As I mentioned yesterday, the school called on Tuesday to let me know that Strong-Willed One has lice. I did a bit of research on-line before she came home as to how to treat it. As I was going through her hair after the treatment, I was utterly confused. I couldn't tell what I was looking at and still wasn't sure exactly what I was looking for. So, yesterday I spent a fair amount of time on-line learning about lice, nits and how to get rid of them. I watched a bunch of videos on doing lice checks, using different methods to get rid of lice and one funny cat compilation. We are using the tea tree/olive oil approach with a rinse of white vinegar. When the girls got home from school I performed a lice check on each of them. Strong-Willed One still had lots of nits (which are the eggs); on Kiddlet I thought I saw just a few nits. I massaged the oils into their heads and hair and then covered the hair with a plastic bag. Just before we sat down to dinner I wash Kiddlet's hair and did the vinegar rinse. When we were done eating we started the nit picking. I was absolutely horrified by how many lice I combed out; I couldn't believe it. She had nits too, but those weren't that bad. From the time I started combing until we were done - 1 hour 28 minutes.
It is now 8:30pm. I still had to wash Strong-Willed One's hair and do her nit picking. Her head is a nightmare. I think we got most of the bugs last night; I only found one actual louse, but she has nits everywhere. From what I've read, many of these are old. Because nits are essentially glued to the hair, you pretty much have to pick them out one by one. There is simply no way to do this on Strong-Willed One's head without spend many hours doing it; she has lots of very thick hair. I did the best I could with the lice comb and picked out the ones I could easily get to. It was 10:10pm when we finished. The poor girl was so tired.
I'm so very thankful that Husband is around this week. He kept Little Guy occupied, cleaned up after dinner, washed all the dishes and picked up the toys. I'm not sure how I would have been able to do all this last night without his help.
Now, a question for all you who have dealt with lice before. Do I have to put fresh bedding on the girls' beds every day or can I just vacuum them? I'm vacuuming all the furniture while they are at school and I've lifted my ban on doing laundry during the day (higher electricity rates) simply so that I can keep up with it. Any other advice on dealing with head lice is welcome.
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