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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to be pissed off I have had to treat ds for nits 3 times in 3 weeks!

42 replies

Whojamaflip · 03/05/2013 22:40

Says it all really Angry

DS came home today complaining his head was itchy - AGAIN and sure enough there were 3 adult headlice in his hair. I have treated him and sent him to bed.

Why can't people check and treat their children? We have had notes home from school asking people to check and treat accordingly so why can't they do it.

Why should I have to deal with them on a weekly basis cos some folks can't be bothered! Angry

OP posts:
FreyaSnow · 03/05/2013 22:43

When children have head lice, you do normally have to treat them for a number of consecutive weeks, not just do it for one week and leave it.

Catching head lice doesn't give you an itchy head. If you have an itchy head it is because you are having a reaction to them caused by having had lice and eggs on your head for a longer period of time.

NotKathyReichs · 03/05/2013 22:43

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

ElsieOops · 03/05/2013 22:45

Do expect to need to check and deal with it frequently - I found the conditioner and nitcomb method was good to keep on top of it whilst my daughter was in primary school. I think she had it repeatedly when about 8 years old, hasn't had it since though.

HolyFocaccia · 03/05/2013 22:47

You may find that nit lotion is not the final answer to these lice, whether its down to resistance I am not sure. You need to comb, comb, comb...which I am sure you have already but keep going. Will take a few weeks to break the cycle of hatching.

Lots of conditioner, patience and bribery is key.

Bossybritches22 · 03/05/2013 22:48

Same batch just breeding.

Treatments don't work, the little bastid eggs are impervious to just about everything.

They can have up to a 21 day life cycle so constant combing is the only option.

exexpat · 03/05/2013 22:48

I agree it probably means you are not getting rid of them. Are you just using one of the chemical things? conditioner and nit comb, repeated every few days, is more effective and much cheaper. But you need to do it four or five times over a two-week period to stamp them out, then do a check with nit comb once every couple of weeks.

mrsjay · 03/05/2013 22:48

yanbu to be pissed off but they can hang about for months you need good combs and comb the little buggers out you cant get them out with just lotion you need to comb them out every 2 days for at least a fortnight

Original poster
Whojamaflip · 03/05/2013 22:51

I understand about the treating and retreating but ds doesn't have any eggs! Just full grown creepy crawlys.

I promise there are no eggs - his hair is dark and I know I would be able to see the white egg casings - there just aren't any.

I use a nitty gritty comb and all I get out of his hair are the adults - no eggs, no juveniles, no egg cases.

So imo he is picking up the adults from someone at school which means someones parent is not doing their job...

OP posts:
thenightsky · 03/05/2013 22:54

When mine were at Primary the school would send out a letter to all parents to treat their DC on a certain Saturday in the month, whether they had evidence of nits or not. It kept outbreaks down to once a year max. Can you get your school to do this OP?

inchoccyheaven · 03/05/2013 22:55

eggs aren't neccessarily white though. My boys are blonde and the eggs they had were dark and looked like specks of dirt. Only difference was dirt would brush out these clung to the hair and I had to pull off with fingernails as too small for nit comb.

FreyaSnow · 03/05/2013 22:57

'For the first two or three months, there is usually no itch, but then the scalp may start to itch badly. This is due to an allergy, not to the louse bites themselves.
Most people only realise they have head lice when this itch starts. By then they?ve had lice on their head for two or three months without knowing it.
In most infections, there aren?t more than a dozen or so lice on the scalp at any one time.
Some people never get the itch, including adults. They may have a few lice on their heads for years without knowing it, and can pass them to other people.'

ilovepowerhoop · 03/05/2013 22:57

empty cases are white and eggs with lice in are darker

ElsieOops · 03/05/2013 22:59

The eggs are pale brown before hatching, my daughter's hair is dark brown and it is still very hard to see the empty white cases, and the unhatched ones was even harder. I found them easiest to see when the hair was slightly damp. The cases didn't come off with the nitcomb I used, so I pulled them out by hand too.

Original poster
Whojamaflip · 03/05/2013 23:01

Freya - really? I check the dc's hair every sunday with the nit comb cos I have a pathological fear of creepy crawlies in the hair - just the thought of it makes my head itch!

I would hope that I would have noticed ds had lice before now if he had had them for 2 to 3 months!

night - I like that idea - may pass it on to his class teacher.

I thought empty egg cases were white and unhatched eggs dark - so would expect to find white things stuck to the hair if I was finding adults.

OP posts:
Original poster
Whojamaflip · 03/05/2013 23:02

oh x post

OP posts:
gwenniebee · 03/05/2013 23:02

I used to work in a boarding school and nits were pretty much endemic. Eugh. However, we used to have problems with pupils where we got rid of the nits at school and they caught them again from home... so, do your whole family, including the adults.

SofiaAmes · 03/05/2013 23:02

Have you asked what activities they are going at school. One year when my ds was in nursery, they sent a note home saying that there was lice in the class. That day when I was picking ds up, the teacher pointed out how they were learning about careers and showed me the array of hats that they had all been trying on!!!! I tried to point out that that was probably the source of the spreading lice epidemic, but she really didn't seem to get it.

FreyaSnow · 03/05/2013 23:06

OP, I got that from the CCDC. It was the first link that came up, but I've read the same thing previously on various UK websites.

That's the thing. All these parents who don't deal with nits, it's often because they think things like all eggs are white, you only have to treat for one week etc.

I'm sorry, but it does sound very much like you are the parent whose child is giving other kids nits. It isn't a big deal. Just condition and comb more regularly.

IneedAsockamnesty · 03/05/2013 23:26

Yabu and probably contributing towards the problem.

But I'm guessing you know that now,

Have a read of this www.killnits.com/head_lice_life_%20cycle.html

It explains it and may help you get your head around why it takes over 3 weeks to effectively treat headlice

ApocalypseCheeseToastie · 03/05/2013 23:36

you need nitrid, its a fiver in wilkinsons or can be bought on amazon, amazing stuff it ended an infestation in months, I only applied once so it must have killed the eggs too.

IneedAsockamnesty · 03/05/2013 23:36

Freya.

The lack of itch is only in some cases equally as such extream long term cases may have stopped itching due to resistance.

The itch can be caused by both adult movement and feeding as well as egg laying.

Op I get that you think you know about headlice but put it this way.

Why would 3 breeding mature adult lice wander onto your sons head spend at least 1 day on his head and all 3 randomly decide not to behave like any other head louse in the history of the world? One perhaps but all 3 not doing what they are biologically programmed to do? Not likely really is it?

ApocalypseCheeseToastie · 03/05/2013 23:37

infestation that LASTED months not IN months !

olgaga · 03/05/2013 23:45

At least with boys you can get their hair cut short and then it's a lot easier to treat.

I feel like I spent years of my life treating and combing my DDs long hair!

iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii · 03/05/2013 23:47

OP, how long is your sons hair?

My DS's never got nits and i think it was largely because they had buzz cuts. They didnt suit longer hair and it was an added bonus that boys with very short hair don't usually get nits.

OutragedFromLeeds · 03/05/2013 23:48

Girls can have short hair Confused