Again….

Hey guys. Guess what?

Lice again. Yep, you may recall that last summer and into fall we STRUGGLED with a lice outbreak. It went on for months on end. We treated stepdaughters head 8 separate time in 6 months including twice with prescription shampoo.

We checked heads, combed her hair for hours, washed sheets and towels, boiled brushes, vacuumed (a little-we have hard wood floors) and emailed mom every time. Yet she kept returning here with head lice.

Did mom treat her head even once? Maybe once. She never bothered to comb the nits out. She “forgot” to repeat the shampoo treatments at her house on her weekends and she would not change the bedding. It’s enough to make me want to pull my own hair out!

I’m praying this time it will be short-lived. The rotten thing is, we allowed her to spend the night with a friend on Friday night but we didn’t check her hair until Sunday night. That means we have to send off the infamous “my kid had lice, be sure to check your kid’s head” text. Ugh. If only I’d checked on Friday!

Stepdaughter’s mom didn’t come pick her up this morning, she sent the new boyfriend. So, D wasn’t able to tell her in person about the lice. We did tell the boyfriend and reminded him to have mom wash the sheets and stuffed animals and boil the brushes, etc. We shall see. D will sent a email to mom also (to have it in writing)

I swear, last time stepdaughter had lice, I think mom got it too and they were passing it back and forth. That’s why we struggled to clear her up. When D suggested to mom that she have someone check her hair, you’d think he had told her the world was ending. She got all angry and offended. Well, it’s reasonable to assume if you share a bed with someone who has lice (they did at the time) you’re probably going to get it.

She wouldn’t even consider the possibility. She told us stepdaughter was getting lice because she sleeps with the chihuahua here. Yeah, dogs don’t get human head lice. So, that’s off the table.

Well, there you have it. Lice. Again. Stay tuned…..

Head Lice and Lies

Last weekend, I noticed SD itching her head. Ugh lice. Again. It’s making me itch just thinking about it!

In June, three short months ago, SD came to our house with a case of half-treated lice. Her mom had called D on Monday to inform him that she had discovered SD had lice. She told him she was treating it that night. Lo and behold, when she got to our house the next morning….she still had a headfull of nits (eggs). We combed and combed and got them out (as much as possible), did daily checks and combing. Then a week later, while we were away on vacation, we shampooed and combed and combed again (as directed). All clear for the remainder of the month that she was with us.

So, in mid-July, we sent SD back to mom’s house completely clear. Mid-August, lice again. It looked, to me, like another half-treated case. There were some old nits partway down the hair shaft (I’m sure there were no old nits leftover from the last time, by the end of it we knew every strand of hair on that kid’s head).  We shampooed, combed, washed bedding, etc. last Friday, head checks and combings all weekend. All clear. D sent an e-mail to SD’s mom letting her know about it and that we treated SD, that she needed to be treated again on the following (her) weekend.

Her response was basically, thanks for letting me know. I’ll take care of it and start doing weekly (hu? how about daily?) head checks. Just her response (and the obvious old, hatched nits I saw on SD’s hair*) makes me believe she knew that SD had lice and had done another half-assed treatment and sent her our way without telling us. Last time SD had lice, her response was to blame us and tell us not to allow the Chihuahua to sleep with SD anymore (she thought the dog gave SD lice). Consistently, her response is to blame us for anything she perceives is wrong. That’s why her mild-mannered reply caused some raised eyebrows.

Here’s the thing, SD’s mom DID NOT treat SD this weekend. She “forgot.” So, SD went to school today and then came to our house again with live lice. Yes, we found more live lice today. Again. It’s enough to make my head spin! And itch. (Trust me, everyone in our household has been checked and checked for lice. The slightest itch has us running for the flashlight….so far so good). Here’s the other thing, at almost 10 years old, SD does not have a bed of her own at her mother’s house. She sleeps with her mother every night.  Most likely they are passing it back and forth. I think SD’s mom may need to get her head checked!! 😉 double-entendre most definitely intended!

Ha! It just occurred to me that SD’s mom asked us to stop letting the dog (who can’t get lice) sleep with SD. Yet, she, the human (who can get and probably still has lice) continues to sleep in the same bed.

*Everything you never wanted to know about lice: An immature louse can’t lay eggs. So, the eggs, old and new, had to have been laid by a mature bug. But there weren’t any on SD. Only eggs, which get left behind when you shampoo (that’s why the combing is so important) and immature lice, that were newly hatched (from the eggs that got left behind). The older, hatched nits that I found in her hair this time were not there after we combed her hair out in June. I admit, there is always the chance that one or two old eggs remained after the last infestation (unlikely), but not the dozen or so that I found.  This is why I believe her mom knew SD had lice, may have treated her and then sent her to our house, still infested and lied about it. (Rude!)