comingling. but anywhere where there are lots of kids with close contact and exchanging clothing and whatnot. (when was watching my kid's theater production last week, kids were switching characters by passing around hats and shirts, the whole audience was like awwww... i was like LICE!)
anyway, if school is the only place she goes like that, then that's where she got it. in my experience schools downplay lice. they are required by law (in my state anyway) to report that lice exists in the school, but not how prevalent it is, so my kid's school actually lied to parents about it too. we parents know because our kids were old enough to tell us which classmates have it, and we did the math ourselves. but sure enough, the school wrote a letter telling us that there was "a case of lice" in the school, telling us that they would follow protocol. protocol is telling parents to check their kids heads daily, and to also check the kids who go to school. it is NOT required that you report lice to your school. in my state anyway. it's not a public health hazard. it's a nuisance in the eyes of the law. so.... it's entirely plausible that the school is outright lying to you. when i confronted the school nurse she said it was because she didn't want to cause a "panic." i said, you think we're going to panic over lice? seriously? it's not ebola. it's something we just need to know about so we can deal with it. let us know when it's in the classroom so we can proactively look for it rather than wait for a major infestation to take hold.
oh, and their idea of checking in school was have the kids line up, and the nurse would look, literally look with her eyes, at the napes of each kid's neck, wearing a vinyl glove, touch their nape, and move on to the next kid. yep, without changing gloves unless she saw one. and she put it across to me like the most amazing thing, "i NEVER found lice on anyone i checked. all the cases we learned about came from parents telling us." really? you didn't find lice by looking at 30 napes? interesting. and like i said, telling the school was a courtesy, not a requirement. you didn't even have to keep your kid home if they had it.
anyway, i really like the curling iron idea. your daughter can be sitting there getting her hair styled instead of looking for hair germs.
My son came home with lice, and, of course, we all got it. My son's lice and my husband's lice were no big deal - but I have about four feet of hair - no small matter for combing out.
Here's what I learned. New treatments for lice work much better than the treatments from our youth. I let the shampoo sit and combed my hair out for about and hour and a half. Then I used the shampoo again about 2 days later and repeated the combing. No more lice. I didn't launder everything we owned, just our sheets and blankets.
Braid your daughter's hair tightly and put it under a kerchief when she returns to school where lice, undoubtedly, still rages on.
I hope you've kicked it.
I've had them like 5 times since I've lived here in Catalunya, and I don't even have a kid in school. I work with kids but i try not to let them touch my hair or have access to my hat or scarf, etc... another teacher at my school says she's never gotten them even though she passes around a santa hat at xmas time. i'm gonna start using tea tree in my shampoo and coconut oil in my hair now that i've read the other comments.
Tigerfish Mama
totally went through 2 or three rounds---guess where they were? In the UPHOLSTERY of the FAX's car. Upholstery.
"Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius"--Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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