Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Ugh. One Reason I Could Live without Public School

If there is one thing…just one thing that turns me off about public school that would have to be those nasty head bugs, lice!
A few years ago we fought a battle that I thought would never go away.  Kayla brought lice home after spending the night with a friend of hers.  Oh my goodness.  It was a good TWO weeks before I found it.  Do you know where a 7 year olds head has been in a two week time frame?!  Well, let’s just say everywhere.
It took two treatments and two hours sitting on the porch on a cold Thanksgiving day picking Nits from her head to finally get rid of it.  Then one month later we were at it again, this time it was the week of Mammie’s {my grandmothers} funeral.  Needless to say that was the straw that broke the camels back.  I had my sister n law chop her hair off.  Chin length!  I was bound and determined not to ever see these critters again.  Well, that was that..we thought for sure it was over.  Last year when there was an outbreak Kayla wore her hair pulled up in a tight pony tail daily with hair spray to guard against the critters and we even put tea tree oil in her shampoo. {supposedly they don’t like the smell or something}
Now in 5th grade we thought that we’d never see them again.  HA!  Monday night right at bedtime {because that is when kids choose to talk to their parents about important stuff to prolong bedtime}….Kayla says that a little girl told her that she had lice.  I said ok, what did you share brushes, rub heads…what.  She said no we bumped heads on Friday.  WHAT?!  OH NO!  That was 3 days ago…your head has been all over this house.  Crud. <--- {this was not the word I used. I just wasn’t going to write the real word} I started checking and I saw something that looked suspicious.  Although I am not 100% sure because it was in all honesty hard to look through her hair.  I mean she’s 10, washes her own and it’s half way down her back.  She doesn’t do the most wonderful of a job. {come on, in reality neither do many others her age, they are in a hurry to live life not have the best personal hygiene.}
Well we had a lice treatment under the sink for a just in case emergency.  Well I broke it out. used it…Cut her hair.  Yep.  I cut her hair.  Washed her hair again with dandruff shampoo.  Checked her hair.  Nothing.  Squeaky clean.  Dried and flat ironed it, nothing.  Whew.  I think it was a false alarm.  BUT still we have been there and it. is. not. fun.
january 2010 006
Sheets are clean. Brushes have been sanitized.  And we wait.  We wait and check her head in a day or so and see if I see anything.  And we add tea tree oil back to her shampoo.  We are not going through this again.
Did I mention this is one reason I could live without public school?

11 comments:

Beth in NC said...

Yikes! I hope we never have to go down that road!

I'm sure that is just horrible.

Anonymous said...

I had to take 1/2 a day off from work and cut 8 inches of my daughter's hair off to solve the same problem...makes my skin crawl.

Jo said...

my step dtr had an awful resistant head of lice when she visited us one summer. We ended up using olive oil w a fine comb every night - the olive oil stuns the older ones and detaches the nits. After weeks of lice shampoo and olive oil treatment she finally was rid of them - that was 10 yrs ago and I still itch when I talk abt it !

Darlene said...

Oh, I DON'T want to go down that road with Lexi. I have heard it is horrible. Fingers crossed that her hair is fine with no visitors.

Maggie said...

Lice have been known to take up residence on heads in private school too, and in Sunday school, and assorted other places. Bummer, but there's no getting away from them.

Anonymous said...

I've had daughters in the public school system for over eleven years and I have never had to deal with lice (lucky me, lol) I don't think it is just a public school thing though because one of the private schools here had several bad outbreaks a couple of years ago.

Unknown said...

We homeschooled for six years, then decided to give public school a try. Two weeks later all four of my kids got lice and I did too. I was pregnant at the time and totally freaked out about all the chemicals, but the pharmacist said it didn't get into your blood stream.

Anonymous said...

Uhhhh. Dont you just hate that! I hope they are gone for good this time. At my local drug store they sell a shampoo that works on lice and is harm free. I gave not had to try it out yet ...thank goodness but I sure like knowing it's there just in case. Bless her heart!

The Un-Nester said...

Ooooo yes, a room full of kids is full of no tellin' what! I remember lice scares when I was in school too. And when they arrive - it just runs amok...as well as the stomach flu! I sure hope it is a false alarm!!!

Nichole said...

Ok my head itches like crazy now!

Molly said...

Ewww! As if you didn't have enought to do...why not sanitize the entire house!?! Crazy.