Boogie Fever

Does anyone remember that song, Boogie Fever? I love that song, and that catchy line in the chorus, "I think it's going around and around and around."

Yeah, well, just as *catchy*, yet not quite as enjoyable, is lice. Lice, as in little crabs that hatch in your hair and crawl around biting your scalp, drinking your blood and making your head itch. Those lice.

Last week, I got the ol' letter..."someone has lice, please check your child, blah blah blah blah blah."

Now, to regress to an older post, another random fact about me, Im a lice officianado. Truly. My years at the orphanage were good for many things, and one was for making me an expert in lice. I can spot them like nobody else, and have spent (undoubtedly) hundreds of hours plucking them from the hairs of children.

Interesting tid bit (interesting being a questionable term).....when children are removed from home and made wards of the court...the court is the child's guardian. The court makes all decisions; medical, educational, where the child will live, etc. etc. But the one thing the court cant do (and I think it is the one and only thing, besides taking the child out of state - and even that can be done with some paperwork), is cut the child's hair. No kidding.

So, when a child comes in, with lots of hair, and super-lice are jumping off their head like flies on poop, we cant cut that child's hair. Even considering that the child will be housed with tens of other children, in close living quarters (where they all sleep in the same room)....you still cant cut the hair.

You can put the hair into many little pony tails and try to keep it from blowing in the wind, but you cant cut it.

So, that's a scenario that was pretty common, and it gave me great experience in identifying lice, and trying to treat it with all the shampoos, etc.

Fast forward, the note that got sent home from school with the kids.

Unlike many moms, lice doesnt freak me out much, Ive had it a bunch (thanks to hairy children who are wards of the court) and I know it's not a huge big deal.

After I got the letter from school, I checked Beauty and Pooper's hair, and they were fine. As it turns out, 2 girls in Pooper's class have them, but he was clear, so no big deal.

UNTIL TODAY.

I took the girls to get their hair cut (monday is that time of year - family Christmas photo time!) Everything was fine, they looked cute, and as we were leaving, I saw a friend, and so I stuck around and chatted a while. I say this, because the hairdresser continued to cut the next person, she did not act freaked out, or super-sterilize her station.

When I finally went to go home, I put Little One into her car seat, and immediately noticed the ashen colored nats moving about her fair scalp. UM, TOTALLY LICE!

I looked some more, and saw another. OMG. WE. HAVE. LICE.

Surely, the hairdresser must have seen them. She washed, cut, and then parted Little One's hair, making those cute little twistie tie, pony tails....there is no way she would have missed them, they are clear as day on Little One's fair hair. However, Im also wondering, if Elise picked them up there? WHO KNOWS?

Now, I said it wasnt a big deal, and it's not....when you are single. But with 3 kids and a hubby, it equates to incredible amounts of laundry, etc., At the orphanage, we just threw our dirty clothes in a cart that got rolled down to the laundry room....it wasnt my job (thank goodness!)....but now it is!! (I should be fired!)

I immediately checked everyone's hair when we got home, and never found any on anyone but Little One. BUT, how did she get them?? She could have got them from Pooper...but then he would have them too. Some of the kids from school also go to our church (although the 2 girls that have it do not.) but there is the chance that it has gone beyond those 2 girls, and Little One got it from a sibling at church. Or was it from the hairdresser? Is that why she didnt say anything??

I may never know, so I just have to treat the whole family.

I know that the "medicated" shampoos are not very effective, not to mention, they have chemicals that can cause leukemia....and while Ill take lice over leukemia, I had to get one good shampooing in. After that, the only real way to get rid of them is to pick them out, one by one. seriously. The combs are not that good, you just have to hunt them down and use your fingernails. I know gross.

One little trick, is to slather your head in vaseline, as it smothers the lice.

So, after stripping everyone down, and doing the pesticidal shampooing (careful not to go blind), I smeared petroleum jelly throughout everyone's head. This is great, except for the fact that it takes about a week of daily shampooing to get all the grease out. Which, doesnt bode well for family pictures on Monday (that can not be rescheduled.)

So....long story short......I read that putting corn starch in the hair, and using a clarifying shampoo.....is the best way to get rid of the vaseline. Tomorrow morning, (because we cant go to church looking like grease heads)....I will try to shampoo everyone's vaseline out, and then sit and look for bugs to pull out with my fingernails, one at a time.

And, if that doesnt make you want to get up and do the Buggie Fever, I mean, Boogie Fever, I dont know what else would!