by Vyckie
Well, this morning I’ve been working away on my review of Kathryn Joyce’s book, Quiverfull: Inside the Christian Patriarchy Movement
So ~ I’d better go get him and start washing stuff around here. Be back later … just as soon as I deal with this newest episode in the daily drama of life in a big, crazy family … Your sympathy is most welcome ~ LOL!
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Vyckie Garrison started No Longer Quivering to tell the story of her “escape” from the Quiverfull movement.
Over time, NLQ has developed into a valuable resource of information regarding the deceptions and dangers of the Quiverfull philosophy and lifestyle. Several more former QF adherents are now contributing their stories to NLQ and our collective voice makes these Quiverfull warnings impossible to dismiss or ignore.
NLQ is a gathering place for women escaping and recovering from spiritual abuse.
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That is a mess. Blake got it and then we all got it one yr. I had to wash every piece of clothes in hot water and all the bed stuff. Throw out the pillows, What a mess. We used the lice shampoo but thought we would never get free of them.
Good luck
Recalling our (thankfully) one episode with that, when my son was in preschool. The school was very wise — they told the affected kids that they had “sand” in their hair, and only the parents knew the real story.
Good luck with this!! Oh, and it happens in colleges, the workplace and the military, too.
I guess you will have to keep the kids home this weekend so it doesn’t get spread anywhere else. Like the one comment says once its in your home its hard to get rid of and everyone in the family has a good chance of getting it. The house will need a good vacuuming of floors and furniture and everything washed. Not fun good luck !
Lice are really endemic in all public schools these days. I heartily recommend a book/video and kit called Head Lice to Dead Lice. It is the system my kids’ school uses and it is organic and non toxic (except to the lice.) Basically, by this time, most of the lice in the schools are extremely resistant to the highly toxic chemicals in the lice meds like RID etc… Our school has been very sucessful using the Head Lice to Dead Lice approach which is basically this:
clean, vaccuum, and hot water wash and dry everything you can in the house. Seal up and store anything you can’t bake dry for thirty days (past the life cycle of the louse and its eggs).
Wash the kids hair and comb through with vinegar or alcohol (a trick I learned from my brazilian babysitter) to comb out the nits and the eggs. The vinegar or alcohol dissolves the cement the eggs glue themselves on with and make them easy to remove. Do this over a white sheet or the bathtub so you can spot the eggs/nits as you remove them.
Cover the kids heads in olive oil (not the expensive kind) or regular oil or KY jelly or we’ve also used nice and cheap but water soluble hair gel. This smothers the lice. Leave it on all night (you put the stuff on their hair/gel it up tight and then put on a shower cap. In the morning comb out the dead lice and wash out the oil/gel. Repeat every few days on the same cycle the lice emerge from their egg sacs. The kids can go to school in between cleanings and there is no risk of exposure from the neurotoxins in the extremely ineffective poisons.
Here’s the web site for headlice to deadlice. If I still had the video, which is absolutely fantastic, I’d send it to you myself:
http://www.headliceinfo.com/treat.htm
I want to add that I’m totally not an anti science/home remedy kind of person but I have two kids in private school and the number of times they have had lice is unbelievable. All the parents in Cambridge seem to have turned to this very successful regimen. IT really works. The hardest part for all of us is we are all older parents and simply can’t pick the nits anymore–our eyes aren’t good enough. Get help if you need it or use a crafter’s lighted magnifying glass like quilters use.
Vyckie,
Aimai gives good advice. Steer clear from chemical products.
I found a good nit comb invaluable. One with long metal teeth rather than plastic ones will last longer.
My trick was to use hair conditioner. Slap it on, let it sit on your hair for about 10 minutes (I think) and then comb with your nit comb. The conditioner makes the lice slip off the hair, and sort of paralizes them temporarily.
It’s important that you do this every day until you stop combing live lice out. Then you do it every other day, then once a week ( to comb out any lice that have hatched in the meantime, before they reach adulthood ten days after hatching).
Some people swear for teatree oil. Aparently, lice don’t like it.
I’d recommend changing bedding once the adult lice are gone, and vacuuming thoroughly, especially if you combed in a room with carpet. Have the children change clothes, and wash in hot water or give a good hot tumble.
There is no need to go crazy. concentrate on the heads. Lice will only survive a few hours off of a human head.
To prevent further infestations, condition and comb all heads once a week. It’s the only effective way to stay on top of the little blighters.
Oh, and don’t forget to check your head….
Off I go, scratching my head….
Haha! That happens!
Denorex shampoo – the kind with salicylic acid, NOT coal tar – works really well. Jusr rub it into the hair and let sit for 10 minutes, then wash it out. The salicylic acid (which is basically aspirin) loosens the nits. Then use a metal lice comb to get out what you can. Do this every morning or night for a week or so, then decrease to a few times a week.
After using the chemical kind and seeing them still crawling around right after treatment, and trying a host of other things, the Denorex finally ended the constant battle in my dd’s long, thick hait….without having to cut it!
Good luck!
-Patti
Since he’s a boy…give him a buzz. Wash his pillowcases, etc…couldn’t be easier. Now, girls…oh my. My two with long, long hair…what a mess.
I did get a battery powered comb that worked with a battery and electrocuted the live ones as you combed.
My daughter apparently has a really high tolerance for itch because she didn’t say anything about her head itching til they were awful! it took us a couple of months of doing as madame says with daily til no more live adult lice, then every other day, then once a week, etc….it was awful.
thanks everybody for all the tips! I’ll definitely try just using conditioner and denorex next time. The olive oil treatment is fine but something that doesn’t leak out of the plastic shower caps would be better. I also wanted to say that looked at the right way combing for nits can be an incredible bonding experience with kids. Put a good video on the tv, sit them down on a low stool, and comb away. Its a great time to be physically close with them, very soothing for them, and it can help them talk freely about stuff that is bothering them (same as in the car) because they aren’t looking right at you.
aimai
My two long-haired girls got lice after a drama camp excercise last year where they passed a hat around, put it on to do a speech, and then passed it to the next person…
It was awful. One of my girls hair is SO thick, too…she was thoroughly infested by the time I discovered it (like another poster, she must have a high tolerance for itch). UGH.
I buzzed all my boys right away (so nice), and I found a homeopathic lice treatment in the same section as the regular lice shampoos, so I tried the homeopathic one…and it totally worked. Nice to find something effective with out all the toxins in it.
I did two treatments per girl (did one, waited a week and did one more, just in case), and even one on me just in case, because it was so hard not to *feel* itchy after seeing bugs crawling in my kids heads… (Ew!)… and lots of sitting on the porch pulling out nits. Lots of lots of that. My goodness.
It’s been two years, but I still check their scalps whenever I see them scratching their heads.
Hi. Just reading my way through your blog. I was going to wait and comment at the end but now that you’ve made me itch
This isn’t the entry to say how your amazing strength is an inspiration.
For the nits there is a comb called the nitty gritty nitfree nit comb (hell of a name). I found this better than the usual lice combs as it is kinder on the hair and has spirals cut into the tines which catch everything even on fine hair.
Tea tree and neem oil are great to add to shampoo to help prevent the children picking them up.
Fi Brown