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.

I definitely recommend vosene products. I work in a school in a very deprived area and most if the class are riddled with them . This year I've been using vosene gel ( you can't tell it's on once it's dry) and haven't had any yet touch wood!

Ninah the hatchlings are tiny,if you miss them they grow,lay and so it goes on.Dp checks if specks are dirt or hatchlings,sensible really and believe me if you were as fed up as we are with spending hours combing and shelling out £££££ you'd double check too.

Hunty many thanks.Have heard good things re the Vosene will stock up tomorrow,not got much to loose!!!!Might as well spend the £££££ on something else other than Hedrin.

So glad to hear good stories about Vosene. DS has only been at School since September but we've been using the 3in1 shampoo and despite 2 letters home advising of infestations, so far he' been clear.

Will get some of the spray as a top up I think. DD has a spray in conditioner that he's always asking to use so I don't think he'll mind :)

If they are fully grown adults appearing, it's a new infestation from someone with a head full of nits, not the young growing up (unless you miss two weeks).

You can learn more than you ever wanted to know about the nit lifecycle and how to break it at:

www.chc.org/

I buy the very fine combs from there and use with conditioner. I do feel your pain OP, but I don't use Hedrin, just conditioner and combing if I see the first sign of a scratched head in my dd2 (dd1 is just not attractive to nits, thank god). Otherwise, it's plaits and being resigned to leaping in at the first scratch.

I do think children should be sent home if they have nits and our school won't let them back if they are untreated, not sure why they feel they can take a firmer line than the other state schools but they do.

OP, have you alerted nitwatch?!

I should also say Community Hygeine Concern also provide free combs for those on benefits through the GP or HV so cost isn't an issue (I don't work for them, honest, but their combs are great).

well i work in early years so am always interested. ta!
so far tea tree spray and the odd burst of chemicals has been sufficient
i used the asda own brand last time we all looked like we had brylcream for days (why is your hair wet miss?0
it seems some children are more prone than others, don't know why. Knew one girl, mother a nurse, always had them, always being treated, whereas others don't seem to attract them. what I don't like is this kind of moral branding that goes along with it ie lice = feckless. It ain't so

combs are £1 from asda

Oh what a suprise we're in a high risk area!!!!!

Yes, usual suspects can be middle class. Actually I think DD was the usual suspect a couple of years ago - she had long straight hair that was a total nit magnet and although I did try to get rid of them I always seemed to miss one and she got them again and again and again until I finally got the technique down.
Nowadays I slather her hair with cheap tea tree conditioner every single time I wash it and leave it to marinade for ten minutes, and she hasn't had any of the little blighters for ages - but I'm sure it's much worse with thick curly hair.

My other tip, which has probably been mentioned already, is to keep long hair as short as you can (i.e. not waist length) and cut the ends off very regularly, so the comb doesn't have to go through lots of tangles. I use a TangleTeezer first, on frequently cut hair and it is much less painful to comb than if the hair grows too long/isn't cut so often, I really regret it if I have neglected to trim the ends and they need a nit inspection (I trim it myself to save money).

MrsH we're not (!) but I'm flipping well itching now!!

DD hasn't had nits (8) and it sounds a real pain. I feel like I'm tempting fate if I go and buy vosene now!

Huntycat THANK YOU I was wondering if a spray existed these days.

DS as I have said, we can JUST about cope with, but he is in special school, fifteen in the class all ages from 4-7. So some parents just can't treat because they just don't have the strength. Single parents especially

DD has a blood-clotting disorder so when she gets them (and they are always adult insects) she bleeds profusely so it's better in her case to prevent than to cure with strong chemicals which sting.

I have three children too Mrsheffley, although they are older now, thankfully!!

I do remember the awful nit problem at school and the hours and hours of combing through and conditioning.

I can honestly say that the best way i found to get rid of them was to comb through EVERY night to start with then go down to every other and so on but always always do it at least twice a week.

I know it takes ages but it just has to be done, its part of bringing up a child, sadly!

I also found the repellent sprays and tea tree shampoos and conditioners a little help. Also, i did as another poster mentioned, and treated my kids and the child i think was always spreading them around when she came for tea. It worked

I have recently started helping a child one to one in school. He scratches all day and I can see the beasts crawling through his hair!!! If I was in charge of things I would call his mother and not allow him back until he had been treated! Poor little bugger!

Nit-combing dd1's very thick hair became much easier when I had it thinned by the hair-dresser. It also meant she could brush it herself in the mornings. And she stopped looking like Hermione in the early Harry Potter films too.

OP YANBU. I think it should be a matter for the authorities if parents continually fail to treat. DS started nursery school in Sept and there's already been one letter about nits. Luckiky they haven't gone for him yet and he's a short haired blondie so they would be easily visible. I check most days at bath time anyway though - especially behind ears and nape of neck.

I can't believe that people can't be bothered treating their own children.

i think they need blitzing with the conditioner. combing needs to be at least 30-40 mintes. Many is the time i've found one after twenty minutes of not doing iyswim

Then put some environmentally UNfriendly sauce on and leave ALL NIGHT

Jobs a good 'un

Do i believe kids should be sent home YES. Its cruel to keep re infecting classes of kids. I know many a repeat offender and sadly its usually the middle -class tea tree crew.

Children at the DDs' school are not allowed back until they are clear and have been deemed to be so by the school nurse (we are not in UK). In UK it was every other bloody week with a nit/lice infestation with one or both of them. Nothing at all in the two years we've been here. DD2 used to sit next to a girl who was crawling with them when we were in UK - they used to drop onto her exercise book, but the school said there was nothing they could do. DD2 has long, thick, curly hair. I cut a foot off it once, in desperation with the kitchen scissors, rather than drag the nitty gritty through it yet again.

They drive us mad here to.
With three girls we wet condition comb 3 times a week and always pull a couple out of each child.

I had my long hair cut very short at Easter because I couldn't be certain that I was getting my own hair clear and not giving them to the children

I think a nit lotion day at school would be great, Parents are giving the opportunity to send children into school for the day with lotion on and those that arrive without lotion are given it by the school and then parents de nit that evening.
Repeat until whole school is clear.

We de nit 3 times a week whilst doing spellings and reading, it's, err challenging

I didn't think the conditioner trick worked very well. I did this once and got about three lice out, then covered her with Hedrin and it was like a bloody army that came marching out!

I fostered a little girl once who was massively infested with head lice. Took me about 6 weeks to get her completely clear.

In the years since, she continues to stay with me regularly and I check her hair every time. She's had several more infestations that I've got rid of. I also check my own DTs hair once a week.

All 3 are nit-free 99% of the time.

In all this time, I have only ever used a product once. They are a complete waste of time and often make the situation worse, because the one louse you missed that continues to lay eggs is the one that is resistant to the product, and then you have a headful of lice that can't be killed by anything short of nuclear bombardment.

The only thing that truly works is regular combing with a nitty gritty comb to break the life-cycle. It doesn't need to be done every day; every three days is perfectly adequate but you will need to do it for about 3 weeks and then once a week thereafter to pick up any future infestations before they become established.

Most infestations of headlice are minor, especially if an attempt has been made to eradicate them - even if it hasn't been successful. If anyone (child or adult) has so many lice that they can be clearly seen moving on his/her head by the person stood next to him/her, then that person has not been treated or combed in the last few weeks, regardless of what is claimed.

Leaving a child to suffer in this way is terrible. Quite aside from the physical discomfort, it can lead to a child getting a 'reputation' and suffering years of bullying as the 'skanky kid with nits' etc, and that's not necessarily just from other children.

Why can't the schools tell the parent(s) of the lice-infested child?

Vosene is fab. Been using the shampoo since DD started nursery, and even when she's had letters home about infestations in the class, she hasn't had any. Early days as she's only in reception, so it's good to read some other positive reports :)

We use the shampoo every night in her bath, followed by shitloads of cheap conditioner (mostly to detangle). We use the spray every morning when I do her hair (she always has it up). When there's an infestation at the class I make DS DH and I use it too, and I always use the spray on myself when I help out in the school - my hair is really thick so it's a nightmare to treat.