Lice attack: an update

I just wanted to do a little update on the lice situation at home. I am beyond happy to report that, after a bit of suffering, we are back being a lice-free home.

Getting rid of these little disgusting creatures took longer than expected and a few lessons were learnt.

Basically, all that about "this product works in about 10 minutes" is crap. As I mentioned on the original lice post, I decided to treat the kids with natural products, like the Puressentiel lotion. As mentioned on the package, I was leaving the lotion for 10 minutes, then rinsing it through and thinking that was it, then becoming desperate when after a couple of days I would spot Bibu scratching his head again.

The lady at our nearby pharmacy told me to leave it on for at least 1 hour and then wash. She also recommended another lotion, which comes in spray form, by Apivita. This one should be left to work as long as possible and then shake the hair a bit (to see any dead bodies) and then comb through. She suggested spraying the kid's hair in the morning before going to school and then doing the shaking/ combing in the afternoon. It also has a "post-treatment" shampoo which I am currently using all the time with the kids, replacing their normal shampoo, at least during school term.

Also, another learning is that it is more than advisable to repeat the treatment at least once every week for about 3 or 4 weeks. So for us, Sunday evening was "lice-killing time" for a few weeks.

In the end, the lice were eradicated.....until next time. At least I now know what to expect.

Organic box delivered on a bike

For a while, while driving through Brussels wih Mr M and the kids, we often spotted a guy riding a cool delivery bicycle with organic fruit and vegetables. We could make out the website, so we noted it down and we decided to give it a try.

The company is called L'Hereaux Nouveau and it offers a weekly delivery service for organic/ bio fruit and vegetables straight from the farmers. They have a shop in Saint Gilles but you can order your delivery through their website (only available in French, I am afraid) in a fairly straightforward manner. Every week, deliveries are made on Fridays, so orders can be placed until Wednesday afternoon. You can view the composition of the organic box (or "panier") and choose between Belgian-only produce or European-wide produce and go for a small, medium or large box. For a few extra euros, you can ask for the box to be delivered straight to your home address, or choose one of the delivery points in St Gilles, Forest, Ixelles, Etterbeek, Uccle, Brussels centre and St Josse.

Last week, we went for a medium, European box, which weighted about 7 kilos.

The produce is delivered in a paper bag and it contains a description of the contents and also a leaflet with some recipe ideas. When you register in the service, you also receive a weekly newsletter with more recipes info about their producers, and a whole array of events they are involved in.

I think organic box delivery services are a great way of encouraging eating seasonal, organic produce that is healthier than the average supermarket variety. It also makes you discover less popular fruit and vegetables. and kinds of forces you into planning your weekly menus around the contents of the bag, making sure nothing goes to waste. It definitely pushes you a bit out of your comfort, tried-and-tested zone, but it is definitely worth it.

Lice attack!

Well, I think it was a question of time, and the time came for lice to attack.

Along with the rentrée came the notes from school saying that there were lice found in kids in the class of Bibu. It's quite common and every few weeks we get these notes, but it has never meant much for us, other than spraying Bibu's hair with a "lice-repelent".

That was up to now. Last weekend I asked Mr M to check my hair, as it was feeling a bit itchy. Lo and behold, he found a lice in my hair! Despair! Being long haired (for Belgian standards, at least) and I suspect, having the blood type that attracts all kinds of insect bites, I knew I was an easy target and that probably the lice came from my oldest son.

Sure enough, both kids had them. It was a question of getting the anti-lice lotion working ASAP and combing through (lots of fun). Since I am always on the look for more natural, less chemical laden stuff, I came accross this anti-lice lotion (sold in pharmacies and in places like de IU)

It's an oliy lotion, made of plants extracts, which supposedly blocks the lice airways so they can't breathe anymore and die (nice) You have to put enough lotion on the hair so that it's all oily, give it a good massage and then leave it on for 10 minutes. Then rinse it a bit, slather on your normal shampoo, wash as usual and spend extra time rinsing it, as otherwise the hair will still look oily afterwards. Towel-dry the hair and then spend some time combing with the special little comb provided to extract any surviving little beasts.

It's recommended that you do a second application a few days later, just to be sure. We used it on both kids and so far they seem lice-free. It's supposedly only for kids older than 3 years old, but I used it also on Pingu and it was all OK. I would still recommend you check with your doctor or pharmacist first, as it's an essential oils-based product and it can provoke allergy.

So, this was our first foray into the land of Belgian lice (haha). I know it's extremely common when you have school-age kids, but still, not nice AT ALL. I think I would still do a preventive treatment maybe once every two weeks or so while the lice season lasts.

Tried and tested: cute labels for your kid's stuff

Baby Pingu recently started going to daycare, in view to my imminent return to the office world. At Belgium's childcare centres, they typically provide the nappies and meals and you need to foresee to provide the formula, bottles, extra sets of clothes, pacifiers, creams for nappy rash, etc, all dutifully labelled with your bundle of joy's name.

In the past, I've resorted to just writing into the labels of the garment in question and sticking a regular paper label onto the bottles. Regardless to say, the process needs to be repeated rather often, as the labels peel off after a couple of washes and the "permanent" markers are not so permanent after all.

I was therefore looking for a more lasting solution. I had seen nice plastic labels, some with cute designs, on the clothes and items of Bibu's friends, but never found out a place to it. That is until a few weeks ago, when one of my friends showed me her kid's labels from Lovely Labels and told me it was super easy to order them online.

Source: homepage Lovelylabels

I went to their website and ordered the "paquet combiné", which consists of a combo of labels for textile, two different sizes of plastic labels and a luggage tag for your kid's school bag for about 20 EUR. You can choose the font, colour and a variety of cute designs (you can also choose not to have any design) and pick one of a several designs for the luggage tag. I ordered the textile labels and the big plastic labels for Bibu and the small labels for baby Pingu, which are more handy for example to stick to his pacifier (just about the perfect size). They also make custom ID bracelets -which can come in handy on holidays-, and round and special shape labels.

I made the order on a Sunday evening and by Tuesday morning the pack had arrived. The items arrived as I had ordered them, so no nasty surprises. So far I have used the plastic labels on a number of items but still have not tested the textile ones, although they look very pretty too.

I'll definitely re-order!