An Itchy Subject

In the true sense of the word, there are very very few things in the world that I actually hate. Of those very few things, I really hate fleas and head lice. So after Jaysens bath last night, Jo was brushing his hair and discovered a few lice eggs, or nits.

Itching yet?

Now, thankfully, and whoo-hoo, there were no crawlers wandering through his hair (Itching now, huh?), but in true Dan Style, I took a few steps closer to "Freaking Out". So, last night at 9pm, the Crazy Family sat here with an entire bottle of Tea-Tree Conditioner on their heads while I combed everyone through, looking for the smallest, tiniest hint of others having any. Aside from those half-dozen eggs on the little man, everyone else was clear. But was Dan happy?

Not on your proverbial nelly.

Jaysen had his hair washed, dried, and was put to bed. Tam had her hair washed, dried and was put to bed. Jo had her hair washed, dried, and sat waiting for me. I got in the shower, re-combed my entire head (bear in mind, I have the long hair in this family!), rinsed, washed, re-re-combed, rinsed, re-washed, and re-re-re-combed. The thought of little bugs living in my hair, wandering around, drinking my blood, laying eggs on me, which hatch into MORE little crawly bugs that will drink more blood and lay more eggs...

BLERGH!

Now, Jaysen usually comes home from school once every week with a note - pretty much a scrap of paper - from the school reading "A pupil in your childs class has a case of head lice - please inspect your child" and when we get home, Jo will sit and literally go over him with a fine-toothed comb, and this is the first time he's had any in a loooong while, but I can't get to thinking how often one of his thirty-five classmates has head lice SO often. I know several of the mums are as paranoid as me and will scan every hair with an electron microscope at the slightest hint of a bug, but some of the mums just don't seem to care.

When I was at school, we used to have visits by the Nit Nurse, a healthcare nursey type that would check each child, but they stopped it because - get this - it was embarrassing and degrading to put children through that. Riiiight. However, I can see the point that it is just another step for parents to do in the hygiene of their own spawn. From the moment Jaysen was born, I always maintained I don't want my kid to be the scruffy, smelly, lice-ridden kid.

You can pretty much tell which parents are the ones who don't check their kids hair. They are the ones that stand in the playground, read the lice-warning note, and proclaim things like "Well, it's not my responsibility to check my child" or, without even looking, announce "I know it's not my kid with them".

Please, check your kids hair, look for the nastiness within. There's nothing shameful about having them, it's just something that kids get. Check, clean, job done - if all the parents in the class did it, there would be no problem at all. If everyone was proactive, then there wouldn't be outbreaks every week.

Or is this the sort of thing you want?

Now, you'll have to excuse me - Jo is heading home with a job-lot of chemicals to splodge on everyones head. Just in case.

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5 Responses to “An Itchy Subject”

Laney said...

Although I don't go to quite the saem fastidious levels that you guys do, we are pretty vigilant. It's very easy to find them in my kids hair as they are blondies! I've only had them once in my entire life, about 3 years ago, and the kids have had them twice.

Nancy Jensen said...

I have never had piojos - (spanish word for lice). Many people think that you get them from being filthy and not cleaning well. I grew up in a small town in Mexico where we only had one paved road, the rest were dirt. It was extremely dusty all the time and there were many poor people. There's still no garbage pick-up service and you have to burn your own garbage. Needless to say it's not nearly as clean there as it is here in the US (although my mom made sure our home was very well kept). Not one of my siblings nor I ever got lice and it was quite rare that anyone in my school had it.

My mom's sister raised her kids in a very affluent neighborhood here in the US and her kids got lice several times.

So there ya have it. Myth busted!

Laney said...

I heard they only like clean hair, which is probably why I never had them. I've always let my hair have a few greasy days each week, it keeps it healthy! The little buggers must hate me!

Terri@SteelMagnolia said...

Oh no..
what a royal PITA....
Casey got scabies once...
it was such a nightmare and I was grossing all out...
but I hated that I had to wash and clean every single thing in the house... the carpet.. the pillows, the sheets, the blankets...

I am scratching my head now.. I am itching all over!

Gretchen said...

Thanks Dan, now I will be scratching in my sleep...