A Weekend of Ewwwwwww....

On Friday afternoon, I got the unfortunate news that Finn had lice. Ewww. This was a first for our family, although probably not the last, as I have heard it is fairly common in the Portland school system. One of the downsides of sending Finn to preschool I suppose. The whole idea of lice sort of just creeped me out. I felt like we were dirty and I also felt overwhelmed by the night (and subsequent days) full of lice-removal that laid ahead of me. Little was I to know that I also had lice, although not nearly as bad as Finn did.
Throughout Friday night and Saturday, I did quite a bit of research about lice (and lice removal) and thought I would share some of what I found here, as I am guessing that some of you have gone or will go through this problem with your children at some point. The pharmacy lice removal kits that are conventionally used to get rid of lice are full of harsh chemicals that are essentially pesticides that you apply to your head. Gross. Grosser than lice? Not sure about that, but definitely still gross. These are NOT safe if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, and I definitely would not want to use one of these on a young child.... and probably no one should use these. When I first found lice on my head, my first urge was to go get as many chemicals as possible to dump on my head and kill those little bastards. But since I am breastfeeding, this wasn't an option, and some further research made me realize that there really is no point to these store bought lice treatments.
First off, over time, lice have developed a resistance to these chemicals and so now more and more of them need to be used to be effective. Many people have reported that if you don't leave the chemicals on for twice the time stated by the package (against warnings, mind you), they won't work at all. Also, usually these chemicals often have to be applied several times over the course of 1-2 weeks. I am sure sensitive people would have a tough time with harsh chemicals on their skin, especially with repeat treatments. The other silly thing about these chemical treatments is that they are only able to kill the live lice. Eggs don't seem to be killed by anything, and so the only way to remove them is actually combing through the hair and picking them out. Time consuming and sucky. However, that means that the conventional remedies are having you dump harsh chemicals on your head and you STILL have to do the comb and pick thing.
I chose to use the olive oil method to kill the live lice, which basically entails covering your head in olive oil, putting a shower cap on and leaving it for several hours. Finn and I left our shower caps on overnight, which ended up being really messy and olive oil leaked onto our pillows and sheets as we slept. Next time I do this (which will be within the next few days!) I am going to do it in the evening and leave it on for the minimum of 3 hours. The olive oil, when left on for at least several hours, smothers all of the live lice, basically drowning them, and then they can be combed out with a metal lice comb. So the olive oil does the same exact thing as the chemicals except it doesn't burn your head, irritate your scalp or cause cancer. And it's much cheaper. The olive oil is not killing the lice by poison, but kills them by smothering, so it has no side effects on the human. Plus, it is said to actually be much more effective because you are not dealing with the issue of pesticide resistance. Just like the chemicals, however, you need to do a repeat treatment within 5-7 days to kill any eggs that have been missed by the combing (that have now hatched).  So, either way you have to comb and pick the eggs, but you can choose to kill live lice with poisons or with olive oil. I say that olive oil is the way to go.
The other method that works well and is proven safe is the method we chose for Finn on Saturday afternoon. Although the olive oil had worked to kill the live lice, he had lots and lots of eggs in his hair, and I just really wasn't up for the hours of work that it was going to take to get them all out. Plus, I was afraid that we would miss some, our house would get re-infested, and we would never get rid of these critters. So, with a little convincing, Finn agreed to try the Buzz Method (see below for a description):

Although it's not my favorite look for him, he still looks cute and at least we know he no longer has any lice. Sadly, however, I am too vain to chose that look for myself, so I have been combing several times a day and will be doing another olive oil treatment soon.
I don't wish this upon anyone, but at least know that you don't have to use harsh chemicals to get rid of these things. You just have to spend lots and lots of time...... Here's to hoping we don't get lice again. Ewwwwwww.
Have you dealt with lice in your home? How did you get rid of it? Pin It Now!