Seriously MIL. Head Lice. P!ssed!!!

Pamelacake

When I first found out that Youngest SD's had nits I contacted everyone they had recently been around to give them a head's up to check for it or spray down furniture as a precaution.

MIL was the first person I contacted as they had spent the night with her about a week before. I sent her a message that she read but didn't respond to.

I just found out that MIL has had lice for a while and SIL treated her at the beginning of May for it. SIL said she was infested with it. the bugs were literally falling out of her hair!!! Why would she not say something!

MIL told SIL not to tell anyone bc she was so embarrassed... so pass it onto your grands?

I spent 5 hours going through 6yo SD's hair last night. I have to go through 5yo SD's hair today. I'm furious. common courtesy.. really!

ETA: SD's were treated for it immediately then. but have been to g'ma's since then and now have it again.

hopanka

Yeah, I don't get this either. At my DS's school, they can't disclose who has lice in the classroom for privacy or whatever, so for that reason DS brought it home three times, until we figured out it was the girl sitting next to him. Her hair was always down and it's so long and thick (beautiful hair, btw)...no wonder he kept getting lice whenever they were reading from the same book or looking over each other's drawings. Flame if you must, but after that I told him not to get into her personal space ever, because I was about to rip my own hair out after treating him for almost two months back to back, as well as my entire house.

Ilumine

JNL$LSM:

I am curious or stupid not sure which one yet. If someone gets lice the whole house has to be treated? How is this done?

I am African American, have never had to deal with lice, however, I am curious. I heard our hair is to greasy (SP) and it is hard for them to latch on.

For MIL could have told you all, I do not understand being embarassed, since it is not uncommon, from what I have read.

Hopanka I agree 100% about telling DS to stay out of her personal space.

This is not quite true.  While American Lice do better on round hair vs the oval shafts of curly hair, (its not the oiliness, but ability to put all 6 legs around the hair), African American hair can get infested.  Not to mention, there are African Lice that have adapted to the oval shaft, though they are not common here yet. 

Lice need direct contact between the original host and the new human or direct contact of furniture, bedding, jackets (cloak rooms suck), etc within a 24-48 hour period, because the Louse cannot live off of a human head for more than that amount of time.  

The reality is, like any other bug, these critters are becoming immune to the OTC products AND all it takes is one pregnant louse to not get doused properly and you start the process all over again. 

HOWEVER, to have lice so bad that the bugs are dropping out of the hair means that the host has been ignoring the situation for so long, that there isn't enough room on the head for all of the bugs to live.   Especially since Lice only drop about 5 eggs a day.  THAT is not creating a lot of additional LICE all at once.  

I would be embarrassed and ashamed by that fact.   

Ilumine

I know a shitload about this because my mother was a kindergarten teacher for 45+ years.  

Her school would have an "infested" kid at least once a year.  And we would get it every 3-4 years until the school finally got rid of the cloak rooms and created individual cubbies for everyone.

Plus, this is a great reference page that we used when DD's PDE program had a bout.

https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/ 

Pamelacake

JNL$LSM:

I am curious or stupid not sure which one yet. If someone gets lice the whole house has to be treated? How is this done?

I am African American, have never had to deal with lice, however, I am curious. I heard our hair is to greasy (SP) and it is hard for them to latch on.

For MIL could have told you all, I do not understand being embarassed, since it is not uncommon, from what I have read.

Hopanka I agree 100% about telling DS to stay out of her personal space.

I am not fully white but am not totally out of the woods of getting the lice. It is very common and she should have said something. and they can only stick to  "clean hair" I use a lot of gels or leave in conditioners to maintain my hair.

As far as MIL, yeah.. she should have said something. The only person who knew was my SIL who has one little boy and they are at MIL's frequently.

  I just thought she got it from school the first time as we caught it very early. I have 5 other kids in the house.. 3 being boys said they would just shave their heads.. lol.

2 youngest SD's are the only ones that have it and I have to deep clean their room, all common areas of the house.. change out all of their bedding, shampoo their matresses... and it all could have been prevented. I am furious! I would need to shampoo carpets as well but we have all hardwood floors besides in SD's bedroom Thank God! and the living room furniture is leather so I just wiped it down, sprayed it and vacuumed, which I will have to do again today and probably tomorrow as well.

If I get it I will have to cut my hair... there will be no getting it out of my hair.. without cutting it short first.. My hair is also greasy so it's hard for them to latch on.

and I guess I will start using mild hair products in SD's hair.. esp 6 yo SD. her hair is so thick.

Ilumine

Pamelacake:

JNL$LSM:

I am curious or stupid not sure which one yet. If someone gets lice the whole house has to be treated? How is this done?

I am African American, have never had to deal with lice, however, I am curious. I heard our hair is to greasy (SP) and it is hard for them to latch on.

For MIL could have told you all, I do not understand being embarassed, since it is not uncommon, from what I have read.

Hopanka I agree 100% about telling DS to stay out of her personal space.

I am not fully white but am not totally out of the woods of getting the lice. It is very common and she should have said something. and they can only stick to  "clean hair" I use a lot of gels or leave in conditioners to maintain my hair.

 ....

My hair is also greasy so it's hard for them to latch on.

and I guess I will start using mild hair products in SD's hair.. esp 6 yo SD. her hair is so thick.

I am not trying to pick on you, but if you keep going down this path of misinformation / wives-tales, you and your children will get lice. 

It does not matter if you use hair gel/product or have oily or dirty hair(hello, the poor are more apt to have oily and dirty hair).

The only true facts are that they like long hair and gravitate towards female heads (but that may have nothing to do with the hair and everything to do with the blood they drink).

Here is a link regarding a LICE Researcher's finding.

https://www.abc.net.au/health/talkinghealth/factbuster/stories/2008/06/11/2271382.htm#.UcCfWhafczY

 

Pamelacake

MIL JUst showed up unannounced as I was starting to go through her hair again.. I let her know what I was doing and she still said nothing about it! Maybe I should just let it go. I understand her being embarrassed by it but I don't understand not letting others know so they (we) could have been aware and better prepared. and possibly even prevented it.

Pamelacake

Ilumine:

Pamelacake:

JNL$LSM:

I am curious or stupid not sure which one yet. If someone gets lice the whole house has to be treated? How is this done?

I am African American, have never had to deal with lice, however, I am curious. I heard our hair is to greasy (SP) and it is hard for them to latch on.

For MIL could have told you all, I do not understand being embarassed, since it is not uncommon, from what I have read.

Hopanka I agree 100% about telling DS to stay out of her personal space.

I am not fully white but am not totally out of the woods of getting the lice. It is very common and she should have said something. and they can only stick to  "clean hair" I use a lot of gels or leave in conditioners to maintain my hair.

 ....

My hair is also greasy so it's hard for them to latch on.

and I guess I will start using mild hair products in SD's hair.. esp 6 yo SD. her hair is so thick.

I am not trying to pick on you, but if you keep going down this path of misinformation / wives-tales, you and your children will get lice. 

It does not matter if you use hair gel/product or have oily or dirty hair(hello, the poor are more apt to have oily and dirty hair).

The only true facts are that they like long hair and gravitate towards female heads (but that may have nothing to do with the hair and everything to do with the blood they drink).

Here is a link regarding a LICE Researcher's finding.

https://www.abc.net.au/health/talkinghealth/factbuster/stories/2008/06/11/2271382.htm#.UcCfWhafczY

 

Thank you. I have learned a lot about lice just from your posts. I have not had to deal with this in a while.

Pamelacake

Just wanted to clarify the bugs were falling out of MIL'S hair not SD's. I noticed it in their hair and the first time they were treated only found one bug in each SD's hair.

CFjo2010

hopanka:

Yeah, I don't get this either. At my DS's school, they can't disclose who has lice in the classroom for privacy or whatever, so for that reason DS brought it home three times, until we figured out it was the girl sitting next to him. Her hair was always down and it's so long and thick (beautiful hair, btw)...no wonder he kept getting lice whenever they were reading from the same book or looking over each other's drawings. Flame if you must, but after that I told him not to get into her personal space ever, because I was about to rip my own hair out after treating him for almost two months back to back, as well as my entire house.

No flames.  Lice is a *** to deal with.  

There was a lice epidemic in K's class this year.  Seriously, we got letters home every other week about it.  Whenever we took K to school I always put her hair up.  Not even in a ponytail.  I'm talking french braids stuck to her head with no strands dangling.  The group of moms I hang out with all did the same thing.  Hell, there were times when we were volunteering in the class and we would put up other girls' hair if it was down.  Thankfully we made it this school year without K getting lice, but it was nerve racking.

Pamelacake

hopanka:

Yeah, I don't get this either. At my DS's school, they can't disclose who has lice in the classroom for privacy or whatever, so for that reason DS brought it home three times, until we figured out it was the girl sitting next to him. Her hair was always down and it's so long and thick (beautiful hair, btw)...no wonder he kept getting lice whenever they were reading from the same book or looking over each other's drawings. Flame if you must, but after that I told him not to get into her personal space ever, because I was about to rip my own hair out after treating him for almost two months back to back, as well as my entire house.

 

No flames coming from me.. I don't blame you at all. SD has thick hair.. I did thin it out a couple of months ago to make it easier for her to brush. But very thick where the knits are and I am just taking a short break from going through her hair again today (did prescription treatment and went through her hair for over 5 hours last night) and I am simply amazed at how many I am still finding. It is a huge mess. SD wants to go to her friend's house and I told her there was no way she was going with the itchy bugs.. what I have been calling them to her, I told her that wouldn't be right to go over there and pass it on to her friend.

Pamelacake

jobalchak:

hopanka:

Yeah, I don't get this either. At my DS's school, they can't disclose who has lice in the classroom for privacy or whatever, so for that reason DS brought it home three times, until we figured out it was the girl sitting next to him. Her hair was always down and it's so long and thick (beautiful hair, btw)...no wonder he kept getting lice whenever they were reading from the same book or looking over each other's drawings. Flame if you must, but after that I told him not to get into her personal space ever, because I was about to rip my own hair out after treating him for almost two months back to back, as well as my entire house.

No flames.  Lice is a *** to deal with.  

There was a lice epidemic in K's class this year.  Seriously, we got letters home every other week about it.  Whenever we took K to school I always put her hair up.  Not even in a ponytail.  I'm talking french braids stuck to her head with no strands dangling.  The group of moms I hang out with all did the same thing.  Hell, there were times when we were volunteering in the class and we would put up other girls' hair if it was down.  Thankfully we made it this school year without K getting lice, but it was nerve racking.

I told SD we were going to start putting her hair up more. but she needed to work on leaving it alone. Every time I would put her hair up for school with new hair bows or anything she would come home without them because she would give them away.

Littlejen22

Pamelacake:

MIL JUst showed up unannounced as I was starting to go through her hair again.. I let her know what I was doing and she still said nothing about it! Maybe I should just let it go. I understand her being embarrassed by it but I don't understand not letting others know so they we could have been aware and better prepared. and possibly even prevented it.

Do NOT let it go because she will get the message that it is ok to lie to you again. She needs to be respectfully told that you know she have it to the kids and that it is unacceptable that she would have kids stay at her infested house without telling you guys.

Alohalove

With a grandmother like that...  Gross!!!! Of course, I'm now my head itches.