Well, we got a clean bill of health from the school nurse this morning.  She seemed rather amazed that she found no live lice, and not a nit on my kids.  We’re not out of the woods, yet.  The recommendation is using the nit comb on each person twice per day for a total of 14 days.   I’m feeling hopeful and up to the challenge today, whereas 48 hours ago I was practically despondent.

So, the plan is to use the oil treatment again this weekend, and then next week.  And we will wash with the shampoo once per day for the next two weeks.  Hopefully, this combined with the combing will do the trick.

This has really changed some things in our home, at least temporarily.  And it’s striking me that many of these things are choices that we made long ago in the interest of greenness, and being frugal.

  1. Bath towels have become a single use item, and then they get washed.  I realize that this is the way many people handle towels, but we have always had folks use their towels for at least a couple of times before washing.  It saves water, energy, and time.  Each person in the house has their own collection of towels (a different color for each person), so that’s helping out in the “keep it to yourself” philosophy we’ve had to adopt with the lice in the house.
  2. A lot more showers and shampoos have been happening.  Normally, only a few of us shower every single day.  The littles (who have sensitive skin and are prone to eczema) usually only bathe about once or twice a week.  I’m usually an every other day person myself, as I also have dry, eczema-prone skin.  We’ve used a lot of hot water in the last two days, and have even run out of the hot stuff a time or two.  This is pretty incredible since we have 100 gallons of water in reserve with the solar hot water system. I realize that perhaps people will think that this minimal bathing routine is what got us into this mess in the first place, but honestly, it’s served us well for 17 years, so I can’t think that one event of lice should change our mind that it’s an ok practice.
  3. We keep the heat in our house fairly low most of the time with a programmable thermostat, and snuggle up together under throw blankets when we read together or watch TV.  With all of the blankets and throw pillows requiring laundering, and the prospect of re-infecting each other, all this togetherness has been at least temporarily discontinued.  I was sad yesterday to hear my 6 year old ask if it was ok to hug each other.  Even he is seeing his family as a potential source of nits.

A lot of time, I hear comments from people that they might like to live a little greener, but it so expensive to do so.  I think this feeling comes primarily from magazines featuring some celebrity’s eco-friendly home that cost millions, and is all tricked out with the latest and greatest, and some really obscure items to boot.  But really, many of the choices we make in the interest of being green have helped us to save money.  If we save money on everyday things like energy and water usage, we have a little more money to spend on other “green” choices that do cost a little more, like organic food or theraputic essential oils to treat our head lice.  And, I have to say that snuggling under the throw blankets is a habit that has lots of other benefits besides energy saving, and it’s a hard habit to break!