Head lice?

[yeahlori]

Ok so I am the one who posted the "Listen to this screwed up situation" thread a few days ago, and you know the kids who have been staying with me...I think they have a huge case of head lice! I am freaking out!

 

I just now found out cuz just a little bit ago, I got up to take a shower. There was a hair brush laying on the kitchen sink (not my brush, it is either my roommate's girlfriend or her 12 year old daughters) and these tiny little tan colored bugs crawling around it. I looked closer and I immediately identified them as head lice because I got them once when I was little I remember what they look like. I'm like 90% sure cuz I have never seen any other bug look like that. Some are very small and some are larger, and there was about 10-15 of them crawling around and clung to stray hair strands around the sink. Now whoever's hair brush it was, they have had them for a while because there were so damn many of them. I sprayed some cleaning chemicals on them and checked my head (haven't been itching at all), clothes, bedding...nothing on my or my boyfriend's part.

 

I texted my roommate asking him about it, and he's still asleep but I am afraid we are all going to get them and it's going to be hell to get rid of them, and very expensive with 10 effing people constantly in this house.

 

I'm going to be really pissed at my roommate and his girlfriend IF they knew about it and didn't inform us. But Im thinking that it could be the 12 year old daughter and she has been trying to hide it...

 

Ugh.

 

Edit: They look just like this: link removed

[petite]

Get on it now!

 

Go to the drug store immediately and buy shampoo, combs and powders for getting rid of lice. They are horrible intruders and can infect your whole house if you don't get on it now!! Wash all the bedding in hot water and clean the house top to bottom! Check your pets if you have any also!

 

Not only is it nasty it can cling to your furniture, clothes and hair obviously!

[nutbrownhare]

Get on it now!

 

Go to the drug store immediately and buy shampoo, combs and powders for getting rid of lice. They are horrible intruders and can infect your whole house if you don't get on it now!! Wash all the bedding in hot water and clean the house top to bottom! Check your pets if you have any also!

 

Not only is it nasty it can cling to your furniture, clothes and hair obviously!

 

Sure, they're vile, but not quite as scary as this!

 

We have problems with head lice because my stepdaughter-to-be gets them intermittently; the situation isn't helped because, although my partner and I deal with them - her mother obviously doesn't, and her mother lives with a new partner and his kids. So she keeps getting re-infected. I deal with it by combing her hair through with conditioner, with one of those metal "Nitty Gritty" nit combs which are absolutely brilliant, every week after we used an insecticide shampoo in the first instance. If you can avoid it, try not to use insecticide repeatedly. I was advised by my GP to use the cheapest conditioner available, so the treatment need not be costly. It's just tedious. And there's no need to freak!

 

The lice themselves will die within 24 hours if they don't find a host - so can't infect your whole house, and they can't live on anything other than humans - so no need to worry about pets; you obviously need to wash bedlinen, but if there are things you can't wash, if you put them in a sealed plastic bag for two weeks, not only will anything active on there have died, but any eggs will have hatched and died, too.

 

There's some useful information here: link removed

[petite]

I personally don't think that lice are a small problem especially with 10 people in a house and children leaving their brushes everywhere around the house eh: kitchen counters. I personally would be extremely afraid of lice getting into my linen. I've heard of lice crawling on peoples clothes -although they were war victims I'd still be very careful and wouldn't just not worry about it. If they are crawling on brushes and such then there must be many in her head which lay even more eggs. I've never had it but as I said I know people that did, and if left untreated or neglected can become a big problem.

[nutbrownhare]

Body lice and head lice are different species; there's no suggestion that body lice are present here.

 

Treatment of head lice is quite straightforward - though it is a pain. If there were large numbers of head lice on a brush, then it's likely to be a heavy infestation, but you're only likely to catch them from a brush if you then used it on your own hair. They are spread through prolonged head-to-head contact; though my stepdaughter has had head lice many times, my partner has never caught them. I have, but they were speedily dealt with; I have 22" long hair and the little girl cuddles up to me lots.

 

I was not suggesting for a moment that it shouldn't be dealt with, which is why I offered the advice. It's just that freaking out is not going to help the situation at all!

[petite]

I'd rather freak out over lice than stroll to the drug store. Some people never get them whilst others do. At the shelter where I volunteer it went from 1 little girl to 10 more being infested. One of the other volunteers that is always around the girls never ever had them, but another lady did, even though she hardly had contact with the girls.

[yeahlori]

Thank you for the info.

 

I don't like to judge but couldn't it be child abuse if you don't take care of your child's head lice? As a child, I would be horrified if I kept getting reinfected and had to get combed out every so often.

 

My roommate hasn't replied to my text but they all have been gone for the past few hours so hopefully they are getting it taken care of. If they don't within the next week or so I am going to have to explain that either they go or me and my boyfriend goes immediately. I refuse to be around lice infested kids and I refuse to be at risk for contracting it repeatedly, and I also won't be buying the pricey treatments for it either.

[catfeeder]

What more of a sign would I need to recognize that my choices about where I want to live and with whom--and with what--are my own to make? If battles with head lice are worth sticking around to complain and fight, then go to it. Otherwise, I'd buy a gallon of Cedarcide (google it) and spray down all of my belongings as I pack them in a moving van to go live peacefully with my BF in my own apartment.

[greywolf]

I always find it a little amusing how worked up Americans get over head lice. Buy the shampoo, problem solved.

[nutbrownhare]

I always find it a little amusing how worked up Americans get over head lice. Buy the shampoo, problem solved.

Is this a generally American thing, then? I was scratching my head (ha!) as to why the reactions seemed so emotional.

 

My partner, myself and his daughter check for head lice and do prevention combing every week. We joke about it, making comments about how most humans ignore millions of years of evolution and DON'T check each other for parasites - unlike monkeys - and he has stated 'The family that grooms together, stays together!'

 

When I'm combing the daughter's hair through, we create a running commentary - from the point of view of the lice - about how alien visitations in the form of a massive comb to Planet Head carry off your young and wreck a perfect civilisation. There are lots of sound effects and different voices; makes the whole process as much fun as this could ever hope to be!

 

While we're not complacent about head lice, instilling a sense of shame and panic into a child about them doesn't seem to make sense either.

[petite]

I don't think reactions are emotional but I do think lice is nothing to be carefree about. I certainly don't think it's unimportant as it can cause much stress. I personally would be upset to get it because I have long thick hair and I'd be worried about someone around me getting it and seeing it in my hair. The mere thought makes me itch.

 

The op doesn't want to buy the shampoo because it's not her child and believes it to be expensive. This in my opinion is not something that should just be ignored. I hope the parents take care of this problem.

[Seraphim]

I agree there is no need to make a child feel ashamed. It happens. They are often exposed to it by other children, their friends. I agree too the shampoos are toxic. There are natural ways to deal with it. Saying that though my son has never had them. However both my mom and I have had foster children who have arrived to our home with them or are reinfected at family visits. It is part of life that humans get parasites, we are animals after all. There is no need for shame about it, and they can be dealt with.

[catfeeder]

The lice are not the reason I'd move out. The situation you describe in your prior post about the conditions in this household for which you pay your full share of rent to live peacefully and privately speaks plainly about the real problem. Your roommate has started 'stacking' additional tenants over which you have no control and can't live with peacefully and privately--and you were upset about this well before the lice showed up.

 

I'd just consider the lice to be my last signal that finding a more practical solution to my housing choice is in my best interests.

[greywolf]

Where I lived for awhile, lice was something that was accepted as part of every day life. My friends and I would help 'groom' each other too.