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.

yes hedrin is a harsh chemical.

Listerine isn't.

Just on the "harsh chemical" stuff.

Neem is a pesticide. It works BECAUSE IT IS A PESTICIDE.
Teatree is a known toxin.
Listerine (seriously) works because it is about 50% proof and so, I'm guessing, dehydrates the lice (at least they will die happy).

Full Marks, otoh, and from a quick look, hedrin, are combination drying and oily agents so are basically working a lot like a thick conditioner except that they are drying out and so killing the lice too. The only thing scary or toxic about them is the price (yes my kids can get them on prescription but I can't)

We use Full Marks because it is easier to rinse out than Hedrin.

I just condition/nitty gritty their hair after every bath, regardless of whether there are lice there or not. It's become a regrettable, but unavoidable, part of our routine.

Head lice are just endemic now. I never had them at all as a child.

I do mine every night dry or wet hair depending if they been showered with a nitty gritty then once a week with conditioner and despite 3 infestations in school non of them got them. My mam brushed my hair every night before bed so I do that but quickly with nitty gritty instead of a brush. Kids are used to it. I don't do it section by section just a quick comb thru but because it's every night I guess I'm getting them all out if any in within 3 days. The shorter hair is definitely so much easier to manage. I could spend an hr just brushing 3 dds wait length hair

God, yes, Hedrin is a bastard to wash out. Shampoo and repeat about 15 million times

Also, fwiw, if you cannot be arsed or don't have time to treat your kid's hair properly yet don't really understand science have concerns about harsh chemicals (or legitimately - eg have eczema or a sensitivity to one of the ingredients or whatever), yk,

you can always cut your child's hair short

Yes kids with very short hair can get lice but its much, much faster to treat. It takes dp about five minutes to comb through (poor dp). As opposed to the hour each time for my long haired kids.

I suppose YNBU, but there comes a point when you decide you can live with the odd louse, they do no harm and DD2 can run far faster than you.

YANBU at all. This is really starting to get to me. Every week without fail, there's a wishy washy note in the school newsletter notifying parents of a headlice outbreak, and asking parents to comb through - which I do religiously with my 3. Not so the other hippy parents at our school, whose kids look like their hair hasn't seen a hairbrush for months, let alone a nit comb

Stinkle, the trick (if you don't already do this, forgive me if you do) is to put the shampoo straight on the hedrin'd hair and work it in before you add any water.

I suppose YNBU, but there comes a point when you decide you can live with the odd louse, they do no harm and DD2 can run far faster than you.

And, assuming its not causing your kid unhappiness, that is completely fine if you home educate on a remote island and never come into contact with any other person ever.

And I m not cutting DD1's hair short, she'd look ridiculous - and it would stll be very thick and exactly lice coloured.

God, yes, Hedrin is a bastard to wash out. Shampoo and repeat about 15 million times

Put the shampoo on before you wet the hair and rub it in really thoroughly. It works much better without water.

Whatever lotion or potion you put on, you still need to comb through thoroughly to ensure you have removed all the live lice so you may as well just used conditioner.

YANBU. We have had this but with worms - poor old DD must have drunk a bathful of that horrible medicine in reception due to other parent(s) not treating their children.

I am intrigued about the school thing, you sound far too full of common sense to be a Steiner parent but the description of the other parents makes me wonder! I am also REALLY BLOODY ITCHING now!

Just thought - are they parents who also Don't Believe in TV? As there is no easy way of combing without being plonked in front of a film ime :)

( I should just say one thing. I don't think you can tell whether kids are likely to have nits based on how tangled their hair is. I have a constant dance of tangledness with my kids. Yesterday, yet again, I did the coconut oil comb through. Beautiful, beautiful, hair. This morning, two of them looked like a bird had nested in their hair. We swim most days in a chlorinated pool so that's not helping, basically, but my kids have tangly hair. But I'm religious about combing, I just have to do it with a detangling brush first and work down to the comb. Roll on adolescence-I think life would be a LOT easier if ds would use some kind of product in his hair or, yk, take an interest in his appearance even slightly...)

Cheery. they are parents who Don't Believe In TV BUT who believe in dvds, iplayer, netflix,

Whole other thread in and of itself. How on earth is it not telly just because there is a keyboard in front of it?

Cheery, ha

Saying no more...

(it is a bit more complex)

My sympathies, Sigyn. It seems like rationality is not their friend.

The one I used where headrin and full marks failed was not rid. Completely wiped them out but due to the allergic reaction I couldn't use it again. The polish one I was going to try is delacet

*nit rid

Hee hee hee. Because it doesn't have adverts like common people's telly does, so your children don't run round saying random things like 'Love Scones? Love 'Em Cheaper!'... until they meet my children of course

No they did't make DD2 unhappy and they clearly didn't cause her any embarrassment with her DFs. If they had she would have been rushing to get them combed out.

They were endemic in her class, partly due to one DC with very dysfunctional family and partly due to several DDs with very long thick hair and DMs who are not very bright. I suspect some of them hadn't sussed just for how long, how often or how well you have to comb to get them all out and they were too busy being smug and blaming the first DC.

By Y6 I'm afraid I really wasn't going to stress about it.

yeah but no but cheery. Because, for example, 4od DOES have ads. It has ads every five minutes or something. And the ads are not for your 5 a day (though some think that's a conspiratory) or anything but your most targeted plastic shite flying through the air and doing tricks.

Whereas my kids who just watch the bloody telly, are at least just running around trying to get people to go to Iceland.

Goldmandra Fri 16-May-14 10:57:07 Whatever lotion or potion you put on, you still need to comb through thoroughly to ensure you have removed all the live lice so you may as well just used conditioner.

Not really, because the lice are far less likely to still be alive. Yes you still need to comb them out and any stubborn buggers who won't die.

Aha then you need to contact 4od and demand they run nothing but Hedrin adverts! Problem solved. Why do we not have a genius icon??