Wednesday, February 25, 2009

lice

I have learned a lot about this nasty 4 letter word! A louse is an adult lice, a nit is an egg of lice, a nymph is a baby louse. An adult an live 30 days on a human head. A female can lay between 100 and 300 eggs during her lifespan. The most harm committed where lice are involved is the products used to kill them. Bill used to work for Terminex and recognized the ingredients in the treatment shampoo for lice, he wore gloves and masks when using them. So we are bathing Danni twice a day and combing her hair with a lice comb while wet to remove the lousy lice. A miracle: No other person in our home has lice, and the girls sleep in the same bed. I just feel bad that I didn't catch this quicker, poor girl has been scratching her head raw. It took 18.7 years of having children for this problem to arise in my home, I'm glad it's happened now instead of back when I would have been horrified and doused my child with chemicals.
Please don't worry about Danni spreading lice to your child, we are working very hard to keep the louses off as soon as they become nymphs. Her heart would break if she were ostracized. At the same time, if your kids have had contact with her in the past week, might want to check their hair:-)

10 comments:

Lindsay said...

Lice are not fun. I caught them from my seat partner when I was in second grade -- what a miserable experience. Happily, no one else at my house caught them from me (unlike the time I passed chicken pox onto all of my siblings...). My mom was pretty vigilant in getting rid of those suckers. Good luck with Danni!

Kristin said...

We have had a couple lice outbreaks - but luckily for us, too, it only affected one child. Jon is a great comber. I'm so glad, because I can't handle it. No patience, and I'm a little sqeamish.

JoEllen said...

There was a summer where we (all 6 of us) got lice and then passed it to our cousins. It was terrible. Boys are easy, you can just shave their heads, but with girls...man, I just remember that those tiny little combs hurt! Good luck. I hope you're able to kill all the buggers quickly.

tappingflamingo said...

I had a TERRIBLE experience with lice. When I was pregnant with Ashley, my two sister-in-laws (also pregnant with their second child) and myself(all of us had long hair) had this terrible itching and eventually rash. We had no clue that it was lice. We were mortified, but soon learned that lice like clean hair, and a clean environment. The problem was we were pregnant and we could not use chemicals. What a nightmare!!!

Family said...

My son brought it home from school when he was still there. I have a great concauction that worked. Totally natural. Tea tree oil, peppermint oil, lavender oil, Rosemary oil, olive oil and water. I put 2 drops each in a spray bottle and spray it in am and pm. In hair, on beds, on coats, carpet, EVERYWHERE! We use it as a rinse after every bath. It worked For us. Good luck and death to lice!

Devri said...

Oh this makes me itch, and people who have had it in their homes, know about the itch feeling, even if you don't have it when someone brings the subject up!! oh!!!

We had it once, I swear I will shave my kid's hair the next time they get it,7 hours on each child combing through their hair, their butt long hair.. oh the cleaning the cleaning, and the cleaning..

argh! sorry.

Wendy said...

ugh...sorry you're dealing with this. I am a believer that the mayo treatment works great. You might check it out.

http://specialchildren.about.com/od/medicalissues/ht/smotherlice.htm

Kelsey said...

Oh soooo not fun! I remember Connie telling me that Brad did his thesis on alternative lice treatments that don't use chemicals. They even developed a treatment (something to do with heat) that has a patent pending...you should ask her about it. Good luck!

kknox said...

The worst two weeks of my life! We still talk about "da head rice." If you can find it on the internet or somewhere we found a cute pbs video where Arthur's sister DW or one of them get lice. Symon liked to watch it while we were doing our daily combing. NEVER again I hope!

cate said...

I can't believe after that many years of children this is your first case of lice! Poor Danni, I remember having lice as a kid, that dreaded comb!!!! Here's to your first and hopefully last case of lice.

David

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Tawnymara

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