You can't check yourself for lice

Today I have to treat myself and all four children for lice. I've already finished with Benjamin, he didn't have very many. Carolyn is next, then Charlie. I have to wait for Scott to get home before I do Liam because he's difficult about the water.

I'm currently sitting here with a product called "Lice Freee!" on my head and a shower cap. It's a pretty decent homeopathic treatment that comes with a great metal nit comb. It is supposed to dehydrate the lice and the nits, so hopefully this will work. I've used it before and it was pretty effective.

On the side of the box it says that self medication isn't recommended because it is impossible to check yourself for nits and lice. Well, there are a few ways to tell if you have lice: the first way is the itching (obviously). Second, lice leave behind droppings (gross, I know) kinda like fleas. If you have black flecks under your nails when you scratch your head, chances are you have lice. Third, you can use a fine toothed comb after washing and conditioning your hair; any lice big enough will get stuck in the comb as you drag it through your hair. Conditioner is also useful for getting the buggers out because it causes them to not be able to hold onto the hair and most of them will wash down the drain. Other than that, I agree that you can't treat yourself very will because you can't see the nits.

No End in Sight

I thought I would try to save some money on the lice treatments by taking one of the kids to the doctor and getting a prescription. Well, I found out that my co-pay for this new insurance is $40 and that insurance won't cover lice treatments because they are only sold over the counter and there is no prescription equivalent, at least not at Wal-Mart. So, I wasted a lot of time and stress, not to mention $40, today.

I ended up going to Walgreens because Wal-Mart's generic doesn't contain Permethrin, which is what the Doctor's office recommended. Walgreens, however, carries two store brands, one that is the Permethrin, which is the active ingredient in Nix lice treatment, and another which contains the other stuff which is equivalent to Rid. So tomorrow, I'm keeping all three of the smaller kids home from school and we're going to see what we can do about this.