There’s a Louse in the House!

There’s a Louse in the house! Or How to Survive Head Lice

I know it’s still winter, but Spring will be here before we know it and it’s perfect weather for head lice! Learn now how to handle this situation before you’re in a panic with a note from your childs school.

When my daughter was growing up, she had beautiful blonde hair – fine and long – and apparently perfect type of hair for head lice to lay their eggs. Every year – like clockwork – in the spring and in the fall, she would get a round of head lice. This went on for 7 years! Yes, I became an expert at dealing with the eggs and nits and she became patient at the process of getting rid of them.

Here’s some info on head lice that we learned the hard way. This is information from my own experience. If you would like to learn more, please visit http://www.ridlice.com/ to learn more.

Back to my experience: Lice LOVE clean hair – they can stick their eggs to it! Their eggs can’t cling to dirty hair – go figure – hence head lice or their eggs are not an indicator of one’s cleanliness. In fact because her hair was so fine and clean, they loved her head even more.

Head lice do not discriminate between upper, middle or lower class. Just go visit your local paintball site, batting cages, whitewater rafting, rock climbing, or any place else where helmets are used, if someone wore the helmet before you and they had head lice, you will likely get them too.

The only product I used was RID – I’m sure it’s extremely toxic but at the time I didn’t know what other product to use. It always worked but it’s still multiple hours of work – not only removing from your child’s head, but doing the wash as well, and treating bedding, couches, etc.

One thing I did learn from our pediatrician was that lice hate clothes dryers – easiest way to deal with pillows and bed linens and stuffed animals (my daughter had a zoo of stuffed animals) was to throw the items into the dryer and run on HIGH (hot hot heat) for 20 minutes. Killed ‘em dead.

So if your child comes home with head lice, don’t panic! I can only recommend RID because that is what I am familiar with, but be sure to wash and dry everything, and run through your clothes dryer those items that you aren’t able to wash. Again, go to http://www.ridlice.com/ to read and learn more. (As I learn more about essential oils, I am sure there are HEALTHIER and NON-TOXIC ways to get rid of lice. As I learn more, I will post an update for you here.)

Make yourself a cup of tea and turn something on TV for your child to watch while you work on your child’s head – stay calm — it will get better. Once my daughter reached teenage years, she started washing her hair every other day and that seemed to stop them from bothering her again.

(Thank you to spudcomics.com and Lonnie Easterling for their hilarious cartoon – it is so perfect!!!)