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Battling Lice Takes Persistence

Posting Date: 08/08/2005

LICE! Just reading the word can make your head itch.

What is it about lice that inspires such loathing? Otherwise normal people become hysterical at the mere thought of these bloodsuckers.

Many people associate lice with uncleanliness. This idea is false. Economic status and personal hygiene make no difference to lice.

As children come home from camp and prepare to return to school, some parents are becoming anxious. In many communities lice have become resistant to standard treatments. ?No-nit? policies in some schools can mean an

embarrassing phone call to ?come get your child.?

No wonder parents are tempted to take desperate measures to get rid of lice. We recently heard from one mother:

?I hope our tale will keep someone else from going through the nightmare we did. In kindergarten my daughter brought home lice. We didn?t know much about them and we all ended up catching them.

?We tried over-the-counter remedies. They worked initially, but the lice kept coming back even though we washed and fumigated everything.

?The standard treatment didn?t seem to be working and I didn't want to subject my 5-year-old to chemicals over and over, so I called the doctor. His terrible nurse sounded like she was holding the phone away from her head while talking to me, as though she could catch them over the line. She suggested Vaseline.

?We bought a jar of Vaseline and put it in our hair quite liberally. We felt rather silly, but then after several hours, we tried to get it out. NOTHING worked. Not shampoo, not dish soap, not laundry soap. Mechanics? ?Goop? came the closest, but even that wasn?t enough.

?At 4 am I called the hospital's ask-a-nurse line for help. The nurse was flabbergasted that a medical professional had told us to use Vaseline. She called the pharmacist, who said that the only way to get it out was to work mineral oil into the Vaseline to cut it and then shampoo several times. That helped get the Vaseline out, but what a mess!