Lice - Santa Barbara,CA

I guess my philosophy is, lice happens. I believe I got lice twice growing up and once as an adult (when my son came home from preschool with lice ... fun!). It sucks! But then you wash the hair and comb the hair and vacuum and wash the sheets and bag the stuffed animals and eventually you get to have a life again.

It's definitely a pain in the butt, but it's not the end of the world. As far as I know lice aren't harmful. But they sure as heck itch!

Really, the best thing you can do to avoid getting lice is to not share hats or hair brushes. I don't really know anything about repellant. It could be somewhat new, or it could be that I just never heard of it.

Try not to worry too much. If someone in the family gets lice, you'll deal with it.

Ok, now my head itches ... but I'm pretty sure it's just psychological.

When my Daughter was young, she and several of her classmates contracted lice on 3 different occasions in the same school year. Come to find out even though we as mothers were doing everything to take care of the situation. The lice were coming from the class room. They had pillows, a couch, bean bags and even a reading rug in the room. The teacher wouldn't remove them. It took me calling the Board of Health Dept. they came in the whole room was infested. Once these items were removed and treated, problem solved. Also if your child shares a locker with another, wipe down the locker with barbasol. It can't just be treated at home, the schools need to be vigilant as well.

It's everywhere. The only reason I heard about it when I was young was because my mom had gotten it as a child and she drilled it into our heads about not sharing hates, brushes, etc

And you are right, they will eventually become immune to the repellant. The best thing to do is use hair conditioner made for ethnic hair. It comes in a jar like vaseline. It's great for the hair and does not have that smell that he lice repellants have. It makes the hair very slick so even if a louse gets in there, they cannot attach their eggs to the hair shaft thereby preventing an outbreak. No worries about immunity with that!

The natural repellant should not stop working, although it might not be totally effective. They just don't like some smells -rosemary, lavendar, etc. that are used in the natural repellants. -Please don't use the pesticide on your child if you do get it. We did earlier this year and it didn't even work. Had to do it again in 2 weeks. I got lice and used LiceMD or some product like that- not a pesticide, it's a thick substance that basically smothers the lice. I took my daughter to a nit picking salon b/c she had such a hard time sitting still for me. -They confirmed that lice are almost always spread from head to head contact. Basically -you need to get all the lice off your head. That's what works.