Daughter's (10) best friend has lice

[Capt. Obvious]

I'm not particularly worried about it but my wife is freaking out. She's leaving work early right now to head to drugstore for the lice shampoo, and then home to strip her bed, etc.

I've been reading all about how to deal with it (and now my head feels really itchy.. and so does my skin... ew) but I'm really curious - how easy is it to catch?

They sit next to each other on the bus and at school. Do they need to share brushes/hair ties? Sleep with their heads touching?
Or is it easier than that?

ps: when I googled lice a ton of DU threads were returned so I know this is a popular subject. I don't think I'm going to try mayonnaise in a shower cap though.

[Sedona]

1. Nothing to freak out about

I raised three girls, all with long hair. My ex and I both had long hair too.

Its not big deal, I dealt with it five or six times, maybe more, over a period of almost 30 years of raising my girls. Yeah we spread them out a bit.

Its a one day ordeal of cleaning the nits and bugs out of everyone's hair, cleaning all hair implements and laundering all the bedding and towels in the house with Lysol.

You might want to run the stuffed animals thru a hot dryer just to be sure.

Here's some info....BTW forget the mayonnaise; its bullshit. Use an over the counter stuff called RID with the fine tooth comb works like a charm.

http://children.webmd.com/ss/slideshow-lice-overview

[Capt. Obvious]

2. Thanks for that link

A little more informative than the CDC site.

It looks like I'm going to have a late night doing laundry at the least.