lice – Toni Anderson

by admin - February 13, 2009

Not Again!

The boys have lice, again. I am really hoping the girls do not get it. Last time the girls got it and the boys didn’t get it… I buzzed the boys hair as soon as we found a bug, so hopefully this will not last as long as last time.

Halfway through the haircut, he wanted to try out a mohawk, so he had one for about 5 minutes.

The girls are petrified they will get lice again, they are taking precautions…

I broke out the oreos and the Wii in hopes to comfort all the sadness at our house right now. We were supposed to go out of town this weekend, but we had to cancel.

My nephews had lice last month and my brother made this video of the bugs up close. It is gross so only watch if bugs don’t creep you out.

by admin - January 26, 2009

More Lice???

My sister-in-law called me this weekend to let me know they are now the “Louse House.” Regular readers might remember when we went through this same situation last November. While I whined and complained about it on this site, my ever so creative brother decided to make a video.

Warning: Lice are gross… don’t watch if you hate bugs….

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by admin - November 17, 2008

Getting Ahead

I finally feel like I am getting ahead of the lice game. We still have a steady stream of laundry because I don’t want to take any chances of the lice spreading. In the past 5 days I have only found one live bug, so I consider that a step in the right direction. We still spending our mornings going through everyone’s hair and checking, but things are looking up.

The good news is that because we had to cancel all of our plans I got a lot accomplished this week. First I conquered Mt. Laundry. The before picture was actually taken before things got really bad. At its worst point I actually had to climb over it to get to the washer.
Before

After

I cleaned off one of my desks.
Before

After

I was also behind in organizing the Coupons for Troops mailing. The coupons were sorted and repackaged this weekend and mailed out today.
Before

After

My kids had quite a laugh when they opened the Sunday paper. The topic of the kid’s section, lice!

Since we couldn’t go to church yesterday I baked most of my breads for the week. I will post about that later, but I’ll leave you with two pictures, any guesses what I new recipes I tried this week?

For more tackles visit 5MFM.

by admin - November 14, 2008

Changing Course

This week didn’t really go as I had intended. We made two unexpected trips to the doctor’s office, canceled the orthodontist appointment and didn’t really get to the cleaning and organizing jobs I had planned.

We did however give haircuts to all the boys in our house, vacuum all upholstered surfaces, vacuum all floors, and vacuumed all mattresses. We washed every towel, sheet, blanket, comforter, and pillow in the house, and then started all over again. We also packed away all of the stuffed toys. So much for going through the kids’ toys this week!

I decided this would not be a good time to go through our winter clothes. I am sure that can wait until next week until we are lice free.

Sometimes it is discouraging to have a plan and then get derailed. When I realized my week was going to change dramatically on Tuesday it was hard not to get into a funk and want to withdrawal. The thought of decontaminating my house was overwhelming. All I could think about was six kids, I have six kids and they are all going to pass it to each other, and pass it to each other, and pass it to each other. We will have lice until Christmas!

As each additional person was found to have lice, instead of being overwhelmed, I was relieved. I began to realize my task was completely overwhelming and that I couldn’t do it all. Over the past few days I have received numerous emails and calls from people letting me know they would be praying for our family.

I think sometimes as moms and wives we set a high standard for ourselves. As I have read many other bloggers’ goals this week I have been impressed with all the things they want to accomplish. I just hope we all remember to keep our eyes on the main goal, which is to do all things to His glory, not our own.

I hate the fact that most of my family has lice, but I love the fact that we have all worked together to solve this problem. It has been nice to have to stay home and hang out with each other. Although I am sad most of our plans were canceled, I know we can schedule them for another time. I have even enjoyed the quality “talk time” I have had with my kids as I picked through their hair each morning.

Even though we are all sleeping with one sheet and one blanket (less laundry to decontaminate), I truly feel like my home as become our haven this week.

For more havens visit The Homespun Heart. <!–

by admin - November 12, 2008

Infestation

The bugs have spread to girl #2 and possibly girl #1. We are taking no chances and cleaning/washing everything in the house. During our washing frenzy a crayon went through the dryer… because it is not as if we don’t have enough to do right now. This has happened to us before, the crayons not the lice, so if you would like a tutorial on how to get crayon out of your dryer you can find it here.

So far the boys do not have it, but we are checking several times a day. Since we were all in a hotel together for a few days there is a good chance that we could all be infected. Not from the hotel, we have determined that girl #3 had it before the hotel, but from the close quarters.

Girl #3 has the prescription treatment, which I absolutely do not like and do not want to use on anyone else. We are trying olive oil on girls #1, and #2. We have canceled several planned family outings as we don’t want the kids to infect anyone. I took a picture of girl #2 with her olive oil head and shower cap. She gave me a big smile, and seemed excited to be getting some special treatment. After I took the picture she asked me to post it on the blog. I’ll post it tomorrow.

All the stuffed toys are being bagged up and we are attempting to wash bedding from 8 beds as well as towels, jackets, hats, and our regular dirty clothes.

The boys have been warned, if I find anything on them the clippers are coming out. I cannot have the kids passing this to each other for weeks. They are not happy with the thought of that kind of haircut so hopefully they will comply with all my other requests.

Meanwhile, I continue to scratch all over. I don’t think I have lice because I haven’t seen any evidence and weird places like my back, legs, and feet itch. I think it is all in my mind. My husband has already told me he wanted to shave his head because just the thought of it grossed him out. I might try an olive oil treatment on myself tomorrow, as a precautionary measure. I figure the chances of me getting it rise with each kid. I’d consider shaving my head too, if I looked good in a hat.

by admin - November 12, 2008

Delouse the House

The Homespun Heart is having a week long challenge to help get your house in order. I was excited to read about this challenge because I have started my fall cleaning. Usually every year around this time we clean out the clutter at our house. This started many years ago when I realized that Christmas was quickly approaching and the thought of more stuff (toys, decorations, games, books, etc…) coming into my home was overwhelming. I also use this time to switch out our summer and winter clothes and make a list of all the winter items we need this year. You would think that with six kids I wouldn’t have to buy anything, but those pesky older kids keep growing and need new coats and boots!

We had a fun few days in Williamsburg (more on that in another post) and I was planning on returning and jumping right into my fall cleaning. But, my plans have been derailed. On Saturday my two year old was scratching her head, I looked at her head to see what was bothering her and found a little bug in her hair. I picked it out and threw it away, thinking nothing of it.

Then on Sunday, after we had arrived in Williamsburg and were eating dinner I saw another black bug in her hair. I picked it out, threw it away, and forgot about it.

On Monday I picked several black bugs out of her hair and started to panic. When we returned to the hotel room I googled “black bugs in hair” and was surprised to find out they were lice! I thought lice were white! Of course, I had to figure this out while we were at a hotel 120 miles from our house and we are all sharing beds! My husband washed her hair and combed out more little bugs while I went through everyone else’s hair to see if they also had little friends. Thankfully they did not, but it only added to my confusion as to why my two year old would have them.

She does not go to daycare, play group, mom’s day out, and even missed Sunday school last week because we were camping. The only people she has had contact with are us, and no one else seems to have them. I spent most of Monday night in a dark hotel room, while everyone else slept, trying to educate myself on lice. I also started scratching my head compulsively, not because I had anything in my hair, but because her constant scratching and seeing all those bugs freaked me out. Yesterday my husband and oldest daughter joined my in the compulsive scratching. We do not have lice, but now all of a sudden everything itches! Last night in bed my legs even started to itch!

So today instead of continuing with my fall cleaning I will head to the doctor’s office and hopefully begin the process of killing these little suckers. Then I need to sterilize my home so that no one else gets them. We also need to unpack from our trip, do school, and eventually continue our fall cleaning.

Update: I took the before pictures and there were so many I put them in a separate post. You can view them here.

Have a great day and try not to scratch!