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

[Whojamaflip]

Says it all really

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!

[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

The itch is also caused by thinking about nits

[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

I have never seen a girl with a buzz cut though...

[OutragedFromLeeds]

I knew a family with 5 girls all with buzz cuts because they were sick of the nits .

I'm not saying its common, I'm just saying there isn't a law or medical reason that all girls must have long hair.

[iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii]

Short hair can look amazing on little girls (especially nit free )

[BlackeyedSusan]

i had a girl in my class who had hair set like concrete. hairspray... the little buggers woiuld not have got a chance to thrive there.

oh and yes, I am now scratching away like mad...

[EnidRollins]

I completely and totally sympathise, as my DS has long hair and is ALWAYS catching the buggers.
I have completely, totally blitzed his head of all nits and eggs by checking every day, and do this every day to make sure he hasn't got any.
He won't have any, a school holiday will come up and he'll be nit free.
Last holidays he was completely and utterly nit and egg free, then two days into starting school again, on the nightly inspection, he had ONE SOLITARY HUGE ADULT NIT and nothing else in his hair which definitely wasn't there the night before when I checked, as it was all nit and egg free then.
So it had obviously got in there at school because some lazy bastard parent couldn't be arsed to check their kids hair like they're supposed to.
It's just too much hassle to have longish hair at his school, next time he has it cut I'm asking for it cut short.
ARGH, drives me mad.

[louisianablue2000]

DD1 had an infestation back in October, as did her best friend. Despite both me and the friend's Mum telling the school separately (told school before chatting to each other and discovering we'd both done the same thing) they didn't bother informing the other parents . Anyway we combed with nitty gritty comb and teatree conditioner every second night for two weeks and treated with Hedrin two weekends in a row (you're not suppose to do more than 3 treatments in a row IIRC). Use teatree shampoo for months afterwards and nitcomb every weekend. DDs friend got another infestation about 6 weeks later but luckily we avoided it at that point. But so annoyed at school for not reminding parents to look for it. Urgh. Getting an itchy head just thinking about it.

[Sparklymommy]

I have four kids and it is constant :( I hate it and check every other day and it is a nightmare. Conditioner and nitty gritty is the only way tho.

[Sokmonsta]

Tea tree oil! I swear by the stuff. Dd hasn't had nits despite being head to head with her majorly infested cousin and several nit notes from school.

I appreciate with boys it is harder but for dd she gets hair washed roughly every other day and I use tea tree shampoo/conditioner. In the morning when I'm tying her hair up I damp it down with tea tree essential oil in water from a spray bottle first then hairspray once done. Regardless of whether she has them or not I go through her hair with a nitty gritty comb once a week, more when notes come out. Fingers crossed but its working so far. I do it because I know how much trouble nits caused my sister despite our mother's best efforts and it appears one of her dd's has inherited the same problem.

With boys you could just rub some through in the morning.

[Whojamaflip]

OK maybe I Abu

I honestly thought that the fact that I was checking weekly and seeing nothing, then treating and combing for 3 days if I did see something was enough but obviously not

Looks like it will be nightly combing with tea tree oil for the foreseeable future then...

[mrsjay]

The eggs are clear ( i think) and take on hair colour, I dot hink the parents not treating is a little unfair nits are horrible and most parents feel like it is never ending while treating them, just keep combing them out saying he has no eggs in his hair is maybe right but treat his hair like he has,

[mrsjay]

maybe a lot of parents think like you did well I treated it so ,

[olgaga]

Girls can have short hair

Er, yes, if they want to. Mine didn't, and nor did any of her friends. It wasn't my choice and I was unwilling to have her restrained in a hairdresser's chair for a short cut.

Women can also have short hair - if they want to. As I do.

[ChubbyKitty]

My poor neice has beautiful hair but every morning SIL has to dowse her in that tea tree spray on the schools request because there's a couple of parents not bothering. It's been in letters home that they need to keep checking but I guess these parents in particular are fine with their children walking around like this. I try not to judge parenting styles because everyone is different but head lice are parasites and are eating their children and they really need to sort it out. My mum only used to do me once a week but it was for hours and hours until she was certain there was nothing left not even my scalp

Sadly we used to get them periodically in early years of secondary school as well because there were some very questionable kids who felt the need to invade personal space. Eugh. School conveniently didn't notice, but I remember once when I was about 13 I flat out refused to go one day because I'd been brushing my hair and found a fat one who had clearly just pigged out on all my blood. My mum was so calm and understanding and spent the day getting rid of the little blighters and the school asked the next day where I was and basically just imagined what I was saying is that I was sick.

Ooh it makes me mad.

But yanbu and yabu at the same time. Yanbu because all parents should be taking action but yabu to expect all parents to bother iyswim? Some of them just....don't.



Also, are they on me?

I feel like they're on me.

[IneedAsockamnesty]

Chubby, if I found any on my kids I would t send them into school untill I had made sure they had been combed through so nothing wandering around for that day.

Takes about an hour the school have never given me grief. And its better than having a embarrassed child.

[lemmingcurd]

don't forget that they can live in pillowcases, car seats, scarves, coats . my 2 had nits once and I must've done 17 loads of washing, it took me 3 days solid. I also washed the pillows and duvets themselves at 60, this was on the advice of nurse who had to inspect them before they cd go back to school. But the nits have never returned....

[IneedAsockamnesty]

The louse can only survive away from a head for about 30 hours but nits can for much longer and can survive washing so washing and hoovering is a good move.