Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think that we wil soon be overrun with headlice as the treatment is prohibitively expensive.

125 replies

Ohnodisaster · 13/12/2014 00:34

Noticed that my dd had headlice for the first time earlier in the week so diligently informed the school and made a trip to the pharmacist to pick up some treatment.

Was informed that until last week certain treatments were free on prescription but now we have to pay-the treatments ranged from £14-18!

This seemed very expensive to me so set to work with the conditioner and a nit comb which managed to get the larger ones out but didn't catch the smaller ones. I spent about 45 minutes trying to get them out before admitting defeat and going out to buy the treatment.

How are people on low incomes or in difficult circumstances going to be able to afford either the cost of the treatment or the time to so a proper job with the conditioner?

OP posts:
Moln · 14/12/2014 10:15

Yellow listerine? Not heard of that before

I used to (thankfully no nits/lice for a long time) soak the roots in olive oil and cover their heads with cling film for a few hours (overnight if it was a non school day the next day) and then comb after I'd removed the film.

I'd be able to see the actual lice on the cling film when I removed it, and then comb over the eggs because they really stick and wouldn't fall out, so the only way to remove them is with a comb

Mrsjayy · 14/12/2014 10:26

Believe me when I say when dds had them I tried every treatments going and they seemed immune I bought bug buster combs and they were amazing and the lice were gone in a fortnight

stitch10yearson · 14/12/2014 10:28

what do you think people used before the treatment came along?

blaming the cost of it is just silly. Either people will pay for it, or they will do the old fashioned method. The ones who were never going to use it, even when it was free... it won't make a difference to them

cherubimandseraphim · 14/12/2014 10:40

I have all this to come as DC still very small, but I never had life as a child (and didn't always have hair up) and I was only treated with a lotion once as a teenager as a precaution when my siblings' classmates got them. The nit nurse appeared about once a year at primary school and there never seemed to be a particular problem. There wasn't any conditioning and combing and checking going on either. (I was at primary school in the 80s). Does anyone know why they are suddenly back with a vengeance? It can't be only that they are more resistant to the treatments, because when I was small they didn't seem to be much of a problem anyway to be treated IYSWIM. Any other theories?

cherubimandseraphim · 14/12/2014 10:41

*lice not life! Blooming autocorrect :)

SamiBE · 14/12/2014 10:43

Grab yourself a nitty gritty comb they're about £12 but get rid of everything - eggs and all

FannyFifer · 14/12/2014 10:52

But even with the treatment you should still comb every few days, there will be eggs that treatment hasn't killed regardless of what it says on the pack.

cruikshank · 14/12/2014 11:02

what do you think people used before the treatment came along?

According to my grandma, who was a district nurse, what they used to do was comb and pick them out with their fingers, but this was a spectacularly ineffective method and so she ended up treating children who had open, infected sores on their heads due to lack of proper treatment. This was in the 1950s and not a new phenomena at the time. She's dead now, but I think she would be horrified that even with good treatments available people eschew them in favour of so-called 'traditional' methods. Not everything was better in the good old days.

cruikshank · 14/12/2014 11:20

Oh yes and they used olive oil in the old days too. And harsh soaps and disinfectants. Still led to the same result that she dealt with all the time - uncontrolled infestations and weeping wounds due to the kids scratching. You just have to look at photos from the time to see how many kids had their heads shaved to know what was going on re headlice. Thank goodness for nasty, unnatural, new-fangled methods, I say.

GemmaPuddledDuck · 14/12/2014 11:23

I have also found using a hair dryer after combing helps to kill those left. This tip has lessened the number of days I have to comb to be rid of them.

alseb · 14/12/2014 12:14

I don't think people who use the treatments don't necessarily use them and think that's it. I have used the treatment, combed and will use the follow up treatment later this week.
I do think that you have a better chance of coating all the hair with treatment than you do of individually combing and checking every strand, but all the mothers I know who only condition and then just comb seem tell me that they do!

kelda · 14/12/2014 12:17

Nitty gritty combs are great for certain hair types. For my hair, and for that of my children (long and thick), it is agony.

We spent a small fortune on nit treatment one year.

KarenHillavoidJimmyswarehouse · 14/12/2014 12:20

accessorizequeen

Erm, the treatment is free for children from pharmacies. You just have to fill out their form. Same for calpol etc

I think this varies regionally - you can do that here but in-laws on other side of country were amazed.

Goldmandra · 14/12/2014 12:32

I think she would be horrified that even with good treatments available people eschew them in favour of so-called 'traditional' methods. Not everything was better in the good old days.

I didn't stop using the lotions because combing and conditioning is more traditional Confused

I stopped using them because combing and conditioning is more effective. You still need to use the comb in order to ensure that you've removed everything when using the lotions. You might as well just comb properly with a load of conditioner.

You don't get rid of headlice by killing 90% of them. You get rid of them by removing them from the head.

BTW headlice do live for a while once off the child's head. My friend put one in a jam jar just to see and it was still alive after a week.

MrsDeVere · 14/12/2014 12:44

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AgentAlice · 14/12/2014 13:31

Comb and conditioner doesn't work on DD's hair. She has really fine hair and I don't have any luck until she has had Listerine on her hair.

The thing I have found is that what works for one child simply won't work for another.

AndSoThisIsChristmas · 14/12/2014 14:04

With 3 dd's all with long hair we have not used nit treatments for years it just gets way to expensive.

Yes its annoying to take the time to comb but that is what works and it works better than treatment. The stuff that suffocates them is dreadful to deal with as well it is like a thick layer of grease in their hair.

What is important to remember is this part taken from
www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/theliceprogram/theprogram.html

To get rid of lice, you need to remove all lice in your hair from all hatched eggs and have no eggs left in your hair waiting to hatch.

The complete life cycle of the head louse is:-
Egg stage 7 days (can vary 5 - 10 days)
Larva 4 days
1st Nymph 3 days
2nd Nymph 2 days
Pre-egg-laying adult stage 1 day
Egg Laying adult 30 days

We use their method of combing when needed. Yes it takes time however it works and gets rid of them.

They suggest using mild baby shampoo personally I struggle with that especially in dd2's very thick hair so we go with conditioner. use the £1 stuff.

StripedCandycaneOss · 14/12/2014 14:09

we comb weekly, and if a live adult is spotted, comb daily for a few days, then every 2 days.

i also use Vosene anti-lice shampoo and have a spray thats made of similar stuff. We dont get many cases of it now!

mummytime · 14/12/2014 14:12

Olive oil has been shown to be pretty much as effective as the most expensive conditioners. I have doused their hair, wrapped in cling film, left for 1 hour +, then shampoo off, and condition and comb. This coped with a bad infestation on long curly hair. You may need to reshampoo and condition as their hair can be left "greasy", but no worse than some of the treatments.

nitty gritty are great, and lots of conditioner.

FiveHoursSleep · 14/12/2014 14:13

This is worth a look if you have an ongoing problem
www.microscopy-uk.org.uk/theliceprogram/index.html

FiveHoursSleep · 14/12/2014 14:14

Opps, sorry. I see someone else has already posted this.

GemmaPuddledDuck · 14/12/2014 14:17

I have also found the nitty gritty useless as our family all have thick hair, the comb that came free with a treatment is much better.

Pandora452 · 14/12/2014 15:04

I would love for there to be 3 or 4 mandatory for EVERYONE lice treating days to eradicate them from the UK. I know this is wildly impossible but a girl can dream :D

WyrdByrd · 14/12/2014 15:21

Nitty Gritty comb is about a tenner and lasts forever. A week or so of nightly combing should get rid of them.

Adding a few drops of tea tree oil to her shampoo & conditioner will help prevent them coming back.

PiperIsTerrysChoclateOrange · 14/12/2014 15:27

Does the nitty gritty comb work on thick hair, dd has lovely thick hair and the normal comb I get end up with teeth broken as it so thick.