A total pest! James Van Der Beek shared that his family of eight is currently battling against a lice infestation.
“It’s all fun & games until someone gets head lice 🥴,” the Dawson’s Creek alum, 46, wrote via Instagram alongside a photo of his six children, whom he shares with wife Kimberly Van Der Beek, outside in their yard.
The Don’t Trust the B— in Apartment 23 alum’s post was quickly flooded with suggestions from his 1 million followers on how to handle the itchy situation. One user suggested putting tea tree oil or rosemary oil in the kids’ shampoo to combat the insects. Another recommended that James and Kimberly, 41, disinfect their home and vehicles to avoid a second reinfestation.
The couple, who tied the knot in 2010, are the proud parents of Olivia, 12, Joshua, 11, Annabel, 9, Emilia, 7, Gwendolyn, 4 and Jeremiah, 16 months. One month before the outbreak, the Varsity Blues actor celebrated his 46th birthday with his wife and kids.
“Recently, I’ve found myself happier the more I’m in touch with reverence, and deference to time. Yes, it CAN be stretched. It can fly …” the Dancing With the Stars alum penned in March. “But this planet, this dimension, is governed by time: Trees grow at their pace. The earth spins at a near constant. And the more reverence I can find for all of it, the more life becomes a living prayer of appreciation. For life. For nature. For the great cosmic mystery of which we can sometimes can catch the edges.”
Elsewhere in the lengthy post, the Drew University alum reflected on the importance of staying in the present, concluding his words of wisdom with the statement, “Middle-age rocks.”
The hopeful sentiments came three years after James and Kimberly suffered a pregnancy loss in 2019. The Connecticut native recalled the scary incident during a March appearance on the “Bathroom Chronicles” podcast.
“It was just so much pain, and it was so unexpected because everything was right, everything was [a] fairy-tale. Everything was coming together perfectly,” he said at the time. “It progressed very quickly into being worried about Kim. We were both just crying and sobbing and there was a lot of blood. Way more blood than any delivery.”
Following their devastating loss, the family was blessed with rainbow baby Jeremiah in November 2021.
“Humbled and overjoyed to announce the safe, happy arrival of Jeremiah Van Der Beek ❤️,” the CSI Cyber alum captioned a series of photos of his newborn’s first days at home. “After experiencing late-term #pregnancyloss twice in a row (both at 17+ weeks), we kept this one quiet.”
James concluded the emotional post with a heartfelt message. “Each child brings their own energy, their own manifestation of consciousness, their own lessons. The ones we lost each gifted us with different pieces of the puzzle … leaving us that much more grateful for the ongoing master class we get to enjoy with this sweet, wise little one.
