Warning: If you live in the same city as I do this post is going to make you start scratching your head

Probably the worst things we faced when we moved to this city was living near people who are frequently infected with head lice. I don't know if it is all big cities or just this one, but we had only been in the ward a couple weeks when it was discovered that one of the dental student wives who teaches primary had caught it from a sunbeam. The whole primary was checked and a couple more kids were sent home. Several times that first year we spent primary hour going through the kids and teacher's hair. Some families when they were sent home didn't come back for several months. They complained that all the kids in their neighborhood had it so even if they picked it all out of their kids hair they were just going to get it again. To them it was hopeless, and they had just determined that they could live with it, "So we couldn't we all just get over it and let them come back?"

NOOO!

Both Savannah and Kennon have a couple kids in their class who are constantly being sent home with lice. The nurses have flagged kids and check them routinely. They all are from the same neighborhood -a government project. Kennon said kids will just dissappear after they are selected to visit the school nurse and then you won't see them for several days. No one announces anything but everyone knows . . .because they also send a note home warning parents that there is a head lice case in their class. Savannah said one time they had a substitute who didn't know the rules though. After getting a report from the nurse she announced, "Mary has head lice! Who in here plays with Mary?"

A year ago in February we attended a 2nd grade play at the school. One of the"flagged" students, a cute little girl with long blond hair had been assigned to stand next to Savannah for the play. To my horror, in several scenes they posed back to back intertwining the blond hair. Now that is a an excellent way to share the lice!

As soon as we got home we started in checking Savannah's head. Now that we mentioned it she said that her head had been really itchy lately. It didn't take long to have our fears confirmed. At 9:30 Brent ran out to buy lice shampoo, sprays, etc. I and continued to find lots of nits(eggs) and one very LARGE bug. I really shouldn't have started screaming when I saw it- but it was so much bigger than I thought it would be! Getting hysterical was a bad move. Now Savannah was terrorized and screaming too.

Well . . . we found HUNDREDS of nits and lots of red bites on her head. For three days I did nothing but let them watch movies while I picked new nits out of Savannah's hair and drowned them. Head lice shampoo isn't enough. It doesn't kill every single one and they will have laid dozens more eggs in just a few hours. I continued to inspect all her sisters too. Caroline was the only one with anything and it was so easy to spot since she was 2 and still hardly had any hair. I found two nits and a tiny bug.

The really sad part was 2 weeks before this discovery Brent's sister Lisa had visited us with her daughter Katie from Washington. Savannah and Katie had slept together in the same bed one night. Along with the school, I called Lisa first thing in the morning to share the bad news. To make a long story short, Katie did have head lice, they couldn't get rid of it for several weeks after that, and that is our last Casper visitor since. We on the other hand beat the lice in a three days and I continue to check them everytime they sit next to me. It was so gross but not hard to get rid of at all if you make it #1 priority for 3 days. Definitely not as big of deal as some ward members had made it seem.

Well. . .Last weekend we had a sleepover. Kennon was finally allowed to have over her best friend. What was I thinking?

At the beginning of February Kennon had wanted to have her over for her birthday party but just days before she was sent home from school because of head lice. Now almost 2 months later Kennon assured me that they hadn't taken her to the nurses forever so she was totally clear of lice. When she first showed up both Brent and I were dying to have a lice check but knew that would seem pretty rude. So we didn't and she spent the night. (in Savannah's bed). The whole time she was here I was a little uneasy and made sure to wash all the bedding the next morning.

Tuesday night we were talking to the older girls in their room and suddenly Kennon said that she wanted to tell us something but she was too afraid because her mother was going to be so mad. Finally she fessed up that her friend had been sent home Monday with head lice!!

So we are spending Brent's spring break doing frequent head lice checks (SO FAR NOTHING)and are pretty determined to not allow any more sleepovers until we get back to the SAFE ZONE- WASHINGTON.