It’s been a few years, but it was something like $25 for checking and then $100/hr for treatment. A little more for travel expenses if you don’t go their salon.
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Oh that’s very reasonable
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Our friends whose kid has long luscious curly back-length hair did this (they found it helpful, especially with the massive amounts of hair). After 2 visits the pro said she had basically taught them everything and didn’t need to go back.
For my kids with short hair, we self-treated them (and me, long hair but I follow instructions lol) at home. Just don’t forget the follow-up in 10 days in case of any hatched nits, as it may get passed around and around the daycare.
The pro tips included getting a better lice comb, like this. The ones included in the Nix box have gaps that are too big. https://fairytaleshaircare.com/products/lice-good-bye-treatment-kit
Also, TIL you can either poison lice or smother them (dimethicone oil). We mostly the smother options (Nix makes these too, or Fairy Tales) since they’re a little less toxic but when they were first sent home I just used whatever I could grab off the shelf!
Uh… why yes, our daycare did have repeated lice outbreaks this summer.
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Toddler eats fruit, corn on the cob, smoked salmon, cheese, yogurt, pistachios, or 4 meals: scrambled eggs with barbecue sauce, waffles with maple syrup, Annie’s mac and cheese, and pasta with veggie bolognese. Now that he’s decided pouches are Beneath Him ™, he’s eating a lot less veg.
Can’t quite decide if it’s normal toddler nonsense or worth faffing about with some palate-expanding techniques. I could be more consistent with mix-ins like microgreens powder in pasta sauce & smoothies or flax seeds in waffles. Any good tips or experiences from parents of preschoolers or older who have been through the expand/contract cycle of picky eating?
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In no particular order (and with varying degrees of success):
-buffet/tray of various veg with several dips of choice (honey, yogurt, chocolate, fluff), set on the table with low/no pressure
-playdates with kids who eat good stuff, their mom packs the lunch
-kid choosing a new/weird anything from the produce section to try
-cooking together/speaking loudly about how daddy has to try it because kid made it, he doesn’t have to like it, just try.
-praise any interaction with new item, even just a touch/squeeze/lick/smell
-limit/refuse to do any coercion/bargaining/begging/cajoling
-talks about where food comes from (garden), maybe plant something then have a fully grown one there to discuss how the seed can become that.
-wait it out
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Keep offering and hope for the best! If it drops from there, try asking a professional. I wouldn’t worry about veggies with pasta sauce/fruit/ corn on the cob.
We lost a few meals due to add ins, so I’d be cautious there.
A weird hit with my pickier kid is blended soups. I think because the texture is always consistent?
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Our produce section has little spinny things like what postcards get displayed on, but instead of postcards they have cards with different produce items and a recipe, including a picture of the final product. I let Kiddo pick out a few cards this summer and it helped pave the way for him helping in the kitchen and introducing a few new meals to our usuals. Most of the cards were things we eat already but I think one was new/uncommon.
I walk past them all the time so they became kind of invisible to me, Kiddo was the one who pointed them out so I thought I’d mention it in case your store might have something similar but it has also become “invisible”.
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My picky oldest will eat a lot of things while cooking that she won’t eat at the table. I have her chop cucumber, bell peppers, stuff like that and ignore her utterly as she sneaks bites. No idea why it works, but it sometimes does. She’ll also sometimes eat carrots and peas when I send them in her lunchbox to school, but not at home.
Sadly the biggest thing I’ve found with her is I can’t do any processed alternatives 
when I was doing breaded air fryer chicken she dropped all raw chicken preps (whole chicken, crispy wings etc) that she’d previously liked. I dropped the AF chicken and she started eating her normal chicken options again after a few times. So I guess my advice on that is like, keep an eye on what triggers them to drop a food. 
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Thank you all for the great tips @meerkat @ElleP @Bracken_Joy @Lithe! Helping with chopping and showing off to daddy/sibling are probably the two that fit well in our current routines, so we’ll start there and hopefully layer on some others.
There are several add-ins they like, so it’s more about remembering them than making food too weird. I got scolded for ruining mac and cheese with too much pumpkin puree so we don’t do that anymore.
In other news, Jo Witek’s In My Heart is a book about feelings, a great read last night with my older kid who’s been impressively patient and non-reactive with a younger brother who keeps snatching his toys. “I’m sad and a little mad, but still happy because I get to snuggle with you.”
I’m very ready for Drunk Roommate to outgrow his smash-and-grab phase. We’re using positive gossip, physical boundaries, etc. In hindsight I guess we had a success this morning because I stopped him before he had a meltdown or actually hit his brother. He just kept saying “I want to hit” and I would give him alternatives, and eventually he moved on. But it’s constant attention 
.
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Ooof may the smash-and-grab be done soon o.O That’s rough.
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I’m struggling right now with my toddler too. Her “safe” foods are: cheerios (obviously the sweet kind), homemade Uncrustables, pretzels dipped in peanut butter and Nutella, and very expensive drinkable yogurt. And of course anything that’s packaged as a fruit snack/gummy situation. She asks for Mac&cheese all the time, but almost never touches it.
As I type this I realize maybe I could encourage something besides a pretzel with her preferred dips.
The hardest thing for me is that by the time dinner rolls around, we’ve already eaten all of her preferred foods that day, and she’s not interested in anything else. The yogurt alone is bankrupting me!
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We are starting to put together our holiday gift list for family!
We are thinking about getting a sensory swing- for those of you that have one - how do you use it and do you have recommendations for which on you like?
We also are going to choose the yoto mini instead of the tonie box.
@noodle what’s the website you use that has gift ideas by age?
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We like the double walled swing- denser, squeezier, more durable. When Latte was little I’d encourage her to go play in it when she was having a rough day to get that deep input.
She doesn’t particularly crave rotational input, but that’s definitely how some kids like to use it, lots of spinning. . Now with Luna, it gets a lot of love as a place for peekaboo. They also like to play human bowling with it, where they set up nugget triangles, and swing each other into them in the sensory swing to knock things over. 
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Our exact one isn’t available anymore, because we got it like five years ago, but it looks similar to this- Amazon.com
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Busy Toddler!
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This is the annual reminder for all Colorado parents that the CollegeInvest 529 Matching Grant program application is open until the end of December. If your AGI for 2025 is within the income guidelines below, they’ll match up to $500 of contributions/kid.
With an additional plug for the First Step Program that I didn’t know existed (because my kids were both born before 2020):
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We’ve just taken down our swing (permanently). As well as the nice sensory experience it was used for heavy swinging and spinning and just isn’t safe anymore. I’m going to bring the hammock inside instead for cozy rest.
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We have an egg chair suspended from the basement rafters - would this be something that you could suspend in the living room? much smaller swing radii
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I’m considering an egg chair on a stand - but the hammock and stand already exist so unless I see one used I’ll delay the egg chair.
We also have 10yo and 12yo ND nephews who were swinging HARD and would try it with the egg swing so I think we’ll go freestanding except the rope ladder. And my kids can swing on that but the bigger kids don’t
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Has anyone been in a massive rut with parenting mindset and round resources to help you out? My self care is good- exercise, nutrition, sleep all on point. My social exposure is decent but could be better, but isn’t an easy target for further improvement right now. I don’t think I’m depressed- I enjoy non kid things like gardening, learning things, can make myself do stuff as well as I ever do. I just… don’t laugh much, don’t feel much awe, always have my hackles raised esp around my oldest. I want to be in less of a “what the fuck do you want now” type mindset, speak more kindly, ENJOY things more, you know?
Anyway, things that have helped (meditations? Books? ?) would be appreciated. Therapy isn’t in the cards owing to my lack of predictable schedule and inability to schedule anything where I’m alone. (Although actually, that’ll be under consideration- trying to get a babysitter lined up, maybe I should get weekly sitter coverage so I can go to therapy lol. But that’s a whole other kettle of fish- my last several attempts were poor fits and now I just am not motivated to try really)
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