Not a Creature Was Stirring, Not Even a Louse

Last year around this time, an outbreak of lice swept through my daughter Delia's preschool, particularly the pre-K classes. At the time, I lived in a state of constant vigilance and fear that she would get the dreaded little buggers. My mother had just died, and she was the only one who could've helped me deal with a lice infestation, so I just held my breath and prepared for the worst. We were, however, spared.

This year, we were not so lucky. A couple of weeks ago, newly five-year-old Delia began scratching like a swarm of mosquitoes had swarmed around her head. "I'm itchy," she complained while at dinner at a close friend's house. My friend Jen took a quick look and said Delia looked fine, so we went ahead with spontaneous plans to allow Delia and her big brother to spend the night at her place.

The next afternoon, Delia again complained about feeling itchy, and a pit formed in my stomach. Maybe it's her eczema flaring up, I tried to rationalize, but I knew it was lice. I found a comb and a flashlight and made D flip her head over, where I saw about a half-dozen teeny, sesame-seed-looking white dots close to the shaft of her head. I called to my husband and made him look, and we agreed, to our horror, that it sure looked like nits. Off I went to Whole Foods to buy a natural lice treatment, while my husband did a mountain of laundry and vacuumed the entire house.

Several hours (and $50 in shower caps, combs, stainless-steel nit brushes, and tweezers) later, we started the laborious task of combing through Delia's hair, which was by now coated with olive oil and essential oils. My husband took over from me, and then called out when he found a live, wriggling louse on a paper towel he was using to swipe the comb clean.

"That's it! We're using the Nix," he hissed. Despite my complaints, he insisted we just do it, and do it we did. But six days later, Delia began scratching again, even though I had been checking her hair every day. That's when my husband and I decided we were not going to be repeat offenders. We Googled, researched, and agonized about the expense before contacting and hiring professional delousers, Lice Happens.

Um, what, you're thinking, there are people you can PAY to come delouse your house? Why yes,Virginia, there is a Santa Claus, and if you're unwilling to suffer through the frustration of not knowing how to properly get rid of lice, and you are willing to write a rather large check, two amazing lice experts will come to your home, talk you off your ledge, and walk you through everything you need to know about the facts and myths regarding lice.

I'd never met MJ and Nancy before they walked into my house that Sunday morning, but I felt as if they were instantly my friends. There was no judgment of having used the toxic Nix. There were no instructions to obsessively clean my upholstery or bag everything Delia had ever touched. They just took out their tools and went to work. We discovered rather quickly that the baby had lice, Delia still had a few nits, and to my horror, I had nits as well (apparently the majority of moms get lice from their little ones). My husband and eldest son were nit-free -- even though my husband had a severe case of hysterical, sympathetic itching.

Instead of crying about having nits, however, the Lice Happens ladies made me feel really zen about my lot. They explained that a thorough combing -- with the right kind of nitpicking comb -- was the key to successfully ridding anyone of lice. They showed me an awesome slide of sample nits, nymphs and adult lice, so I could check out the various stages myself. They quoted statistics and entomological facts and dispelled myths and spelled out the differences between head, body and public lice (don't want to get them confused!).

By the time they wrapped up treating and nitpicking and educating and training, MJ and Nancy proved they had more than earned their fee. They're expert consultants AND it's reimbursable by Healthcare FSAs! They left me with the right stuff to take charge of the lice situation the next time it happens. So for those of you feeling overwhelmed and frustrated by your kid contracting lice, just remember that if push comes to shove, there are professional lice consultants out there who can help.

An Original DC Metro Moms post. When she's not nitpicking -- literally -- Sandie writes movie reviews for Common Sense Media and blogs at Urban Mama.