Last Monday we got the call. The call that every parent DREADS. Sam had lice. Oy! But we are lucky because we had made it this far without getting them. So I immediately called my friend Geni, since she has four kids and has had it come home before. She gave me some great advice because I was of course overwhelmed by all the things I now had to do and wash. I picked up Ben after I got Sam because I knew that if thing 2 had them, thing 1 was a shoe in to have them as well. And sure enough the school nurse checked him and he was down as well. Our first trip was to the drugstore for some special shampoo and some red vines. I knew I was going to need some candy and some beer to make it through this ordeal. So here are a few things I found that worked for us:
1. We had good luck with the Nix cream rinse. The comb we got with it was okay, but after some research we found this comb, which works really well.
2. The Nix kills the lice, but then the only way to get the eggs out is to comb them out. Sam's teachers kept telling me to look for the eggs and just comb or pull them out. But I could never see them. But the comb takes care of this anyway. Just wet their hair and use the comb while they are watching tv. There was NO WAY Sam was going to sit still otherwise.
3. We got this lit magnifying glass which we needed because we have terrible eyesight.
4. If in doubt, put in a garbage bag and leave it for a week or stick it in the freezer.
5. RRISD and AISD have a new policy that you just have to do one treatment and then the kids can come back to school even with the eggs. Sam's school, since it is a private preschool, has a different policy. The kids have to be egg free, so Sam spent almost the whole week at home. It took forever to get rid of the suckers.
I hope this helps even one person, because I found all of this way more confusing than it should have been. Please just send me some good mojo that the little buggers stay away, because frankly I am going to kill someone if I have to do any more laundry.