Nits - end of my tether

[pinkberet]

We use head start. Always have, three primary aged kids whom all have long hair.

We have been fighting nits since Christmas. We think we're clear and then boom they're back. We already have nitty gritty. We treat week one and week 2 and condition comb between... what am I doing wrong?!

Everyone wears their hair up too. Own hairbrushes..

I used to comb my kids with nittigritti while they watched tv. It was a night,y ritual. Whoever wasn't done yesterday got done today. They'd sit between my knees, with a snack on their lap and tv on, while I combed and combed.

You get there eventually.

Do your older ones have hair straighteners? Some say that effectively fries them. It's just a slog, I'm afraid. All you can do is keep it up until it stops happening. They can pick them up the day you've cleared them, unfortunately.

The life cycle is 3 weeks so 2 treatments are not enough. I'd comb every few days for 3 weeks. If you are finding adults then they could be getting reinfected at school

Hedrin has always worked here.

Are you cleaning everything could have nits on?
Pillows, cushions, hats, coat hoods, duvets?

The lotion that is, not the shampoo

A friend told me yrs ago to use hair spray to stop them ‘clinging on’ to hair. I work with children who constantly have nits, my daughter is in primary sch and I spray our hair everyday and we’ve never got them! Worth a try..

There is headline prevent which is quite good, spray the hair in the morning before the go to school. Also use nit replant shampoo as standard. Both cut down nits but doesn’t remove.

I'm a retired teacher. Another teacher told me about the hair spray thing and it worked for me as a preventative.

If you treat the children with Hedrin etc you have to treat everyone including yourselves and grandparents if they have close contact.

Hedrin once is by far the most effective thing when my kids were younger.

Are your kids being careful not to touch their head to anyone else's at school

We had them for ages and my daughter had long, thick hair. The only way I managed to get rid of them was by using multiple drops of tea tree oil shaken into her shampoo and conditioner. And combing.

Do your children go to the swimming pool? The chlorine used in swimming pools can deactivate some of the head lice preparations, rendering the treatments ineffective. Also the use of hair conditioning products can prevent the lice treatments from adhering to the hair, so ensure that is rinsed off and the hair allowed to dry before treating.

No swimming here. I suspect it's the case of the missed egg time and time again.
I'll persevere and try the hairspray technique too. My mum used to buy Body shop tea tree shampoo. I'll see if I can find that too

If you have missed some eggs then tea tree shampoo and hair spray won’t stop them catching them because they alreafy have them.

I was driven demented by them last year and asked our GP if there was a prescription nuclear option. He said no, but recommended benzyl benzoate, which I hadn't heard of. We gave it a go and it worked with one application. You do have to be careful with it - it stung DS so badly as soon as we applied it that we had to rinse it off immediately. But the rest of us were okay with it, and we haven't had a louse problem since.

Hedrin ONCE is the only thing that ever works completely. Literally 1 proper treatment and comb and you are done. My DD has very very thick and curly hair so it's a nightmare to get bits out. This is the only thing that works - and does it in a single go. Try it.

Nitwits spray and a nittygritty comb. I spent month battling them with my two girls (who kept passing them to me), who both have lots of frizzy, curly hair, then one treatment of Nitwits got them all.

Nitwits is good. I remember dd having nits really bad one time. Oh my goodness, I was at the end of my tether. I tried loads of stuff, and came across Nitwits which was recommended. That was the only thing that worked.