The other day I received three emails (one for each child) from the school nurse at my children's school telling me that there was an outbreak of lice in grades K, 1 and 2.
She further asked me to check their heads for lice every day for the next two weeks to make sure they didn't develop lice.
As you might imagine I was insanely itchy and scratching from Head to Toe by the time I read to the bottom of the email (just as you probably are now. Sorry about that.)
I called my daughter into the kitchen and checked her hair. Fine.
I called my older son into the kitchen and checked his hair. Fine.
I called my 3 year old daughter into the kitchen and checked her long curly hair. I wept at the thought that if she DID develop lice it would probably cause us to cut her Marie Antoinette curls for the first time. She was fine.
As I called to my 6yo son - the one who can't sit still - I thought to myself, if ANY of them get lice it's going to be him. Mainly because he can't keep his body contained to it's own space and is always bouncing around into other people's space.
He came into the room. UGH. Black dots in his scalp. I ran up to where my husband was napping. "Can you come check his head?" I begged. He came down. "There's definitely something there" he agreed. "But are they moving?" He and I both froze, not even BREATHING to see if the black dots were moving.
Did I mention that the scalp they were on CAN'T FUCKING STAND STILL??
I ran upstairs and googled "Lice." While it was loading I was thinking about what it would take to delouse my house - the couches, the beds, the clothing, the hats, the coats, etc. There is NO WAY we could get rid of all of the eggs at the same time. We would likely just go around and around and around. Just as I was getting completely agitated the page loaded.
YECH! They're GROSS! The black dots on my son's head were WAY too small to be lice. SAFE!
I came back downstairs and asked him, "Were you playing in the dirt at recess?"
He nodded happily. "Yes, we were throwing dirt in the air."
THIS is why that boy is going to give me a heart attack. And why I'm TOTALLY itchy right now.
I am totally sitting here with an itchy scalp right now thanks. And after my ordeal in the 8th grade I am terrified of getting lice again.
Posted by: Bobbi Janau | November 16, 2010 at 03:08 AM
*scritch*, *scritch*!
Posted by: Serene | November 16, 2010 at 07:07 AM
Glad it's just dirt. Boys will be boys, I guess.
Posted by: Walkingborder (Karen) | November 16, 2010 at 11:14 AM
A few yrs ago some friends (a couple & their 4 children) came to town and stayed with me a few days. One of the kids had been complaining about itching, and yep... she had em. We spent 3 of the 4 days washing heads, bedding, clothing, towels, stuffed animals, carpeting, etc... trips back & forth to the pharmacy... it was exhausting. While the mom was researching on the internet she looked at me and said "We do have good news here!" Then proceeded to tell me that by the time they got home, any infestation in THEIR home would die out, then she smiled at me. My head must've whipped around like Linda Blair, looking at her and being at a loss for words, then laughing maniacally.
A few days later, as they were leaving, she reminded me as they were pulling out of my driveway, that I needed to continue to check for lice for a couple of weeks. I burst into tears, went into my house and locked the door.
And yeah, now I'm itchy too
Posted by: Shannon | November 16, 2010 at 11:27 AM
itching. totally itching. thank you for that.
kids. do they have lice? no. it's just dirt. gotta love it.
Posted by: andygirl | November 16, 2010 at 02:11 PM
At the start of summer, my girls and I needed new beach hats. We went to Target, picked out lovely beach hats and then within two weeks the itching started...hair got chopped, we spent hours nit-picking and delousing, I spent every morning for at least two weeks washing sheets, towels and clothes on the hottest cycle possible! Trust me, you lucked out!!
Posted by: Leigh | November 16, 2010 at 07:20 PM
totally hear you: With the media hysteria over bedbugs, I have been crawling every night for no good reason.
Posted by: Crystal | November 16, 2010 at 09:50 PM
When we were preparing to go to BlogHer this past August, B saw a media report about bedbugs that was followed immediately with one on lice. *scritch* *scratch* I'm not ashamed to admit that, since we were driving to BlogHer, we took a rubbermaid container with our stuff instead of a bedbug-infestable suitcase.
Didn't see or get any bedbugs and that's fine by me. With the giant house centipedes and little dust bugs that our house has, we have more than enough creepy crawlies in the house. The former I'm ok with as they eat spiders. The latter an exterminator told us are harmless, though gross looking, and are virtually impossible to get rid of since the eggs can hide anywhere. We just need to keep everything in plastic containers & kill any bugs we see.
Posted by: TechyDad | November 16, 2010 at 11:54 PM
There is a rumor that lice is going nuts in our school district now. Though I don't think it's at my school (yet) I spray each of their heads down with lysol every morning before they head out.
Posted by: TheNextMartha | November 17, 2010 at 07:36 PM
I was the victim. I was the carrier. I was only 7 but I remember every agonizing part of it. Stinky shampoos, being the leper of the house, getting my long hair chopped off into a hideous "boy" cut, sitting for what felt like hours having my hair picked at...*shiver*. Thanks for all the fond memories.
Posted by: Morgen | November 17, 2010 at 08:01 PM
My daughter's school had a big ass lice scare this fall. It totally freaked me out, but as I live in Brooklyn (on top of 2.5 million other people) all of my friends with older kids who are more experienced in such things just told me to shut up and be glad it's not bed bugs. I admit I didn't find this all that helpful. . . All bugs are my enemy.
Posted by: Paula/adhocmom | November 18, 2010 at 08:56 AM
Scratch, scratch! My daughter came home with them after visiting her Dad one summer. Seems his wife's daughter had them, and they "forgot" to clean our daughters hair before sending her home!! Yeah they KNEW she had them, put her on the plane and sent her home to me! They didn't even tell me, I had to find them when she was scratching like no other! Then she said oh yeah, so & so was itching alot too! You can imagine that phone call!! Talk about REALLY pissed off!!!!
Posted by: Wicked | November 18, 2010 at 01:51 PM
A girl in my sisters grade kept infesting the school when we were younger. Her parents weren't killing all of it.
OH EM GEE I remember the torture my sister went through getting them THREE times! Luckily my mom always stopped her and checked her head in the garage before coming inside.
::scratchscratch::
Posted by: Jen | November 20, 2010 at 01:32 PM