Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Discovering Head Lice on Kids! Ack!

I can't believe what I discovered several days ago.  My daughter had been itching her head and just as we were about to head to church, I found some lice on my daughter's head.  I was completely shocked since this has never happened in 11 years of having kids.  What the heck???!!  Of course we were not going to church and we won't be able to till I make sure this problem is completely cleared.  We are going nowhere and no one is coming to our house.  

"Lice infestations are very common in families that have young children attending daycare, preschool and grade school." -wiseGEEK

I have no idea how they got it.  We were around some kids a week ago and a week ago before that, that sometimes struggle with it.  Also, they go to children's church, Caleb goes to church nursery, and my 4 older kids go to school once a week.  They could have gotten it from anyone of those four places.  Anyone that sends their kids to church, school, or with friends knowing their kids may have lice are completely rude in my eyes.  More than rude. Heartless.  However, just like me, sometimes we have no idea until we shockingly discover it one day on the way to church.

What do Head Lice Look Like?

Ivy has it the worst, Ashley a little bit, and the boys do NOT have it at all.  So it's obvious that Ivy was the carrier.  Since the boys have the possibility of getting it, I took them outside and completely shaved their heads down as close to the skin as possible.  They are almost completely bald.  Well, even though they don't have lice, the fact that they are bald, the boys don't want to be in their school play now. Ivy is heartbroken.  I told her if she's cleared up in time I will let her still be in it.  However, I'm not gonna do that unless she is 100% clear because I'd be a jerk of a mom otherwise to put another mom through this.  If we have to stay in this house for 2 weeks to make sure, that's fine. 

How do I remove headlice from my home?

Today I am bagging up alllll stuffed animals and sealing them for 4 weeks. I've been washing all pieces of clothing and will be every day, all day till it's cleared.  I still have to go buy the bed spray but we have been having kids sleep in our leather couch for now.  This is such a pain in the butt and I've still managed to keep on top of homeschooling which is a miracle.  The link I just gave above gave even some great ideas for me to use to rid of this.  I've known parents to treat the head but not the house and that's why they continually get it.  It's important to treat everything possible.

7 comments:

Unknown said...

I had this happen when my eldest son was a small child, he brought it home from daycare...and when we discovered he had it, we all knew we'd get it....so the whole family had to do the lice hair removal stuff (and I had hair down to my rear so it took forever) and we had to bag everything too. Luckily it worked but it was such a pain and so time consuming. My heart goes out to you, we've been there!

Virginia Revoir said...

Thanks for commenting. How long did it take to completely rid of it?

BekLovesJeremy said...

My kids have gotten them from a children's ministry that we help out at. SUCH a pain. They pass them around to each other, there is the bedding, the stuffed animals, their towels... mountains and mountains of laundry. We also sprayed all the car seats too... ugh!!! So, so nasty to get rid of. And to do it all while pregnant... double ugh! Hope you have it all taken care of soon.

randigomez520 said...

Ahh! Im so sorry your dealing with this. I remebet about a year ago there was an outbreak at the church/school we go to. We completely avoided that church and went to one a bit farther from home for a month. I knew for a fact that some of the moms were sending their kids to school and church still with it. And to top it off my in laws, who we go and see multiple times a week, let their kids go to the families houses that had it. Sure enough a few of them got it. Luckily we didn't have any problems. I was the "mean sister in law" who wouldn't go there nor let any of them over until it was gone.

Hope things get better soon! Good luck :)

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

THANK YOU for keeping your kids home and doing whatever you can to get rid of it. And for being brave enough to blog it. You are one awesome momma.

Taryn said...

Our children had lice in Florida in the early eighties when the two oldest were in school-before I heard of the concept of home education. I heard that it's a problem on school buses. I don't like stuffed animals because they are full of dust mites and the mites' wastes. People keep buying my granddaughters made-in-China stuffed animals. I only allowed our children one each. My third daughter-in-law has asthma and her bedroom was always kept as dust free(no stuffed animals,no carpet, no curtains,no bookcases,no clutter,etc.) as possible. I don't like carpet for the same reason. We have leather sofas and we will never have pets in the house again. Your post had me reading about lice,fleas, dust mites,etc. and stuffed animals.

Chris H said...

Just reading this made my head itchy!
Lice cannot live off the head of it's host. Also they cannot jump or swim.
Very close contact with an infected person is how you pass them on.

How sad you felt the need to shave the boys bald!

We had lice a few times many years ago... and I just washed their hair for several days in a row with lice shampoo and we had no problems after that.
All brushes etc were washed too.

You can become a bit paranoid about lice... I hope you don't!