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Delicate Question.... Head Lice

5 replies

MsF · 07/07/2009 22:21

DS is 15... with aspergers

He and has never really had a headlice problem... However...have been letting DS wash/comb his own hair..."Life Skill" etc....for a few weeks.

Tonight after his bath- he emerged looking 'very fluffy' so i persuaded him to let me comb his hair....i was combing his hair and several large headlice fell out.

I then, (with him protesting as you'd expect) spent half an hour massaging in tea tree conditioner and combing throughly. then had to get him rised off (head over bath...which was a novel experience as he is so unco-ordinated...!)

i was actually nearly sick. i cannot believe how many large adult lice i found...and so many tiny ones - they were jammed in the nit comb. And i cannot imaging how many eggs there must be. His scalp is bleeding in places...either my over zealous combing... or the lice are blood sucking crazy.
And ofcourse, due to ds having high pain threshold...i guess means he is tolerant to their bites- as he has not been scratching his scap at all...

so.....will be washing his hair/conditioning/nit combing daily for the next 2 weeks (i gather that ensures we cover the life cycle- so any current lice that hatch will be removed- before they mature to lay more eggs)

but what i am concerned about is that he has a very 'wild haired' friend (also has aspergers) who spends alot of time 'head to head' playing computer games...playstation etc...the pair of them sit on ds's bead as he has a tiny box room- and there is no room for chairs...so they get as close as 2 boys of that age are happy to get!!!

so i'm worried if this is likely to be the cause...that my son and his friend will be passing them to each other

And, if so.... and i handle the problem at our end... how do i get his friend 'dealt with' too?
DS pointed out that his friend would probably like me to remove his lice too...as DS believes his friend's mum doesn't care about her son....so i then had to convince DS that it was not my place to 'nit comb' his friends... but did get me thinking that if his mum is unaware....and like ds says she does not care....(i cringe as i say this...but i have had concerns about his welfare for months....but who am i to judge???)
Then what do i do?

(his mum is weirder than ME.... she drove round here to collect him once ...knocked our door...we let her in...to find her stood there in nothing but a towel dressing gown and slippers. Apparently, she had just had a bath when ds's friend phoned her to pick him up...and she just got in the car and came round! Call me a prude... but its one thing nipping out with what could be considered to be jammas....and quite another to wear a bath robe!!!)

So...not at all comfortable chatting to her about anything...let along lice!!!

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sarah293 · 08/07/2009 08:57

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sickofsocalledexperts · 10/07/2009 12:10

If you use the hedrin lotion and then do it again in 7 days, in theory you don't also have to do the combing. Might be better for a lazy mum? I did find that quite effective (I did a bit of combing too, but it is agony for my head-sensitive DS but the hedrin is good as it drowns the buggers, and 7 days later it drowns any hatched eggs, thereby breaking the cycle.) Could you offer this mum a couple of bottles of hedrin and act like you are thinking your DS gave her DS them, so you're being helpful not critical iyswim?

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MsF · 10/07/2009 12:44

thats a good idea- to act like we got them first...i don't want to appear pushy...but i also don't want to do nothing.

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jeanz · 06/01/2011 17:03

Hi hope this post not being added to late to help but you can get a head lice repellent spray too. It coats the hair (just spray on like...spray gel ) and the lice apparently dont like the smell and cant grip onto the hair. Hope this is of help to someone.Bless you DS for thinking his friend would like you to sort his lice out too at least you can smile and know that your Ds knows you love and care about him. It is a shame other parents dont always feel and do the same for their children!

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zzzzz · 06/04/2011 22:01

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