To the Moms

[journey]

My 4 year old goes to Preschool/Headstart. I have never had to deal with this before in my whole life. Is there really a Lice Season? I got a letter home from school the other day stating that it was Lice Season and to watch your childs head, what to look for and how to treat it. Ashley has very fine dirty blonde hair. I have checked and there is nothing in her hair. She told me the teachers have been checking daily also, which I confirmed with her teacher. I didn't know there was such a thing and is there a way to prevent it? I make sure she bathes daily and that includes a hair washing too. I never had it in my whole life, so I really don't know how to prevent it.. any ideas?

Sorry if this is too personal, but I am still tring to figure this whole thing out.

 

[RENMACMINIS]

Welcome to the wonderful world of Lice... They love clean hair. It is in our schools here year round. My daughter got it last year in first grade. Of course she brought it home and promptly gave it to me and her younger sister. It was no fun. and the Lice kits are kind of expensive You can get the brand name RidX but the generic store brands are just as good and cheaper. We were told to put hairspray, mousse, gel, spray in conditioners etc in their hair daily, keep the hair pulled up and secure esp. if they have long hair. My oldest daughter had long hair last year and from the moment after she got them to the end of the year I kept her hair up in a pony tail and braided and soaked with hair spray and leave on conditioners. She didnt get them again and "knock on wood" hasnt gotten them this year either and there have been several cases in her class again this year. My daughters are red headed and a blonde. they looked like gnats in the hair they were really dark colored and getting all the nits out took forever with the little comb provided in the kit. I found that using your fingers was easier and faster than that comb.

So my only advice would be to take stock in hair spray and conditioners and use them regularly daily each morning before she goes out the door.

Sherry

 

[JO~*]

I don't know if there is a season or not, it just seems like my daughter was always bringing home notices from school saying that "lice is going around".

My daughter has long thick hair and I was always worried that she would get lice, but luckily she never did.

I was forever telling her to never share brushes, hats, clothing, and if she had a friend over they were not to play on the bed.

I know I was a real fanatic about the lice thing, but she never did get it and it seemed like it was the same ones that got it over and over again. I think you have to clean all soft surfaces to get rid of it in the house.

I am not saying you are a dirty person if you do get it, I just didn't want to deal with getting rid of it if you did get it.

 

[runamuk]

Oh yes lice season such a lovely time of the year......it starts about a week or so after school does and often lasts until they are out for summer break

: :bgrin

I have taught my boys to not share things like hats, combs, hairbrushes. They also get their hair cut short several times during the year (ie military'ish buzz job) knock on wood the boys have never had lice ever. They also bathe every other night and both use "product" in their hair :bgrin .......my neighbors daughter had it off and on for months finally she did what I suggested to begin with :bgrin bought flea bombs for the house and washed her daughters hair with zodiac flea shampoo since none of the other products worked and cost way too much........then she washed all of her clothes and bedding after bombing the bedroom.....ta da lice was finally gone

:

 

[journey]

I tell Ashley every single morning, we don't share hairbrushes, hats, mats or blankets. Also we don't share toothbrushes (they brush at school which I think is great!). We don't have it yet, but I know there is 2 kids out because of it. I am being very, very careful and very obsessive about checking her head, she is being a good girl about it, but I know I am gonna start spraying her hair with hairspray every morning. She doesn't have alot of hair because of her medical problems when she was a baby, but I will try to get it in a pony tail.

 

[Miniv]

Not sure about a "season", but I know that the school has a LICE CHECK for all the students a couple times a year. They did it in the Fall and I think they'll be doing it again this Spring...... Bri goes to a small private school, not a public school, so things may be different.

MA

 

[Marty]

Yup, there's lice all over the place. Never knew it though till I got informed by the schools in Florida when my kids first began preschool we were warned out outbreaks. Gross! They do check heads. Same thing here in Tennessee but that's par for the course and yes we all have had it when they were little and we think we got it on the school bus! Consider it another contribution from Mother Nature that we can do without.

 

[tifflunn]

We deal with it here to ! There right from the start of school to the finish :bgrin

 

[ChrystalPaths]

Oh my, lice is my personal ewwwwwwww thing. I totally am incapacitated by them. Years ago my kids got em. Glacia had butt length hair. Shain got up and complained his head itched, went in and woke Glaica and she was ewwwww. Seems the schools here are always loaded with them. Seems most schools are but it took me $300 and 30 days to kill em and big hair cuts. Needless to say..ewwwwwwww, glad I home school.

 

[CAM]

Yes, lice goes around everywhere. It is generally spread by contact with another person typically hair to hair. The products in the stores are becoming less effective so doctors are issuing more prescriptions for stronger stuff. You can't really prevent it other than avoiding contact with someone who carries it. We had a second outbreak at AWANA, a Wednesday night kids' church program, last week. I kept the kids out this week and did the head check again. We did have a friend who's kids got it from church.

Something that seems to work well is lathering regular mayonnaise on their hair and covering it in Saran wrap for 2 hours nightly for 5 days. Of course, washing their hair inbetween, sometimes two times, to get the mayonnaise out. The reasoning behind this is that the little guys can "hold their breath" for awhile with the shampoos that say leave on for 20 or 30 minutes, but they stick to the mayonnaise for 2 hours and suffocate. Disgusted yet?

And there are combs you can get at stores like Walmart that work better than what comes in those OTC kits. Good luck and hopefully you won't have to put any of this advice to use.

 

[Beccy]

I don't think they really have a season, but they do tend to go through the schools after all the major holidays when the kids come back and are close together. When school starts in the fall, after Christmas holidays, spring break etc. Contrary to popular belief, they tend to prefer clean hair, not dirty, and it has nothing to do with one's personal grooming etc, anyone can get them.

I don't know if it is true or not, but when my first child began school sixteen years ago, someone told me that they hate hair that has been rinsed in vinegar. Every time I washed the kids hair, I rinsed (last rinse) with a jug of 1/4 white vinegar, 3/4 warm water, and with five kids in the school system till 3 years ago when we started homeschooling, we never got headlice. We also drilled it into the kids to never share hats, brushes etc. so I don't know what was really responsible for us avoiding it, but the vinegar sure doesn't hurt either way. We knew families that had it more than once, and I an SO thankful I never had to deal with it!

 

[CAM]

I don't think they really have a season, but they do tend to go through the schools after all the major holidays when the kids come back and are close together. When school starts in the fall, after Christmas holidays, spring break etc. Contrary to popular belief, they tend to prefer clean hair, not dirty, and it has nothing to do with one's personal grooming etc, anyone can get them.

I don't know if it is true or not, but when my first child began school sixteen years ago, someone told me that they hate hair that has been rinsed in vinegar. Every time I washed the kids hair, I rinsed (last rinse) with a jug of 1/4 white vinegar, 3/4 warm water, and with five kids in the school system till 3 years ago when we started homeschooling, we never got headlice. We also drilled it into the kids to never share hats, brushes etc. so I don't know what was really responsible for us avoiding it, but the vinegar sure doesn't hurt either way. We knew families that had it more than once, and I an SO thankful I never had to deal with it!

Oh yeah, I did hear that there is vinegar in the mayonnaise and that too was what helped eliminate them when mayonnaise is used. The magic of vinegar. :bgrin

By the way, is anyone's head itching yet or is it just me? :new_shocked: