my daughter has gotten lice from her best friend when we lived in california. we'd get rid of it only for her to pop up with it less then a month later (apparently her friend's mom could never get rid of it cuz she wasnt going about it the right way).
with head lice, not only do you have to wash the hair with a special lice killing pesticide, you have to cut it...very short .
then comes the care of the items in the home/bedroom.
you have to wash everything that will fit in the washing machine. (clothes, stuffed animals, pillows & ALL bed linens) .
then you have treat all fabric furniture & carpet with said pesticide as if IT has lice.
oh...did i forget to mention the interior of the family car(s)? if there's any fabric inside of it/them.
this whole nutty process is the only fool-proof way to REALLY get rid of those darned bugs. so, we did this several times in california.
& now 2 times here in south carolina! me, my son & my daughter came here, apparently & unbeknownst to us, carrying the bugs with us. the school found it on my daughter & called her brothers school & then called us, asking us to pick her up & not bring her back til it was gone. minutes later, my sons school called us asking us the same thing after finding bugs on him. go figure. that was last year.
yesterday...my daughter began complaining of an itchy head. my heart sank as i dreaded the coming search for bugs. i checked her head...and sure enough she had bugs!
so, again we jumped on the head lice merry go round & started with our hair clippers. last year i had my fiancee cut my hair down to an inch so i could get rid of my bugs. it worked. & so did the house/car treatments.
i swore i would never cut my hair like that again after how long it took to grow it back out but...
there i was, on mothers day, near tears, getting my hair cut down to an inch again. i wasn't completely sure if i had it or not, but decided to cut my hair just to be safe. i always say "better safe then sorry."
my son had slept in our bed & he had it, after sleeping in his sisters bed for a week while we repaired a hole in his bedroom wall. (ok lemme explain that...normally it doesnt take a week to repair a hole , but he kept messing with the spackle, making us put on more. it takes 24-48 hrs for it to dry, when left alone. when we finally were able to get enough on to cover the hole & let it dry, we were able to sand it down & re-paint over it with the blue paint that covers the rest of his bedroom walls.)
so anyways, the kids can return to school today cuz i have taken care of their bugs, they are bug free but...wait for it...
now i have to notify the school nurses & teachers so the rest of the classroom students can get checked, since we know which student it came from this time.
i told my daughter that now, not only is she not allowed to share any hair/ clothing items with her friends , she is no longer allowed to hug them to where their heads touch . thats how she got it this time. my daughter is a very big hugger, she looooves a good cuddle . but i cant have this happening again.
i absolutely HATE this whole damned problem . this problem tops my list of hateable problems/situations!
its a pain in the arse & its embarrassing ...cuz alot of people think that head lice comes from being dirty & thats not true . we are very clean people here in this home . im allergic to dirt & dust so i keep this place tip top to the best of my abilities.
ok im done.
thanks for those of you who took the time to read this and/or respond.
thank you for letting me vent.
im pissed off right now & rightly so.
i thought we were done & could close that chapter of our life & move on from it. [shakes head]