Yep, you read that right...the Liceinator. During spring break, B was infested with the creepy, crawly little buggers. A race to the drug store for lice killing shampoo and other assorted lice goodies was done. Along with the lice treatment, mad cleaning was done to eliminate every trace of every body of those gross little things. 7-10 days later, another treatment was in order just to make sure that they were all gone. No sign of them....whew!
In the mean time, a mixture of tea tree oil and detangler was used daily. Along with tea tree oil in her shampoo. Lice apparently don't like it.
One day....two bugs appeared in that head of thick, gorgeous curly hair. However, nothing else was there. One of my neighbors did a lice check on her because she works at a school where she is required to do weekly checks. She's a pro at it! (Not something she enjoys about her job or a title she likes having) Nothing, no eggs...nothing. Seems they had found their way into her hair from another warm body. So....I combed her hair out nightly with the nit comb to make sure there was nothing at the advice of my neighbor. Nothing.
I stopped combing her hair out each night for a week. A month from the date of the first infestation...BAM! There they were again! WHAT?!! Seriously?!?!? I contacted the school; again. I advised the school nurse that I was concerned that there was an ongoing issue with lice at the school. Her reply to me left me scratching my head and not because I had become infested. She told me that I was the only parent that had reported it. I knew that this was NOT true because I knew of at least 2 other parents that had reported it directly to her and possibly at third parent who I knew at the very least had told her child's teacher. The school (a school I love, love, love) refuses to send out a note to parents advising that there are kids with lice at the school and to keep any eye on your kids. You see, the doctor told me flat out, she had been re-exposed to lice and 99% of the time, it's at school. Someone she is friends with has had an ongoing issue with lice and has apparently kept it to themselves or the nurse just refuses to do anything. Talk about frustrating. New steps had to be taken.
I gave up on the chemically based treatments in the drug store. No, I'm not a hippy but I'll tell you that I saw what that stuff did to B's head. It was horrible. It fried her scalp. It took weeks for it to heal. We moved on to mayonnaise gooped on and combed with a lovely shower cap to smother the life out of those bionic lice. I did that twice within 3 days. I comb her hair out every single night with the nit comb. She is forbidden (which breaks my heart) from hugging her friends since we have no clue who it's coming from. She must wear her hair up every day. Once her hair is up, I spray it down with tea tree oil & water. It's really not the most pleasant smell, it smells sterile and not all girly & pretty but for now, we'll deal with it.
It's gotten so bad that B actually told me to take her in to get her hair cut short. She's been begging me for 2 years to let her grow her hair long. I finally gave in and the lice came. Tears upon tears have been shed over this....by me and by her. Countless hours have been spent waging this battle. Time and effort into researching. Phone conversations with my fellow liceinator friends who have been dealing with it too. So much so that we had a mayo party for our girls. The girls got their mayo treatment and hung out together, my fellow liceinator & I drank a couple of glasses of wine & discussed the woes of head lice and the lack of communication on the school's part. Until the end of the school year, weekly mayo treatments and nightly comb outs will be a part of the routine. And...I'll pray to God that we never encounter this nightmare again!
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