what am I doing wrong re nitts and how do I eradicate them.

[TheEnthusiasticTroll]

dd had nitts two weeks before school ended, I got them under control combing with conditioner daily for two weeks, however a week or so after that she had them again or still had them.

I used hedrin once spray which did not even rid 1/3 of them, so did condition combing for the week after the hedrin and did the 7 day follow up, still did not get rid. I gave her a few days with nothing and then used lyclear wich got rid of them strait away and did the follow up treatment even though there was no evidance of anymore.

The lyclear worked but, she has had basicaly a week or two of the school holidyas nit free and I checked her two days ago and she was clear and so braved getting her hair trimmed today. However after combing and admiring her new hair cut with her, i noticed she has a few tiny clump with tinny nits on her hair shaft.

she has not mixed with the same child/ children over the holidays to pin point one carrier, she has been with a couple of friends from school once or twice, a few friends out of school, family, kids from the street and we have just returned from a weeks holiday. tee tree does not seem to work and the voseen shampoo leaves her hair grasy and limp. any suggestions? they areb tinny so they are not being left completly untreated, it seems to be either new infestation or a new life cycle each time.

Also treat myself every time too.

have you checked your own hair?

I never find any on me but i do always treat myself aswell and condition comb even when I dont find any just incase.

you need to be combing for much longer period of time, hang on while I get you a link

here you go

if you adhere strictly it works impeccably

try and remember the lifecycle of nits/head lice.

they live for about 30 days and take 9/10 days for eggs to hatch they are ready to lay eggs at 14 days old and each one can lay 100 eggs in its lifetime.

the only way to compleatly break the cycle is to comb (i do twice a day) and keep doing it untill nothing is seen for at least 14 days.

some people swear by ttree oil

Im not sure the combing really keeps on top of it that is why i then do the treating. I think the combing regiem says two weeks then a break and then a week to kill the next cycle but It does not seem to even get rid of the first cycle when i have been doing it.

With dd2 it took 6 - 8 weeks of conditioner andcombing to get rid of her nits (but she does have particularly thick hair). None of the chemicals worked. I would persevere with the conditioner.

Have you washed her bedding at 60 degrees? There could still be lice lurking in any cuddly toys on her bed or on her dressing gown or pyjamas. Has she worn the same hoodie or even a coat with a hood recently?

thanks I have saved that raisin, i will begin it and give it a go from tommorow.

But Im tempted to do it along side the lyclear. It just seems a never ending battle. She has very long thick hair too, it takes a good couple of hours to effectivly comb it through.

she had similar two years ago when she strated school and I did attempt the combing reigime but as i remember i did have to treat her in the end, she did not have them again untill near the end of this school year.

we have just returned from holiday and so her bedding was washed before we went and regularly before that anyway. I tend to do bedding at 60 anyway and all clothes have been washed after coming home wether worn or not. I will do all her and my bedding again tomorrow and start the combing.

ive just gone through that link and tbh i wouldnt rate it much the basic principle is sound but the rest days, for me nope i wouldnt be happy doing that as its far to likly you will miss lice.

but then again im obsessive about parisites and wouldnt allow my kids to mix with other kids if i knew they had adult crawlers on them i dont think its fair on other parents.

i have allways done the twice a day comb and kept on doing it in till long after i am certain they no longer have them you cannot be certain untill you are not removing anything for at least 14 days (i also check every 3 days without fail after this), thats why your combing is not working you are not doing it for long enough.

its a pain but it does work if you do it propally

nothing wrong with combining it with lyclear either

I'm surprised the Hedrin Once didn't get rid of them. We've been stricken with headlice twice and found it completely eradicated them in one go. I wonder why i would work on us and not on you.

We've recently had our first infestation. We were in Spain and got some brilliant treatment. Have followed it up with combing and a dose of some spray.
My sister recently used Asda's own and rated it.
I have also heard Tea Tree Oil repels them.

I asked the pharmasist and she said hedrin does not have the active ingredient in that is need to eradicate an infestation. she said it does often works and is effective as does other treatments however only lyclear and one other they stock has the active ingredient cant remember what it was called now.

I have also found that full marks does not work either.

I will take your advice Sock and comb every day for longer than the 21 days, i also thing the rest days seem more than the combing its self too.

hair straightners

DDs don't mind them -they think it's a treat

and it nukes the little buggers!

I feel your pain

They LOVE DS1 I treat with hedrin, I comb twice daily for at least 2 weeks, then when it's all clear I comb 3 days later and he's got them again

I don't get them but I do itch. I treat myself too every time and comb myself but never find any but still itch!

I'm so fed up of them

In theory you only need to comb every 3rd day for 2 weeks to break the life cycle (as it takes 4-5 days for lice to mature enough to lay eggs). But for this to work you must get every single live louse out each time you come which is very hard to do.

What comb are you using? I really would recommend a Nitty Gritty comb. I have (with a lot of practice) been able to successfully treat a moderate infestation within 8 days (although still follow up after the week).

The Nitty gritty is soooo much better than any other comb as it really does kill/remove anything it comes into contact with - even the eggs. If the eggs don't hatch there are less lice to deal with. But you do have to be thorough, and use the comb in different angles against the hair shaft so it pulls them off the top/bottom/both side etc.. Takes me about an hour-90mins to do DDs very long exceedingly thick hair. Hot tip - fill a pint glass/jug with water to rinse the comb in. You can then see the llittle blighters at the bottom when you finish so you can see how effective your combing has been/when you are clear.

There is no reason you can't combine with other products if you want. But honestly Nitty Gritty every third day for 2 weeks (personally i continue until I have had 2 clear combing sessions) has worked for me.

Hi! I studied Medical Parasitology at postgraduate level (a few years ago now) and we covered head lice for a bit.

Tea tree oil as far as I'm aware has never been proved to be effective, and the solutions based on pesticides such as Hedrin and Lyclear will only work if the particular strain of head louse that you're treating is susceptible to that particular pesticide (many are resistant).

Blocking the air holes of the lice together with regular combing out with a good louse comb is unfortunately the most reliable eradication method at the moment to my knowledge (there may be new treatments I haven't heard of though!).

Not sure about hair straighteners because most head lice live close to the scalp so you'd have to get close enough to burn the scalp to kill any head lice? Interesting idea though!

However if there are only nits, maybe they're dead? If you don't see any live adults, the nits might just be empty shells left behind during treatment.

Some of the issues are covered in this paper, which has a few suggestions:-

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10937452

Hope this helps! :)

thanks, i will buy an nitty gritty and read the paper above. I was using a metal toothed comb but then found the plastic detection comb was getting more out as it was much thiner and the gaps much smaller.

The teeth on the nitty gritty have a corkscrew edge and physically touch each other. You can most definitely see eggs as well as lice in the bottom of the glass. You won't see them on the comb as easily though - which is the case with all metal combs.

Getting the eggs out really.does give you a head start cos they stay in one place. It's the lice that are easy to miss imo.

Giving the comb a good rinse in a big glass of water definitely works tho - when I started I would get about a third of what I got the previous time (so if I got about a hundred on day 1 I would get about 30 next time I combed and about 10 after that etc.) So you can see its working, but you really must have a couple of clear combs before you stop. If you leave 1 pregnant louse on the head you will be back to square 1 within 10 days.

Just don't empty the glass back into the bathwater as lice don't drown and they will just get back on the head when you rinse!

Argh! I'm having the same issue myself. Have been combing every day (can't do twice a day with 4 DC's to do as my own hair takes nearly 2 hours to do each time as it is waist length thick hair.), using Hedrin stuff that is meant to suffocate them, which costs me £21 each time, because I have to use 2/3 of a big bottle on DD's hair, one big bottle between the 3 DS's, and one full big bottle plus the remaining 1/3 from DD's bottle on myself. And still the indestructible fuckers won't leave us alone!

I resorted to treating twice with Lyclear. Did nothing. Over half of them were coming out still live. After the second treatment. I have boil washed on a 90 degree wash all towels and bedding.

I have combed daily since I noticed the first louse one week into the holidays (day after soft play). Still I can't get rid of them.

I'm looking wistfully at sheep dip now...

Either that or nuclear attack. I am going to try the other thing that I can't remember the name of over the weekend - the one with Malathion in, anyway.

isthis the nitty gritty?

can you not get it on free prescription for the dcs couthy

My phone wouldn't open the amazon link.

It is this one

www.nittygritty.co.uk/site/home.asp

And it appears I have been quoted on there home page, I never knew that :o.

You can get it from.boots and tesco. Apparently you can also get it free on prescription.