To be pulling my hair out at head lice

[Flatasawitchestit]

Excuse the pun

My daughter is 7. Sunday night is usually nit night and I run the nitty gritty through her hair (and bribe her to do mine as I love the feeling ) within a week of being back after summer break she was crawling with the nits.

I informed the school and went back to nightly nit watch. Did the usual running the bedding on a hot wash, she always keeps her hair in a plait as otherwise she looks like one of the twits with her curly unruly mop I tend to pop a few drops of tea tree oil through it too.

We got rid, they returned. We got rid they returned. You get me? We ended up using a treatment although I hate this as I read that chemicals are becoming ineffective and its the combing that does the trick. She had a weekend free of them, and recent half term we were de-nitted. Back go school last week and guess what?

I've sat for an hour again tonight and found them. This was after a free few days.


What am I doing wrong? I'm tempted to ask her to change seats at school in case its one of the girls sat next to her. AIBU? I'm getting mightily pissed off now. The head has sent 4 letters out after I emailed each time saying she was infested.

AIBU to assume some parents are just dousing their kids in shitty chemicals and not taking the time to comb through and take time?




Are you all scratching your heads now?

[JustRestingMyEyes]

You have my deepest sympathy.
I comb and condition both kids three times a week. It is insane but now the norm - as in, I now do it whether there are nits at school or not.
Prevention being easier than cure and all that.
I want the toddler to grow up thinking combing with conditioner is normal will tell her the ugly truth when she is 13but am having a battle at the moment unsurprisingly as she would rather have no combing or toothbrushing or normal hair brushing thank you mummy.

[NoComet]

honestly life's too short to get in a tiz about nits.

They are much rarer at secondary.

Not unheard of, because most of DD2'S DFs have younger siblings, but much better.

[Squiffyagain]

You have my sympathy. DS has never had a nit, DD only has to skip into school on the first day of term to be infested with the blighters. We use conditioner, nitty gritty, olive oil, blow-drying and hedrin leave-in spray. One of these does the trick, but buggered if I know which one it is, I just do it all. Life's too short to try them one by one.

[confusedmind14]

2 days after returning back to school last week, I caught DS scratching his head so I checked it and found a nit. Thank god I have boys! I got the dubbers out, then went through his hair 4 times and in total only found 2. Checked his head repeatedly since and told him to keep his head away from others!! Also been spraying tea tree stuff on his hair. So far so good.

Think we was lucky to catch them early before he got infested! Drives me mad when other parents don't even try to get rid of nits. They are unpleasant for the child, and for anyone who catches them! The itching and sore spots on the scalp aren't nice at all.

[leavesalmondoutofit]

Yay Starlight I thought everyone had forgotten that vinegar melts the glue that the (nits) eggs are stuck to the hair with.

Tea tree oil is thought to be a deterrent you can add 5 FIVE drops to a bottle of ordinary shampoo. used straight onto skin it can be a powerful irritant.

[CrohnicallyTired]

Do they still make polytar shampoo for the treatment of dandruff? I used it as a kid and my mum swears that's what stopped me catching nits- there were a few of us at school using it and none of us ever caught them. So that's something else you can try to prevent re infestation.

[MisguidedHamwidge]

Vosene do a kids range of 'nit repellant' hair products. I have actually got round to ordering any yet but I read a post on here from a mum who said that the shampoo had really worked for her DD.

[noblegiraffe]

Do you really need to boil wash stuff? Internet suggests that they don't live very long away from a head and that it isn't necessary.

[bragmatic]

I don't boil and wash. I use an electronic nit comb every couple of days for a month or so. it doesn't get the eggs, but zaps the live ones and if you do it often enough the babies don't get a chance to lay eggs.

I hear cedar oil is the biz for keeping them at bay. I know someone who swears by mosquito spray, which kind of makes sense.

[Balaboosta]

Combing every day. Shorter hair. Lots of conditioner. it suffocates them.

[Balaboosta]

Polytar still exists but maybe

[Balaboosta]

(Balls) ... On prescription

[Meglet]

We've used the vosene anti-nit shampoo for 3yrs now and escaped all nursery / school nit breakouts.

I'm paranoid that the dc's will catch them as the nitty gritty pulls my hair out and I'd be bald with daily combing. I get twitchy if their hair touches mine.

[RedLondonBus]

noble years ago my friend kept a few lice in a jar as an experiment. the buggers lived for 3 days!!

[noblegiraffe]

Omg Red, I think I'm now going to go and burn all DS's bedding.

[lollilou]

I do think the vosene nit shampoo works but it does seem to leave the dcs hair a bit greasy after a day. I also use the nitty gritty comb.

[Alwayscheerful]

Nitty gritty comb.
Add tea tree oil to shampoo.
Add tea tree oil and use lost of conditioner and wet comb.
Massage neem oil into scalp and hair and leave for 24 hrs (weekend is best).
Neem oil is foul smelling but lice hate it.

[gordyslovesheep]

Hedrin used correctly and repeated

Combing works if done thoroughly daily for 14 days which, with three girls with thick long hair is not an option for us

I have never used tea tree or any other hoodoo and we rarely get them

[TheWickerWoman]

My Daughter used to get them loads when she was at school. I eventually discovered it was someone she sat next to who was always crawling with them, I had her moved and the problem stopped. It was driving me mad, every conditioning and a combing through her hair, she hated it too and just when you thought they were gone they would return again arghhhh!!!

[Goldmandra]

years ago my friend kept a few lice in a jar as an experiment. hmm the buggers lived for 3 days!!

I think we may have the same friend!

For every treatment going there are people for whom it has worked and others for whom it definitely didn't, despite them being adamant that they have followed the instructions to the letter.

Conditioner and oil make it harder for the lice to grip the hair shaft so they are rinsed, pulled out more easily.

Good nit combs and thorough combing three times a week get the live lice out.

Once they are out you will be left with eggs no matter how much you look because they are so tiny and well camouflaged.

You need to keep combing thoroughly three times a week for at least two weeks to prevent new hatchlings from still being in the hair when they are old enough to lay new eggs.

If you comb and condition thoroughly and regularly enough for long enough

I fell into the trap of thinking DD was being reinfected when actually I was relying on the potions and not combing often or thoroughly enough. In my defence, DD1 has the most incredibly thick long hair and combing and conditioning is a horrendous task.

Once I got my act together and started doing it thoroughly and often enough the problem disappeared and new infestations are now dealt with swiftly and effectively with a bottle of conditioner and a comb.

I later realised at one point that DD1 was definitely being reinfected and so was a friend's DD. We both spoke to every parent in the class and made sure they knew that you have to look for them with a nit comb and 'I would have noticed' doesn't cut it. That solved the problem.

[Goldmandra]

If you comb and condition thoroughly and regularly enough for long enough...
you will clear them.

[fluffyraggies]

Skimmed the thread and just wanted to add my apeth. I'm probably repeating:

• Nits on your kids wont go away while others have them.

• You can kill/comb them all out one day and they'll be back the next. So what ever you do ... you have to do it daily while they are at school.

• Comb every night (EVERY NIGHT - to catch any hatchlings before they lay any eggs, and to remove older adults that have just crawled on)

• and apply deterrents such as tea tree/hairspray/tight hair styles etc.

I think chemicals are a bit pointless when you can remove them physically. No one wants to put chems. on their child head every day. And if you're not going to do it everyday it's pointless cos they'll all just come back!

Feel your pain OP :)

[mrsjay]

I really feel your pain mine are older but when they were both in primary they had them for months i was getting paranoid and really upset i wasn't doing it properly I got Bug buster combs I think you can buy them in the chemist but i bought them on line there is 2 combs in the bacj one for the nits and one for the eggs and debris 2 weeks of using them they were gone, I also used straightners on their hair to burn the buggers, oh and lots of conditioner you also need a white piece of paper and you need to wipe the comb after every bloody stroke , good luck itches head

[fluffyraggies]

God MrsJ it's all coming back now - with your wiping the comb comment

It's boring, time consuming, repetitive habit that you just have to get into isn't it? But strangely satisfying when you're on top of it - and their hair looks beautiful.

I can remember giving myself and the DDs a night or two off the nit combing routine once in a while (as some nights there were no nits to be found) Always punished for that! Loads of the buggers next time we combed.

[MrsBungleScare]

Can anyone tell me what I'm doing wrong with the nitty gritty comb? I bought it as everyone has said it's amazing. I think my dd had not eggs. The comb didn't even nearly pick them out. The teeth of the comb were too wide, the egg just goes through it. I spend a long time dragging off eggs from her hair with my finger nails.

Am I doing something wrong or is the nitty gritty not great on everyone's hair?