Adventures In Nitpicking - Days 2 and 3
 Informational, and not very funny, but potentially helpful
Also good for those who are actually dealing with headlice, don't appreciate swearing (re:Aliens Among Us - previous post), and aren't just here to enjoy a little schadenfreude (but seriously, don't we all?)

So, I'm sure you're probably all sick of this by now, but I've learned something else about lice today, in my search of lice forums. It turns out (and I'm so surprised this didn't occur to me) that nits develop, too. It makes sense, doesn't it? When they're first laid, they're almost microscopic, and they fatten up and grow bigger as the baby louse develops within the egg. So, I've been driving myself crazy, wondering why I keep finding new nits when there are no bugs left. The answer? They were there all along, but I just couldn't see them yet. The Nix shampoo says that it kills nits, too, but new research is saying that lice (and therefore their eggs) have developed a resistance to these treatments, which explains why the live ones I found in the 2 hours of nitpicking and careful combing after treating Charlotte that first night were still sort of staggering around. I mean, they were pretty easy to get because they were really slowed down by the shampoo, but still - they weren't dead until I killed them by squishing them with my fingernail. ( I know, eeeewwwww!) So, it stands to reason, that since the shampoo says it would kill lice and nits, and it obviously didn't quite do the job on the lice, some of the nits might still be viable, too. In fact, most lice shampoos say that they kill the lice, but NOT the nits, and that since you can't use it more than once a week, you should wait until the nits hatch, and kill them with a follow-up treatment once they hatch, but before they develop enough to lay new nits. Well, this is all fine and good, if you believe that all of the nits were laid at the same time, and will develop within the exact same timeline. Since I found a total of 8 live lice, which were in various stages of size, (and I would assume) development, it stands to reason that some of the nits would be in different stages of development, as well. So, really, the best line of defense is the tried and true method of manually picking out the nits you find, EVERY DAY, ensuring that none of them have a chance to hatch.

And one more thing...It's important to note that for children with very fine hair, the nit combs are far to widely spaced to remove all nits, especially if there are some smaller, less developed nits on their hair. Some people say that you should try a flea comb, intended for pets to remove nits from fine hair, but even that was too widely spaced for these newer, smaller nits. The first day, we did the Nix treatment, and a thorough nit combing (finding 8 bugs) and nitpicking (25-30 nits found) and went to bed (on fresh sheets, after vaccuuming the mattresses and discarding all pillows, using rolled up beach towels as pillows. Then, in the morning, we changed our clothes and sheets (thank goodness, it's warm, and we don't need blankets), and washed these (along with the towels) in hot, hot water with bleach, vinegar, tea tree and lavender oil, and dried it all on high heat in the dryer for 1 hour. The second day, we did another nit combing (no bugs, yay!) and nitpicking (about 6 nits), soaked our hair and scalps in coconut oil and tea tree and wrapped our heads up in saran wrap and shower caps for 6 hours, after which, we did a secondary nit combing (3 nits), and washed it all out with baking soda, vinegar and finally, tea tree shampoo and conditioner. The third day (today), we did a thorough nit combing (no bugs, but the comb didn't actually pull any nits out) and nitpicking (found 3 more really small nits), and went to bed on fresh sheets with new beach towels as pillows (in fresh pillowcases). Well, Charlotte's in bed, but I'm still doing laundry. All of the couches and chairs have been stripped of their covers which we washed and dried on hot with bleach, vinegar, lavender and tea tree oil (be sure to add all ingredients and let the water pour in enough that you don't accidentally whiten your clothing or bedding - this even worked on my darks and black t-shirts, and there was no bleaching effect). Thank God for Ikea, my couch covers actually come off!, so we (and by we, I mean me), washed the covers, vaccuumed the cushions and placed the cushions in plastic garbage bags, sealed with packing tape for 4 weeks, although I may, in my paranoia, decide to replace the cushions at Ikea, since I will probably need some shopping therapy after all this is over anyway. The pillows, I just threw away. Bed Bath and Beyond, here I come! Stuffed animals will mostly be discarded, (this is where it really pays to be a Jellycat dealer), and those that are irreplaceable are sealed in individual Ziplock bags, and then, tightly sealed in plastic garbage bags for 6 weeks, although, knowing me, I'll probably keep them sealed up for 12 weeks or so, since I never do anything half-way! I drove out to the car wash today, while Emily watched Charlotte and made sure she didn't sit anywhere but our leather coach (Tom won't let me throw it away (yeesh!, so unreasonable), which has been seriously vaccuumed and covered with white fitted sheets (changed daily) so we can easily see anything that may fall off of her head. There, I attracted plenty of attention as I vaccuumed the car for one. full. hour. (and a half), in yoga shorts (nobody should have to see that), with a beet-red, sweaty face, while promising myself that my next car will definitely have leather seats. Then, I took that fetching look to the pet store, where I purchased a flea comb, which I was told has finer teeth than a nit comb, and is better for fine hair, but really, they lie. It was exactly the same! Tomorrow...well, I'll keep you posted, but I'm really hoping we can get through this without the promised resurgence at the one week mark since I've been manually nitpicking, and plan to do so every day until there are none. So, none can hatch, right? Right???? Seriously, I may never stop feeling itchy!

-Carla

p.s. bonus! I found out today that my Honda actually has a drop down cupholder armrest in the back seat. After cleaning up spilled blueberry smoothie from the door pocket which is definitely NOT a proper cupholder, Charlotte!