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.

We always leaned over a couple of sheets of paper and nit combed from root to tip. Some would fall on the paper. If it popped when pressed with the back of your nail there are nits.

The exact same thing happened to me - my daughter’s itching was driving her crazy and then there was the rash … I kept looking … it wasn’t until I googled it that I discovered you need to look behind the ears and she was covered in it.

of note - I keep the nitty gritty comb in the shower it doesn’t rust just use each time she conditions a quick run through will tell you early if they have come back

Straightners also kill the eggs so go over with straighteners as close to the roots as you can do. Keep doing conditioner checks to keep on top.

DS had them for the first time this year. Complained of an itchy head so he washed and conditioned hair and then I comb it through with a nitty gritty. He had several small ones.

We found that the best treatments were the oily ones that dehydrate the lice. Make the hair go a bit greasy but cure in one hit if you check regularly.
DS has loads of fine long hair and we'd never have spotted without wet combing.

Thank you all for your replies. I used Hedrin mousse on my daughter 's hair, which was left on for 8 hours. I checked her hair this morning behind her ears but it looks like some eggs are still there. Is this normal? I've bought a nit comb so I'll use that on her hair this morning. The instructions on the packet said to treat the hair again in 7 days in case any more eggs hatch.

Cheap conditioner and nit comb for the next 7 days, that should see them off. Then do a final treatment in 7 days just to be sure.

Same happened to us, I checked loads as my 8 year old said he had picked a few out and his head was itchy, checked lots and couldn’t see any until a few weeks later and he was crawling! I felt awful but it’s a mistake and it’s not like you didn’t bother to check, it just happen a lot x

Is anyone else scratching their head whilst reading this thread? 😖

My daughter has extremely thick long hair so the first time she had them (also around age 10), we thought her itchiness was related to dandruff and bought her new shampoo. I felt terrible too when we finally figured it out, my husband noticed the nits not me! I had no experience of it. Next time though we caught them quickly. I am so glad she’s out of primary school, seemed to be a constant cycle of them from age 10-12.

I recommend treating three times a week apart rather than twice. The first session kills live lice. The second session kills the new hatchlings, but the third session we always got a few juveniles that must have hatched after the second treatment. You need to get every lice out before any can start breeding and lay a new crop of eggs.

Nits can’t jump, thats why you need direct contact to catch them.

I saw it above his head though.

I always wonder what people mean when they say they checked. The same happened with a girl in my daughter's class when we had nits that kept going around the class despite the kids being treated. This girl never had nits apparently, despite being friends with other girls that did and the only one with the rash, as the mother was 'checking'. Her older daughters had never had nits ever! When finally it got bad enough for her to see the nits, and she treated them. they stopped for the whole class.
The only way to check is to do a full comb through with wet hair, lots of conditioner, and a Nitty Gritty - sectioning so that you comb through every hair, going from the scalp. Even then you might not see babies on the comb but if you rinse it out in a sink of water as you go along, you'll see the tiny babies floating on the water, or left on the sink when the water drains.
If you find one medium one and a few babies, you've caught it early. If you have lots of big fat ones and loads of babies, your child has had nits for a good while. The bonus is that doing a check this way is also a treatment. But just looking is not checking.

Must have been some sort of mutant louse or louse/flea hybrid! They can’t jump.

Yes! This is what I was going to say.

I wipe the comb on a bit of kitchen roll - if there are tiny, corn coloured rice shaped things then those are lice - easy to mistake for bits of dirt if small and few.

Like this.

Yes, I know that now. Prior to our first and only case in the family (we went 10 years without them!) I was sadly ignorant to the correct method of checking for lice. I have learned my lesson.

They don't jump, they walk.

They're so hard to see. My daughters are young enough that I do their hair daily and I'm a teacher so quite nit conscious but it still took my child's teacher taking me to one side for me to realise. I'm so pleased she did as teachers often don't tell individual parents even if they have seen lice in a child's hair.

We've used Hedrin and Full Marks about 4 times now with combing and are still finding the odd critter. They really seem to cling to the hair. What I don't understand is the lice are clearly still alive when you comb them out - I thought yhe treatments were meant to kill them? I've also done just conditioner and combing. It is strangely satisfying at least...

Maybe it was walking. I was about 7 ft away from him and saw it move.

They do move around but they dont jump, heads have to be pretty kuch youching to catch them but young children do this all the tine. I have seen lice moving on a child's head, it's horrible. I have been told you can't catch them from hats as they need a lice host to reproduce. (Retired teacher)

It only takes one or two to lay a load of eggs that hatch at the same time - I remember being at lego land and glancing over at DS2 and realising his head was crawling! I'd only washed his hair a couple of days earlier and it was fine then!

I really rate the nit-not oil over the shampoos. DS has long curly hair, and the nits irritate his scalp (plus of course he scratches) so the shampoo stings, combing it is still a pain because of the harsh shampoo, and just doesn't seem to work as well as saturating his head in oil, combing it all through, then doing it again a week later (although normally the first go seems to have sorted it).

There's a couple of kids in his class who don't get treated for nits as quickly/well as they might, so it has happened that he's had them twice within a couple of months, but luckily as they get older it gets rarer.

Had that with ds.

He did his own hair so I hadn't checked. It was only when he was curled up in bed with me one evening while I was reading to him, that I realised he was non-stop scratching and checked. I think there was almost more nits than hair by that point.

He cried as I combed them out. he said. "Mummy, there are mummies and daddies and aunts and uncles and brothers and sisters and cousins, and you're killing them all..."

Dd1 was always easy to pick up as she reacted to their bites, so we'd pick up when she had only one because the position of the bites made it obvious (round hairline and down the neck). Unfortunately as she had below waist-length hair it was a big job to check to even find one!

Ds reacted badly to the chemicals in the shampoos, although thankfully he only had nits three times.

What we found the most effective was mouthwash. Listerine, I think it was called. It was much cheaper too.

Pour the mouthwash over the dry hair and thoroughly soak the hair. Then put all the hair under a shower cap for about 15 minutes. Wash hair normally. The nits just floated off - we used to say they were drunk!
I did normally do a comb through afterwards, but there were rarely any left unless it was a bad infection. I'd then do it again on day 5, 10 and 15, and that normally solved it.

what were you checking with? only way to properly check is with a comb.

The treatments don’t seem to kill the eggs which is why parents that don’t comb, comb, comb don’t get rid of them. The couple of times my daughter had them we didn’t use chemicals, combing with cheap conditioner is enough but you need to comb every day for at least a week and every few days for another week. Pay attention to the hairline at the nape of the neck and behind the ears.