NASTY LITTLE CREATURES

Nasty little creature - lice

Lice is disgusting. I spent two weeks this spring doing little else than washing and drying everything in our house and picking nits out of our daughter's hair. I got it too. Nasty! It is more than unsettling to feel like little bugs are living on you and sucking your blood for it's nourishment. She got it from our neighbor who is a year older and in kindergarten. From what I have gathered our school district is riddled with lice. Lice is an equal opportunity blood sucker, however I think you can do some things to prevent it. Oh and here is the money saving part - we spent an extra $50 during the lice episode from additional water and electricity used when I was washing, drying and vacuuming constantly for two weeks. Some how I also managed (barely) to take care of the kids and dogs.

1. You can spray a mixture of tea tree oil and water onto your kid's hair every morning before school - I mix 20-30 drops of 100% tea tree oil into a 2oz spray bottle with water. The lice don't like tea tree oil and it may help. Who knows. Even if it doesn't work tea tree oil is good for the scalp.  
2. Buy a good nit comb and take it to your kid's hair once a week just to check. It doesn't hurt and if you catch it early it is way easier to get rid off. We used the Nit Free Terminator, it claims to remove all nits - it doesn't, but it does help. To get rid of all nits you need a lot of light, something to entertain your kid (I used my ipod touch) and a ton of patience.  
3. Buy a Garment bag for your child's coat/hat/gloves/sweaters/scarf (we live in Vermont) to keep at school. Lice have a tendency to walk from head to head and from coats and hats to other coats and hats. If your child has theirs in a garment bag, then it'll reduce that a bit. They still get it from hugging and you don't want to tell your kids not to hug other kids and turn them into anti-social misanthropes.
4. If your kid does get lice - get NIX and get rid of it quickly. I talked to our pediatrician about some of the natural remedies and she guffawed. She's into natural remedies, but for these nasty little creatures you have to unfortunately fight with insecticide. 

My head has been itching the entire time I've been writing this post. I can not talk or as I've just learned write about lice without my whole body getting the heebie geebies. Ugh.
GOOD LUCK!