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

[Ohnodisaster]

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?

Hedrin every time here, the nitty gritty comb is probably the most hated object in our house, we spend endless hours putting the DCs through torture with it and still the blighters come back, Hedrin sorts it really easily and means a lot less combing. The Nitty Gritty drags horrendously through both my DCs hair for some reason, even though they both have straight hair. Whereas it goes through my unruly mop of curls quite easily. Weird.

thank you for the tips. Never thought of using aqueous cream. will also look out for ingredients in shampoo and conditioner

Hedrin washed out well if you follow the instructions and apply loads of cheap shampoo BEFORE wetting the hair

The problem with aqueous cream is that it does make hair incredibly greasy. I washed dd's hair afterwards.

To get nits out you need someway of preventing them escaping. There are lots of ways of achieving this. The difficulty is that you need to remove all the eggs as well as the nits.

The problem with aqueous cream is that it does make hair incredibly greasy.

If you've put any sort of oil or cream on the hair, including Hedrin oil, the best way to remove it is to apply the shampoo to the hair, lots of it, and rub it in well before putting any water on it. It breaks the oil down much more effectively without water.

Seriously, are you getting used that much to not paying anything?
No wonder there is a budget problem...

I must admit I am sick to death of frigging nits.
My dds best friend is 11 and I have watched a huge nit walking along her hairline.
I pulled it off in front of her mum. She just laughed.
I asked if she is not combing her hair.
She said her dd does it herself.
My dds friend stayed over this weekend and my dd has ginormous head lice.
I could bloody cry.

poor child! my friend has six kids, 4 of which have long hair... if SHE can find time to de-louse her children then fairly sure your daughter's friend's mum could.

I'm sick of them too. Like you I did the right thing by informing the school , buying an expensive treatment and then combing through with conditioner and a nitty gritty comb every few days for a couple of weeks.

I discovered that the school no longer warn other parents when there is a case of nits so within a month DS had them again! I still have some of the expensive treatment left but I will be fed up if I have to keep buying it.

I am resigned now to having to condition and comb DS's hair on a weekly basis just as a preventative measure.

Ofafrenchmind-no of course not! I was expecting to pay for it but was anticipating (perhaps naively) something around the £5 mark.

And if you are trying to wash oil out, use washing up liquid.

Again, put it on the hair and rub it in well before you wet it.

Strangely nits are really rare in my school and I have never had them. All the girls have waist length hair and if there is even a whisper of the word nits heard they all don their headscarves (only worn to discourage nits or to match an outfit!). Also really handy for keeping ears warm (so I was told by a 6 year old today).
I worry endlessly so I am a big fan of the conditioner and comb method just to keep on top of things. 8 years teaching and still clear

Someone asked about olden days treatment - my nan had lice during 1940s - they shaved her head, she said they left a thin strip of long hair, so it didn't look quite as bad. She said lice were associated with poverty - I wonder if lice have become more common in recent years?

I use that green Voslene shampoo with tea tree oil in, touch wood we've not had them for a year now.

Mint Source shower gel is also brilliant for washing the oily stuff out.

Conditioner & combing every 2 days then weekly to maintain is the only thing that works

Not true. The lice and eggs are so tiny that it is impossible IME to find them all when the hair is coated with thick conditioner.

The lice and eggs are so tiny that it is impossible IME to find them all when the hair is coated with thick conditioner.

You don't have to find them in the conditioner. You just have to comb every bit of hair thoroughly from the roots to pull them out and then, every stroke, rinse the comb in a bowl of water.

But I don't, because I use Full marks first. My DS has thick, wavy, blond hair, and it is impossible to see the eggs and lice in his hair. I just cannot know that I've got them all, so give myself a hand by using something that kills them. As I said above, the family that kept spreading the lice around were using just a comb and conditioner.

We used a nitty gritty when dcs had the a couple of years ago, ds1 had little pale ones that were hard to see but the comb got rid of them all. Dd1s were absolutely huge and clever they tried to run away when I out the conditioner on and were crawling down her face and into her ears. It was horrible.

We've done the nitty gritty with conditioner every other day for 3 weeks sometimes and still found we haven't got them all, it's good but not enough on it's own. Whereas Hedrin has sorted them first time every time.

While everyone's discussing treatments, what would you do for a child with incredibly thick, frizzy hair who cries at a hair brush let alone a comb? It tangles horrendously at night, even if she sleeps with it plaited up. One of my friends was telling me how horrendous getting rid of nits is with her daughter as it hurts her so much...

the family that kept spreading the lice around were using just a comb and conditioner.

You do have to make an effort to separate the hair and comb carefully. If you do it thoroughly it works. I was pulling live live out after the last time I used Hedrin. It was the thorough combing I did afterwards that got rid of them.

We use the Nitty Gritty in conjunction with the Hedrin, but only need to do it once. Nitty Gritty and conditioner on it's own it's just too easy to miss a bit.

Bronya - sorry, I don't know, my DCs have straight hair and the nitty gritty is still torture, they won't sit still and it makes them scream and cry (and they are 8 and 10), it's no wonder it's never been totally successful for us really. We all detest it.

bronya - I have this problem. My girls also have thick hair but I keep it shorter.

We use one of the new generation treatments such as Hedrin. It's very expensive and repeated use is needed.