sandy's general musings

This whole lice thing has been driving me batty! I discovered lice on alyssa during spring. Getting rid of them is not as simple as using the lice shampoo. The easy part is the stuff. Hot heat in dryer. The hard part is the nits/eggs in hair. I treated her. Got the lice out. A week later the eggs that were left hatched and I used tea tree oil, combed thru it all, and thought I had it all licked. She never went to school with the lice since spring break. I know that she got them from school though beforehand. Anyway, after 2 weeks, then last sunday, once again, lice! Did I miss anything, or did she get them again. Well this thursday her whole class got checked. They sent a lot of kids home with "nits", aka the eggs. Alyssa was fine, but on friday they found nits. I think they were dead ones as they were further down on the hair, which means they are probably old ones. But in anycase I had to pick her up.

Frustrated I made an appt for her locks of love. It was s uppose to be next weekend, but I wanted the long hair gone. Easy to treat the situation. So yesterday she got her hair cut. Below is a pic. Then I went thru and tried to get every nit. There are no lice themselves in her hair. But the school has a no nit policy. the nits are not "contageous", the lice are. I heard that one child that had the actual lice got to stay, which makes no sense to me. The problem is that to get rid of nits is a hand process. The idea behind lice treatment is to retreat every 7 days so that young lice that have hatched get killed before they can further lay eggs. Mature eggs will work with the tea tea oil/olive oil/ mayonaise treatment. Vinegar will lossen the glue on the nits. I know more than I need to know. Last night we did mayo and vinegar. Went thru the hair once again. She cannot go to school unless no nits. I cannot wait for this nightmare to be over. Other fun facts. Lice LOVE clean hair. The greasy, color treated, etc hair is not what they want. So those that are clean are the ones that get it. Dark skinned kids usually dont get it with their coarse product ridden hair. I cannot wait until we are finally DONE with this ordeal. The good news is that since spring break I have been treating Alyssa, but besides her teacher noone in her class really knew.. now it is all in the open.
Yesterday, after the haircut and errands, I had a boy come over from Alyssa's class that she wants to be friends with, but cant because of the teasing. he also had nits. Nits are not contageous and he was treated for the lice. It was nice to have that playdate.

Other news...

Alyssa did not get into tag. she passed creative and academic, but cognitive and motivation did not pass. I have not heard about Jack yet. I did not make a big deal out of this. AT least we tried and now know.

Jack is a new kid at school according to his teacher. He is a model student. The only issue once again is the one where he really doesnt socialize. Once again, I dont make enuf playdates for him. Have to try harder on that one. I cant remember if I talked about this on the last blog entry so sorry if duplicate. I asked him about this and one answer he said is that "he got hurt playing tag wwith the other kids a few months ago, so he doesnt want to play anymore". I will have to pursue that more. I did tell him to try again. He is such a baby about getting hurt. Most of that comes from his sister having sometimes hit him and Jack learning how to play victim real well.

I STiLL have a clogged ear. Other than getting tubes myself, I think it will just take time. The day I get my full hearing back I will be so thrilled. I still feel like I am full of phelm in some ways. I probably need to continue to take some type of allergy or musinex type stuff. I sorta gave up for a while.