My child's had headlice for weeks

[Boxhoarder]

About 3 or 4 weeks ago my 10 year old dd started complaining of an itchy scalp and thought she had nits. I checked her hair thoroughly but couldn't see anything. She then developed what looked like a heat rash on her neck and her head was still itchy. I checked her hair again but still couldn't see anything apart from a few brown flakes.

Anyway when I checked behind her ears today I noticed her head was riddled with headlice.

I feel absolutely terrible that she's had headlice for weeks now and I didnt notice. The rash on her neck also got worse and I realise now it must be because of the headlice.

How did I not notice? I feel absolutely terrible.

Don't feel bad it will get you no where. When my daughter was in school I would comb her hair twice a week for headlice. It just became a routine.

Same thing happened to us recently 😳. I had no idea that headlice caused a neck rash as we’d never death with them before, so I assumed DD (10) was allergic to our new shampoo or something. I did check her scalp but couldn’t see anything. By the time I realised she must have had them for 2-3 weeks.
You know what? These things happen. It’s not like I knew and ignored them… I checked. I felt awful but I’m not going to beat myself up over it.

Earlier this year I found teenage (autistic) DS riddled with them. His hair is long, and while he's generally independent at washing his hair now, his technique isn't the best and I was helping out as it was looking a bit lank after washing, so was helping him rinse when I found them.

I'm surprised he got close enough to another human to catch them!

I asked him if he felt itchy from them and he hadn't really but did say "I wondered why there were insects falling in my eyes"

A few weeks of regular conditioning and nitty gritty treatment and he was all clear.

I did feel lousy about them being so bad before noticing but I've known other children get quite bad once they've become more independent. He hadn't had them in about 8 years so it wasn't on our radar. Also they blend in with his thick dark hair and the lighting isn't great where his hair gets brushed in the mornings.

I've worked with children where the parents don't treat and just shave their son's hair so it's stubbly. The eggs aren't cleared and the cycle continues

The first time DD had them it went from finding none when combing through one day to absolutely loads of the buggers about 2 days later.

I found coating the hair and scalp in a ridiculous amount of conditioner, shower cap on, leave overnight …comb out next morning. Wash and hairdry hot, comb through and check all the while doing each step. use straightners (apparantly the heat kills eggs?) then it stays plaited and spritz of tea tree oil! Always worked for us anyway

I'm sorry but that line about the insects falling in his eyes has made me laugh so much. My 7 year old ds is autistic and I can actually imagine him saying something that exact line 😂

Depending on hair colour they can be an absolute nightmare to see. My daughter got them before and had really long hair, I tried hedrin twice but in the end it was Vamousse, a nitty gritty comb and conditioner combing through her hair every other day that got rid. Haven't had them for 2 years now 🤞🤞 absolute ball ache they're horrible little things. And the more you think about them the itchier you get 😂

If you're unlucky you'll catch nits too, I did. Nitty gritty comb and tons of conditioner every two days is the easiest way to get rid, I think. Happy de - lousing. 😊😝

Please please please don't ever let your child sleep with a shower cap on. It's such a suffocation risk

Almost exactly the same thing has happened to me and my daughter this week. I went section by section carefully with a normal comb several times as she was itchy and didn’t see anything. Then I started itching and found one in my hair! Turned out she had loads but not visibly!! Both treated yesterday and her itching has stopped but I’m still badly itching. About to check again. Both had neck rash too. So nasty.

Exactly the same happened to us with DD a good few years ago now. I've got 3 DC and managed to avoid them until the youngest was about 9! I kept checking her hair and not finding anything - bought all sorts of shampoo and treatments for sensitive scalp etc then suddenly there was loads crawling behind her ears 🤢 I ended up catching them as well but they did go after one treatment. Appalachian it's better to look behind ears and on the hair line rather than on the scalp which is where I'd been expecting to find them

Same thing happened with my teen autistic daughter. By the time I noticed she was crawling with them. She said “oh I wondered why there were bugs in my hair”!

I was just about to comment that they are roughly the same colour as a lot of people’s hair so difficult to see.

And then I realised that that is probably evolution in action!

And then I got wondering if each country has its own shade of head lice. Are Scandinavian head lice really blonde?!?!

NRTFT. I had to nit comb my daughter every single day of primary and we never got rid of them. It was a nightmare. Tried everything known to man. She was a nit magnet. Nobody else got them in the house and my younger child has never had them. As soon as she left primary, they didn't reappear. It’s so shit. Don’t beat yourself up.

I haven’t read the other responses but along time ago (8 years?) dd1 had reoccurring nits. From a mumsnet thread I got the nit comb (metal one) and it was an essential oil I THINK it was eucalyptus oil or tea tree I can’t remember and the nits literally came to surface they hated it.
never came back
only negative was it was hard for me to wash out the oil and so her once luscious hair became a bit manky for a short while.

Yep! When my children catch nits, the lice are the colour of corn.

Head lice can be problematic. Always expected the little critters in September after the summer holidays. Best solution I found was adding tea tree to an inexpensive conditioner and using routinely. Also using a Nitty Gritty comb to comb the conditioner through. Do a tea tree patch test 🤞

My son decided to cut his hair aged 5 because we were constantly battling head lice.
Nitty gritty and tea tree shampoo/oil is the best way.

I hoped covid would have got rid of head lice but then I remembered that some parents just don’t care (no one in this thread!!)

Unfortunately itis usual for the get missed.
My kids have 4c hair - no way a fine comb getting through. I ended up having to shave my 5 year old girls hair . Now I braid and oil.

Yes. You need to treat everyone in the family.

Not easy to spot unless you nothing. Treat the whole family with hedrin once. Comb out. Treat again in a week and comb again. Repeat until no more evidence of nits.

This is exactly what I was thinking! 🤣

I think they're very difficult to spot in the hair / on the scalp, but if you Nitty Gritty comb the hair over a white piece of paper you quickly see eggs and insects fall onto the paper. That's my go-to for checking.

DD5 got head lice on three separate occasions this academic year - the Reception classes were riddled apparently. After the third time I’d had enough and started using the Vosene shampoo and spray and she hasn’t had them since! So I’d really recommend them once you’ve cleared the current infestation.

https://amzn.eu/d/1qkaCCR