When lice attack 4 days before birthday party: should I cancel it?
Categories: Holidays, Education
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There are a few things I dread and fear as a mother: the pediatrician's waiting room, a 6pm nap, dog poop and lice.
Cases of head lice in Sean and Will's classroom have been reported since last November. There's this sign on the school door that says "Les poux sont de retour!" ("The lice are back!") that has not been removed for about 5 months. I used to check my boys' hair daily and naively thought we were sort of safe. So you can guess my horror when I saw Will scratching his head this morning and discovered lice in his hair!
10 minutes and a desperate call to my husband later, I started an over-the-counter treatment, thoroughly cleaned rooms, washed clothing and bed linens in very hot water, sealed stuff animals in plastic bags and vacuumed the floor and mattresses (for more advice, check the "Blogging Baby size six : essentials for surviving head lice"). I have checked Sean's head about 5 times in one hour but apparently, he has not been infested.
So now I'm facing a dilemma and it's breaking my heart. I have to notify school about Will having head lice and I know his name will remain anonymous. But I don't know if it's safe for other kids to come and play in our house. I sure don't want other parents to go through the whirls of anxiety and loads of housework I've faced.
Should I cancel the birthday party? What would you do?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
ann adams 2-22-2006 @ 1:16PM
How would you feel about sounding out the other parents?
Lice are no one's fault. We had our first outbreak in a few years about a month ago. The drill sounds familiar and exhausting.
I always tell the parents of the kids the girls play with; partly so they can check their own kids' heads but mostly because I think it's the right thing to do and I'd want them to tell me.
Four days - lice should have left by then, even the lurkers. I'd come to your party and bring the kids.
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Mandie 2-22-2006 @ 1:27PM
Relax...Think ahead 20 years of you retelling the story of how you had the party lice and all and told the other moms "yea, I heard the lice was back.."
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Stephanie 2-22-2006 @ 1:50PM
As much as it would break my heart too, I think I would reschedule the party. I probably would not allow my son to go to someone's house if I knew they had recently had head lice. It would make me really uncomfortable. I guess you could always call the other parents and give them the option. Otherwise you could choose a new neutral location for the party. Would another friend host the party at their house for you?
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MelissaS 2-22-2006 @ 2:12PM
Having lived through lice hell and also being the self proclaimed Lice Queen, I would have the party.
Keep checking his hair, keep vacuuming...etc.
Lice are not like fleas, they don't jump from head to head. They die within 24 hours if they do not have hair to feed on.
Unless your party involves games like, "Let's all wear each other's hats."
or
"Let's sleep in each other's beds and rub our heads on our pillows."
or
"Let's brush our hair."
If that's the case then you have two problems, everyone's getting lice and also you're having a very boring birthday party.
Four days is plenty of time to take care of the problem. Unless you have the lice of the apocolypse. Which you won't because it is SO much easier to get rid of boy's head lice.
But seriously even then they're not jumping from one head to another for crying out loud.
People can be so....I don't know...paranoid?
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Robin 2-22-2006 @ 2:21PM
Don't cancel the party....just keep combing and combing...in Israel it is just a given...combing and rosemary oil are the solutions I use.
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Amy 2-22-2006 @ 4:03PM
I can't believe I'm not posting this anonymously...
I worked at an in-patient institution for kids with mental health issues when I got married, and the weekend before my wedding we had a huge outbreak of lice. I spent the night before my lavish, 250 guest wedding up until 3 am combing through my nearly-waist-length hair, looking for nits. Fortunately, I found none, and there was enough spray in my hair to suffocate anything, so the day was saved.
Don't cancel the party. Use the chemicals and the comb, wash every fabric surface in your house that you can, and vacuum what you can't wash. He'll be over it in four days.
Happy birthday to them!
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Heather 2-22-2006 @ 6:10PM
Could you move the party somewhere other than your house? As a parent who has never dealt with head lice, that would be more comfortable for me than having the party in your home until a longer period lice-free had passed.
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Jennifer 2-23-2006 @ 1:12PM
Heather's put her finger on it...the parents who've been through it won't be bothered, the ones who haven't probably will be. I would tell and let them decide.
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Andrea 2-28-2006 @ 11:25PM
We had the lice from hell just 9 months ago and my son was 38 months. I started with the over the counter remedy and cleaned everything. I even treated me and my husband in case of. I followed with a mayonaise treatment as the dr said to try, still nothing. It finally took treating my sons head with vinegar and giving him a buzz in the middle of summer. I know what a shame, but thank god it was summer. I had a house guest during this time who brought it into my home and denied it. No one else I knew had it nor the daycare.
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Heather 3-03-2006 @ 2:12AM
I survived lice with my oldest several years back. Never have I received such conflicted advice on a topic in my life: use THIS stuff; no don't use THAT stuff, use THIS stuff; wash everything (ie. bedclothes) in hot water; put everything in the freezer; put everything into a plastic bag and bleed out the air and on and on. It was terrible. But - don't wash your child's hair every day - lice only can lay their eggs on clean hair and don't like the greasy stuff. Also, I found that a little homemade "hairspray" that consisted of water with lavender and tea tree oil in it worked great at warding off the little buggers - spritz the kids every morning before they head to school - no more bugs. You can email me for the exact quantities (can't quite retrieve it from the brain right now...)
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