This is super magnified picture from the internet.  I could not zoom in close enough with my phone to take a picture.  The actual dozen I found were smaller than the smallest one in this picture.

This took courage to share.  But my hope in sharing is to help another mama or parent not feel alone when their little one starts to itch. 🙂  I know I have often felt alone in this struggle because lice is not openly talked about.  There is a stigma and shame about this super common childhood parasite.

I had asked my daughter if I could share this and she first asked, “Will __________(her friend)’s mom read it?”  It was her fear that school friends would find out.  I told her that I doubt they would tell their child about it.  She is fine with me sharing.  I am proud of her, she even shared in class that she found lice over the break.

My goal in blogging/sharing is always to encourage and empower.  But there is the fear with transparency- will they judge or criticize me?  But to be honest,  we all have people who stand in judgement of us and criticize us whether we live our life transparent or not.  Jesus who was totally perfect and sinless had lots of critics and enemies so for us as flawed humans to expect anything less would be silly.

So last night we got home from the church at 10pm (renovating etc) and my oldest asked me to check her itchy head.  We got a winner!  So I pulled off eggs and live guys til after midnight.  Jeremy was going to check my hair after but I told him to just sleep.  I said, “If I do have lice, they aren’t going anywhere” 🙂 and I don’t plan on sharing my brush with the other kids.  I would prefer other ways to spend my evening with my hubby instead of like monkeys picking bugs off each other.  Younger 2 kids have no eggs or live guys.  Yes!  So just me and Jeremy are left to check.

Our last lice adventure was a few years ago. Here are some info about lice:

• “It’s difficult to prevent the spread of head lice among children in child care and school settings. There’s so much close contact among children and their belongings that lice can spread easily. It’s no reflection on your hygiene habits or those of your children, and it’s not a failure on your part as a parent if your child gets head lice.” (Mayo clinic)
• “Head lice are most common among girls aged 5 to 11 but can affect almost anyone; infestations are rare in blacks. Head lice are easily transmitted from person to person with close contact (as occurs within households and classrooms) and may be ejected from hair by static electricity or wind; transmission by these routes (or by sharing of combs, brushes, and hats) is likely but unproved. There is no association between head lice and poor hygiene or low socioeconomic status.” (from MerckMauals)
• They are blood sucking parasites that do not fly or jump.  They need a host to live and die within 24 hours off of the head.
• They can be uber tiny (smaller than the ticks I have found on my family).  They are kinda clear with some black on their body.

So now to the practical– how we are dealing with this recent incident of lice.

1. We don’t buy the pesticide stuff anymore.  Last time I still found live ones even after shampooing with the poison (pregnant women are not to use it- I’m not prego but  don’t want that stuff on my kids since the skin absorbs 60% of whatever you put on it)
2. The best thing is to wash hair and comb through while wet.  Or you can spray stuff on it, let it dry and search/pick through.  You can buy some hippy stuff that is natural-I got that, Licefree Spray  The fine tooth metal comb is best.  So I brush through it all and rinsing comb often but if I see a live one- I pinch it and pull it off the strand or use the comb.  It usually sticks to my fingernail even after dipping finger in the bowl of water and dawn.  So I use a saftey pin to get it into the water.  I know if I find an egg, I just plucked the hair instead of pulling the whole strand out.
3. This time we found it is best to sit on the floor in a well lit room.  I had my daughter lay and put her head in my lap and I just meticulously combed and looked through it all.  It took about an hour and a half.  But it can take several hours with thick hair.  There is a special lamp called a Woods lamp that doctors use.  I seriously may buy one for next time because with 3 school age kids there is likely a next time.  **another helpful position so my neck isnt killing after hours of looking down- I had her lay on her bed with head near edge and I was on my knees so I did not have to look down as much.
4. I wash the pillowcases and towels.  I only wash the sheets of the infected child.  Here is a super interesting article on why you don’t have to go crazy with cleaning.  Best advice
5. I will likely vacuum couches but I don’t feel it is a must. 

• Wash hair with just shampoo. Conditioner stops the treatment from sticking to the hair. Let air dry or blow dry hair
• Soak/saturate dry hair with Cetaphil (that face/body wash for sensitive skin)
• Wait 2 minutes
• Comb through hair. The goal is to comb out as much as the cleanser. Wipe excess off. This will help take less time to blow dry after you search for nits.
• Remove nits with a lice comb. Place the lice comb at the scalp and slowly comb through. Swish the comb in a bowl of water to see if anything comes out. A white bowl works best to spot the nits. Flush the water down the toilet when done. I put warm water in a bowl with a squirt of Dawn dish soap. The nits/eggs often get stuck in the comb. So need a safety pin to poke them out. Honestly the comb is good to comb through all the hair quickly. But I have found that I next go section by section and throughly look. When I see a nit/egg, I pinch it and slide it all the way down the hair shaft or just yank it. 😉
• Blow dry hair fully (takes about 3 times as long to dry)
• Wait at least 8-12 hours to wash hair. I try to time it so we just wash it the next morning
• This method is supposed to suffocate the live ones and I believe dry out the eggs but I still do a thorough look through and pull off any eggs that I find.
• It is good to do this again in a few days and also check for any remaining live lice and eggs.
• Another method is to put 4 ounces of rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle with 15-20 drops of an essential oil (tea tree, lavender, peppermint or ecalyptus). Leave on scalp overnight /at least 12 hours. This spray can be preventative too.
• Most common way to get this is head to head contact and less common is sharing items.

I got much of this advice from a pediatrics office, https://www.valleypediatrics.com/storage/app/media/head20lice20cetaphil20tx.pdf

Okay parents if you are feeling too overwhelmed to do all this I found this company that will come to your home or you can go to their salon. https://www.myhairhelpers.com/lice-facts/

Also lice hate the smell of mint. So a DIY prevention spray. Mix 10 drops of peppermint essential oil with 16 ounces of water in a spray bottle. Shake each time you use it. Spray on hair daily. Here is a link with other cool essential lice tips/studies. https://www.myhairhelpers.com/lice-facts/

Another helpful article, https://www.webmd.com/children/ss/slideshow-lice-overview

As the adults in kiddos’ lives we need to normalize these common critters so the shame and stigma will go away. Books are one the best way to teach kids. There are many picture books out there on these bugs. Here are just a few: