Head Lice on the Magic week of 2/4

[JohnsonsFour]

My family was on the Magic last month and during our cruise our daughter contracted head lice from what we believe was the Kids Lab. We had her hair braided on deck and she did not have lice at the time. The braiders told us they check for lice when they braid. We discovered the lice hours later after her visit to the Lab. As a result, our family ended up having daily visits to the medical clinic and needed additional medical care once we got home. It's been a horrible ordeal.

The Guest Service supervisor told us other families were involved in this ordeal. We are working with the DCL and are trying to find other families that were affected by the lice. If you or someone you know was contracted head lice on the Magic, can you please send me a private message. We would sincerely appreciate it.

Thank you.

 

[KidsRN]

Really? Within a matter of hours you knew your child had head lice? I'm impressed!!
I've been a school nurse for many years--I sure would like to know how you managed to detect that your child had lice within hours of being around other children.
Infestations are not usually discovered until after four to six weeks of the initial creature (louse) laying more eggs, and hatching out more playmates (lice)to continue the cycle.
If your child had just been infested within hours of being in the kids club then treatment would have been swift and problem solved quickly because there would not have been any time for a live louse to lay eggs.
If your child required many days/weeks of treatments during your cruise and afterwards, then your child was already infested a few weeks before you stepped foot on the cruise ship.
Sorry, but that's some 411 on head lice.

 

[charliesmom86]

I have to agree with KidsRN. The eggs don't hatch right away. So it may take days or longer to detect lice. Never heard anyone find out that soon....hours? Hm, I have however heard that people have dandruff and other types of scalp issues and get it confused with lice..but the only other option is that your child was probably already infested before your cruise.

 

[Trischa]

I am confused. Why are you and DCL looking for other families who may have head lice? If a child has it, the parents will take care of it. It's not like a contagious disease that must be quarantined or something. Am I missing something? DCL shouldn't be responsible for it. What medical treatment did you have to seek both on ship and on land? My daughter had them many years ago. We never saw a doctor. The school informed us there was an "outbreak". Within a few days we spotted one of the little darlings.. (her hair was so blond it was almost white, made spotting them pretty difficult)... We treated her twice with the over the counter stuff and poof.. they were taken care of. We never saw a Doctor.

 

[Alexander]

I am confused. Why are you and DCL looking for other families who may have head lice? If a child has it, the parents will take care of it. It's not like a contagious disease that must be quarantined or something. Am I missing something? DCL shouldn't be responsible for it. What medical treatment did you have to seek both on ship and on land? My daughter had them many years ago. We never saw a doctor. The school informed us there was an "outbreak". Within a few days we spotted one of the little darlings.. (her hair was so blond it was almost white, made spotting them pretty difficult)... We treated her twice with the over the counter stuff and poof.. they were taken care of. We never saw a Doctor.

Just guessing, but the typical treatments aren't going to be available in the gift shop They likely had to go to the medical center to get the special shampoo or other treatment product. Why they are looking for others is beyond me! I also agree that to have an infestation that bad in a few hours is highly unlikely unless your daughter was rolling around in them.

 

[jdb in AZ]

Our grand kids discovered head lice on a Disney cruise a few years ago. Their mother is a hairdresser and is very careful with their hygiene. The kids were sure they picked up the lice at the kids' club but it could have just as easily happened on the plane, at WDW before the cruise, or even at home before our vacation.

It was inconvenient having to wash all their clothes and make a trip to the ship's doc for medicated shampoo, but it didn't ruin their cruise, and they've cruised with DCL again. But refused to go in the kids' club.

 

[Trischa]

In the gift shop.. LOL I didn't mean that.. I meant.. seeking medical attention once they got off the ship?

I've seen some pretty whacky things in gift shops...but you're right.. never saw any RID in there.. lol

 

[Mom323]

I retired as a school nurse in 2005. I have to agree with KidsRN. Also why would they wait almost 6 weeks to post something. Their cruise ended 2/11. These must have been lightening fast lice, as after infecting their daughter in a matter of hours, they infected the other family members as well.

In the post on their cruise meets, they also stated their room was infested.

Hello everyone -

I wanted to thank you all for the lovely FE gifts. We really enjoyed all of the surprises. It made out trip!

Unfortunately, we had a bad experience during our cruise. Our daughter contracted head lice while we were at sea. We believe it came from the Kids Lab. Our family required daily medical attention and we were told by the health clinic that our room was infested. (They removed all of our belongings to steam clean and issued us detergent to wash other items) We required medical treatment when we returned home and have considerable out of pocket expense to take care of the situation.

Anyway, we are working with the claim department and we're trying to track down other families that were affected. If you experienced the head lice or heard of other involved, can you please send me a private message? We were told other were impacted but don't know the full scope.

From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate any help. Thank you.

 

[mousejunkie98]

I would never avoid the kids club over this, it can be contracted anywhere there are groups of kids together. Also, it has absolutely nothing to do with hygiene, and there is no way you could get a full blown infestation in a matter of hours.

 

[disneyholic family]

why would you need additional medical care when you got home?

head lice calls for a round of chemical warfare followed by diligent nightly comb outs using that irritating fine tooth comb.

when my kids were little, head lice was a recurring pain in the derriere (since there were a few parents who never treated their kids, including my daughter's best friend)..

anyway....it's just an itchy nuisance, but not a health risk...

fortunately kids grow up and eventually stop getting those nasty little bugs..

oh oh...my head is starting to itch...always happens when i start talking about lice....

 

[jaxgatorfamily]

I have a question. Is it a good idea to shampoo my boys hair every so often with the medicated shampoo as a precautionary measure to make sure the don't get head lice or no?. Hoping kidsrn would have a good recommendation from her experience?

 

[mousejunkie98]

Try putting a few drops of tea tree oil in their shampoo. I've read it's a great preventative (I guess the lice hate the smell?). We use it and have never gotten lice

 

[ldymcbth]

I have a question. Is it a good idea to shampoo my boys hair every so often with the medicated shampoo as a precautionary measure to make sure the don't get head lice or no?. Hoping kidsrn would have a good recommendation from her experience?

No! That shampoo is just for once you're infected. To help prevent lice, you can treat hair with tea tree oil, or rosemary. "Fairy Tales" makes a shampoo set including a hair spray that supposedly prevents lice from being attracted to your hair. We've used that ever since there was a problem at preschool - thank goodness and knock on wood neither of my kids came home with lice.

You can also help prevent by blow-drying hair every day. The heat helps kill the eggs. And if you have a child with long hair, keeping it pulled up or back can help keep their hair away from the hair of other kids - head to head is how lice are most often transmitted.

 

[disneyholic family]

I have a question. Is it a good idea to shampoo my boys hair every so often with the medicated shampoo as a precautionary measure to make sure the don't get head lice or no?. Hoping kidsrn would have a good recommendation from her experience?

i wouldn't use the big gun chemical warfare - save that for when you really need it..
but there are natural remedies you could use - i no longer remember what they are....rosemary? i don't remember....i'm sure if you google it you'll find gentle things that can be used every day to keep away the little beasties.....

 

[Beachbumpirates]

Paul Mitchell Tea Tree Oil!

 

[Jaxs27]

I have a question. Is it a good idea to shampoo my boys hair every so often with the medicated shampoo as a precautionary measure to make sure the don't get head lice or no?. Hoping kidsrn would have a good recommendation from her experience?

No I would NOT think you should do that. There are major chemicals in those shampoos and a lot of people actually don't use them because of that. When my dd had lice when she was 5, I used olive oil. I soaked her hair in it and picked out all of the eggs. The Olive oil kills the living lice. We got rid of it very quickly doing this.

 

[JohnsonsFour]

We captured two live bugs that we took to Guest Services. They identified the bugs and quickly escorted us to the Clinic where we were issued Nix. We had daily visits to the Clinic where we had someone look through our hair with a UV light and issued more Nix. It was a horrible ordeal that I don't wish upon anyone.

 

[Mom323]

I have a question. Is it a good idea to shampoo my boys hair every so often with the medicated shampoo as a precautionary measure to make sure the don't get head lice or no?. Hoping kidsrn would have a good recommendation from her experience?

The medicated shampoo should only be used for active cases of lice. The best preventative is to tell your kids not to share items of clothing, brushes, combs, hair ties and so on. I would check with your pediatrician before trying tea tree oil. Here is link with other helpful info.

http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/lice/head/prevent.html

 

[jaxgatorfamily]

Thanks for the tips!! I'll try the tea tree oil as a preventative! Also good to know about the olive oil as a potential remedy!

 

[insureman]

We captured two live bugs that we took to Guest Services. They identified the bugs and quickly escorted us to the Clinic where we were issued Nix. We had daily visits to the Clinic where we had someone look through our hair with a UV light and issued more Nix. It was a horrible ordeal that I don't wish upon anyone.

Not to be rude but what is it you actually want. Are you looking for compensation, a free cruise? Many kids get head lice at one time or another and there is really no way of telling when or where they got it.