The new 4 letter swear word is *LICE*

         Oh yes you read right, the new bad word around this house is LICE. Every once in a while I use this blog as a rant space.... be prepared to hear my wrath in this blog today. For I think we all at one time or another have felt angry while dealing with these little blood suckers! Feel free to let it all out like my 8 year does as she is thrashing and kicking a pillow pretending its a lice and yelling "You stupid stupid thing" after she says rather honestly she has not worn another hat or put her head near others.

      This house never was visited by the annoying Aunt and Uncle Lice till this year, having them aged 8 & 7 I guess that is good, but since June of this year they have had it 3 times. Once in the summer and twice since September. That is right folks we just had it a month ago. And now again!

     Rant time: I look after my sh#@.... That is right, there is a process to take when lice is found. I will not list it for you here then break it down for you, for all of you who obviously aren't dealing with your sh#@

1. Always have treatment on hand waiting of it to happen

2. Check your kid at least once a week if not 2

3. As soon as they are found, seeing as your treatment is on hand, begin the process and treat them.

4. keep them home from school, yes they are allowed back after they have had one treatment, but lets be honest sometimes one treatment and pick through their hair is not enough.

5. Contact your school to let them know, so other parents have a chance to realize that checking their own kid is of importance that week.

6. Never make your child feel ashamed for having it... and don't feel embarrassed yourself, it is going to happen if you have a kid in school, don't sweat it, just treat it.


    Now lets break this down for you.
1: We always have Tea Tree Oil on hand it works great, another one used alot is Nix, sometimes it is as effected as other. But just ask your local Shoppers or Drug store.

2. Regular checks have become ritual at this house. Lice eggs take about 7 days to hatch so you usually can be good if you want to do just once a week check, if you want to stop it before they hatch do it twice a week. We here in our household check it Wednesday and Sunday. You check by parting the hair into sections and looking close to he scalp and paying closest attention around the ears and back of the neck. and egg looks like dandruff but wont blow away, a nit looks like a little orange dot, and a adult lice will be moving around. Please check them the whole year round. If you don't do it for your kid, you make it twice as hard on other parents who are doing it for their kids, over and over again. Do your research too!

3. Treatment can be as simple as buy a box follow the directions. Some of them can be harsh on kids hair. We do a Natural treatment, I have one kid who has a bad reaction to the store bought stuff. this is what we do:
-Wash the hair with a tea tree shampoo, let the shampoo sit for 10 min then rinse.
-part hair section by section and add 100% tea tree oil and comb it through the hair.. almost like you are colouring the hair. Leave on for 10 15 min
-rinse out
- comb through section by section removing all the eggs, nits or Lice you find. - It is natural so if you still find live lice on them you can re do the treatment again.
-Keep checking in the mornings and after supper, combing through and picking them out.
Yes this is a process that takes a few hours, but it is worth it and if we all do it we can get it out of our schools

4. Keep them home Please. Even if they have had a treatment consider keeping them home for id not 2-3 days at least 1 day, make sure you have them all dead  before you send them were they can spread to others. I understand that some parents have to work, but you have kids and your responsibility to look after the problem. And if you don't and spread it around, it is worse then the flu it will come back to you again. I kept mine home last time for 5 days, treated and looked after it and a month later we have it again. Not too happy about it, now we are facing another few days home just before Christmas break.

5. Phone the school, let them know so they have a chance to let the child's classroom know to check their kids and treat if necessary. We all live a social media world. If you can put up on Facebook and twitter your every waking moment then you can put up that your child has lice, giving other parents who were in contact with your child a chance. this time we had a birthday party the day before check day. I wish I checked before. I trying to be the good person. wrote a note to each of the parents, I don't have all the phone numbers. And brought into my school only to find out I can't hand them out, its policy to not single out a child even if I am asking to single her out. And I can't get any phone numbers. Not the principals fault but it is the school boards. You would think they want it out of the schools.

6. Give your kid the biggest hug. Kids at school will tough enough on them for having it, they don't need to feel your stress about it. They need to see that if you are not embarrassed about it then neither do they need to feel embarrassed about it. Chances are you will have to deal with it more than once in life and you don't want them feeling like they have done something wrong. 

    Please I can't stress enough to check and treat your kid. My one daughters class just can't seem to get rid of it. If we all work together then we might have a chance to knock it out. I don't there is any excuse to not look after it in your own home.