Parents can go through a range of emotions upon finding out their kids have a head lice infestation. These sesame-seed-sized bugs love afflicting young children since they primarily spread by crawling from head to head, and kids always seem to be bumping heads. The emotions you go through can be tragically similar to the five phases of grief, which are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
Stage 1 – Denial
Your first reaction might be that your kids can’t possibly have head lice. You bathe them regularly and keep a clean house so how could they possibly catch lice. Sadly, as common as this thought may be, it’s also wrong.
Lice will make a home on a clean or dirty scalp and head of hair, so don’t expect hygiene to save you, as a parent, from having to deal with these annoying parasitic pests. They need blood under your scalp, and they’re willing to put up with a lot to get it.
Stage 2 – Anger
Next, you might be getting mad when thinking about how your kid caught lice. As mentioned, they primarily spread from child to child when their heads, or at least their hair, touch. This will have you wondering which parent let their kid go to school or summer camp with lice on their head resulting in your kid catching them.
You may also get angry at the lice, which can be good if it causes you to take prompt, effective action in treating the lice infestation. Unfortunately, if you try over-the-counter (OTC) remedies, you might stay angry for a while. They’ve been used for so many years that plenty of lice are immune to the toxins in them. You can take the time to buy and apply this messy substance only to find it may not even work.
Stage 3 – Bargaining
This is where you might get desperate and negotiate with your kids in an attempt to try home remedies. You tell them that if they let you put mayonnaise or olive oil on their heads overnight under a shower cap that you won’t shave their heads to handle the issue once and for all. These remedies can be messy, and they have to be repeated a few times in order to have a chance of them eliminating the problem. This is because lice exist in the growth stages of nits (eggs), nymphs (juveniles) and then adult lice. These remedies only suffocate live lice, so you have to do it a couple more times to catch those that were nits during the first one or two attempts.
Stage 4 – Depression
Because just a couple missed lice or nits can mean the infestation happens all over again in a week or so, here’s where the depression part hits. You’ve tried OTC lice shampoos and home remedies and bought a nit comb and combed the nits out of their hair regularly but these pests keep coming back.
Stage 5 – Acceptance
If the lice infestation keeps recurring, you may simply lapse into acceptance about the whole situation. This is what happens with some parents.
Break the Cycle of Grief Over Head Lice
At Lice Lifters of Harrisburg, our caring, certified lice technicians want you to know that there is a solution to the scourge of head lice. With our trained eye, we can spot if they are what’s afflicting any of your little ones. Once found, we have the knowledge, products and techniques to get rid of them in a fast and affordable way; we offer the best head lice treatment in Harrisburg PA. We’ll also handle it for you and any infested family members in a single trip to our lice salon, so please contact us today because you don’t have to put up with the itching and irritation of head lice.
