“First, he was scratching…” Lice Care

I was asked by some mom friends about my experience, please share it with NSW families. Thanks!

First, he was scratching the back of his head and a few minutes later, again scratched behind his ears during his relaxing time after bath time. I felt strange and checked his head and saw something that looked like sand. Actually, he was at the beach that weekend, I thought some sand was left on his head. Then I saw a tiny insect moving. It was the same size as a piece of sand, so tiny. I grabbed it and tried to catch more by using a flea comb for our dog. It caught another one and those were the first and last two lice that I found. The second one was bigger and brown. My son’s back ears were reddened and I found after Googling that they like the spot, behind ears….

(I learned some kids don’t get itchy even after being bitten, and it may cause a worse situation….)

I also tried to put olive oil and massage his scalp. This kills lice because they cannot breathe covered by oil. Compared to tea tree oil, the scent is not so strong, but his hair gets very oily….

I mixed his shampoo, Dr. Bronner’s magic soap -light blue label (for baby?) with tea tree oil and added some water and put them in a bubble dispenser. The foam seems to work even better to kill lice. Unfortunately shampooing doesn’t kill nits, so you have to use the comb or pull it out….

After shampooing, I used a hair dryer which I usually don’t use for him.

It is because I heard that wet hair gives lice more chance to lay eggs. It might be true because they like high temperature and high humidity…. After drying his hair, I sprayed mist of water which I added some drops of tea tree oil.

Even though he seems not to carry lice and nits any more today, I will keep my eyes on his head and use the shampoo and mist to prevent lice until it is settled down. (I use the mist for the rooms, bed, sofa, child seat, anywhere!)

Hope no more kids appear with lice….

Keiko

Eugene’s mom EW