My Kid Has Lice | What Do I Do?

“My kid has lice. What do I do?”

That was pretty much my cry for help online when I realized the disgusting buggers had invaded our home.

Get ready to itch just READING this post!

The week school started we noticed Little Monkey scratching her head. At first I didn’t think anything of it and then after two days I dashed over and scuffed her hair around as I looked for lice. You see, I knew the telltale signs. Nopes nothing there! All is well. PHEW! I soon realized that she had been itching for a couple weeks before school started so clearly I was just overreacting.

Fast forward three days and I’m working from home when a cheese delivery comes my way and I’m happily doing an Instagram story about all the yummyness when Little Monkey comes back from school and she’s just having a full on go ripping her hair out. I dash over (with my live video stream still on) and quickly discover that her head is peppered with tiny little white things. I mean like every single tiny strand had one. It looked like someone had turned over one of those giant salt containers on her head. EEEKS!

“How on earth do I remove lice and nits?”

I called my mom but she was at a theatre show. I called my mother  in law but she didn’t answer.

Flashbacks of my mom and grandmother patiently picking and killing the nits one by one came to me. *tic*tic*tic*. I tried my hand at it and it was surprisingly therapeutic. Five minutes in I realized I had only attacked three strands.

That’s when I went on Facebook and asked for help.(Gosh I’m scratching my head fervently as I write this post!!)

Good lord my friends are ever so passionate about lice! I received all sorts of advice and much of it was funny.

Before an hour had passed I realized that I’d need some professional help. The hubs had rushed over to the pharmacy to buy one of those home-remedy kits but before he could get back an ex-coworker had informed me that it didn’t work for his family and that he had to call in the big guns.

I sat and called SEVEN lice removal companies in Toronto at 5 p.m. to see if anyone could do a home visit that evening. No luck and only a few even offered home visits. By this time even Baby Boy was itching and I was starting to itch too (was it all psychosomatic?). A few friends of mine actually had friends in the lice removal business (yes it’s a LEGIT business) and that’s how the Toronto Lice Lady came to visit us the next morning at 9 a.m. SHARP!

She came in with big smiles and charmed the kids. I did a few live Facebook videos if you’d like to see how she got down to her business- here’s one and another.

Here’s some lice facts I learned 

• Moms more than dads are prone to lice ( mix of lice not being fans of testosterone and the fact that moms tend to nuzzle heads with kids more often)
• You don’t need to bag soft toys and pillows- just toss them in the dryer on high heat
• Lice can only hatch on the head (so they can’t really survive on sheets and toys)
• Conditioner and wet hair slow down lice movement which makes it easy to catch them. Coconut oil and Vaseline are acceptable substitutions but conditioner is easier to wash out
• Lice liking clean hair over dirty hair is a myth
• Lice affects all cultures (I say this in jest because most of my friends and I joked around that it’s a third world problem… )
• Tea Tree oil drops in your shampoo will help prevent lice but not eradicate them
• All you REALLY need to eradicate lice is a large bottle of conditioner and a metal Nit Free Terminator Lice Comb

Here’s some tips on how to remove lice

• Get a metal comb and comb every which way to grab the nits and lice
• A disposable kitchen towel works best in trying to wipe off the comb after each swipe through the head
• Bring in professional help the first time because kids are more apt to sit patiently and allow them to do their job ( mine screamed in pain and wouldn’t allow me to comb through their hair. I do it any way but trying it for the first time would have been hard)
• Repeat daily for a week to ensure you get the last of it
• Place a few drops of tea tree oil in your shampoo (works better than buying the tea tree oil shampoo)
• You could always shave the head if you don’t want to deal with any of this! 😉

The Toronto Lice Lady definitely knows what she’s doing and she does it without the need for harsh chemicals. I recently found out that a few of our readers have since used her as well – they all were happy with her service and yes it cost me $160 for her to thoroughly comb through the kids heads and my long hair but it was worth it. However please remember that at the end of the day all you need is that magical metal comb, a LARGE bottle of conditioner and a lot of patience! Even after her visit I continued to comb daily and kept finding little guys… took about 4 days to REALLY get the very last louse (yes that’s the singular form!!) completely out.

I’m still scratching though. Kids have stopped itching but I still fearfully comb our heads once a week.