Before You Hit Your Pillow
For the last few weeks I've been going back and forth if I wanted to share with everyone what we've been dealing with. But when this hit our home I googled everything for any advice I could get. I was tired of contradictions and wished there was just somewhere I could go with personal experience. It brought me to the conclusion of wanting a link I could send others to facing this same issue from my own experience. I'm obviously not a medical professional, but I've lived through it and starting to see life slowly getting back to normal.
I can officially say my family has dealt with headlice. My daughter got it and I got it from her before we caught it.
The first thing you should know about headlice is it doesn't take a day or two to get rid of. It takes weeks. There's some ways to help prevent, which I now know about and will use from now until I die.
You can find it at Target or Amazon. You can also put some tea tree oil drops in your Shampoo. Lice don't like the smell. If your head is sensitive, you can try lavender or peppermint but I'm not 100% sure how they differ in reliability.
Also, daily tell your kid before they go to school not to put anything on their head. Winter time make sure a teacher doesn't confuse their hats with someone else's. I heard a mom say her child kept getting it because their coat was hung up next to a child that had it. Schools are not forced to keep kids at home if they get lice, so don't assume no one has it. The other day I joked with my daughter about not wearing anything to look like a princess unless it belongs to her. I've been told I will have PTSD now and freak out over everything. I can tell you that has already occurred. I can hardly look at pictures on Facebook the same way. My anxiety of the possibility of head lice on someone's head and sharing it with others is on high alert right now. Rightly so. The work it takes to get rid of it is exhausting.
Some helpful tips to catch it early:
---- Head checks, when hair is wet. Check mostly at bottom near neck, around ears, bangs line, and middle of the back of the head (think ponytail section), use a comb and go by small sections
---Use tea tree oil in shampoo
---Dont share pillows
---Blow dry your hair, they don't like intense heat
---Boil water, dump in a glass container and let brushes and combs get cleaned, soak for 30+ mins
---Use freezer bag to put hair stuff in and put in freezer for 1-2 days to kill anything off stuck in hair clips or bands.
---Wash towels on HOT and dry on HOT
---Wash all bedding and blankets on HOT and dry on HOT. Throw pillows in dryer on HOT for at least 30 mins.
Here's a hint your kid has lice. The rash on back of neck:
Once you find something feel free to freak out. The concept of bugs in someone's hair or your own is kinda gross to suddenly find. Unfortunately we found out after a long day at the Zoo. We were celebrating our 8 year anniversary with our kids at the Zoo, ate out at Olive Garden, and returned home planning to all bathe, put kids to bed and enjoy the free dessert we were given.
Instead I found bugs in my daughters hair while showering with her and I went nuts. My husband was outside mowing really quick. I got myself out ASAP and left my daughter in tub with towel and ran to find my husband. He quickly stopped and I told him to go to the pharmacy and bring me back stuff to treat lice. Wish I knew what all I know now. However the treatment we used on her worked so I guess all is fine now. But there were a few hours of complete shock and freak out. Instead of relaxing, we were up late treating her hair, running laundry and vacuuming. Our two year old had already gone to sleep so we didn't wake him but I feared he had it too. (Next day to find out he didn't. But we took care of his room and bedding as well.)
There's many ways to approach headlice. We used one treatment for our daughter and a different one for myself. Yes, the following day we found I had it as well.
I'll list a few options you can try but once you try one option don't change mid-way. Stick to it til the end.
TREATMENT:
1. Nix Ultra (used on our daughter)
Instructions in the box. Start with dry hair. Put in all over scalp rubbing it in. Let sit. Wash out using shampoo, but nothing with conditioner. Now prepare yourself with hours of combing looking for lice, nits, eggs. Repeat 7 days later.
2. Nuvo Method (what we used for me)
Google search it and download instructions. It's more time consuming. Must be able to handle hot hair dryer for quite awhile so luckily we didn't have my daughter use this option. Repeat 7 days later. Then repeat one more time 7 days later.
(Luckily my husband has been a good sport through all this.)
3. Other (I never went this route because based off different opinions some said it didnt work for them.) Things like oils from your kitchen or coconut oil. Stuff like that. It wasn't fool proof so I didn't do it. I wanted this GONE.
DAILY
Depending how intense you want to be to approach this, depends what you do daily vs every few days. You decide what you're comfortable with. Since hubs still had to go to work and we were so tired we did my daughter one day and me the next. It takes hours and my poor bum and back could not handle more.
1. Combing.
Time consuming insanity. I almost called this post "insanity." You have to part the hair in very small amounts and comb through hair in all directions starting at the scalp to find little nits. It's exhausting. One day it took four hours for me to do my daughter's hair. I found some helpful things to make it a little easier though.
Also found at Target or Amazon. First, wash your hair like normal. Then follow directions on the box for this mousse. Then use Nit Free Terminator Comb (Amazon). I also got out of the house once to pick up groceries, diapers, and a comb that I knew would help.
3. Laundry Load
Find a groove your comfortable with. Some wash bedding daily, some stay up all night to wash every single thing. In the beginning I washed all bedding. Stuff I didn't want to keep cleaning I didn't wash or if I did put in garbage bag tied up and put up high in a closet. We still have laundry baskets in our basement filled with random stuff ready to be washed. I keep a laundry basket upstairs for current towels being used and daily have a load to wash/dry. My daughter and I share a hand towel and no more towels in the bathroom. The height of towels in bathroom is the right height for my kids hair to rub up against. After first week I stopped washing bedding daily and changed to switching out pillow cases during combing sessions. My daughter has a plastic hamper in her bedroom so I didn't have to worry about washing it, I just cleaned it out every time I emptied it.
4. Bagging
This isn't done daily. But it's supposed to be kept away for at least a month or more. Bag everything up: stuffed animals, caps, dress up clothes, anything with fabric, etc. Stick in your garage. Might want to label them or someone might toss. It's hard for your kids to see their favorite toys put away but I just kept reminding mine it kept bugs away faster. Now I label our actual trash bags with a "T" not to confuse us. Next to our bags of stuff is the carseat. The heat is supposed to help kill everything off, plus keep it from bringing it back to life again. (Once lice hit your scalp it can reproduce/stay alive.)
MISC HELPFUL TIPS
--Use disposable plates on those early crazy days, the last thing you feel like doing is dishes after hours of treatments
--go to bed as early as you can on days you can
--try to laugh, my husband was really good at this during my treatmeants.
--Know more screen time is just going to be your new normal, be okay with it
--Stock up on stuff (laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, garbage bags, paper towels, shampoo, combs, hair clips to easily part hair while combing, simple snacks and meals, disposable dishes)
--For a combing session you need: that mousse I recommended, Terminator comb, comb to easily part hair, clips to pull hair out of way, paper towels to clean nit comb, and gallon Ziploc bag to put paper towels in to keep nits from falling off, and whatever is needed on your treatment directions for days you treat, and a towel if you prefer under hair of person with lice
--Use blow dryer whenever you can after hair is wet, but not before a combing session.
--Give yourself grace
--Drink lots of water, don't forget to take care of yourself
--Weekends I pulled my daughter's hair up as tight as I could and let hubs take kids to the park. Find ways to get out but I also wanted to make sure we didn't spread lice to anyone. (Poor girl doesn't remember but she missed out on summer dance class due to lice.)
--Make sure devices that you use to help time pass during combing is fully charged. ;)
Hopefully I remembered everything. My last treatment is tomorrow. Hopefully we're closer to being Nit free. Happy 8 years hubs! This anniversary will certainly never be forgotten. 💕💕
I can officially say my family has dealt with headlice. My daughter got it and I got it from her before we caught it.
The first thing you should know about headlice is it doesn't take a day or two to get rid of. It takes weeks. There's some ways to help prevent, which I now know about and will use from now until I die.
You can find it at Target or Amazon. You can also put some tea tree oil drops in your Shampoo. Lice don't like the smell. If your head is sensitive, you can try lavender or peppermint but I'm not 100% sure how they differ in reliability.
Also, daily tell your kid before they go to school not to put anything on their head. Winter time make sure a teacher doesn't confuse their hats with someone else's. I heard a mom say her child kept getting it because their coat was hung up next to a child that had it. Schools are not forced to keep kids at home if they get lice, so don't assume no one has it. The other day I joked with my daughter about not wearing anything to look like a princess unless it belongs to her. I've been told I will have PTSD now and freak out over everything. I can tell you that has already occurred. I can hardly look at pictures on Facebook the same way. My anxiety of the possibility of head lice on someone's head and sharing it with others is on high alert right now. Rightly so. The work it takes to get rid of it is exhausting.
Some helpful tips to catch it early:
---- Head checks, when hair is wet. Check mostly at bottom near neck, around ears, bangs line, and middle of the back of the head (think ponytail section), use a comb and go by small sections
---Use tea tree oil in shampoo
---Dont share pillows
---Blow dry your hair, they don't like intense heat
---Boil water, dump in a glass container and let brushes and combs get cleaned, soak for 30+ mins
---Use freezer bag to put hair stuff in and put in freezer for 1-2 days to kill anything off stuck in hair clips or bands.
---Wash towels on HOT and dry on HOT
---Wash all bedding and blankets on HOT and dry on HOT. Throw pillows in dryer on HOT for at least 30 mins.
Here's a hint your kid has lice. The rash on back of neck:
Once you find something feel free to freak out. The concept of bugs in someone's hair or your own is kinda gross to suddenly find. Unfortunately we found out after a long day at the Zoo. We were celebrating our 8 year anniversary with our kids at the Zoo, ate out at Olive Garden, and returned home planning to all bathe, put kids to bed and enjoy the free dessert we were given.
Instead I found bugs in my daughters hair while showering with her and I went nuts. My husband was outside mowing really quick. I got myself out ASAP and left my daughter in tub with towel and ran to find my husband. He quickly stopped and I told him to go to the pharmacy and bring me back stuff to treat lice. Wish I knew what all I know now. However the treatment we used on her worked so I guess all is fine now. But there were a few hours of complete shock and freak out. Instead of relaxing, we were up late treating her hair, running laundry and vacuuming. Our two year old had already gone to sleep so we didn't wake him but I feared he had it too. (Next day to find out he didn't. But we took care of his room and bedding as well.)
There's many ways to approach headlice. We used one treatment for our daughter and a different one for myself. Yes, the following day we found I had it as well.
I'll list a few options you can try but once you try one option don't change mid-way. Stick to it til the end.
TREATMENT:
1. Nix Ultra (used on our daughter)
Instructions in the box. Start with dry hair. Put in all over scalp rubbing it in. Let sit. Wash out using shampoo, but nothing with conditioner. Now prepare yourself with hours of combing looking for lice, nits, eggs. Repeat 7 days later.
2. Nuvo Method (what we used for me)
Google search it and download instructions. It's more time consuming. Must be able to handle hot hair dryer for quite awhile so luckily we didn't have my daughter use this option. Repeat 7 days later. Then repeat one more time 7 days later.
3. Other (I never went this route because based off different opinions some said it didnt work for them.) Things like oils from your kitchen or coconut oil. Stuff like that. It wasn't fool proof so I didn't do it. I wanted this GONE.
DAILY
Depending how intense you want to be to approach this, depends what you do daily vs every few days. You decide what you're comfortable with. Since hubs still had to go to work and we were so tired we did my daughter one day and me the next. It takes hours and my poor bum and back could not handle more.
1. Combing.
Time consuming insanity. I almost called this post "insanity." You have to part the hair in very small amounts and comb through hair in all directions starting at the scalp to find little nits. It's exhausting. One day it took four hours for me to do my daughter's hair. I found some helpful things to make it a little easier though.
The silver comb is the Terminator. The pink helps pull down hair to slowly work your way through the hair. It really helps with long hair. And it's pink. So of course my daughter was okay with it.
After the combing you rinse out the mousse. Blow dry as hot as you can handle.
Then I threw all the utensils used in hair into a disposable cup by the sink. Vacuum the combing area, the wooden chairs, and the main areas of the house and bathroom. I also vacuum the rooms of the spaces lice people have been. Then I boil water on the stove, dump it in glass container and let the hair utensils soak for 30 minutes. The hair ties used to keep hair pulled back when not combing goes in Ziploc in the freezer.
I kept my daughter only on hardwood these past few weeks. First night we threw all the rugs to the basement. So it was easier to keep clean. Our son could play in living room on big rug and not be bothered by his sister. Luckily Sis follows the rules because that means "the more we stick to it, the faser the bugs go away."
(The first week I had my hubs give our 2yo a bath every other day and then I would check for lice. So thankful he never got it. *Yet*. I make sure to wash with tea tree oil to continue to keep them from wanting his scalp.)
While the dreaded combing/bathing happened we wash the bedding. When I switched that meant she got to stand up to stretch. The best tool I could find to keep her relaxed the most was watching YouTube videos. The first week I let her keep the device even after combing and rest back in her bed. It was so tiring and she was so exhausted from day at zoo and staying up late to treat. Plus, lice are most active at night so you feel itchy the most then. After hours of sitting in certain position it felt good to lay down in bed. Since I also was dealing with it, I could empathize with her.
2. Vacuum
I already mentioned above how I vacuumed after each combing. I felt it was a good way to keep my toddler from getting it. First week I vacuumed so much. By week three, I'm not as much. When you initially find out it's in your home go nuts. Vacuum couches, mattresses, under beds, move beds away from wall if you can, and some people even told me they vacuumed the car. (The dreaded car seats.) My hubs just set my daughter's car seat into the garage. And brought in jackets and blankets from the car to wash. Something not to forget is cleaning out your vacuum as well. Empty it.3. Laundry Load
Find a groove your comfortable with. Some wash bedding daily, some stay up all night to wash every single thing. In the beginning I washed all bedding. Stuff I didn't want to keep cleaning I didn't wash or if I did put in garbage bag tied up and put up high in a closet. We still have laundry baskets in our basement filled with random stuff ready to be washed. I keep a laundry basket upstairs for current towels being used and daily have a load to wash/dry. My daughter and I share a hand towel and no more towels in the bathroom. The height of towels in bathroom is the right height for my kids hair to rub up against. After first week I stopped washing bedding daily and changed to switching out pillow cases during combing sessions. My daughter has a plastic hamper in her bedroom so I didn't have to worry about washing it, I just cleaned it out every time I emptied it.
4. Bagging
This isn't done daily. But it's supposed to be kept away for at least a month or more. Bag everything up: stuffed animals, caps, dress up clothes, anything with fabric, etc. Stick in your garage. Might want to label them or someone might toss. It's hard for your kids to see their favorite toys put away but I just kept reminding mine it kept bugs away faster. Now I label our actual trash bags with a "T" not to confuse us. Next to our bags of stuff is the carseat. The heat is supposed to help kill everything off, plus keep it from bringing it back to life again. (Once lice hit your scalp it can reproduce/stay alive.)
MISC HELPFUL TIPS
--Use disposable plates on those early crazy days, the last thing you feel like doing is dishes after hours of treatments
--go to bed as early as you can on days you can
--try to laugh, my husband was really good at this during my treatmeants.
--Know more screen time is just going to be your new normal, be okay with it
--Stock up on stuff (laundry detergent, dishwasher detergent, garbage bags, paper towels, shampoo, combs, hair clips to easily part hair while combing, simple snacks and meals, disposable dishes)
--For a combing session you need: that mousse I recommended, Terminator comb, comb to easily part hair, clips to pull hair out of way, paper towels to clean nit comb, and gallon Ziploc bag to put paper towels in to keep nits from falling off, and whatever is needed on your treatment directions for days you treat, and a towel if you prefer under hair of person with lice
--Use blow dryer whenever you can after hair is wet, but not before a combing session.
--Give yourself grace
--Drink lots of water, don't forget to take care of yourself
--Weekends I pulled my daughter's hair up as tight as I could and let hubs take kids to the park. Find ways to get out but I also wanted to make sure we didn't spread lice to anyone. (Poor girl doesn't remember but she missed out on summer dance class due to lice.)
--Make sure devices that you use to help time pass during combing is fully charged. ;)
Hopefully I remembered everything. My last treatment is tomorrow. Hopefully we're closer to being Nit free. Happy 8 years hubs! This anniversary will certainly never be forgotten. 💕💕
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