DS 9 riddled with headlice, have tried everything under the sun. Please help!

[Hanarb]

DS 9 has been riddled with lice for 3 weeks now. I have tried treatment and spent nearly £100 on various remedies. He has very long, thick surfy hair and it is a nightmare to treat. His teacher has notified me which is mortifying. His childminder said she would get the clippers and shave his hair off (I’m not sure if she was joking). I don’t own any hair cutting equipment but this is seriously taking up so much of my time and causing a lot of stress. What should I do?

some children have thicker scalp skin so won't be affected by the itching.

my son it’s at junior school so is only a day pupil but the older ones board.

I have thick curly hair (female) and it took 10 days to get rid of it and I am adult and not going into schools where I was getting into contact to reinfect

I used Hedrin and nit combed my hair every night. I concentrated on key areas like back of the head and behind ears. That is where they live: boil washed bedding and made sure the children were clear.

It's labour intensive but you have to treat the whole family.

To be honest - I would consider getting the hair cut off - it will grow

Yes I’m starting to come around to the shaving idea.

@Hanarb sorry I misunderstood. Lice is one of my nightmares! I'm sorry you are going through this! You do have to comb through daily with the special tight-toothed comb down to the scalp. Wash everything and nothing, coats etc, gets worn a second time without washing and drying on hot. Keep dc's clothes and washing away from the rest of the family. Change bedding daily and vacuum bed daily (empty canister after!). Toss pillow into dryer on hot as well.
Haven't had lice, but friends have. Years ago my mother caught scabies (horror!!!) from a co-worker whose dc caught it at school. Protocol is the same.

Take him to a professional lice removal clinic. And do it quickly because there will be 20+ mums spending hours of their week combing their children’s hair only for your son to reinfect them.

Borrow someone's hair straighteners and they just burn them

But conditioner and the nitty gritty metal comb usually work a treat. Other not combs are rubbish it has to be the metal one

This

Combing is the only thing that works. Every day until you are getting none out then every 4-5 days to be sure you get all the ones that hatch from eggs you missed. Keep going every 4-5 days until you are sure the infestation at school is over. Comb everyone in the family. The amount of times it's the dad refusing to comb because he says he doesn't have them when really he's reinfesting the kids is notable.

I work with kids lice is a frequent problem. If I catch them/working with kids who have them I comb daily then every 4/5 days till it's over. otherwise I do it every month or so just to check and because my hair feel lovely after so much conditioner.

I'm all itchy now 😂

I had two nit prone girls with longish hair and the nitty gritty comb plus conditioner, every night till you're on top of it and then maintenance sessions is the only way to go. Their hair was probably longer than your son's. You have to get on top of this and yes, it'll be effort. It might make your life easier to cut his hair shorter but shaving seems punitive (and roughly what my horrified mother did to me at 8 when I came home with nits- felt awful. Don't do that).

We had the same issue, my son’s hair was longer and just so so thick. In the end we shaved it shorter, it was the only way to get them all out. The thickness of his hair just made it impossible.

Dont shave it… Just cut it short, get rid of all the nits then when they are all gone, take him to the hairdressers for a nice tidy up.

Spray bottle,coconut oil and comb,make sure your washing his bed sheets everyday ect to get rid of eggs!

Go for a number 0 all over. That'll do the trick.

Not necessarily…Qe had an outbreak at the school where I worked as a young woman.

At my next school, we had one teenager who always had them. That was when I found out about teens using lack of hygiene as protection against abuse. :(

We used to swear by Delacet in this house. It was natural but worked. Poured on liberally and then shower cap to keep hair moist for 2 hours. Stank a bit of vinegar and was a bit annoying with the damp hair under the cap but absolutely brilliant stuff. Wash out in ordinary fashion. Then repeated 10 days to 2 weeks later just in case eggs had remained.

If your child has really thick hair that is impossible to comb then you should be doing something about that anyway, nits or not.

Get yourself a Nitty Gritty comb (they're honestly the gold standard, they manage to grab the eggs as well as the lice), tons of conditioner and sit down in front of the TV and comb.

Section by section until you've done the entire head. You need to make sure you get ALL the eggs to prevent them from coming back with a vengeance.

Once you've done that, then use one of the treatments (I remember having prioderm used in me, but it was so strong I doubt you can get it anymore ). Do another treatment a week later. Then, once a week, go through his head with the comb.

That's what I have to do with my DD and we've managed to keep them at bay so far. I also use the Nenuco colognia spray on her hair, it's apparently a good repellent - and it smells gorgeous.

If he's not prepared to let you do it (or it's becoming too much of a battle) a haircut may ve for the best.

Good luck!

Wet hair, add a load of tea tree oil to conditioner, put throughout his hair and nit comb thoroughly. Every day for a week.
Then wait a week and do it again. Repeat.
Probably a good idea to cut his hair. The joy of boys is that they are less likely to catch nits as they are more likely to have short hair.

Don't shave his hair off unless he's on board!

I called in the professionals. One off visit from a nit nurse. The nits never returned.

Worth EVERY SINGLE PENNY.

https://www.theyorkshirenitnurse.co.uk/

Oh and follow up with a weak vinegar (2 tbsp of white vinegar in 2l of warm water) rinse of the hair once a week.

I can totally sympathise. Get a huge tub of coconut oil and a big bottle of neem oil. First drench his dry hair in neem oil then cover the hair in coconut oil. Cover his head (an Afro sleep cap works well) . Keep it in overnight. In the morning get a nit comb (it may be hard to get though his hair, I have a thick curly hair girl but you HAVE to do it ) then work slowly though small sections until clear. Wash hair (may need to do it a few times to get rid of the neem and coconut oil) Then moving forward comb his hair every 2-3 days to make sure you’ve got the little buggers. Wash his hair with Vosene nit repellent shampoo and make a spray bottle up with 100ml boiled cooled water, 10 drops of tea tree oil and about two teaspoons of neem oil and spray on every day. The only way to stop them (they are now very resilient to nit solutions) is by spending the time doing it properly. If that’s too much faff shave him (at least he’s a lad so it wouldn’t make much difference but I understand why you wouldn’t want to do it) also wash all sheets, towels etc on a wash as hot as possible and check everyone else so he don’t get reinfected.
Stop wasting money on nit solutions the only thing that’ll work is spending the time combing.

Sorry I should have added comb though 2-3 days in damp hair drenched in conditioner (any cheap one will do) then as a repellent use the spray you’ve made x

Have you tried the over night leave in ones? My dd has such thick long hair when she got it last time it really was horrific. None of the more popular treatments worked. And it's tge eggs that are the biggest issue. The lice come out easily really but if the eggs are killed or removed then this is why it's carrying on.

I really do not believe shaving his head is the only option now.

It goes in his hair, the next day, sit him down with a film and some treats and get to work.

Just remember this is t a pleasant thing for him, he's not being a pain on purpose

The childminder has it right. Brutally short cut or all shaved off.