So, my oh-so-efficient plan to work with the girls on a review tonight went completely out the window due to a surprising and unwelcome discovery: Oldest Gal and Little Gal have head lice.
Ugh. My head itches just from reading that last sentence. To be honest, my head...and my whole body...have been itching ever since I realized the truth. I think it's mostly hypochondriacal, though. (I'm pretty sure you can't get head lice on your ankles, one of my current itchy spots.) ;)
So instead of sitting leisurely at the computer, typing my girls' opinions about our latest review, I spent my evening giving two girls an olive oil and fine tooth comb treatment, pausing occasionally to pick little critters out of their hair. Oh, the joys of motherhood! :}
Middle Gal seems to be in the clear, at least at this point. I'm supposed to check her head every two days. I've started washing all of the bedding, but I still have to soak all of the combs and brushes in hot water, vacuum the couch and rug, and email the girls' teachers to alert them of the possible start of a head lice epidemic. I'm sure that will be their favorite email of the week. (Sarcasm alert.) ;)
The timing could have been a bit better. Tomorrow is Hubby's grandmother's memorial service, and it was supposed to be kind of an all-day family thing. Plus, I'm singing two songs for the actual service. At this point, the plan is to send Hubby to the graveside service in the morning and the family lunch (while I stay home and treat two girls with "RID"-recommended by our family doctor), and then I'll most likely bring the girls and join him at the church service. We'll just have them sit in the back, and we won't hug anyone.
Those of you who are my sisters and brothers in Christ, please pray that this won't spread any farther and that tomorrow will go smoothly. The songs I'm singing are a little more challenging, and the day will be a full one. I was also really looking forward to spending time with Hubby's visiting family members. We haven't seen many of them for several years, so having the lice thing thrown into the mix is a bit disappointing.
Anyway, I hope to get back on track with bloggy stuff at the beginning of next week...if I survive. ;) Thanks for your patience!
17 comments:
Sorry about the lice! I've heard that coconut oil+apple cider vinegar kills them and I've read recently about another 2-ingredient natural remedy but I can't remember it for the life of me! I'll look for it, those treatment shampoos are nasty! Best wishes to your girls :*
Aww, I hope they feel better! And I'm so sorry for your loss. Your family is in my prayers!
I remember when I had head lice. It is not fun, I was so itchy and the lice I had were very stubborn to any treatment I did. I remember my family felt like they had head lice everywhere. My mom thought she had them on her ankles too. It was nice to read that you are helping your gals with RID. When I had lice I was still living in Puerto Rico and RID wasn't available so I went through 6 oil treatments to be lice free. Don't forget to protect your hair and M gals hair. I will pray today for your gals and also for you and hubby to stay critter free.
God Bless! :)
Oh no! I'll be praying for you all!
Aww, I'm sure you will do well and everything will turn out okay. Our family had head lice when the kids were young (late 80's or early 90's). They brought it home from school! We used that RID stuff too and it worked. Everything will be back to normal before you know it.
Thanks so much, everyone! :)
I'll be praying for you all!!! Hope you don't get it or hubby!
As someone has probably already said, vinager, wash all the combs and brushes in it and every day once or twice a day sit the girls, one at a time, in a bathtub and rinse their hair with cold water first, then vinegar, comb through and pull out the lice, and be on the lookout for small black, brown, or white grain of sand looking things, those are the eggs, getting rid of those means getting rid of the lice quicker.
I had head lice a few years ago, well, I was a young-ish girl and had dance lessons, my mother braided my hair when I had dance lessons, and so make sure the girls don't do to much close up interaction with other kids and keep their hair in braids, buns, or tight pony tails and they can go about as they want.
Oh dear! I will be praying. Hope that your day is going better than expected.
My eldest daughter got them at one point, and passed them on to my other daughter and me! Will pray for you, but also, if your current treatments don't work out, let me know and I'll share a link to a technique I found that worked for us. It involved a lot of fine-tooth combing over about 25 days.
Our doctor prescribed mayonnaise. Put the stuff in their hair (use a lot of it), wrap it up in plastic wrap, and leave it anywhere from eight to twenty-four hours (my head required a full day). The mayo suffocates the little goomers and then you can comb 'em out.
Sorry to hear about the lice, belle...just one of those things that happens to the best of us and unfortunately is totally unpredictable, but hopefully you are over the stressful part. You guys will be in my prayers as well. Have a good night!
Thanks so much, everyone. I appreciate all of your ideas, concern, and prayers. :)
Unfortunately head lice was a problem when my kids were in elementary school. There was a big deal about keeping hats and coats separated so the lice wouldn't transfer from kid to kid. We used rid, and it worked pretty well. You really have to be on top of the eggs too though. Like someone else said, they show up as tiny white/translucent things on the hair near the base, mostly around and behind the ears. I also used the mayonnaise treatment on Emma once. It smothers them, but getting the mayo smell out afterward is quite a job. The good news: head lice supposedly like clean hair, so it means the Gals are clean children!
Lol, Tam, that is encouraging. At least I know the lice aren't a result of me slacking off on washing their hair. ;)
Oh man this is not a fun thing to go through, I went through a few head lice times when I was a kid. I almost always got them from my cousins, what my mom did was did the olive oil treatment and the combing. Make sure you also wash any and all plush toys the girls sleep with as well, they can contain lice too! My mom always made sure to wash them. Also another thing I remember my mom doing when I was a kid, is she would do the olive oil in my hair and put on a shower cap over my head with all the hair tucked in and I would sleep with like that for the night and then do a combing the next day. Its also a good thing your doing the combing during bath time :) I hope it all works out for you :) I know getting rid of lice can be tough.
Thanks for the tips, Amber. :) The olive oil has been working really well for us. I might try the shower cap overnight idea, though. :)
All of you have had so many wonderful suggestions. I keep coming back to this post to read through the comments when I need inspiration. :)
Post a Comment