The meaning of lice...

I'm a pretty tolerant and rational person.  Truly I am.  I'm not a fan of snakes, but can understand the purpose they serve in the ecosystems of the world.  Even upon nearly stepping on one while hiking recently, I quickly came down from the urge to scream with a "it's more afraid of me than I am of him."  I'm chill like that.  But this past week has left me very frustrated and angry as I try to figure out the meaning of lice - again.

I have a kindergartener.  Need I say more?  We've been through this before - when my older daughter was in kindergarten, imagine that.  I don't know what it is about these kids, but they're a natural breeding ground for these bloodsucking, incredibly annoying little creatures.  And sadly, my younger daughter's hair is like lice paradise.  It's thick, dense and clean.  Well technically it's currently slathered in olive oil, awaiting her millionth comb-out of the week.  But it's typically clean.

What purpose does lice serve?  I'm seriously asking.  And how does it survive?  Everyone I've ever heard of getting it (and believe me - about 70% of the people I've entrusted our creepy, crawly secret too have divulged similar experiences) work like crazy to eradicate it.  So how does the species survive?  My children's heads are scraped clean of the bugs and their eggs.  So if everyone follows suit, how do they keep showing up in kindergarten? 

When my older daughter got it, I freaked out.  Like screamed and jumped out of my chair exclaiming, "Oh my God she's got LICE!"  She immediately started to cry.  My husband was out the door on his way to Walgreens to get something, anything, within two minutes.  I was on the phone with a close friend who is a doctor (and happened to be enjoying his Florida vacation at the time of my early morning, Sunday call) within five.  We used a pesticide shampoo...and that was a terrible experience.

The bugs, basically, jump for their lives.  They did not die.  The shampoo makes your child's hair extremely dry and the hours of combing becomes torture.  It smells terrible.  And seriously - does anyone think it's a good idea to marinate your child's head in poison? 

What has worked for us, as I mentioned, is olive oil.  It slicks up the bugs and desticks the eggs.  We leave it in for hours - if not overnight.  A shower cap contains any grease on furniture or bedding.  When you wash it out, use a tiny bit of dish soap in your shampoo.  Then the rest you'll find when googling is true.  It's all about combing, combing, combing and laundry, laundry, laundry.  It's a major pain in the butt, but these things are necessary to get you through your licesis (yep - a lice crisis). 

Just for fun - my older daughter was diagnosed with the flu on Thursday and I'm still recovering from an ear/sinus infection.  I'd resort to alcohol but I'm on too many medications.  Chocolate will have to do.