Momudaughter

This post was originally written in July 2019 and never got posted, until now. The incident happened March 2019. I have seen other mom bloggers posts about the topic, and I see the issue brought up in many mom groups, so I figured I’d finally publish the piece. Here goes…

Jelina got lice earlier this year and her head captors took me as a victim too. Why am I writing about this non-glamorous subject? Well, I’m telling our Mom and Daughter story and lice happens to be a part of it. I never would have imagined having to deal with it at the early age of 2.5, but hey, shit happens. I remember being a kid and my Mom going thru mine and my brother’s hair for lice, so whatever. Anyways, I feel I learned enough in the experience to help a few Moms out there get those fuckers out of their kid’s heads.

It’s kinda a long story, I first found the nits aka the egg casings that are attached to the hair shaft near the head almost 2 weeks before I actually fully understood what I was dealing with. Then, I found a live louse in her head. Louse by the way is a single bug. They are very tiny, kinda clear looking, and just uckkk.

First, I freaked out! I did, I did! Cried, called my aunt and cried to her. She ordered me a box of RID which is a chemical shampoo that does not kill the lice, but is supposed to help ease the lice out of the hair. I did not use the RID product because it is not at the top of the suggestions list when I was googling. The RID comes with a lice comb which DID very much assist in our lice extraction! I also called a bunch of local lice experts. I did not choose them either because too much money. I knew we had to attack the enemy alone. I was scared, nervous…would I be able to get all those f’ers out alone?

I researched and found I needed to choose something, whether the RID, an oil, a witch’s magical brew, a conditioner or some other base, something had to go in our hair to get the lice out. Finally, I chose mayonnaise. I read it worked. The thing is, none of these things really kill the lice, the product just makes the louse immobile and easier to comb out. So I lathered Jelina and I up with some mayo and spread that shit all throughout our hair, no mercy! F-you, F-you and F-you you f-ing lice!! From there I threw plastic bags over our heads and let the mayo sit in our hair for many, many hours.

In the mean time, some of the precautionary measures I took were:

-vacuuming the entire apartment

-washing all our clothes, sheets, blankets, etc in hot water.

-putting all the toys in a plastic bag outside for a few days

A little about the louse life cycle. One gets lice because an adult has been in their head and laid eggs. An adult can lay up to 10 or more eggs, nits, a day. The nits are thick casings that can resemble dandrift. The eggs take about 2 weeks to develop and hatch. Once they hatch it takes about 2 weeks for the nasty thing to become an adult and move around and lay eggs. Once you get a sense of the cycle, you can better judge if you’ve completely terminated your case. Now, keep in mind, the louse cannot jump or fly, and they die after 24 hours of not being on the head. They are a nerve-wracking, annoying, pest (they tempted me to shave my head), but they are NOT unstoppable!

So then came the combing process. This part is very tedious and needs to be repeated daily for a good 1-2 weeks after the first combing to ensure destruction of the lice in your child’s head. Full disclosure, I did a better job of clearing Jelina’s head then I did my head because mine weren’t rid within the first two weeks. I musta left a casing or more somewhere in my head which allowed the lil thing(s) to not be notice right away. Anyways, some how that cycle I got’em, and that was going through the combing process myself, no help from hubs.

My combing process was:

1. Rinse out the mayo or lathered product in the hair
2. Use regular comb to comb out hair. Check comb for lice and nit casings as you comb thru hair.
3. Separate hair into sections. Once separated, comb thru section by section with lice comb. Start at the top of the head. Check comb for bugs and nits. Use tissue or towel to wipe comb down after combing thru hair.

Important note while doing the combing process. You will have to use your own fingers at least in your child’s hair. This may be what helped get Jelina’s head cleared faster. I used my thumb and pointer finger nails to help get the nits detached from the strand of the hair. Most are removed with the comb, but the difference between these things and dandruff is, the dandruff flakes will fall out, these nits are stuck to the hair shaft. Some you really gotta get in there, and also make sure you don’t pull the hair strand out. I mean that is an option too, but nobody wants to start yanking their kid’s hair out if it’s not needed.

The first couple nights I had us sleeping with our hair covered in a shower cap. After the first couple comb outs in the cycle, the live bugs should be out, so covered hair isn’t necessary for the full two weeks of the combing cycle.

SUPPLY LIST FOR COMBING

This just happens to be what I used.

-combs from dollar store

-Lice comb (In addition to the one that came with the RID, I found a super cheap plastic one at CVS that worked good. You can never have too many lice combs.)

-super pointy tweezers (used to get the nits out of the comb)

-tissue

-shower caps (post combing item)

So there is our lice story. As I mentioned above, this post was mostly written over a year ago. I’m just now getting around to posting it now, almost 2 years ago from when the experience first occurred. Have you ever gotten lice from your kid?