Help Lice!!! We leave for Disney tomorrow!!

[RayaniFoxmur]

Can I ask why everyone is so icked out by lice? I was always told they're harmless, if not an annoyance. I've never had them, FH had them when he was a kid and he's not really icked out by them either.

I don't really know what I would do in their situation. I can understand why people would want them to move their trip, but what if they couldn't? What if they've been saving for months and months and heck, years... and WDW wouldn't move their trip back a week? Are they supposed to just lose out on that money? I could totally see myself having a hard time with that too.

It's one of those situations that I just couldn't tell you what I would do unless the situation was happening to me right now.

 

[4greatboys]

Can I ask why everyone is so icked out by lice? I was always told they're harmless, if not an annoyance. I've never had them, FH had them when he was a kid and he's not really icked out by them either.

Even if they are harmless the thought of bugs crawling around on my head or my kids is just gross. Its not unusal for most people to feel this way. I cant imagine having them and not being icked out by it

 

[RayaniFoxmur]

Even if they are harmless the thought of bugs crawling around on my head or my kids is just gross. Its not unusal for most people to feel this way. I cant imagine having them and not being icked out by it

I guess bugs have never really icked either of us out. But then again I'm the one that will let a slug crawl up my arm just because I think the way they move is neat, or watches a spider all day long, or when I was little I used to let a fly land on my hand and then I'd watch it clean it's legs. I've never been normal when it comes to bugs lol.

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Can I ask why everyone is so icked out by lice? I was always told they're harmless, if not an annoyance. I've never had them, FH had them when he was a kid and he's not really icked out by them either.

I don't really know what I would do in their situation. I can understand why people would want them to move their trip, but what if they couldn't? What if they've been saving for months and months and heck, years... and WDW wouldn't move their trip back a week? Are they supposed to just lose out on that money? I could totally see myself having a hard time with that too.

It's one of those situations that I just couldn't tell you what I would do unless the situation was happening to me right now.

Why is everyone so icked out? Well besides that having bugs crawling all over us is just icky, why should my family have to suffer through the treatment for lice? Yes- combing your hair with that metal comb hurts big time- especially if you are a girl with long hair. My kids need to have chemical shampoos to get rid of it all? I need to come home from vacation and basically fumigate my house? Yeah that's fair so you can save a few dollars. Not trying to be harsh to you but you have got to be kidding me. It is more than an annoyance. A stubbed toe is an annoyance. Lice is a big fat ol' pain in the rear.

 

[disneyjunkie]

Can I ask why everyone is so icked out by lice? I was always told they're harmless, if not an annoyance. I've never had them, FH had them when he was a kid and he's not really icked out by them either.

I don't really know what I would do in their situation. I can understand why people would want them to move their trip, but what if they couldn't? What if they've been saving for months and months and heck, years... and WDW wouldn't move their trip back a week? Are they supposed to just lose out on that money? I could totally see myself having a hard time with that too.

It's one of those situations that I just couldn't tell you what I would do unless the situation was happening to me right now.

People are icked out about this for the same reason they'd be icked out about having roaches crawling around their house. They may not harm you, but it's pretty darn nasty.

If you cancel a Disney trip, you're not out all of the money. I believe you're only out the deposit.
If you purchased the park passes in advance, they can be used at a later time.

Some airlines will give you credit for the unused flight tickets.

 

[RayaniFoxmur]

Why is everyone so icked out? Well besides that having bugs crawling all over us is just icky, why should my family have to suffer through the treatment for lice? Yes- combing your hair with that metal comb hurts big time- especially if you are a girl with long hair. My kids need to have chemical shampoos to get rid of it all? I need to come home from vacation and basically fumigate my house? Yeah that's fair so you can save a few dollars. Not trying to be harsh to you but you have got to be kidding me. It is more than an annoyance. A stubbed toe is an annoyance. Lice is a big fat ol' pain in the rear.

Well hey, since I have never had lice how would I know all that? I thought my question was quite valid but hey, be as harsh as you want lol. What do I care?

 

[twinklebug]

If you cancel a Disney trip, you're not out all of the money. I believe you're only out the deposit.
If you purchased the park passes in advance, they can be used at a later time.

Some airlines will give you credit for the unused flight tickets.

It might sound like a joke, but shaving is easier.
If it were my daughter I'd buzz her head treat it again. Fly to Disney & buy her the prettiest Princess outfit and all the baseball caps WDW has to offer. Hair grows back.

 

[disneyfan67]

It might sound like a joke, but shaving is easier.
If it were my daughter I'd buzz her head treat it again. Fly to Disney & buy her the prettiest Princess outfit and all the baseball caps WDW has to offer. Hair grows back.

It's exactly what I thought when I first read this thread last night. I would do just what you recommended. Hair does grow back and this way no one gets infected, no one misses out on a vacation, no one is inconvenienced, and no money is lost due to cancellations. If Britney Spears can shave her head and survive, why can't the Op's daughter? It the responsible thing to do.

This thread has me laughing though. The Op has been at Disney and her thread is still going strong. I wonder if she's going to read all the comments on how bad some think she is for just going to WDW full speed ahead and damn the lice.

On a serious note, I hope no one gets infected due to the Op's decision. I think if another family on their first trip to WDW was to come into contact with that girl and get head lice, it wouldn't be looked upon as a fun vacation to remember. I know I wouldn't be too happy about it.

 

[Buckalew11]

I read this thread early this morning (Sunday) and was icked out. I wondered why no one was questioning her on going to WDW and possibly giving some other unsuspecting guest lice. I did not post because everyone was posting advice and I was wanting to post a less kind comment. Heck, I'd be icked out even if I were the mousekeeper!

Well, she's already gone to WDW and we'll never know unless someone else comes home and posts they got lice on their WDW trip!

 

[mommylicious]

Can I ask why everyone is so icked out by lice? I was always told they're harmless, if not an annoyance. I've never had them, FH had them when he was a kid and he's not really icked out by them either.

Besides the general ick factor of bugs crawling through your hair and sucking your blood then laying eggs on your scalp, I had always thought they were harmless too. On the link that was shared in the early pages of this thread to www.headlice.org and on another site that THAT site linked to (micrographia.com) I read the following:

from headlice.org:

While many have thought head lice to be only a nuisance, recent scientific study refutes this notion. DNA technology shows head lice to be the same species as the notorious body louse which has long been associated with diseases such as typhus and relapsing fever. The potential for disease transmission via the head louse should not be underestimated.

from micrographia.com:

"The louse has killed more human beings than has any other insect, with, perhaps, the malaria mosquito excepted. Historically, lice are the major insect vector of disease in temperate and cold lands, as mosquitoes are in hot ones."
The Appreciation of Lice. Maunder J. W. (paper) 1983.

Not trying to say I'd panic and assume my child was going to come down with some horrific disease, but it does appear that they may not be completely harmless.

 

[TinkerbellMama]

I feel like I am becoming the lice official of the DIS.
I've been through this, and I have read EVERYTHING about it and there is ALOT of misinformation on this thread.

First of all go to headlice.org (National Pediculosis Foundation) Head lice is pediculosis. and many questions can be answered there.

Do not let this ruin your trip. If you have done one treatment iwth RID, that has killed any live bugs and even though it does not kill all eggs (those need to be combed out with a fine tooth lice comb), they would not hatch for ten days and would not become adult size for another ten. It is perfect that you are going on vacation, because you do not need to worry about your house. Lice can not live of of a human head for more than 48 hours. So there will not be any lice at your home when you return.

As far as worrying about the hotel room and the airplane, lice can only be tranmitted 2 ways. one would be if your daughter head touched another persons head and a live louse tranferred to their hair. (best way to get it) the other less common way is if your daughter laid her head on something and a live louse remained on the object and within 48 hours someone else head touched the same thing with their own head. First of all , if you already did the RID treatment, there are no live lice, so there is no risk of this. As an extra precaution, you could lay a towel or cloth over the seat in the airplane and remove and wash it when you arrive at disney. The other thing would be to lay a towel over your daughter pillow in Disney and remove it everyday and replace it with a clean one. Even if a louse was on the towel, a regular hot water wash by mousekeeping would kill anything.

Lice can not jump or crawl. They can only move if they are on a human hair. They are not an environmental concern as they do not breed in furniture or carpet as fleas do, but only can live on a head.

The only thing you need to worry about is combing through every inch of your daughter head with a fine tooth lice comb held at a 45degree angle (to scrape out the eggs better) makeing sure to drag in across the scalp (where the eggs are laid) . If you do not do this every couple of days for a couple of weeks, then an egg that is missed would hatch in 2 weeks (after you are out of Disny anyway) and would take 10 days to mature, than would start laying it's own eggs, and in other 2 weeks your daughter would be infested again (most people think when this happens that it is a new infestation, when it is actually the same infestation that has not been treated correctly. )

After one treatment, there is no risk of your daughter spreading it to anyone for at least 2 weeks, if you do not comb out all eggs however, in 2 weeks it could spread.

So basically, your good, have a good vacation and go to the source like The National Pediculosis Foundation and your pediatrician and don't get upset by people who panic and don't have the facts.

I like you.

 

[dogsmom]

Does anyone know how to keep from getting head lice? If they live for 48 hours off of a person's head, can I spray the hotel room with something to kill them?

 

[mickeysgal]

Does anyone know how to keep from getting head lice? If they live for 48 hours off of a person's head, can I spray the hotel room with something to kill them?

I understand how you are feeling, but really, think about all the things we come in contact with on a daily basis. Movie theatre seats, headphones at record stores, rugs, restaurant booths, airplane seats, waiting rooms, hotel rooms, rental cars, rides, etc. We can't possibly disinfect everything we come into contact with, nor can we protect ourselves from everything out there. (Try to spray anything on a plane seat and watch how fast, in this day and age, you're arrested or thrown off the plane!)

Whether she should or should not have gone is immaterial at this point since she's already left. The OP said she would inform housekeeping. Housekeeping will know what to do as I'm sure this is not the first case they've encountered - nor will it be the last. At least she's telling them. I'm sure there are those that just don't say a word because they're either embarrassed or just don't care. Lets just hope they're staying at a place that will care enough to do something about it (I can't remember if she said they're staying on property) and lets hope she continues the treatments and combings.

To add a lighter note to this thread, this whole situation reminds me of Monsters, Inc. and the emergency procedure that happens when a monster gets a sock on them!

 

[DisneyGirl4188]

To add a lighter note to this thread, this whole situation reminds me of Monsters, Inc. and the emergency procedure that happens when a monster gets a sock on them!

 

[SueM in MN]

I just wanted to confirm that the National Pediculosis Foundation ( www.headlice.org ) is a very reputable organization. It was begun by parents of kids with head lice, school nurses and public health nurses who were upset about all the erroneos information that was out there (and also about the exposure and re-exposure of kids to pesticides - which is what the head lice shampoos and rinses are).
Many school and public health nurses are members of Headlice.org. It has been around for a long time; I first became aware of it in 1983 when I was a nurse assigned to schools.

 

[Mkrop]

I was going to say something about not going to her but I think I jumped into the conversation too late so I just offered advice to deal with if she logged on down there.

Plus someone on the UK thread of a mom who had been dealing with this infestation for 13 months, blasted us who suggested fumugation and the RID treatments as well.

My son's second grade class dealt with this all last year. The only classroom in a K-8 school. No siblings caught it. The only person outside this classroom that caught was a girl who sat on the bus next to one of the affected girls. We had the classroom professionally cleaned, threw away all the rugs and pillows, and had the children bag their coats and bookbags everyday. It seem to only affect the girls and these parents were working very hard to eradicate this, to no avail. And I know the parents and they are the ones who would work their butts off. This caused a lot of stress and missed class work for the kids and teachers. Even vacations from school when these things would not have host heads did they seem to get a handle on this. It wasnt until Easter break when all the parents agreed to have this ONE room fumugated did the problem go away. Not one case after that!

I dont advicate using pesticide unless absolutely necessary but if I had an infestation of roaches or anything else that would not go away I would be.
calling a pest control company.

I feel bad for the little girl to have to deal wiht all thsi in the heat of FL.

And it freaks me out that I could possibly get this if I was sitting in Mickey's Philaharmagic because I sat down after this family. I know you can walk around with and not know and that is how it is spead but to know and then head out doesnt sit right!

 

[Hannathy]

I don't really know what I would do in their situation. I can understand why people would want them to move their trip, but what if they couldn't? What if they've been saving for months and months and heck, years... and WDW wouldn't move their trip back a week? Are they supposed to just lose out on that money? I could totally see myself having a hard time with that too.

YES they are. I'm sorry but like I said before these things happen especially with kids and part of living in a society is following rules that sometimes inconvenience you for the better of everyone else. If the child came down with meningitis, whooping cough, chicken pox, should they still go and get on a plane so they don't loose money, but put everyone else at risk? As hard as it is for this generation it really isn't all about me,me, me.

 

[Mkrop]

YES they are. I'm sorry but like I said before these things happen especially with kids and part of living in a society is following rules that sometimes inconvenience you for the better of everyone else. If the child came down with meningitis, whooping cough, chicken pox, should they still go and get on a plane so they don't loose money, but put everyone else at risk? As hard as it is for this generation it really isn't all about me,me, me.

ITA! Look at that guy with the TB. Even though he claims the CDC didnt restrict him or make it clear to him, I think common sense tells you not to get on a plane.

Common sense seems to take a basckseat to things these days.

 

[BriarfoxinWA]

Well I hope the OP had a great time at WDW! I would not cancel or postpone my trip because of lice. If housekeeping is aware and she's combing out the kids hair the chance of a 3rd party outside of thier family getting them is minimal.

If we were talking about TB or some other serious disease I'd be concerned but jeez people we are talking about lice. Yeah they are a pain but I don't think it's life threatening...

*flame retardant suit firmly in place*

 

[my4kids]

The mother combed through 1 time count them 1 time there is no way that would rid her of the nits. And I would love to have you show me how to comb through a girls long hair in 1 hour and be nit free. I would give you a thousand dollars to show me that technique because every case I have known about takes hours and hours to get every one of them . The girl also according to her Mom definitely had nits when they left. and like I said before the ones laid last week will be hatching tomorrow oh joy just in time for the seats at HISTA. Or the airplane ride home.

I would like to know where you get all your info because some is wrong. Lice can live on other surfaces and be transmitted to another host. If they couldn't why do stuffed animals have to be bagged, why do we boil combs, why do kids get lice from hats?

And they most certainly crawl, I have a very memorable experience of taking a street person's BP and watching the lice crawl up the tubing from the cuff. Those silly lice no one told them they couldn't crawl!

1. This is how I combed through my daughters almost waist length hair in 1 hour. -(First of all I understand that all hair is different, and my daughter does have straight hair, and it may be longer in someone elses case)
After having been treated, I did not comb through right then , because after the treatment, the comb does not pass through easily at all. I rewashed her hair with regular shampoo and a very heavy conditioner. After towel drying, I put all of her hair in a pony tail except the about an inch at the base of the scalp (nape of neck) I passed the comb through all parts and after each pass washed whatever came out down the sink. (I left the water running and put a TV near the sink so my DD would not mind it as much) after the comb was coming out clear at that section, I let out another inch and did the same, untill her her head was done. with conditioner in the hair, the comb went through rather easily.

2. Headlice.org is where I get my info.

3. Body lice are different then head lice and they do crawl.