Sharing Our Experiences

They are one of childhoods greatest annoyances but unfortunately something that will happen to our children regardless of how clean you scrub them!! All 11 of my children have had headlice at some stage of their lives, however, there is a headlice treatment that you can use without the need for chemicals.

Surrounded by many myths headlice are a condition that can be easily treated, without the need for expensive chemical preparations or electrical combs. I’ll also provide you with some tips for keeping your childs hair nit free where the only real cost is your time.

Myths about headlice:

Headlice are not caused by lack of hygiene

• Infact Headlice prefer a clean scalp to lay their eggs, but that still does not guarantee your child will not get Headlice

Headlice cannot swing from one persons head to another

• Infestation occurs when Headlice crawl into another persons head.  Headlice have no wings and cannot fly, and also have no hind legs to give them the ability to jump.

Headlice have no prejudice for ethnicity, age, gender or level of income

• Regardless of any of the above your child is still prone to catching Headlice.  It is lack of the correct information or education that allows the spread of Headlice.

Headlice cannot be caught through swimming

• Headlice go into a state of animation when swimming and cling to the hair during any activity that involves the hair.  Headlice can be caught from using the towel of another infested child, but they cannot be transmitted through the swimming pool water.

What do Headlice and their eggs look like?

Headlice are usually brown, black or clear.  Their eggs are usually a yellowish colour.

Now that we’ve covered the very basics of Headlice, lets get down to the nitty gritty of getting rid of them and ensuring a less likelihood of reinfestation!!

What you will need:

• Shampoo
• Conditioner
• Long toothed steel comb
• white cloth nappy, pillow case or similar
• Hair brush
• 4 hair ties if your child has long hair

Once you have all your bits n pieces together you will need to follow the next steps to not only check your child’s hair for Headlice or Nits but also to rid your child’s hair of these blood sucking nasties:

1. Wash your child’s hair thoroughly with Shampoo.  Rinse and apply conditioner.  Do not rinse out the conditioner.
2. Wrap your childs hair up with a towel and get them out of the shower.
3. Put the cloth nappy or pillowcase across your childs shoulders and ensure there is enough coverage to drape down their back.
4. Sit your child between your legs, remove the towel and brush out any tugs or knots from their hair
5. If your child has very long hair, section the hair into 4 even parts.  A split down the middle and a split across the middle.  Tie off each section that will not be used and take the first section.
6. Using your steel toothed comb start with the free section of hair and comb through this part, ensuring you comb from the scalp to the very tip of that portion of hair.
7. Ensure that you pay special attention to behind the ears, crown and nape of the neck.
8. If your child has Headlice or Nits/Eggs, these will either fall onto the piece of white cloth or become embedded in the comb.  Check the comb after each combing and remove the headlice and nits/eggs from the comb by using the white cloth.
9. For any headlice that are found, clip these between your thumb nails to kill them and ensure they do not crawl back into the hair or fall on the surrounding area that you are using.
10. Once you have completed each section of hair, brush the hair as one and go through the hair one more time with the Steel toothed comb.
11. Wrap up the used cloth and place in a tied bag and place in a safe area for 2 weeks or wash in very hot water and dry in the sun.
12. Take the brush and steel toothed comb, remove any hair and place items into a container and fill with boiled water to sterilise.
13. Change the sheets, bedding and pillow cases on your childs bed to ensure no further infestation

There you have it!  13 easy steps for headlice treatment without the need for expensive preparations.

To ensure that reinfestation does not occur, I do the following EVERY DAY for the next 10 days.  If you child showers in the morning, complete the above steps 1-12 but wash out the conditioner.  In the evening, probably before bedtime, brush the dry hair to remove any tugs or knots and comb the hair with the steel toothed comb.  The dry combing will help to rid the hair of any Nits/Eggs.  If your child showers at night, then the reverse will be done.  Remember to comb your childs hair wet one time and dry the next.

You will start to notice that your child has no headlice or eggs, but it is important to finish off the 10 day process.  Just one live egg or one live louse can reinfect the child.

To maintain clean hair, if you ensure you comb your child’s hair with the steel toothed comb every 3 days, you can reduce the chance of your child’s hair being reinfested.

The process may seem tedious and time consuming but if you take it from the perspective that your child will shower daily and need to have their hair brushed anyway, then it may not seem so difficult.

It is a great practice to teach your child to brush their hair twice or more a day and to get into a routine of using a steel tooth comb themselves.  The more the hair is combed the better it is for your child in avoiding reinfestations.  On a positive note, their hair will be silky, shiny and healthy!

I hope this helps you with headlice treatment of your children.  It sure has helped our large family to stay headlice free, especially when the chance is that if one gets them, everyone will get them!!

As part of our appearance on TVNZ’s Tagata Pasefika this week, I’ve decided to go with a smoking theme for both our Weekly Feature and the Too Hard To Discuss section.

Fast Tube by Casper

I’m sure this question is asked by many a parent who is faced with this problem – “I have a smoking teenager, what should I do?”

Let common sense prevail, “Quick, grab a bucket of water and put them out!” Okay, okay, not the best of jokes, but lets inject some humour into this before we get carried away with the seriousness of this topic.

As there is with all issues that come with teenagers, there are some things you may attempt to instil at a young age, and then there are others that happen regardless of how much you have tried to instil at a younger age.

In most instances the first step toward avoiding or correcting a problem is knowledge.

Talk to your child about the effects of smoking before this happens. By doing this, will enable them to make better decisions when the eventual peer-pressure-driven time comes. If you are able to teach your child some simple techniques or role plays so that when they are approached by their peers, or by other family members that smoke or by anyone else, to smoke, they will be prepared.

And they will have a response that will enable them to cope with these situations. This may in turn, enable them to cope with other situations where they feel socially pressured to do what is perceived as normal amongst their peers.

A coping mechanism if you will.

So lets start at the beginning and identify some of the reasons that this question would even be one that you are asking.

Statistics show that one, some, or all of the following may contribute to the reason your child may smoke.

Keep in mind, that statistics usually indicate what has generally been found, but there are always exceptions to the rule:

1. The child may be from a low income background.
2. They may have a group of friends or siblings who accept, use and encourage smoking.
3. Their Parents are smokers or smoked during a part of that childs life.
4. The child is easily able to access or buy cigarettes.
5. They may have no social support from or involvement with their parents.
6. The child may have low or no self-esteem or low self-image.

There you have it, a bit of a background on the “I have a smoking teenager” side of things and why your teenager may be smoking, but now to the second part of your question …

“What should I do?”

Let me tell you a little story about my own experiences with a smoking teenager.

A story involving my 2 eldest sons and only recently, my eldest daughter.

I was somewhat prepared that this would occur, purely because I had smoked while I carried all of them, smoked around them as they were growing up, and continued to smoking until I quit 2 years ago.

Not the best role model for my children, then, and this is one of the biggest reasons why I decided to quit. To be a better role model for my children.

As a smoker I had tried to discourage my children from smoking by telling them, “Only stupid people smoke”.

That was a little hard for them to comprehend, especially since the Mum they love so much and look up to, was telling them this. Fag in hand, puffing away, without a worry in the world.

I guess it was incredibly hard for them, considering they had grown up around it. And as much as I tried to educate them on the reasons why they should not smoke, it still came down to the basic … My Mum is smoking so it must be alright.

(either that OR they’re thinking, “My Mum is stupid, and so am I”) hahaha

Over the years I would ask them if they had experimented with cigarettes or if they were even thinking about experimenting. And what if anything made them curious about the smoking. I was very concious of the fact that because I was a smoker, my children had a big chance of being smokers themselves. But I secretly hoped that the day would never come that they would ever say to me, that they had tried the dreaded and highly addictive drug.

But that day came soon enough, for my eldest boy when he was around 12 years old. He was caught with a group of other boys smoking. And at the time they werent sure if he was smoking but for sure he was tainted by association. But he told me that he had been smoking.

I then gave him the big talk on the evils of smoking, the terrible things the nicotine does to ones health, breath, teeth, the talk, the whole talk and nothing but the talk. And it appeared that he was on his path to smokefree heaven and had been put off.

Wrong!

After spending a bit of time as a social smoker, it looks like my eldest son is a full blown smoker.

What should I do?

As I have always done, and as I still do … I go over the information I have provided beforehand and hope that he will eventually return to the non smoker that he was born as.

Or at least once he was expelled from my womb.

In most cases I give my children rewards or consequences for their actions.

However, due to the addictive nature of smoking it is hard to say, “If you dont stop smoking, you’ll be grounded”. I’ve tried and it just makes the smoking that much more precious so that the child becomes deceitful and starts to lie about their behaviour.

Another lesson learnt for me, so I do what seems best … just keep communicating.

Remember to let them know your disappointment in their decision to smoke and why.

But at this stage, its good to switch tactics. For, Ive found that going over the psychology of smoking works so much more better for my teenagers than bleating on about the evils of smoking as I did when they were tweens and younger.

At this stage of my teens lives, I tell them my “smoke” story. I enjoy educating them on what I found caused me to smoke, why I gave up, how they can give up and the overall effects of the addictive nicotine on their thinking and lifestyle.

My daughter was upfront and honest in one of our discussions, I knew she had been having the occassional puff with cousins and friends but it shortly turned into full blown smoking. I initially tried to pretend like it wasn’t happening, but that didnt last long.

I prefer to live in the real world instead of the fantasy world where I am a perfect Mother with 11 perfect children.

Oh hang on, I think I am! *giggles*

After much discussion, my daughter and I came to a few agreements in terms of her smoking. We decided that out of respect for her Grandparents, Aunties and Uncles, myself and Ieremia she would not smoke in the presence of any of us. We also decided that she would not smoke in front of her younger siblings, as smoking is behaviour we discourage.

You may say or think that my strategy is akin to a “if you can’t beat em, join em” mentality, but I like to think that it’s closer to a strategy of “if you can’t beat ‘em, educate them”, for you can’t beat this out of them, you can hope to contain it.

As for my 2nd eldest son he has experimented in his early teens, as his older brother and younger sister did, as a social smoker, but to date, it appears to have given up on becoming a full blown smoker.

And this is a great thing!

In finishing I want to impress a few things:

• Dont make smoking something that your teenager will find precious by forbidding it. Your teenager will only want to smoke more.
• Both my parents were non-smokers but 3 out of 4 of my siblings, including me, all smoked
• Educate your teenager on the effects of smoking, highlight family, friends and loved ones that have died as a result of smoking related illnesses so that the causes and effect of smoking, become more realistic to them. As well as discuss current smokers in their lives and the negative aspects of smoking on that person, ie: bad breathe, yellow teeth, yellow fingers, bad smelling, easily irritable.
• Set a plan for your teen to quit, discuss the plan often so that when they are ready to kick the habit, you can swing it straight into action
• Celebrate their achievements in kicking the habit no matter how small, it’s a step closer to them returning to their smokefree selves. Remember, that the average smoker that has quit, has repeatedly tried to stop smoking, on average 14 times, before they eventually quit. So celebrate this.

Click here to get more support in educating your teenager.