To think if your kid has head lice, sort it out!

[Sigyn]

Ok I am so fed up with this.

My kids have several friends whose parents basically will not treat head lice.

1. They do not want "harsh chemicals" on their kid's head.
2. They cannot be arsed do not have the time to spend hours each night for a week or so fine combing each kid's hair.
3. They have near religious beliefs in the power of one or all of the following: tea tree oil, coconut oil and/or neem.

I am deeply about neem btw. Apparently, it can kill the eggs. So you don't want to put "harsh chemicals" on your kid's head (the active ingredient in Full Marks, for example, is a drying agent, a bit like those those little silica packets)-but you will put something on their head so toxic and pervasive that it can get through the shell of an egg? (but, yk, your business...).

Lice are not a mystical mysterious thing. This is how you kill them. Either use a OTC formula or similar to kill the eggs, and comb through, repeatedly, until they are gone (resistance, you might have missed a bit esp with long hair, etc) OR do the same, using conditioner, mayo, coconut oil, whatever floats your boat and a Nitty Gritty (ideally) until they are gone. Then do it all again a week later as the eggs start to hatch. Then tie up your kids hair into pigtails.

It takes hard, bloody work and I am SO sick of it.

This is the prevalent culture in the circles we mix in. Basically, medical intervention=bad. Unpronounceable names on medicine= bad. Untested, potentially dangerous and/or ineffective "medicines" = great, possibly transcendent.

Oh and fwiw, I think even with a chemical spray you need to comb through. I don't think those who use sprays get off the hook.

Stinkle (that is a good name :-) ) We had this for ages when our kids were at a particular school. (again-not naming the particular educational philosophy of the school.....). Year round low level infestation, including, which was weird, frequently adult lice but no eggs, no little ones.

I've said already, I have ninja lice combing skills. I really do. And way more experience than I'd like. I've considered it as a retirement career ;-) . So I'm pretty sure I wasn't missing stuff. (unless they were special lice or something).

Anyway, what was going on I reckon was that because the school culture was "waft a bit of teatree around a non-petroleum candle" and "dunk your kid's head in neat neem (which works because it is a PESTICIDE, ffs!), and my personal favourite in the context of "natural health": Listerine-our kids were just coming back with them, even with hair tied up etc. I think what might be partly happening is that some kids just aren't as bothered by them. Especially if they've been infested for a long time (kindergarten starts at 3 here....)

You need to have a word with the school, and get them to change their policy, so that anyone who comes in with lice is sent home again, and can only come back when they have been treated, and the nits are seen to be gone.

Spot checks are common with us, (for uniforms too) and each child is sent home until treated. No ifs or buts. (Independent school, so they can do this) they also insist that the girls have their hair put up in pig tails, and the teachers carry packs of new bobbins in case one girl forgot to put her hair up. The teacher puts their hair up for them if they can't manage it, while checking for nits.

An information letter should be sent out as well, highlighting that the beds and bedding needs to be washed and the bedrooms need to be vacuumed and cleaned thoroughly.

Maybe your parents association could get on board, and put it on the agenda of the next meeting.

There is increasing evidence that using essential oils like tea tree and lavender oils on children can affect their hormones, and speed up puberty, so be careful what chemicals go on kids heads- sometimes the tried and tested OTC stuff is safer than the "natural" products, even if used the same way....

Giles- go to the charity website, read the info for parents, buy or get free on prescription the combs and use with your child's normal conditioner. You do not need to apply harsh chemicals, especially to children who have eczema as my dd has- we never use anything over the counter as I used it once and it didn't work, so back to the tried and trusted combing method.

People get put off the combing as they imagine you have to do it a lot- but the trick is to do it on the right days. If you do it three days in a row, then don't bother- you won't succeed. You need to do it systematically- we know the lifecycle of the nit, so know when they will hatch and so when to recomb.

Devere I do have sympathy with your combing battle though. I hate doing one of my dd's who has long hair, I would say that takes about an hour, so three would be horrendous.

I have the nitty gritty and I'm a compulsive Comber. It's just part of the routine now. I guess I will be fine sing a product as long as it doesn't contain dimithicone they haven't had them now for 2 year but letters have been circulated saying there's am infestation a few times

YANBU.
This drives me crazy. Luckily DS's class at school don't have much trouble with headlice, the parents all seem pretty decent and must sort them out as soon as they get them.

However, my step kids are constantly crawling with them! And their Mum seems to do little about it which makes me so mad.
Last year me and DS caught them and they were quite bad by the time I realised but I treated them and then went through with a nit comb every day for about 2 weeks after and then still continued to go through with a comb every time I washed it for prob a couple of months after.
That's the only way to properly ensure they have totally gone.

Too many people just stick a lotion on and think that's it.

When my kids have had nits it totally grossed me out, the thought of little bugs biting my babies makes me shudder and I become slightly obsessed about getting rid of the little critters.
I really can not understand Mums who don't really seem to care, surely it's just maternal instinct? Even wild animals get rid of lice from their babies.

They also now have shoulder length instead of waist length hair. So much easier for me having 3 Dds

Thanks napolean

I have one in school one in nursery and I know it's just a matter of time :) we have been lucky so far and I keep hair tied back. I'm wondering if we have the amazing class with no untreated lice or whether they hate the kids shampoo :o

thenap it was horrible. She really did have the thickest hair imaginable though. She could stand under a shower for 10 minutes and most of it would still be dry.

She had so much of it that even after two years of intense chemo (on and off) she didn't lose it all.

I used to bloody curse all those parents with their slinky haired kids who still didn't bother sorting them out!

No, you need to comb every day, until they are clear. This is for a number of reasons, but one is that if you are using mechanical means you WILL miss some. Not every louse is stunned by the conditioner, its easy to miss a bit.

You need to comb every day until you are clear really and then another week. And then you need to comb through each week, say on a friday, with a thick conditioner, if there is ANY chance of reinfestation.

You might get away with only combing on certain days I guess if you had a kid with short, straight hair. I have kids with long curly hair and I don't think I could be 100% sure to get everything on one pass.

Better to err on the side of caution, I feel.

Or use the harsh chemicals, make sure the hair is thoroughly coated, and then do a couple of comb throughs throughout the week after.

There aren't really any shortcuts. And IME you do need to comb through thoroughly, even with chemicals.

YANBU OP - it drives me nuts - Hedrin and others have NO HARSH CHEMICALS by the way - they don't use them

People believe all the folk law and it changes nothing - mean while I am Hedrining my 3 once a month

I can't comb every night - I have 3 girls with thick long hair - it would take hours to do it properly - which is another thing - people don't do combing right - it needs to be done daily for 14 days or it will not work

if vinegar, mayo, etc worked they would put it in a bottle and market it

they don't

Sigyn the method I linked to has been properly tested and published in the BMJ and is recommended by the NHS- the links are all there. You don't need to comb every day but on particular days in the nit life-cycle. It says which days! Obviously if you want to do it every day for two weeks you can, but most can't or won't, so specifying which days in a two week period is extremely helpful. It has always worked for me and I don't comb every day for the reasons others have mentioned- it's an hour per long-haired child, 30 min for shorter bob and it takes ages and is quite painful if the hair is tangly.

You don't have to use chemicals and I don't actually think ty work very well as you still need to comb

1. cover wet hair with lots of conditioner as use nitty gritty comb. Going over in layers so you don't miss areas.
2. repeat daily for 3 days, then weekly
3. French plait all long hair and spray with a natural hairspray ( keeps floaty hair in place and hard for head live to hold on!)
4. repeat. As mentioned above. I think all parents should comb kids hair weekly to check they haven't been reinfested so you catch anything quickly.

Art how many kids do you have

not being goady but it's really hard to do that with my 3

I do combe weekly (Friday night fun!) but I don't have enough hours in the evening to use it as a treatment

Hedrin always works for us

Although I should say if you use a crappy electrical zapper you probably do need to do it all the time as they only kill big lice.

The nitty gritty comb or the Bug Busters one are ace- the Bug Busters one has two combs, the last very fine and this gets rid of eggs, although I have found one or two left over even after using this- which is why the repeating through the two weeks is important.

I will shut up now or you will think I do work for this charity!

Do they consider Hedrin as a "harsh chemical"? Because it isn't, as it doesn't work as a poison, just smothers them and the eggs. (It's also the slipperiest substance you will ever encounter. Drop a bit on your wooden floor, and you will be skidding down the halle for weeks.) I've only ever had to use it as a one-shot, it's that good. It's certainly less harsh on the skin than tea-tree oil.

Have you all tried the electric comb, from Boots at about 20 quid? I love it, as you can do a quick check-pass over your DCs' dry hair as often as you like, without doing the nitty-gritty comb+conditioner thing, which takes ages.

YANBU

We're having a time of it with lice at the moment. DD picked them up from nursery BUT as she was just over chicken pox and still itchy we overlooked the signs for a few days.

We're treating and combing but the bastards are very persistent and she has extremely fine hair.

It's hell trying to persuade a 3 year old to stand still whilst you come diligently behind their ears morning and night but it seems to be the only way.

I love Hedrin but always make sure the floor is covered in towels

I once washed it off in the shower ...not advised!

Thenapoleonofcrime - I do belt-and-braces with hedrin, but I've found my electrical zapper gets the teeny ones, too. Maybe it's a hair-type thing? My DS has very straight hair (which should be easy to comb, but it's very long, plus he makes an enormous fuss). So, his hair doesn't distort the tines very much when I comb it. My niece has thick, curly hair, and it distorts the times a lot more.

Also, my head is now itchy, you bastards!

Gordy -2 children. Surely most the time kids don't actually have head lice so it's only a 15 job per child on sun eve usually to check nothing's there? The every day for 3 days is only if you find some. If checking weekly then they aren't likely to be infested as caught quickly

It is the parents who only comb with conditioner in our school whose kids keep reintroducing/incubating nits.

Followed your links napoleon and can't find any research or info regarding frequency of treatment. Assume missing it, so can you link? I think the kit itself does look thorough and so using that, rather than just a normal comb, I wonder if doing it at the intervals suggested might be ok.

The concerns I have with doing it at set days are

1. Missing some, meaning that the other days let you catch up. This is a real issue with my kids' curly/wavy hair. If they had straight hair it might be different, I don't know. I have very straight hair and my mum/grandma would certainly do it everyday, based on their shared extensive experience of nits in inner city London council housing/schools. But this was before such fine technology as the NittyGritty.

2. My understanding is that not every louse has an identical lifecycle. Not every female louse, for example, starts laying eggs at 7 days. Not every egg hatches at the same time. So a bit of erring here is wise, IMO, and once you start erring on the side of caution you've done every day anyway.

3. In practice, odds are whoever you got them from in the first place is still around and there's a good chance of reinfestation. So keeping on combing is going to at least stop the soul destroying thing where you comb religiously on days whatever and then you stop and the bastards are back.

I dunno. I have three kids. I am fed up as hell with all this. I'm thinking of moving to the country and cutting off my kids' hair and educating them through facebook and the internet and never speaking to a person again unless I am wearing a thick hat.

no I am talking about using it as a treatment Art I do check weekly as I said

they have very long hair - the older two have a few issues and hate having it cut but hate having it fiddled with so it can be fraught doing it

it also takes about an hour each child - seriously - they have very thick hair - so given I don't get in until 6 - that leave a very small window to do it

hedrin I can do at bath time - 15 mins, wash off - job done

Art I've done all that. Repeatedly.

I've Hedrin-ed them to death, I've worked my way through every brand of nit treatment my local Boots stocks I've tried all the olive oil/vinegar recommendations, I use conditioner and a Nitty Gritty daily.

Hair is always plaited.

At the moment I'm conditioner/Nitty Gritty-ing daily and we're using the Vosene supposedly anti-nit shampoo every other day. I'm still pulling out one or two big ones.

I've become obsessed with the bloody things and it's turned into all out war, but the little buggers are beating me. It's driving me mad

And yes, I now have an itchy head