Almost two weeks ago, Brian was at his baseball game (go Millers!) and I was so proud of being such a task master at getting the kids bathed and showered. This was going to be a very busy week - Lauren and Josh had camp and Logan and Emma had full days at "school" and I was going to get everything on my to-do list done.
Yeah, right!
I had my little caddy of Q-tips, Neosporin, Band-aids and nail clippers and was going kid to kid making sure all the ears were cleaned, boo-boo's taken care of, and nails trimmed. Until I got to the last kid. That is when I discovered things crawling in the child's hair (WHAT!!) As my mind attempted to wrap itself around what I was seeing and what I was thinking, Brian came home and confirmed - yep, lice.
I took each kid individually to check them and three out of four were positive for head lice. I was in total robot mode. Brian came back from the store with the shampoo, only to discover that it was the preventative shampoo and not the super toxic kill them all shampoo. Back to the store he went. The kids were in the bathroom playing video games and entertaining themselves and I called my friend and neighbor Stephanie who had been through this before. She said she would be over as soon as she could. I started stripping beds and throwing stuffed animals into garbage bags to bag them. Each kid had a bag and each room had to be gone through. We worked methodically to gather up bedding, pillows, blankets, clothes, stuffed animals, shoes, coats, toys with any sort of fabric on them and then triaged what needed to be washed and what could go in the bags. Needless to say, we are 11 days post-lice and I just saw my laundry room floor for the first time since that crazy night. We treated all the kids (even the one who didn't have it, just to be sure) and then came the task of going through the hair. Stephanie came over with some wine. As soon as I saw her I started to cry and she just put her arm around me and said everything was going to be okay. She started going through my kids hair, strand by strand. Brian had buzzed the boys hair in between trips to the store, so their hair was fairly easy to go through. I was vacuuming like a mad woman, simply trying to make sure that there were spots for the kids to sleep. The washer and dryer were both going and after all the kids hair had been gone through it was time to look through my hair to check me. And of course I had it. Stephanie got me a beer and as I lamented how horrible this was, she was quick to correct me. "Megan, cancer is horrible. This is a week out of your life."
And she was right.
Stephanie helped me treat my hair and went through it, strand by strand. Brian ordered pizza that was delivered a little before midnight. Brian, my sister-in-law Laura, Stephanie and I drank, ate pizza and watched "Pitch Perfect". Most importantly, we laughed. We laughed a lot! Stephanie stayed at my house until 1:30 am. She talked me through the next steps of what I had to do the next day. She understood the embarrassment and frustration I felt. There are no words that can express my gratitude to her. She is a true blessing to me. After she went home, I finished another load of laundry and went to bed.
The next morning, Stephanie came back over to help me check the kids and to check me. I had four checkpoints during the day with all the kids. By the third checkpoint, they were all clear. Whew! Twice a day (sometimes three times) I checked them all week long. Eleven days later, after all the clothes, bedding, jackets, hats, blankets, pillows, and towels have been washed, I still check them - not as intensely, but I am still on alert.
Why am I writing this? Why would I share this with all of you? I want you to know that if it happens to you, you are not alone and you will get through it. It is not horrible. It is inconvenient and annoying, but it is not horrible. Here are the steps I recommend if you find lice in your child's hair:
1. Get a treatment solution. Don't use mayonnaise. It does not work and the lice will only spread to others. Make sure it is not a preventative solution, but a lice killing solution. Follow the instructions carefully - it is powerful stuff.
2. Treat your whole family.
3. Remove all bedding and wash. I vacuumed the carpet and then laid blankets and clean pillows on the floor for my kids to sleep on. In the morning I washed all the bedding they slept on. I repeated this daily for about five days.
4. Put all stuffed animals and toys with fabric into garbage bags and seal them. The idea is to suffocate the lice. Lice can only live for 48 hours off of a human head and the nits (eggs) can only live a few hours. Do the same with all coats and hats (at least the ones you won't have to wear in the next couple of days). A good rule of thumb is that if you won't need it in the next three days, bag it. The heat is what kills the lice and eggs, so putting pillows in the dryer for 30 minutes is good. I washed as much as I could in hot water.
5. After you have treated your kids hair, go through their hair with a nit comb (comes in the kit box or you can order one here) strand by strand and pull out all eggs. They will be about 1/4 of an inch or closer to the scalp. They will be brown or white or yellowish. It is hard to tell the difference between dandruff and a nit, but if you can flick it off, it is dandruff. Nits are sticky. You will have to repeat this process over and over until you find nothing. It will be time consuming, but it must be done to prevent re-infestation.
6. Call anyone your child had been in close contact with. Two of my kids had sleepovers at our house the same weekend I found the lice. I had to call the parents. They were hard calls to make and I cried. It is embarrassing, but it provided those parents with a heads up to prevent the lice from spreading further and further. Communication is key to stopping the cycle.
7. Vacuum your furniture. There is also lice spray that can be sprayed on carpets and furniture that kills lice on contact. This is good stuff. We went through three bottles of it.
8. Vacuum and spray your car. Very often overlooked, but really important. Also spray your kids baseball, football, hockey and bike helmets.
9. I used a preventative shampoo and spray on my kids heads for the next week (and on myself). You can also put tea tree oil mixed with olive oil on your child's head and cover with a shower cap for the night. Make sure to rinse out in the morning.
10. Check out the website for the Minnesota Lice Lady. She knows her stuff. You can hire her to go through your kids hair, too.
10. Call me and I will come help you with all of the above. I will bring some beer and/or wine with me and we will have as much fun as we can. My dear friend taught me how to make the most out of this most unpleasant situation. And I will forever be grateful for her for this and for many, many other reasons.....
Most importantly, don't make your child feel ashamed. They didn't get lice on purpose. They probably didn't know they had it or where they got it. When we tried to think about where my kid could have gotten it, there were too many possibilities to count, especially when sports are involved. We have active kids and this is part of life. An unpleasant part, but a part just the same.
It really wasn't that bad. Because of lice, Lauren's birthday the next weekend was different and it turned out great. She had a great party at Manic Ceramic in Lakeville with a pizza party and a trip to a park. It was perfect and it never would have came about had we not had lice. I got to hang out with my dear friend.....a lot! My house is REALLY clean :)
Perspective is everything.
