to think that the producers of nit shampoo have us over a barrel?

[DrSeuss]

So, DS (6), and DD, (14 mths) have come home with what DS informs me are correctly called "visitors" (I am told off regularly by him for using the words "lice", "louse" or "nits") so it was straight off to Boots to buy the gunk. So expensive! The cheapest one was no good as it had to be done daily for a week, some required a long period of siting there and so I went for the one that takes only 15 mins, bearing in mind I had to sit with the baby playing games and singing songs to keep her hands out of her hair. £17.99! DH is an industrial chemist and read the ingredients. His estimate is a fiver tops! What a rip off!

Hedrin and Nitty Gritty comb. The local nits are immune to Full Marks. If you balk at £17.99 for the Hedrin, cheapo conditioner will do but it doesn't suffocate the eggs like Hedrin does.
Fabric conditioner is even cheaper if you're doing loads of children every night for a week.

I don't agree at all that conditioner and combing works.

My 2 cousins had visitors for months. My aunt spent so much time using conditioner and combing because she refused to buy the lotion. After literally months of it, her ex gave in and bought the bloody stuff. My eldest cousin (in his teens) was so fed up by this time, he had the stuff on, went and sat in his room and was flicking his lighter, his head went up in flames! This is before the flammable warnings were on the box and it was a result of this that the company acknowledged that the stupid stuff was ridiculously flammable. I saw the fireman do the test with a tea towel and it went up in seconds!

Get it sorted asap.

Oh, YANBU for complaining about the price. I had to buy some for the first time yesterday. DH sent me to the chemist with £10. I had no idea that it wouldn't be enough!!!

The 14 mth old had nits, I saw them moving in her hair and then combed them out. She's got a lot of hair, despite her age.

I don't know about cm's but school CAN NOT exclude a child with headlice!

The best thing to do is smother wet hair in loads of conditioner and comb once a week, which will stop any infestations.

We managed to avoid them with our boys, I had added tea tree oil to all the shampoo.
Local remedy here is mayonnaise, good and thick all through the hair, then put a plastic shower cap over it and leave it for a couple of hours, rinse and follow with the nit comb.

I never use nit shampoo. I just use the wet combing method and always successly get rid of them.

The only way wet combing won't be successful is if it's not being done properly.

My dd3 had headlice when she was just one. She did have a lot of hair though and both her sisters had them.

Whoever said it was rare! You are wrong!!

What Memoo said. Have to be very thorough, it isn't easy to be that thorough, admittedly.

Headrin Once. Works straight away on lice and eggs a d gets rid of both in one application. The problem is the people who Ignore nits or go around thinking combing will work. In the time you are attempting to brush out nits over a few days/weeks your kid has passed them on to others. If only everyone just treated them effectively and appropriately immediately upon discovering them.

I REPEAT... READ THE RESEARCH

Eggs do NOT all get killed by chemicals. The bastards are impervious.

Repeat combing to extract each fresh batch of the little bleeders as they hatch is the only way to break the life cycle which can be up to 21 days

Condtitioner helps prevent the eggs from attaching.

I will keep posting this on these threads till it gets through.

I have learnt this the hard way through my own two DD's & having worked with kids over 12 years AND worked with many school nurses & HV's.

Just to reiterate what somebody else said upthread - schools can't make you keep a child at home if they have headlice.
I use the tea tree shampoo and conditioner on my DC and touch wood we have been free for a few years

Don't talk to me about 'visitors'. Both DDs are subjected to wet combing almost every night atm. Masses of leave-in detangler spray works too. DD1 copes as o have promised her a trip to the hairdresser when the buggers are gone.

We use everything under the sodding sun . I am considering shaving DD2's hair off.

comb and conditioner
OR
for kids with allergic skin or fine hair, rub baby oil into their scalp before shampooing (lightly) the nits never have a chance to get a grip.

we used to comb in front of cbeebies sleepy hour - gave me LOTS of time to do it well.

YABU
The best way to get rid is conditioner and combing - see the community health bug busting site. The cheapest and most effective way

Buying chemicals is wrong on so many levels

Just wanted to contribute a differing POV.
Your DH says the ingredients cost about a fiver. That's great but I work for somewhere that produces products similar to nit treatment.
The ingredients aren't the only thing that go in to it, there's also time and money of production. Years of lab work to formulate an appropriate product. Clinical trials. Endless testing. Adherence to regulations. Appropriate packaging. And then obviously there's going to be a bit of profit for the company.
It's not just going to be bunging £5 worths of ingredients together and selling it for £17.99.

Otherwise I'd have a nit treatment factory in my cellar

this programme is the dog's. You must adhere to the timings

Highly recc

"In the time you are attempting to brush out nits over a few days/weeks your kid has passed them on to others."

Nope,PropertyNightmare - you comb out all the lice big enough to start wandering off to new homes - as long as you've combed thoroughly your child won't be passing them on.
Combing works fine,it is a bit of a bore though,and must be a nightmare if you have girls with lovely thick curly hair...

I used Hedrin, twice (seven days apart) and a thorough nit-combing every other night of the week.

Hate the little bastards!

For those saying combing/conditioner doesn't work - then you are not doing it thoroughly enough. If you painstakingly go through their hair (takes me an hour to do both heads) every night or every other night you will get the bastards. You will not get every lice/egg on comb so you have to pull them out!

combing is the only method that works. Takes ages to do thoroughly, but it does work.

In some areas you can get a nitty gritty comb on (free) prescription I believe, then all you need is the cheapest conditioner from the supermarket (I use a tea tree conditioner, but it's cheap- 99p for a huge bottle- as I understand tea tree oil repels them a little). I use loo roll to wipe the comb after each 'stroke', then rinse after every few.

The programme posted by randomnumbers is pretty much what I do, so you're getting all little visitors at every stage of the life-cycle, as you're not always sure when they arrived.

Basic plastic nit comb and conditioner all the way. I tried my friends nitty gritty on dd but her hair was too fine and the little buggers kept escaping!