Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Three things.

The Cherub's health scare last week was actually the Middle One of the proverbial Three Things. The first one - and this is its technical name I believe - was Stinky Ear. He'd just had a lovely bubble bath and I was sniffing him as he sat in my lap (as you do), when the floral aromas were completely disrupted by a truly terrible pong which fair assailed my nostrils. From his ear. Blah. Just disgusting. So we gave it a good clean out and it appears to have sorted itself out. Then we had our mad rush to the Childrens' Hospital which cost me between $100 - $200 in lost revenue. And now he's got his first ever case of nits. Bless. Actually I thought he had a nit plague of biblical proportions, but with the aid of a magnifying glass I have decided that 90% of the million eggs we found were just flakes of skin, probably a little patch of leftover cradle cap. So he did have nits, but just a normal amount, which we caught and treated promptly. A friend directed me to this link which promotes marinating the little parasites in orange juice before combing them out with conditioner so we tried it just for novelty. Thus:

Orange Juice Hair_8415

Fixit tells me there was a dead nit on Cherub's back when he got in the bath which suggests it did work and the rotten buggers jumped ship.

16 comments:

  1. Does this mean you'll be shearing the little lamb? Or will he continue to be a long-haired boy? I WANT one of those shirts for the Bean, but do they come in Men's large? and Tall to boot? If any of those creatures show up here though, it'll be a moot point as I'll pop a little something in his tea/beer, then shave his head while he snoozes!

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  2. I have the best headbug comb EVER! Teeth about 10cm long and coil-shaped so the bugs AND the eggs have no chance but to just come out with the conditioner. I love it. What I love even more is thatwe haven't had to use it for maaaany months ;-)

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  3. And, if you don't already know, a remedy from your neck of the woods - Tea tree shampoo... they jump right out and die.
    Bleck. We've been dealing with it too.

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  4. The boys look happy, were they allowed to drink the rest of the juice?

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  5. We've never had nits here. I put it down to the fact that when the kids were primary aged I used to clipper their heads, so there wasn't any long hair intermingling with other kids' hair.

    My friends with girls were constantly battling this problem

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  6. Seeing as I can't even bear to cut his hair in *proper* boy style I think the chances of me clippering him are slim, somehow....

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  7. Glad to see the boys found the whole thing highly amusing. I can't imagine that you shared the same expression when you found the first little bug(ger).

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  8. One day at childcare I was apologising that Grace's hair was rarely (as in almost never) washed and they said that nits don't like dirty hair! Which surprised me, and I don't really believe, but I suppose school will be the test of that. Actually, I don't like dirty hair either, she's just had her hair washed (by nana while I was away) and it is so nice.

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  9. Nits give me the Sh*ts. We've only had one case for each child and that is more than enough for a lifetime I can tell you. Especially when one child has long thick hair.

    I hope you've managed to get rid of them for good. Quite a few of the parents up here get recurring bouts.

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  10. Oh lord I can't stand nits. Touch wood it has been a while since the kids have had them but I get OBSESSED by the itch in my own head when they get them.

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  11. Nits - the bane of every primary school...the good news is they love clean hair best - so he is obviously clean !

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  12. My head itches now.

    Luckily, we have never had them (please, please let that continue) at our place. Never had them as kids either. I wonder if it's a humidity thing? I have known a handful of people who have had them... but not that many.

    When I did my student teaching, we had to do a nit-check on all the children. We had one child in our grade who had them and my own head itched for days after the check. I was CONVINCED I had an infestation and made Rob check my hair every day.

    Thank God you aren't cutting that gorgeous hair.

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  13. I have a regular Sunday night date with the conditioner and comb. Son#3 gets them ALL the time, because he's a) clean and b) cuddly and gorgeous.

    Now my head is itchy too.

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  14. Yikes. Stink ear and the nits in the same week! Is there no mercy?

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  15. The Ratbag's still got left over cradle-cap, and he's 4, which I was a bit worried about, but seeing as my child isn't the only one, I'll put away the wrist-slitting for now. BLARGGGHHH the stinky ear!

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  16. I wonder if Melinda has a point ?
    Neither my sister or I had nits, and AFAIK, no-one else at school either ( but there was that rumour about Lynda Ryan that I obvs still remember... )

    I remember the nit CHECKS, with pencils, but no nits. Hope I never see one either, although i'll no doubt clipper if I do.

    * oh, and I just remembered, although no nits, I don't know any other kids that got tics. We used to get tics...

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Don't let the cat get your tongue.