GainesvilleMoms.com

It makes me quiver just thinking about it! I had them as a child (ick!) and apparently, the lice our children are now exposed to are becoming resistant! You can read about it here in my most recent blog entry.

Has your child had to battle these nasty little bugs? How did you deal with them?

I really hope I don't ever have to battle these things with my daughter, but she loves playing with and brushing hair. Not a good way to stay away from lice.

Ugh...I have only had to deal with this one time...when my youngest was just 1 year old my middle daughter was sent home from school with lice..I freaked out!! No one else in the house got it but it took two weeks of washing, treating and combing to get rid of them. I was paranoid for so long afterwards. I was more worried about my 1 year old more than anything. Thank goodness she never got any. I had to treat my car my sofas all of my daughters room and I had to put all of her stuffed animals into garbage bags for two weeks!! Then I washed them before I let her have them back!! It took my husband and I two to three hours a night, every night for two weeks, to comb out her hair to be sure no eggs survived and to check everyone else in the house to be sure we were all clean...

Now my kids know NO sharing. No scrunchies, no hats, no brushes, no scarfs, no nothing!!

Never again (I hope)

Karen

I know what you mean Stacy! I cringe just thinking about it! My daughter just started school and I am checking daily to make sure. I have heard that if you put tea tree oil in your shampoo it keeps them away. I haven't tried this yet, hopefully I wont have to. Just keep a short hair do or keep it always pinned up and use, even though I don't like to on a 4 yr old, hair spray or gel! Again, I haven't done this yet, other than the short hair cut! Just watch how your child acts also, if you see them scratch, even a little, start checking, it helps to catch it early and treat it before it gets bad! Hope some of this is helpful! I would love to hear if anyone else has some good advice on how to prevent or get rid of it.

Well I hear that there is a misconception about lice. Poeple think its just dirty children who get it and I hear lice love clean hair.

quote:

Originally posted by kristinch1:
Well I hear that there is a misconception about lice. Poeple think its just dirty children who get it and I hear lice love clean hair.

Yes that is what my pediatrician said also. She also said that hairspray does help to discourage them from invading hair too as KE said.

Karen

quote:

Originally posted by kristinch1:
Well I hear that there is a misconception about lice. Poeple think its just dirty children who get it and I hear lice love clean hair.

Exactly! According to the nurse I talked to for my blog, lice like everyone! But they even like less oily hair a little more since oil can suffocate them and make it harder for the eggs to attach to the hair. You're right, definitely a misconception!

Yes Yes, nurses in High School would come to our classes to do check and give this speech about them liking clean hair and not dirty so if someone got sent home from having it it didn't mean they were dirty or didn't take care of them selves! Ironically one of my close friends, captain of the cheerleading team, homecoming and prom queen, very popular got sent home with it!

I have also been debating on whether or not to start the topic of washing your childs (mostly girls) hair daily. Our hair stylist said not to wash it daily, just every other day or every two days! I also read a study a while back, and I have been trying to find again, that said that it's not necessary to bathe your child (infant-toddler) daily?! What do you all think of this?

My two teenagers would say ewwwwww, to the thought of not washing their hair every day. However I have to agree with KE that I have heard the same thing about not every day is needed for infants/toddlers. My sister went to school for 6 months in France and the family she stayed with would only let her wash her hair ONCE A MONTH!!! My poor sister was horrified but they thought she was out of her mind wanting to wash it everyday.

I bath my three old almost everyday but admittedly only wash her hair every other bath. The only time I miss a bath night is if we are out late or if there is a bad storm at bath time. Usually if she misses her bath the night before she jumps in the shower with me or my hubby in the morning. When she was an infant I rarely ever missed a bath because I just couldn't stand dirt getting in all of the little crevices that babies have!!

Karen

I pretty much give my daughter a bath every day. Since she goes to preschool, she comes home so dirty from playing outside, doing art, etc.

If she stays home all day, sometimes we will skip, but we pretty much have to give her one every night. She must play really hard at school.

As for hair washing, I do wash my daughter's every day, but sometimes I go every-other day if my hair still looks nice from the day before. It depends on how my hair looks and what I am doing that day.

Don't know if this is true, but I've always heard you should change the shampoo you use when the bottle runs out because your hair gets used to it, or at least switch between two kinds...?

Well I'll admit, I actually had lice when I was in elementary school. Our school had a small epidemic of it, and quite a number of the kids had it. We all went home and got shampoo'd, and we were back the next day. The big thing to remember is not to share hair bands, brushes or hats!

As far as baths and shampooing the boys, we do it about every other day. They both have really dry skin, so too many baths is just bad for their skin.

Years ago our daughter returned from a summer stay in Alabama at the home of her best friend's family. The church camp they attended had the kids perform in plays. One of the plays actually involved the kids trying on all types of HATS and then switching with other kids on stage (VERY dumb idea). LICE came home with our child and I was mortified! After almost a week of trying home remedies I found on the internet and caring friends provided, it was time to see Dr. Sanders and ask for the REAL medication. The lice was gone by day's end.

Had I known the home remedies DO NOT WORK (and you'll never want to eat a sandwich with mayo EVER again), we would not have wasted so much time, effort and frustration...nor jars of mayonaise and bottles of oil!