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 know this is going to sound cranky but I always think that some kids are more prone to headlice and often consider whether it isn't a vitamin or mineral deficiency of some kind.

As far as your DD's hair is concerned, I would personally be quite tempted to have it cut a lot shorter if the combing is affecting her quality of life- all children need checking for lice regularly anyway.

hang on single parents especially why? you prob meant that kindly but as a lp I am not willing to jump into the nit demographic simply because there is one of me - like I said, it ain't a moral issue ....

sorry that was to winter
duchesse I think some dc are more prone and I wonder if the reason will be identified. I remember when I was growing up they said lice liked clean hair! my dc have been very, er, lucky ...

I think WinterIsComing was suggesting that in her DCs special needs school some single parents struggle in particular because they need the physical strength and enough hands to be able to control a SN child who does not want to sit still to be treated. I think she just meant that with a SN child it can be easier if there are two adults on hand, one to control/distract the child and the other to administer the treatment, I don't think she was saying that single parents are more likely to have infested children.

I wonder if its a bit like how mosquitoes seem to prefer some people to others. When I was younger I lived abroad and was eaten alive my mozzies but the rest of the family were always bite free. Maybe its a similar thing?

I would also add that the only time all my children have had headlice, and at the same time, was when I had to go away for 6 weeks for work. I often wonder about why that was. They were at home, being looked after by my DH, their grandmother and my sister. All three at different schools, yet they all went down with live in those six weeks. I do wonder if their defences were down because they were missing me.

whilst i do have very strong ishoos feelings about loads of medical areas gastric bands and alcohol related liver disease it drives me NUTS that education authorities do not employ nit nurses

Woah, Nelly!

I meant that it is especially difficult for one adult to even wash the hair of an autistic child who has sensory-processing difficulties never mind trying to cut it or treat it with chemicals or comb it for a minute let alone ten.

My DS is just four and anything to do with with head / hair makes him so enraged that he breaks out in little blood-blisters all over his face and his eyes burst vessels despite having spent a year doing social stories, regular non-threatening visits to the hairdressers, photographs, you name it, to prepare and help him. Nothing worked so we do it ourselves now.

And that is with DH helping me by holding DS. I wish we could distract him but it is just torture for him from start to finish and no amount of distraction works. We could just let is hair grow long and get infested but while we CAN do something, we will and will hope that he will eventually get used to it.

Thanks to the people who interpreted my post correctly and sorry if I didn't make myself clear and offended lone parents. I was one for the first four years when I had my daughter.

I wish school would tell parents. DD has had lice once and now I'm obsessed. I check DD almost every day, and I've told the teachers that if they spot any I'd be more than happy for them to let me know.

I recommened Vosene 3 in 1 too. After getting lots of letters about nits last year we bought the shampoo and detangler spray. Her hair was only chin length then so we couldn't tie it up but she never got nits at school. Then one half term when DD stayed with her Grandparents, she'd visited lots of play places and Grandparents didn't have the shampoo. It was a couple of days before I spotted the nits. I'd never seen any before. Then I realised she'd passed them onto me!
Cue 3 weeks of tons of conditioner, the nitty gritty comb and a DVD. I was pregnant at the time so we couldn't use any treatments.

Grandparents now have Vosene Shampoo.

ah sorry winter I misunderstood you there, yes with SEN it must be uphill task as lone parent, thanks for mentioning cos I can't imagine how hard that could be
(takes chip off shoulder)

Ah, no worries. It's easy to misunderstand things, especially the things I write on a Friday night

Just seen that Chandeleria has clarified so thank you

Nit combing a 13yo DD with asd, who has waist length hair as she won't get it cut, as a Lone parent...I thank the lord for Vosene, and X-factor, as she is ONLY allowed to watch X-factor if I am nit-combing her hair...

I'm sure the great majority of parents would prefer to be told if their child had nits. And if this was policy, maybe more parents would bother to check and treat their children. I genuinely don't understand why the obvious can't be pointed out (tactfully of course). The earlier poster who helps 1-to-1 with a boy whose head is crawling... why can't she tell the parent?

Ah, curly thick hair, can see why that could be a problem! I suppose i'm a bit luckier, my DD's is long fine and straight. But it does tangle easily so I have to gently tease all knots out first which takes forever. Also it's so fine that the comb doesn't get the eggs, they slip right through so have to part the hair and pull out with fingers.

Couldn't you start earlier though and spend more time on it? Maybe put a DVD on to distract her and spend all evening on it? Try parting the hair into smaller sections then clipping it to one side with those nice big hairdressing clips from superdrug. I've spent hours doing my DD's can see how it might not be that easy if you pushed for time though. I'd say a good de nit session takes me over a couple of hours.

I thought your OP seemed quite distressed especially in reference to your DD's pain, it shouldn't be that bad!

when I was at school the whole class was infected again and again by one person whos parents never bothered to do anything so one morning we were all taken to the staff room and treated,nobody was bothered and it fixed the problem although now the teacher would likely be done for assault.

I think it's great that free treatment can be provided for children who need it, but I would rather see the money go from the manufacturer?s profits rather then the NHS.

I have found the cheaper combs and treatments to be false economy - they simply don't work as well as the Hedrin type products and Nitty Gritty combs. I may try the olive oil suggestion from this thread, although I hope I won't ever have to try it out!

Agree - parents of nitty kid are being neglectful. I would imagine that the school have already reported them to SS.

YANBU. But lay off the Hedrin, it's expensive (as you know) and the little fuckers become immune to it anyway. I use a vat of cheap conditioner and a nit comb and that really does the trick without bankrupting you and putting all that crap on your childs head. Now I use a water spray with a little tea tree oil before school.

Oh but a do agree about Nitty Gritty combs, they're fab.

To reiterate treating headlice helps but does NOT kill 100% of lice

You have to break the life cycle by combing,combing, combing. The treatments kill the live lice but not the eggs which is why it appears they have "come back"

PLEASE every mum should read this website as recommended above. If you understand how the little buggers work/live/breed, then you can hopefully combat them.

Useful info

If you live in Scotland you don't even need a prescription, you can go into your pharmacy and they will give you the hedrin without a nit for proof, part of their new system.

Sadly I know where everyone is coming from.

One child in DS1's class, never treated (in fact when asked about the head lice she just laughed and said 'oh my four always have them')

Four children in the family, four classes in the school badly infected. DS2 is in the school and only ever had them once, when I was in hospital so hadn't combed DS1, and DH didn't know the signs (just like me first time DS1 came home with them, MIL spotted it! I know now though as does DH)

I don't tend to use the treatments either, I douse the head with olive oil, wrap cling flim around the head and send them to bed. It suffocates the lice (I have boys and can appreciate that sticking a load of oil in long hair may fill you with fear!), then comb for the nits in the morning.

Nitty Gritty comb is the only comb to use!

Tea tree doesn't seem to work as a repellent
Neem oil is a touch more effective
Hairspray is appearing quite effective - no infestations so far this year!!!

Will try vosene now - boys don't seem to fond of having hairspray...

Meant to add, I have used treatments (as a second resort) and I've tried them all. They all seem the same as each other, so go for the cheapest. Either that or move to Scotland!

I agree more needs to be done but can I just ask how do you know the child isnt being treated? I have had to treat my 5 yr old dd 3 times in 2 weeks, to another parent or the school that may look like I am not treating them (the school know I have been).

More definately needs to be done to try to help with this though.