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We've gotten them occasionally from school (I wore a bandana or kerchief over my hair for years!) but never had a problem until the oldest became a teenager. Like many teenagers, she's very lazy about things that she's not interested in (like combing nits!!) so even though I kept treating everyone in the family and the house (bedding etc) THAT ONE KID kept re-infesting us all. It was exhausting for me, and distressing for the other kids who had to be re-treated and re-treated again and again, and like reese, I was ready to throttle the poor child. It was horribly stressful for all of us while it lasted.
It's easy to tell yourself, this isn't important, this will pass, I can deal with it... but while you're going through it, sometimes the fatigue and work become overwhelming, or beat you down. Lice can do that, definitely. I hate hate hate them.
Coconut oil and neem oil are supposed to repel them, and shampoos with those oils are available in health stores.
hey Lilylala, I hear ya!!! it all started w/my oldest too this last time. She is 13 and has been so darn lazy about hair, and we didnt even know she had lice til I saw a rash on the back of her neck! Then I asked her if her head had been itching and got the "YES MOTHER!!!!" with the why are you annoying me so much attitude, so we looked, and lo and behold...lice. ugh....I'll tell ya though, what my husband did has totally cured her. He made her look at that nasty bug under a microscope, on the largest magnification, and said "THERE, THAT is what is crawing all over your head!!" Hysterics ensued, but now she tells us each and everytime she has even the smallest itch. Whatever works, eh?
Then I asked her if her head had been itching and got the "YES MOTHER!!!!" with the why are you annoying me so much attitude.....
ROFL!!!!!! exAAAAAAActly!!!!!
What worked for us was my saying, "Well, if you can't get them out yourself, we'll just have to take you down to the hairdresser's". We live in such a small village that EVERYONE would have known within hours how bad she'd let this infestation get...it wasn't just a few tiny critters anymore. I helped her with Lice Wars after that, and we got it defeated.
But now there's only two more months to school, y'know....
I have no idea what one of the posters is talkiing about. I also don't know who would think lice was relaxing and fun unless you want to carry lice for several months. I'm sorry but I don't see lice as a postive and yes it take a lot of energy to get rid of it. I'm sorry but I don't get what you are saying. When we had lice in our home it was one of the most stressful times I have had as a Mother and I'm sorry I didn't sing THe sun will come out tomorrow. I was picking eggs out of hair. There are just some stuff that are not fun and I would say lice is right up there.
But, it's not the end all and be all of disasters. There are so many OTHER, really serious, life-altering conditions which could have affected your family. Being infested with lice, while a nuisance, is not a life-threatening disaster! Sheesh!
My daughter had lice 2x. It was horrible. I cried and cried the second time - well I was pregnant too.....things upset me very easily at that point in the pregnancy lol. Bagged everything up in the house and went to the laudromat. Cost me a fortune. 1 month later I was getting ready to have to the baby, and my daughter was having a friend sleep over.......then next morning I was brushing her friends hair...and VOILA - there were those nasty little buggers (well they were the eggs at that point). So we had to go through the whole thing again......she slept in my daughters bed....she sat on our couches...LOL - I think I had nervous breakdown - my husband actually called out of work to help me that time LOL
Definitely not a fun venture. While I know that everyone here knows that lice is not life-threatening, I think the point here is that it is such a monsterous job- the stress, the cost, missing work, school, doing all that laundry, bagging stuffed animals and such, combing hair forever in teeny strands at a time while picking nits off those strands, finding the live ones and getting at them before they lay more nits, and then checking them again and again to make sure you didn't miss ONE nit because if you did it can start a whole infestation again. The whole process is exhausting-physically and mentally. I did it with my daughter more than once. Day after day of nit-picking-she read me THREE chapter books during the picking!
All that being said, I believe some are more prone to getting them. She got them 2 or 3 times. I got them everytime she did-ick-doing your own hair is virtually impossible. My other 3 kids never got them. But, I would rather nit pick every day for my whole life than have to deal with the Hodgkins Lymphoma that my oldest got when she was 14 and then again at 21. Picking nits is nothing compared to watching your kid undergo all that chemo and surgeries. But, I think we all know this as parents.
Still doesn't make nitpicking fun.
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I helped her with Lice Wars after that, and we got it defeated.
