When my mom got scholarships for both the oldest kids to go to horsecamp this summer after our big move, she read the application to me over the phone and it said... "There will be a lice check at registration, and any child with any signs of lice will be sent home."  I thought absolutely nothing of it.  We have never had lice and don't even recall any friends experiencing this.  Not a problem. 

Well, about 2 weeks before camp, my 10 yo dd starts complaining about an itchy head.  I looked at her head, we changed shampoos --she is very chemically sensitive-- I checked her head again, and couldn't find anything.  Finally I had just about decided she was alergic to chlorine or some other chemical they put in the city water!  This is the first time we have lived with city water since we've had her.  As she got itchier, and camp was looming, I remembered the lice warning and thought hmmmm.....

So, two days before we were to leave for camp, I really checked her head.  Really checked....  She has long, blond, thick, hair....I spent over an hour looking and looking and found red marks looking like bites. Hmmm.   Finally, I found a bug and upon close examination and comparison to pictures, sure enough it was a louse.  I ended up finding 5 all together.  So gross --she cried, I was freaked out.  New experience for us.  I did not find any nits.  Well, here is miss organic mom, with insects living in her daughter's hair and we have to leave for camp with NO LICE in a day and a half.

I reviewed a lot of information quickly.  There are quite a few natural means of dealing with lice:  Peanut butter on the head overnight.  (takes at least two days to wash out though!) Vaseline on the head overnight --that sounded even more fun.  The use of tea tree oil shampoo --that one I think I could handle but would it be effective enough in two days for her to not be turned away from camp???  Then there is the rigid prevention of wahsing everyone and everything several times per day and running all bedding through the dryer for 20 minutes at least once per day.  Like I could ever keep up with that!

All right, you know what I ended up doing.  At 1:00 a.m., I packed up all the wide awake, freaked out kids and headed to Wal-Mart where we had just been 4 hours earlier "camp shopping."  The oldest ds wrote the list as we drove:  2 rolls of quarters for the laundromat, a vacuum cleaner (hadn't replaced ours yet since the move), individual brushes for everyone (normally we share one), and the dreaded pesticide shampoo, and more laundry detergent.

We got home late/early and I shampooed the 10 yo. and the 12 yo and changed their bedding and put them to bed.  The 4 yo went to bed for morning application.  Then I spent the entire night cleaning everything, and doing umpteen million loads of laundry.  Interestingly the HUMongous (there are lots of them --not their size) Hawaiian family that lives  next door was up all night too--with all sorts of activity.  Anyway, I finally slept a couple of hours and then got up and treated 4yo and myself and then cleaned our bedding too. 

My dear husband was starting a brand new job the next morning, so we did this all very quietly so that he could have a good night's sleep before his first day of work.  What his new job is will be another story for another day --Adventures in Irony.

He got up early and showed no signs of lice upon checking --I warned him that he would be "Pesticided" as a precaution upon his return home from work!

That evening we went out --at the 10 yos request and she got her hair cut SHORT, she had been contemplating doing it anyway.  It is very cute, but I do miss her pretty long hair.  As she said, it will grow back.

I rechecked everyone's hair that next day and found many many eggs on 10 yos head.  Spent several hours removing them all.  She must have no nits and no lice!  How dreadful to travel sp far, gettin her hopes up and be turned away from camp. 

No one else in the family showed any signs at all of lice or nits.  It appears that we actually caught it early and that she was appropriately stingy enough to not share with the rest of us --thank the Lord for small blessings. 

We made it to camp, with an exhausted mother and they didn't even do a lice check.  Not that it mattered, I wouldn't have wanted her to have any anyway, but you know.

When we picked them up a week later, after their first experience away from us overnight (That too is a story for another day --Adventures in Canabalism. ), they told us there was a quick lice check after all the parents left.  Anyway, I checked 10 yo again upon arriving back at my parents home and she had 1 baby louse and no nits.  I treated her one more time and checked everyone else again --still no lice on anyone else, although the more I write the itchier I get...hmmmm...

Next agenda item will be to explore effective natural treatments just in case we are so luck y as to have this delightful experience again.  It is most likely related to our new living environment,.  The kids have now been educated in prevention and will hopefully be able to be careful too i.e. putting their hair up or keeping it short, not sharing any clothing especially head related items. 

Well, I shall go check my fresh batch of Ginger Beer --which also does not work with chlorinated water!  And I think I'll cover my itchy head in pesticides --just in case :-)