To think children with headlice that mothers refuse to treat should be sent home with a bottle of Hedrin

[MrsHeffley]

and not allowed back until treated.

I type this as my dd 6 is shrieking and sobbing in the bathroom yet again whilst dp combs her hair.She was clear yesterday after several days combing,she came back today infested with several fully sized adults(quite clearly not recently hatched from missed eggs).

I have to treat my dd as it effects her concentration.She has waist length hair(always tied up) which she likes and wants to keep.We treat/check her hair regularly but it hurts and is expensive when we resort to Hedrin. It's affecting our home life.

There is one child in the class who continually has nits and never gets it treated.My dd likes her and wants to play with her but this evening just said she doesn't anymore after 2 years as she's fed up with us hurting her.DD watches the nits crawling on this girl in lessons.Many parents/kids know and I feel sorry for her.

I feel this PC do nothing attitude is contributing to the nits epidemic and does many children no favours. A quiet phonecall home like we had when I was little and the whole class would be nit free. Kids wouldn't need continuous painful comb outs and more importantly infested kids wouldn't have children avoiding them for fear of catching nits.

Hard hat firmly on.

Captain Hedrin works by suffocation so they can't develop a resistance.You do need loads though.Also nits makes kids feel lousy hence the expression.One of my sons actually gets a streaming nose.It does effect concentration too,why wouldn't it,the continuous itching.

Lovely we use loads of conditioner but pulling a metal Nitty Gritty comb through thick curly hair hurts however much you brush before hand.Also I just can't spend 30 mins X 3 a night metal combing.When you add in rinsing that's 2 bloody hours.We have homework and reading and I like my kids in bed at 7.30.

Vosene for kids supposedly repels them. Pharmacist recommended it for my 2 nieces to use every 2 weeks

Worrall she actually has plaits,you tell me.

Seriously dp combs until he gets nothing.He's meticulous.He fills the sink with water and rinses the comb each time.He only stops when there are no nits in the sink.I'm starting to think the nits involved are some super breed because they've been left so long.

YABU. People who refuse to treat for no good reason should be drowned in it.

SN excepting. My DS is just about containable for treatment and hair-cutting but I do understand that some people just CAN'T, with older children.

worral from what I can see the problem is that they put their heads together with their favourite friends.

On the plus side IME the problem does ease a bit at secondary school. We are certainly suffering fewer outbreaks now.

The really scary thing Pink, is that I have made several posts on this thread without scratching my head. I think that I am now immune (to the suggestion).

My friend uses Vosene shampoo. They haven't had nits in the house for years and her DS is 10 now. She used to have them regularly before using this shampoo. Saves buying additional products whenever there is a problem. I don't think the nits like the smell or something as it is a shampoo that smells like shampoo rather than a specially scented one.

Agree, AmberLeaf - there is a HUGE list of minor ailments stuff in every pharmacy round here, and in every GP surgery, that WON'T be prescribed on the NHS any more. On that list it includes any 'first line' treatment for excema, even for dc, spacers for asthmatic dc (when DS2 needs a new one, I now have to pay for it at the pharmacy), Headlice treatment, and a whole host of other things. Oh, calpol and nurofen are on the list too.

No, those of us on benefits, and even our dc now, cannot get free medication for minor ailments. NOTE - I am most definately NOT saying that it is OK to leave your dc untreated for headlice, however, in a large family, with thick, long or both hair - it can easily cost £30 or more to treat the whole family, which when it is 1/3 of your weekly income - might be out of reach for some people. which is bloody wrong.

The person the OP is talking about is just grim and lazy though - she was GIVEN a bottle of Hedrin, and STILL didn't treat her dc.

Hmmmmmm somebody mentioned a Vosene treatment today,do you think they mean the conditioner of do they do a treatment?I'm going to look tomorrow.

You don't need expensive treatments, cheap conditioner liberally applied, combed through (no yelling DC because the comb slides through!), repeat for an infestation every day for first week, every 2 days second week and so on and it gets rid of them, the hair surface is slippery and the little blighters stay away.......worked a treat on DD and her long hair! Major problem in her class though. One mum had resorted to crew cuts on her daughters in desperation!!

Boaty I do that,she just gets re-infested as does most of her class.I just can't dedicate that much time to it anymore.

School shaves all hair off and washes with antiseptic soap then sent home. Sorted.

My friend just uses Vosene shampoo, no special treatments. She's a hairdresser too so knows a thing or two about hair.

This thread is making me shudder. My DSs are adults and I have no experience of nits. Are they more prevalent for some reason today and while it seems that the treatment is expensive, aside from that, why would a parent refuse to treat the lice? I'm just not getting any of it tbh.

Carabos the problem is kids used to be sent home.You can't do that anymore so parents are lazy(some worse than others) ie they just let it go so it continuously goes round.

Seriously joking aside I think something needs to be done.

It's costing us all too much in Hedrin and time and still kids are crawling.

I suspect 90% of parents would support being told to collect their child to treat as it would rarely happen due to it being kept a lid on like in the old days.

i use the cheap route - the nitty gritty comb plus cheap basics conditioner - works quite well and doesn't cost

I can recommend this

I don't know why people are pointing the finger at families on benefits here. The last child I knew who continually infested her class was very firmly middle class: her mother was a doctor and insisted it was a waste of time to treat them.

I always used Vosene as a child, my Dad insisted on it and as a teacher I think he knew a fair bit about nits. I don't remember ever having them and still love the smell of Vosene, it always takes me back to being a kid!

Thank you mrs heffley, but I'm shocked that a parent wouldn't bother to treat. What other minor ailments, injuries and discomforts do they ignore? I think this is really and definitely neglectful.

yabu

they should spray them all with nit killer during the day

"She was clear yesterday after several days combing,she came back today infested with several fully sized adults(quite clearly not recently hatched from missed eggs)."

• umm sorry but they have probably just been missed from your combing.

I sympathise as have been there, but as I have been there I KNOW that when you think your child is clear and want to stop as you are fed up and they are fed up and bathwater has gone cold you are convinced there are none left, do one last comb through to make you feel like you've done a good job - and find another fecking THREE!

Seriously dp writes computer code,he's meticulous.

We don't do it in the bath she sits on a stool wrapped in towels.As I said he fills the sink and rinses the combevery time.He is methodical,not an inch gets missed.He does it until the sink is clear.He has been known to get a magnifying glass out to check small specks in the sink-it takes aaaaaages!!!!!!

If he says she's clear,she's clear.

fwiw you can get a tea tree spray that repels them
but they're not like the plague exactly.

magnifying glass, I mean, ffs

Vosene Kids shampoo

Vosene Kids 3 in 1 leave in spray

Both available in my local Tescos. HTH.