San Diego: Part IV (Lice!)

No month long vacation would be complete without a breakout of head lice. Yep, you read that right. We had lice! I wish this was an April Fools joke, but ugh! Talk about gross!

I have no clue WHERE we picked it up, but I know that I had it for a while. I KNOW!!!! How is that possible!?!?!? So disgusting, how could I NOT have known??

Well, I had been scratching the back of my head for weeks, BEFORE we came to San Diego even, but never (not even once!) did it cross my mind that I might have bugs in my hair. It was winter, I must have a dry itchy scalp right? It seems ridiculous now that I didn't investigate a little further.

One day last week, Ernesto took the boys somewhere and my niece Cariza and I were going to go shopping. She was braiding my hair when she said,

"Tia, I don't want to freak you out but I see a few bugs in your hair!" WHAT????

Well, needless to say I was majorly freaked out!

YUCKKKKKK! OMG! NOOOOO!

I called Ernesto and told him to check the boys. He said they were lice free. However, when they came home in the afternoon we discovered lice on both of them.

The only thing I knew about lice was that they are bugs in your hair. I actually had it once when I was in elementary school. All I can remember though is that my mom said we had to be very careful that the shampoo didn't get in my eyes because I would go blind. Ha! Obviously a very strong pesticide.

I was glad to find Little Bugs (sold at Target) It's a 3-step solution to get rid of lice and their eggs with no pesticides.

It was developed by two moms (who are nurses) that had too much experience with lice on their children. They partnered with a chemist. They wanted something that worked without harsh chemicals.

It was $20 and worked like a charm. It smelled great too, so that was a plus.

Just massage in the mint serum all over the scalp and wait 15 minutes. Shampoo it out. Then use the mint spray and the finetooth comb (included in the box) to rid your self of any eggs.

Here is a picture of Mateo's hair. You can see a little white egg in the bottom right of the picture and the little red marks on his scalp where they bit him.

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I didn't notice them scratching???? They never complained???? Thankfully, they weren't INFESTED (like me!) and one box of the Little Bugs treatment did the trick.

Only my kids would think lice is fun! Ha! Mateo ran outside and told his abuela (who was just arriving home)

"I have lices," like he had won a trophy. Also he got a nice little haircut out of this. A la Ernesto.

Ernesto thought it was funny and teased me for days saying "you should shower more often mi amor" of course he didn't get infested. I wasn't sure how that is possible since we have both been sleeping with kids the last month.

But! I later learned that lice don't like "products" in their hair, that is why he was safe. I need to start styling my hair!

 

Luckily baby girl doesn't have enough hair for lice. Whew!

I ended up using three different treatments...just to be sure.

And guess what? I'm still not sure.

This treatment, Licefree Spray also sold at Target, is the easiest. Spay and saturate hair, then let it air dry. Says it kills lice AND eggs on contact. Perfect.
However, if you then spot an egg in your hair, how can you be SURE it is dead. So the combing must be done and THAT is the hard part with long hair. Those tight tooth combs don't just slide through. I must have pulled out a 1/4 of my hair. Great!

I read up on everything you ever wanted to know about those little blood suckers. And I know you really don't want to KNOW lice, but if you have kids going to school, daycare, camps, playing sports, then there is a good chance you may meet them one day. So if you are clueless about lice (like I was 10 days ago) here is a little LICE 101:

* Lice are harmless, albeit ANNOYING and GROSS and a HASSLE.

* It is EASILY spread and runs rampant in schools, day cares, camps, sports etc

* You DO NOT get lice due to poor hygiene (got itmi amor?) In fact, lice prefer clean hair.

* Lice will not live more than 48 hours without a human host (head)

* After treating lice on the head, wash sheets and any clothes worn in the last few days.
(hot water/high heat dry) You can also put clothes/pillows in airtight bag for 5 days, or freeze for 12 hours.Vacuum.

At least I know there are no bugs in my house when we get home. The follow-up of checking for hatched eggs (10 days) is going to be a pain in the butt. But hopefully we have done a good job at eradicating them from our lives.

Please tell me I'm not alone here ladies. Have you guys had experience with lice in your house/on your children or self? What did you use to get rid of it? Do tell.