There's a great article in yesterday's Boston Globe Sunday Magazine about head lice:

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/article s/2008/03/02/the_meaning_of_lice/

Do you think the assumptions we make about kids and lice are fair?

Have they ever hit your household? How did you deal with it?

I'll be the first to admit. . .

My son had lice when he was 3. It wasn't bad. A couple bugs. We didn't get a whole-household infestation. I shaved his head. . .it was 2000, and super-short hair was "in" anyway. I did RID him and vacuum like crazy, too.

The worst part was that I had to call in sick to work to deal with the lice problem!

Getting lice is one thing, and I accept that anyone can get it, but I am a little biased that people who repeatedly get it or can't get rid of it are dirtier than the rest of us. . .

I haven't had the chance to read the article yet (it's still sitting with the rest of yesterday's paper) but I'm eager to see what it says. One of my best friends used to be the person you called in the Boston area when you got lice (she since only does a couple of heads/houses a year because it was time to move on). She's been from the richest to the poorest homes and everyone has that same comment: please don't tell anyone.

I don't think the assumption that people are dirty is fair. If you get pregnant does that make you a slut? If you get into a car accident does that make you a bad driver? I know, I know, apples and oranges but they are all examples of broad generalizations.

My granddaughter had it last winter. I believe she got it from the play gym at McDonald's. Well she kept getting it back several times because other people had it and she would get it again. My daughters got it the 2nd time around. I cleaned the myself the 2nd time around. I let my dil do it the first time and I don't really think she did a great job. So 5 weeks later when my daughters go it they were high school and middle school girls with long thick curly hair. That drove me nuts trying to go thru hair like that. I cleaned my house for 3 days straight top to bottom. Knock on wood we haven't got them back. My dil doesn't live with any more.

I had 4 children and never had a problem before my granddaughter had it. The school was great and the school nurses really helped me.

heh i will admit it here - when i was in highschool at one point, i had somehow gotten head lice!! and i am certainly not dirty! i was somehow the only one in my house that had it and the only thing we could figure out is that we had a cat with kittens who usually lived outside - we were spraying the rest of the house for fleas (she was an outside stray cat that we took in to have the kittens awww) just incase - but not my room since she was never allowed in there (or the kittens!) so sometimes it can come from other pets etc.

iroinic that people accociate lice with dirty since just showering and washing your hair daily doesnt kill lice! however, i did read recently somewhere that they think using a hair dryer daily actually kills/prevents lice better than that RID stuff!

Funny enough, they had an Arthur episode about this a while back...You know Arthur the ant eater, or whatever he is supposed to be. One thing that they mentioned in it was that lice are actually attracted to clean heads...well there goes that myth. As a kid a couple of my sisters got it once, but I never did. I just remember my Mom washing all the bedding every night for weeks, and washing everyone's hair with rid... and we all had really really really long hair.

I worked in day care and I'm now a public school teacher. Head lice don't care if you're clean or dirty; they just want a head of hair in which to live. In the day care center, we would sanitize like crazy and put away the dress-up clothes until the infestation was over and the kids had all been checked repeatedly. In school, the kids have to be checked in the office before they're allowed back to class. I worry about shared lockers -- little bugs can move from one coat to another easily.

I daughter turned 12 yesterday and when she was in the 4th grade she keep complaining of her head itching. At this point she was taking care of washing her own hair and I just assumed she was not rinsing all the shampoo out Finally, one day I looked and found head lice. I was mortified. We are not poor, dirty people. Just unlucky in the fact that we had lice. What a chore to wash everything, bag up stuffed animals, and do the nick picking.
I found a great product at the health food store for natural removal. It contained tea tree oil with denatured alcohol. It took care of the problem without using any pesticide product. She now uses a tea tree oil shampoo on a regular bases. We love it.

My children attend a private school, right after Christmas break we recieved a notice that one of our children had lice, we treated it after I did some reserch online and found a "recipe" using tea tree oil and lavender. The next week the whole school was closed for two days, the outbreak was bad, I guess it was the worst in the pre k and kindergarten rooms. We treated our kids as a precaution and even a few extras with the "recipe". We have never had another problem. I agree with the other moms anyone can get it.

My 12 year old daughter and my 9 year old son BOTH had head lice last year. It was a nightmare. We used RID...TWICE! Both times, it returned. I suppose I didn't get all the nits out.

I eventually gave my son the shaved head look. Not down to the scalp....but close. Solved that problem.. Boys have that advantage. Take off the hair....problem solved. My daughter, however, was not so lucky.

I finally tried a home remedy (recommended by my neighbor). She slept in mayonnaise. Smuthered the things! We proceeded to have her sleep in mayonnaise weekly for 6 weeks. Lice cannot lay eggs until they reach a certain age (and I can't quite recall what I read, but I believe it was 2 weeks old) So, eventually, you will kill them all that way. It was alot easier that picking nits out of long hair.

Oh my!

Well none of my 4 have ever had it, but I recall last year when the school nurse traumatized my child and my household when she called me and said she "couldn't tell" if my daughter had it or not.

She called me at home and said "she wasn't familiar with black hair," but it would be safe to treat my daughter as though she had it.

Mortified, I washed my daughter's long hair and checked every nook and crany. I was outraged and called my pediatrician immediately who assured me that African Americans don't get lice because of the grade of their hair which is not conducive for nit growth because of the hair products and excessive heat we use on a regular basis.

Needless to say the school nurse was NEW and needed a tutorial. My pedicatrician sent her a note and some literature and had her check my daughters hair again....SHE HAD NOTHING as we suspected!

Who can say traumatized?

We haven't had to deal with it... YET. And hopefully never. I check the kids heads everyday when I am washing/ styling their hair. When headlice hits the school (if even ONE kid has it) they send fliers home with every kid letting parents know that someone has it and to check out kids really carefully. Of course, the school screens, but its up to us as parents to keep it at bay. My younger sisters grew up in a whole different world than I did and they had constant lice. I truely believe it was because of ineffective clean up of not just heads but whole houses. Any child can get lice... but if you handle it right you can get rid of it and not have a chronic infestation problem. I don't believe stereotypes are right when it comes to a case of headlice, but they do fit the bill when it comes to chronic lice in the same kids. When my oldest daughter started Kindergarten, I was so worried about lice that I cut her hair into a short bob... now she is in 2nd grade and has long hair, but we constantly talk about not sharing items, etc... If the nasty critters make it into our house you can bet I will be cleaning every possible surface, bagging up items that cannot be cleaned and ensuring every last nit is gone from their little heads. Ick... just the thought makes me itch.

WE had it bad for a few months until the school nurse told me to use Mayonaisse and hair coverings. we did that for two weeks every 5 days and it went away.

we had tried everything else & I was so upset about the chemicals and other was to treat it, Plus the fact they wernt even working

When we had lice last winter. I read an article to use bug spay. I used the Raid for Flying Insects(blue can). I spraid everything, furniture, bedding, closets, clothes. It really helped. It was alot cheaper and the cans are alot bigger. I had 8 people living in our house at the time. God that was a nightmare.

Never heard of the Mayonaise thing. I bet the was much better for your hair then all the chemical stuff. After using the RID and other chemicals on my daughters long hair. It destroyed their hair so bad. It took me months to get there hair condiitioned and back to normal.

How ironic that this is the discussion.
We have been battling head lice since JANUARY!!! We are not dirty people at all (I never believed that myth anyway). My youngest daughter came home with it. We did the complete cleaning & spraying of the house from top to bottom. We spent hours with RID and metal combs. I swallowed my pride and tried to be responsible to prevent spreading. I called my daughter's best friend's parents, I reported it to the school and to our church where my children spend time with other children. We repeated a week later as instructed. A week later the youngest had it again, (or still?).
To make a long repeatative story short we have been doing these treatments and combings on a weekly basis only to have them return. We have done Olive Oil & Tea Tree Oil treatments aslo. She and her best friend were passing it back and forth for the first few months. Being able to speak openly with that family has helped us if for no other reason than to vent to one another and compare solutions. I check heads daily and I have battled the school trying to get them to check her classroom for other possible cases. They refuse to check the kids unless a parent reports a problem and then they only check that child. The plus side is that they dont want to tramatize & embarrase the children. The down side is that here we are 4 months later and we are still fighting it. My plan THIS week is to treat and comb their hair every 4 days instead of every 7-10 days. Even though I cut their hair above their shoulders in the beginning, I am making them keep their hair up constantly and I throw all their coats and bedding in the dryer every few days to kill anything that might be hanging around.
I have learned a lot about lice through my research and desperate searches for alternate solutions. I feel strongly that educating people about the truths and myths of lice is critical to controlling outbreaks. There should be no fear of humilitation. By being open and speaking out about our problem have heard many "confessions" from people in all walks of life. If we could just talk to one another about lice like we do colds and flus, the outbreaks might be easier to get under control.
Never say it can't happen to you...

Hello, I am new to this group. I have had to deal with the head lice a few times myself when it came to my kids. I would treat the kids, the clothes, beds,couches,and carpet. My house would smell like URINE!!! That Rid treatment is HORRIBLE. Not only did it small bad but it didn't get rid of the lice. They came back. So I had to go and get Seldane from the doctor to kill them in one shampoo. Now I find out that the seldane can be obsorbed into the body. What a nightmare. I just read two days ago about a product that has natural ingredients in it that help get rid of lice without any harmful chemicals. If you would like to have the information sent to you; email me at : www.djd5959@yahoo.com