Language and Lice

This post is mostly for my mommy friends.  I have been meaning to write it for a while but have been a slacker when it comes to my blog.  I am here to catch up.  I am writing this post for two reasons.  #1 because I believe you need to be an advocate for your child, no matter what and #2 because it would have been nice to know the odds of my child getting lice were pretty high.

#1.  Advocate- to speak, plead or argue in favor of.  I believe my greatest job is to be an advocate for my children.  God has instilled this amazing thing in mothers called intuition or "gut feeling".  What I want to accomplish from this post is to encourage you to never ignore that especially when your kids are involved.

Morgan was slow to talk from the get go.  I don't think she really started talking until about three.  This was difficult because Mallory quoted spanish from Dora before she was two!  It definitely taught me early that every child is different but I still felt it was something worth looking into.  So I had Morgan tested for speech.  As a taxpaper in the school district you can get free testing through different departments. If they are under a certain age then an agency is sent to do the testing.  I remember the lady coming to the house for Morgan and after a few minutes of testing it was obvious she thought I was crazy for having her come.  Morgan was within what was age appropriate and was fine.  Fast forward a few years later where Morgan was talking a lot more but a lot of other people were still having trouble understanding her.  I noticed she was having issues with articulating certain words.  Intuition was telling me to get her tested again.  Since she was older we would now go through the school disrict for testing. Fall 2010 Morgan was tested again and everything checked out fine she was within what was age appropriate for sounds, etc.  The year went on and Morgan did continue to improve but I again thought she should be making some of the sounds she couldn't and I noticed it seemed the sound was coming from the wrong place in her mouth.  February 2012 I had Morgan tested for the third time.  Now to some I might sound like I was looking for something to be wrong but I wasn't.  I just thought Morgan deserved help if she qualified for it.  She is starting kinder next year and I don't want her to be behind or have a confidence problem due to her speech and my "gut feeling" was still telling me she wasn't where she needed to be.  The day I had scheduled her appointment, Morgan's pre school teacher asked me if I had thought about getting her speech tested.  I took this as not a coincidence but affirmation that I made the right decision to get her tested once again.  So off we went to Conroe, AGAIN, to have her tested.  Morgan did in fact fail the articulation portion of the test.  They agreed she needed further testing to see if she qualified for speech.  We then had to go to our home campus(the school we feed) for comprehensive testing.  They discovered that Morgan does "backing" with some of her sounds.  It means that she generates the sounds of the word from the back of her throat instead of from the front.  She does this with T and D so she makes a K sound for the letter T and a G sound for the letter D.  She also makes a lateral sound where the air comes out the side of her mouth for the S sound.  Finally my concerns were validated and Morgan began speech therapy last week and will for the remainder of the this year and the 2012-2013 school year!

I just wanted to share this story with you in case you are struggling with something in regards to your children.  I always believe better safe than sorry especially when it comes to my greatest gifts.

#2.  Lice-Any of numerous small, flat-bodied, wingless biting or sucking insects of the orders Mallophaga or Anoplura, many of which are external parasites on various animals, including humans. 

When I think of lice I think the following: gross, disgusting, dirty, unhygenic, yuck, only happens to kids that don't bathe.  Well let me tell you that it is most of the above with the exception of who can get it.  Guess what.....anyone can!!!  Our first encounter with lice was last year when Mallory was in kinder.  I noticed her itching her head and I thought it was just from being in a ponytail, etc.  Something(intuition) told me to check her head and what I found was awful....my poor pumpkin had lice.  I didn't know what to do.  Thoughts swirled in my head- where did she get it, how did she get it, how do I get rid of it, etc.  Not to mention we had just spent the weekend with friends and their kids and I had to give what at the time was emabarrassing phone call to the other moms letting them know.  Now one of my friends freaked out(rightfully so) and took her kids to a place that inspected them and taught her a lot about lice.  It was actually great to learn some stuff from her.  I immediately went to Walgreens and bought all sorts of stuff to de lice poor Mallory and the house.  If you know Mallory you will know that she has more hair then most people.  Thank goodness she is such a sweet and patient child because the procces of getting rid of the lice took about 2-3 hours.  Not to mention you have to wash EVERYTHING they have come in contact with, EVERYTHING in hot water.  To be on the safe side I treated Morgan as well.  Later that summer we had a play date with a friend of hers from class.  Somehow we got on the subject of lice and she said that her daughter had it multiple times that year and the mom got it as well......REALLY??  Could the school not have told people that?  Nothing was sent home that anyone in the class had it.  When Mallory got it I immediately contacted her teacher to let her know.  Now I am not saying this is how Mallory got it but the lice like to travel.  If the kids share hats, headphones, during sleepover, etc can all pass the little suckers.

Well fast forward to this year and one of Mallory's BFFs' mom texted me that her daughter had it.  I was so bummed because I figured the odds were good that Mallory would too.  When I first checked she didn't have them- YEAH!!  Then her poor friend got it again and this time when I checked Mallory, sure enough there they were.  Now this time around I was lucky because the lice were in the very beginning stages where the lice are just eggs(last time they were hatched already....ewww). and I was fortunate because the mom was honest and let me know so I could catch it early.  Also I was very lucky because I found out that a nurse in the school district sells lice products that are much better for the children and more effective then what they sell at Walgreens.  Turns out the stuff at Walgreens the lice are pretty much immune to so it doesn't work.  The website the nurse has is http://liceeliminators.com/ and there is so much great information on there.  For instance lice hate the smell of mint and if you have girls wear their hair in ponytails or braids because it is harder for lice to travel, etc.  After Mallory got it a total of 5 kids in her class had it along with two moms(not me thank goodness) and again no information was sent home to let people know.  I am only telling this because I want you to know my kids bathe every day and they still got it.  I have a friend who was a school nurse that said it is extremely prevalent in elementary schools and here in The Woodlands.  I am also writing to tell you to prepare yourself for your child to get it and don't make it a big deal.  It is gross and tedious and time consuming but not the end of the world.  My school nurse friend said a bad case of mono was going around in the school and not one parent phone call yet when lice was going around the phone was ringing off the hook.....she said the reaction can be ridiculous as it is just something that happens.

So hopefully we have two things under control.....language and lice!!!  (fingers crossed)