Stomach viruses and nits the first week?

Posted Aug 29, 2011 by Sherri Ackerman

Updated Aug 30, 2011 at 09:30 AM

Four days into the first week of school and I got the call.

My son had a stomach virus and needed to go home.

The next day, I found out my daughter had nits.

“Welcome to public school,’’ I was told.

I knew this would happen sooner or later. I just expected it would be later.

And not both kids in the same week.

“What an initiation,’’ one of my Facebook friends wrote on my wall.

Luckily, I could work from home one day and my husband could stay home the next.

With one kid with diarrhea and a districtwide “No Nit’’ policy, what choice did we have?

The stomach bug cleared up in a day.

The nits, well, that took a few more.

Our weekend was spent first trying to find the nits then hunting down remedies, some suggested by our daughter’s doctor’s office and others from friends who have been-there-done-that.

We washed and washed our hair using an over-the-counter shampoo that supposedly nixes the nits, but, unfortunately, it didn’tt remove them.

We combed and combed before turning to some safe, nontoxic remedies, including a soak in Listerine followed by a white vinegar rinse to loosen the nits, then another scrubbing with Denorex, which, we were told, kills lice.

We finished off by slathering on Suave coconut conditioner then a spritz of J. Crew styling lotion - some folks swear that lice don’t like these particular hair products and using them makes it harder for the nits to stick on the hair shaft.

Whatever works!

Next, we searched for the tiny lice eggs using a magnifying glass then invited over a former summer camp counselor for another thorough inspection.

We only found a few that we think were nits, but one is all it takes.

It was back to the drawing board, but I’m happy to report no nits or any hair debris whatsoever. Today.

I’m not sure which product did the trick, or if it was the obsessive combing and picking, or if we really had nits at all.

But you can bet we’ll be checking our heads again and again and doing everything we can to make sure the itchy critters and their microscopic eggs don’t land in our hair.

And I hope other parents do the same.

Please don’t ignore this problem.

It does not go away on its own. Your child can only miss a few days due to lice, according to the Hillsborough school district’s student handbook.

Take care of it now and welcome to public school.

Know of any remedies that worked for your family? Vaseline? Mayonnaise? Let me know here or email me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)