Headlice!

[Sparklymommy]

Just a moan really. I have four kids and since my eldest started preschool I don't think we have gone a month without the little blighters making an appearance. The trouble is, whilst I can deal with them in my children my own head is a different story and my head is now so painful with sores and open wounds and I just want to cry.

[Elibean]

You poor love! What do you use on your head? You must be scratching to death to have open wounds

[BoBoo]

Assume you've tried a nitty gritty comb? If they keep recurring it might be worth trying using a neem shampoo as your usual shampoo - Faith in Nature do one (I think with propolis?) which doesn't smell nasty like others. Not cheap, but worth it if it helps. Ugh.

[Sparklymommy]

Thanks. I use a nitty gritty comb. The trouble is my own hair is so thick and I literally do not have the time to go through it very often. My husband did have a go yesterday and said he would get some lotion as it really is getting ridiculous. And I am sure it's me re-infecting the kids all the time! Usually we clear them in the holidays only for them to come back from the first day of a new term with them again! It's an endless flipping cycle!

[Jenny70]

I too have long, thick hair and suspect I am the harbourer of our repeated nits outbreaks in my DD (with hair like mine). I treat her and myself with the treatments (we used one stop, but also have hadrin to try next) weekly, and use the nutty gritty comb to the best of my ability.

Would like to chop all my hair off to rid the house of the louse, but paranoid the hairdresser will find nits and not cut it... was thinking of trying the mumsnet haircut on the hols, so I could fix it up if needed - but my sympathies are with you.

[Elibean]

I would drench it in Hedrin (if its long and thick, you may need two bottles - expensive, but think of the payoff!) and repeat a week later.

I don't have thick hair, but wasn't well when the dds had nits first time and discovered that serious Hedrin-ing, with repeats, meant I saved energy and time on combing. And it worked.

Good luck!

[GibberTheMonkey]

I have the same problem
I treat myself regularly using nit teeatment and use neem shampoo.

I also use spot on dog treatment (not recommended )

I then just hope and pray that I don't have them even when I feel itchy treating dd

[Alwayscheerful]

Neem oil, foul smelling, natural but headlice hate it.

[Abbey7819]

Hello,
Which are your methods to get rid nits and headlice? Do you know effective treatments? Please, could you give me some adivces to kill, remove and catch them?

Thanks. Abbey.

[Goldmandra]

The only surefire way to get rid of them is to comb and condition thoroughly and often enough. The lotions and potions you can buy can help, as can mouthwash and vodka, but you only need one to survive and you have a new outbreak which you then discover a few weeks later and blame it on schoolfriends.

Whatever you use you have to comb through thoroughly to get any live lice out and do it again every two to three days for at least two (I do three) weeks so you know that no new hatchlings have been in there long enough to mature and lay new eggs.

You then need to comb and condition once a week to catch new infestations early before they have been passed on to the rest of the family.

[fergoose]

mix neem and tea tree oil with conditioner and just comb with nitty gritty comb. you can also add some of that conditioner to a water spray and use it as a deterrent.

[Snowme]

We lived in the headlice hotspot last summer (there's a map online showing which schools are currently affected) and mine kept getting reinfected, I know now because I just wasn't combing/treating effectively enough to prevent new hatchlings. The village chemist actually offers free lice treatment now, so it must have been bad.

Stickup on lotions where you can, they're currently £12-15 a pop for one bottle and you'll need 3 or 4 of them to treat a whole family. I've found that places like pound shops, Home Bargains and cheap chemists often stock them very cheaply.

Hedrin is mostly recommended as the last of the lotions they're immune to, but I pooled an amount in a dish to drop in the ones I'd combed out and by morning over half were still alive, so ...

My children have not had them since I started braiding her hair tightly and then spraying leave-in conditioner all over, working on the theory that the eggs can't stick to slippery hair shafts, which also mirrors the old wives tale that only clean hair gets lice, as greasy hair is too slippery.

My daughter had the lice at least 3 weeks before school put up posters in the windows and school gates. They cold do with printing off leaflets to put in all school book bags with advice on now to effectively treat them. They can't pull the old 'resources/costs' one on that because my daughter's bag is stuffed with pizza delivery another junk mail on a regular basis.

[ClaraOswinOswald]

Shop bought tea tree shampoos and conditioners often don't have enough tea tree to be effective so I add more of the oil (never directly to the scalp).

Sitting in front of the tv with a nitty gritty and conditioner is part of our routine now and I will also use Hedrin at the start of each school holiday so I can relax a bit. I also do me and DH.

I also make my children wear their hair up for school. Those fabric hairbands with elsatic underneath that are almost bandannas also cover most of their hair but they don't look obviously like I'm paranoid about nits (which I am).