These are moments when I am reminded how truly awesome the internet is... to get information, to learn any time, any where. Thank you modern day advancements! I knew nothing about lice two days ago... now I feel like an expert. And the kids, especially Emilia, observed and learned, as we went through this together. She was with me as we browsed through different websites, looking at photos, reading about the different stages of a louse, reading up on various methods to rid them, and discussing a strategy, a plan of attack.
Of course the first evening, we had no way of attacking this.. only research and create a plan of action for the next day. I hadn't yet spotted a live lice, only eggs, so I was betting that we still had time before the first round of eggs hatch. Poor E went to bed worried because she did not want the eggs to hatch. To top it off, she likes to snuggle, but there were no hugs or snuggles to reduce the spreading.
Some key notes after reading various sites (note, website info seemed to vary on specific quantities and timeline, so we went by worst case scenario):
1) A louse(singular) or lice(plural) cannot jump or fly. It can only crawl. Okay.. when I actually witnessed one "crawling", those tiny little buggers crawl pretty darn fast, fast enough that I could not catch it before it hid into more hairs.
2) A louse can lay 3-8 eggs (also known as nits) in a day.
3) An egg takes ~7 days to hatch (worst case website says 3-5 days).
4) The louse molts 3x leaving their shells.. which look like eggs. I add this as a key note because when there's a whole head of what seems like hundreds of nits, I freak out thinking there LOTS of lice (which is still the case).
Given some key information, and hearsay from others that these little buggers are HARD to get rid off, my OCD kicked into action. Time is of the essence since these little buggers can multiply exponentially. And being meticulous and thorough is crucial. Though I soon found out that's easier to say/write than doing.
Step 1) Create a plan A, a backup plan B and C, and gather materials. I researched what "products" were effective and recommended from online. I also researched natural, alternative remedies. Not knowing how fast the lice can spread, I ordered the effective products - treatments, lice combs, repellent shampoos/conditioners - immediately. This was still going to take 2 days to arrive, so I saw it as my backup arsenal. Next I hit the drugstore and picked up whatever treatment they had available. I also picked up things for the alternative remedies - alcohol, vinegar (I used white distilled vinegar, but next time will go for the unfiltered apple cider vinegar), a casserole baking pan, tea tree oil, and spray bottles.
Step 2) Immediate treatment. Die lice! Die! I randomly picked up LiceMD at the drugstore for the ease of application and use. I had thought about how to do a treatment application, and planned to have E lie on the floor with her head in the casserole baking pan (pillow in a plastic bag under her neck for some support). This worked pretty well though LiceMD is a bit messy. A head washing/soaking basin would have been preferred, but a disposable casserole baking pan was a great Macgyver solution. So, E was treated and I meticulously lice combed out the live (now dead) lice out. This took the whole evening, a good 3+ hours... but there were still the eggs. I continued to manually remove the eggs with my fingernails the next morning.. another 1+ hour.
Step 3) Remove Nits. There really is no good way to remove the eggs/nits. The lice comb doesn't get them all out (best effort is to comb in all different directions). Hand picking them out takes forever. It took me 30 minutes to get out 25-30 nits. And then when I thought I cleared out a section of hair, when I moved it in a different direction and looked under different lighting, there were still nits! So.. on day 2, I moved to plan B, alternative treatment. Research seems to indicate that a solution of 1:1 vinegar to water will help loosen the glue that holds the nits onto the hair. So once again, the casserole dish was the winning "tool". I placed E in the bathtub with a low level of warm water to keep her warm. Then had her lay down and put her head of hair into the casserole pan filled with the vinegar solution. I had her lay in that for 10+ minutes while I spent the time massaging her scalp and moving her hair around. After her head was done soaking in the vinegar solution, I continued with once again, lice combing out her hair in sections. I washed her hair with tea tree oil shampoo, and then dried it. Lo' and behold! A lot of the nits had fallen off in the vinegar wash and there were very few left. I'd say I'm down to 95% now. This step took another evening, 2+ hours.
Step 4) Prevention. So there's the usual, wash all bedding, clothes, vacuum carpets. But there's still an outbreak at school, so we still need to minimize the chance of catching lice again. Following alternative remedies, I mixed 4 ounces of water with 20 drops of tea tree oil into a spray bottle and spray it all over the hair, at the scalp, neck, and ears. Supposedly lice don't like tea tree oil. And from here on out, E's hair will be tied up, braided, pull back, etc and sprayed with tea tree oil for as long as the outbreak is still on-going at school.
Summary :
All in all, I have been OCD the past 2.5 days, waging war on them buggers. E and I have spent 6+ hours (2 days) doing all the above, and then some because I think you can never been too certain that ALL of them are gone. I may have won the battle right now, but we need to make sure we win the war. For the next few weeks, I will be lice combing out her hair morning and night for maintenance, and Step 4 will be on-going.
During this process, I kept reminding E to be patient.. that it takes time to do a good job or else the bugs will come back. We have to take this one thing at a time, one nit at a time. I would tell her when I found a nit, then have her help me count as we continued plucking them out. When we finished Step 3 and barely found any more nits, Emilia's hair was the blackest, shiniest, most beautiful hair. Nit free (mostly) and both of us happy! Who would have thought how much of an impact nice, bug free hair could have!
On another note, out of curiosity, I also researched lice removal services, some from salons and some mobile services. Typical charges are $95/hour plus additional fees for initial lice-checking (ex: $50 for lice checking per person) and 1-2 week post-checking. One review I read commented that they spent $400 to have lice removed out of their daughter's hair. Yikes!
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