Surprise Trip to WDW - Brought Home another Surprise LICE!!!!

[pam_66]

We recently surprised our daughters (6 & 7) with our first (first family trip ever) Magical Vacation to Walt Disney World! We had an awesome time! We celebrated my daughter's 7th birthday. We were in WDW for 9 days, and went on all the rides and some even 3 - 4 times (love the fast pass option) and loved every minute of it! Loved our value resort hotel everything!

However....Never in my life, or since my girls have been in school have I ever seen or had a lice problem. When we checked in to our hotel, we checked for bed bugs, but never thought about lice....go figure!

AND not in my wildest dreams would I have thought we would bring home LICE! YUCK! But when you think about it....WDW must be the lice capital of the world! All those people walking around, laying their heads on the airplanes, busses that have the comfy cloth seats, rides where thousands of kids put their heads, trying on those mickey mouse ears and hats, and there ya have it LICE CAPITAL OF THE WORLD! I don't know if we got it at our Disney Hotel or I would guess most likely the rides, airplane, or magic express busses. Think of all the heads that touch all those areas....YUCK!

I have spent the last three days doing everything imagineable to make sure these buggars are gone. The worst of it was day one.

I have read some great remedies and they have been working wonders! If you need any advice from a mom who was freaking out in walmart when I found the lice, and crying to the pharmacist on what to do....send me an e-mail I tell you how we got rid of them in 3 days! My oldest daughter had it the worst! I was so upset thinking how in the heck did I not seen these! But, I have come to realize, it happens to a lot of people so I was not alone....

 

[Dwarful]

Where did you stay? We are leaving in a few hours, have made numerous trips and never had a problem.

 

[memster]

You poor thing...how awful that must of been Now I'm going to be on full alert on my next trip. :lookaroun

 

[mouselvrmom]

Oh,nothing makes me feel more itchy than the thought of lice! I'm sorry that you had to go through that.

My 9 year old had a friend at her sleepover birthday party that we found out later had lice. They were doing hair, dressing up etc. And somehow miraculously no one got it. We quarantined off the basement and didn't go back down there for over a week. :lol:

 

[pam_66]

Where did you stay? We are leaving in a few hours, have made numerous trips and never had a problem.

We stayed at the Pop Century Resort, but I can't blame it on the resort...as it could of been ANYWHERE, airplane, busses, rides, etc. I read that the number one place to contract lice is amusement parks, carnivals, and movie theatres. So, it could of been anywhere, but next trip we will definately take precautions!

 

[kangaand2roos]

Oh that must be a nightmare!! To be honest the thought has crossed my mind before. My kids love to try on the silly hats Disney has and have their pictures taken and being the germaphobe I am I cringe for that very reason!! Now I think we will skip trying the hats on. Good Luck!

 

[LoriMistress]

Sorry to hear about your kids catching lice. That's the first time I've ever read about someone catching lice. It could have been several places whether if it was at WDW or not. Maybe one of your kids were playing with someone that had it.

 

[Raven66]

Unfortunately, I've had to deal with this when my daughter was little. She got it when she was in kindergarten. I would get rid of them and then some parent would send their kid again with them and she would come home again with them. It happened 3 times. My daughter had long hair with ringlets. I finally had to cut her hair off and I cried and cried. Anyway, I found a spray at walmart that repells lice. This was quite a few years ago so I hope they still have it. Maybe you can buy a can and spray each day before you leave for the parks. And I finally stop using the lice shampoo and read a more natural way to get rid of them. Cover their heads in conditioner and then comb their hair out. The conditioner stops the little buggers from running around and hiding. The reg lice shampoo was taking a toll on her scalp and the lice were becoming used to it.

BTW......we have stayed at POP and thankfully no problems.

 

[Susan Savia]

Perhaps she got it (school?) before you all left for your vacation??

 

[drossjr]

did you guys try on hats in the gift shops? I can't stand how they let people try on any and every hat for this exact reason,. I know they make great photo ops but still!!!!

I try not to buy hats at Disney for the fear of this happening

Sorry it happened to you guys! :wave:

 

[minnie2000]

Exactly the same thing happened to us a few years ago. We stayed at the Polynesian, and after we got home, my younger daughter had huge lice in her hair.

I don't think it was from the beds at the Poly, because none of us had them. It could have been the plane ride back, or bus. Also, when we checked out, my daughters sat at the kids corner and coloured. They were talking to some other little girls there, and all their heads were close. I think that must be where they came from.

I didn't want to use the strong chemical treatments unless I really had to, so I bought a 'nitty gritty comb' and used that with plenty of conditioner. I found it really good, as my daughter has long wavy hair, and the little nit combs don't go through her hair.

 

[happymom52003]

Sorry to hear about that! I can only imagine what a nightmare it is.

I'm not sure though why some are doubting that your kids could have picked the lice up at WDW. Even though it is not something we hear about often, I am sure it happens on occasion. I can easily see MANY scenarios where it could happen. Anytime you have places where lots of kids heads are touching things, you have the possibility for it. I've heard of people getting lice from leaning their heads back on movie theater seats and bus seats....so why does getting it at WDW seem so far fetched?:veryconfu

 

[pam_66]

Sorry to hear about that! I can only imagine what a nightmare it is.

I'm not sure though why some are doubting that your kids could have picked the lice up at WDW. Even though it is not something we hear about often, I am sure it happens on occasion. I can easily see MANY scenarios where it could happen. Anytime you have places where lots of kids heads are touching things, you have the possibility for it. I've heard of people getting lice from leaning their heads back on movie theater seats and bus seats....so why does getting it at WDW seem so far fetched?:veryconfu

Exactly as Disney is where so many people gather it is definitely where we got it, or the plane or busses. We were in Disney for 9 days and I have become a lice expert on their stages, and such. Even the doctor said the stage of her lice was definitely contracted while we were in Disney. There are so many places she could of gotten it. We used the Rid Treatment and are following it up daily with home remedies that I have found on the internet. So far, no live buggars since Day one! I am definitely NOT blaming Disney, but the people that are walking around with lice on their heads! UGH!

 

[Dwarful]

Oh that must be a nightmare!! To be honest the thought has crossed my mind before. My kids love to try on the silly hats Disney has and have their pictures taken and being the germaphobe I am I cringe for that very reason!! Now I think we will skip trying the hats on. Good Luck!

We just got back from our trip. We saw numerous big tour groups doing tons of photos with the hats...needless to say no one in our group tried on any hats...my niece did buy a hat but I asked the CM if there were any in the back and she went and brought one out for us. She said only a few people ever ask her to do that and she was surprised more people didn't. I wouldn't have thought of it, except for this thread right before we left.

 

[powlessfamily4]

Unfortunately lice is out there and with as many people that travel to Disney from all parts of the world, it is bound to be brought into the parks. Given that, there are a few things you can do "out of the norm" to help discourage the little critters from nesting in your childrens hair. After my sister endured a particulary stubborn bought of head lice with her two young daughters (they wonderfully thick heads of gorgeous blonde hair) she consulted a doctor to find out if there were any prevention products on the market. He informed her that there was not, however told her that lice LOVE clean chemical free hair and usually do not nest in hair with chemical products. On his advice she would rub a small amount of mousse into her daughters hair after each shampoo. It did not ruin or destroy thier hair and never had a bought of it again. She passed the info along to me and both of my children escaped thier childhood lice free. My daugter attended a slumber party in 3rd grade with 4 other girls who all ended up sharing lice and she was not infected. I know some people will say it doesn't work.... but it worked for us.

 

[greebomusic]

It takes 7-10 days for a nit to hatch, and another 7-10 days for the female to mature and begin laying her own eggs. Nits must be laid by live lice.

 

[draybook]

I got lice from an old girlfriend. My mom(I was 17) went through my hair three times with Ridx or something like that and it didn't work. So, in a fit of rage, I shaved my head, and my hair was past my shoulder. I was po'd but it got rid of them.

 

[ScorpionX]

Lice should be driven to extinction.

 

[Tomi-Rocket]

It never occured to me about getting lice anywhere other than at school or sleeping over someone's house who has it. Oh man, now I can add lice along with bed bugs to worry about on our trip next year. My younger son, then 9, had it and I didn't realize it until I was washing his hair myself and saw something crawling. Ugh. It still makes me sick to my stomach. Well, at first I thought none of us had gatten them until I was checking my older son's hair on the second day and dang it! there was one. They had an extremely stubborn case. I tried two different rememdies that didn't work at all so I finally called the doctor who called in a prescription. $140 dollars for 4 bottles later and that what's what finally worked. I was so itchy and paranoid, I was scared of getting it because while we got their long hair (for boys) chopped off I wasn't wanting to cut my long hair at all! Thankfully I didn't have them, nor did their dad get them. Nasty, nasty little buggers and I loathe lice and hope and pray neither of my kids ever get them again. (Although we still have some of the treatment left, thankfully if they do.) :hurl:

 

[rustysgirl]

when i was little i had lice, my mom was told that mayonnaise worked, so i remember her putting mayonnaise in my hair, put a shower cap over it and i slept overnight with it in my hair. meanwhile she disinfected the house and everything. anyways my point is that mayo worked