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| Me - looking for bugs on Sass |
When we arrived in the States, we were required to fill out the above form. Can you make out question 11.(a)?
11. I am (We are) bringing
(a) fruits, vegetables, plants, seeds, food, insects.
Yep - bugs. Now you don't mess with US customs....and I was pretty darned sure we were bringing in insects as I looked closely at Sass's head. Hmmm. What to do, what to do... In the end, I declared nothing.
And the little blighters are back - AGAIN! Elle was scratching too so we Googled the safety of filling a shower cap with Mortein and slapping in on her head. However, I read on the can that contact with skin should be avoided so was forced to abandon that brilliant idea.
What Elle's Google search of 'Is it bad to spray Morteen on hair for hed lice' (sic) revealed though, was Sydney Morning Herald article and forum that said 10% of all school aged kids have lice at any given point in time. In my experience, the concentration is heavily skewed to primary school.
The good news was, hair drying kills 55% of bugs and 98% eggs. They hate heat. A hair straightener fries eggs and bugs alike. The cheap conditioner and comb through does work. And finally, many contributors agree that the chemicals just don't work (perhaps Mortein does, sadly, we'll never know) - wondering if the lice have become immune.
Sass has been crawling into bed with Elle lately so she too has been itching. We tried a new remedy from the forum- olive oil and a few drops of tea tree oil mixed in. Apparently it smothers lice and eggs alike. She has hair as thick as a horses tail - and it seem to have worked a treat!
Meanwhile, Sass went off to school this morning with the straightest pony tail ever!
Any other ideas of ridding ourselves of this scourge will be gratefully received.
12 comments:
Sarah - the article said that n the tropics, 40% of kids have them at any one time!!! Having said that, they apparently don't like dirty hair - so maybe it was sweaty heads that kept them at bay??
Jane Callister Drives me crazy! I do the nits every week and I can see them at school with all the scratching. Big hair cuts due
I've had a few suggestions on FB - stay tuned and I'll post them here as there are some rippers!
Julie Stirton tried mortein years ago sue! didn,t do much except give georgia a very tender scalp don,t miss the years of head lice at all i,m sure we had four to five generations of them living at our house at times!!!
Conditioner and Comb [ no way out of the comb!!!!! ] AND don't forget the repeat in a weeks time or all effort could be wasted. Former Nit Queen of MCS!!!! JBx
Indeed you were!!! MWWx
I bought a battery operated Robi Comb from the pharmacy. It electrocutes the little suckers and their eggs as you comb the hair. So much quicker and less stressful all round.
How much was that Annette? Just curious...as given the other remedies this might in fact be a very good investment. MWWx
Brenda Mitchell A whole bottle of conditioner and lice comb. I don't think they can breathe through the conditioner and the comb gets the eggs. A friend of mine sent lice as show and tell (stuck to sticky tape) - the teacher wasn't that impressed.
Nici Henningsen Moove is all that works Sue. I had the National Head Lice Association out (yes there is such a thing!). I came within seconds from shaving Matilda's head. We were all soooo traumatised! Good luck XXX
Jane Callister I've tried natural stuff and also Pantene conditioner in dry hair and comb them out - apparently shocks the little devils so much they depart. It worked for a bit and then I needed to kill them with K24. I then do the conditioner thingy again. Basically, I'm looking forward to secondary school.
I also had a text from my friend Alex who has heard mums swear by orange juice! Sounds weird but I wonder if it's the acidity that does the job.
Sarah Rykenberg You could try moving the tropics. In the whole time I was living in Indonesia we never had lice. Since being back in Victoria it has been a constant scourge. Agree with the comment about primary school being more of a problem (it is the way kids huddle and are not motivated about grooming). Have tried all the remedies mentioned except Mortein. Had lice myself on my wedding day and was too scared to go to the hair dressers - had to get my sister-in-law-to-be to do a do-up for me.
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