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AIBU?

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Original poster

Really frustrated by parents inability to sort this out

86 replies

GigiB · 21/12/2015 22:20

I've just found about 20 nits/louse in my sons hair (again). The summer holidays we get clear, then each time he goes back to school from holiday after about two weeks he has loads of them. We got clear in October half term and then a week after i went through with the nit comb and found a massive one... I tell the school, then school puts it on boards, in news letters etc, but some people just can't be treating and don't seem to care that their kids have nits..!!

I have questions;
Do some people just accept that primary aged children have nits?
What else can you do other than email class parents and tell school?
Do i just keep treating my kids with chemical products when i know full well that they will get them back again..?

I use tea tree and all usual deterrents but i think its a real problem with some children at the school

The other thing that really really annoys me is that when i treat myself my hair dye fades - so its bloody expensive as well buy all product for the children i'm wasting money at the hairdressers!

Bring back the nit nurse

OP posts:
CocktailQueen · 21/12/2015 22:24

Just buy a nitty gritty comb and comb your son's hair through every few days using conditioner and nitty gritty. You don't need anything else!

And all you can do is tell the school and treat your dc: you can't influence how anyone else will deal with it. Or not.

buckingfrolicks · 21/12/2015 22:26

Major hair cut. Nit comb with conditioner after bath every night.

Avoid all friends until 13 years old.

That'll sort it. Wink

VintageDresses · 21/12/2015 22:26

What Cocktail said. It is frustrating but there's no need for chemical treatments

FannyFifer · 21/12/2015 22:26

He must have had for a while if that many are there.

Are you sure you are getting rid of everything each time?

MissFitt68 · 21/12/2015 22:28

What good is a nit nurse?

Have you thought that your own kids might be infecting others too? The eggs are the problem, sounds like you aren't getting rid properly. You can't just stop the combing because you don't see any for a few days

VintageDresses · 21/12/2015 22:28

Fanny is right too. If you are finding "loads" then you are part of the problem

Original poster
GigiB · 21/12/2015 22:31

Definitely getting them clear (i'm an expert now he's had them so many times, thinking of doing a youtube tutorial).
I have the nitty gritty comb and they are great, but do they get them all, i alway treat too just to make sure...
buckingfrolicks bath with conditioner every night sounds exhausting but not as much as no friends till 13 ;)

OP posts:
Headofthehive55 · 21/12/2015 22:32

It usually takes at least a month for the louse to have transferred to your child and lay eggs and those eggs to hatch.

I suspect that the chemical treatment is not 100% effective and a few eggs have been missed.

A nit nurse was proven to be ineffective as you can't for certain examine a child's hair and say they are free of nits. frustrating I know!

Frusso · 21/12/2015 22:38

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

BrandNewAndImproved · 21/12/2015 22:44

I found some in my ds hair the other week. We've never had nits in the house before and if I'm honest I didn't think afro hair got nits and I didn't expect his short hair to ever get it. It was only because I saw one in dds hair, bought a nitcomb for the first time ever (she's almost ten) realised she didn't have anymore thought well I'll just run it through ds head that I realised he had them.

I've just been putting loads of condition on and running a nitcomb every night through all of our hair. It takes hours, my hair is super thick and dd has a huge afro. Getting a nit comb through it takes all evening.

Original poster
GigiB · 21/12/2015 22:47

Missfit68 are you saying you nitcomb every day?

I think that sounds unlikely. I haven't for just over 2 weeks. I found little ones and 1 big one which he must have got on the around the day I did the last comb. That is what is frustrating. I don't want to have to nitcomb every day for the entire primary years. I have friends at other primarys' and they have outbreaks but not a seemingly constant problem.

OP posts:
zzzzz · 21/12/2015 22:48

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

AdjustableWench · 21/12/2015 22:51

I stopped using chemicals after a while; they're expensive and ineffective. A nit comb every third day for the rest of my life is the only effective treatment. Eventually, kids will reach an age where they stop being reinfested unless they do work experience in a nursery.

VintageDresses · 21/12/2015 22:51

How can you possibly know you got them all?. If you haven't combed for two weeks, it's far more likely that you missed one (or more) than he was reinfection the day you stopped combing.

Since then he's been infecting everyone else Grin

ghostyslovesheep · 21/12/2015 22:52

use Hedrin - no chemicals

hate to say it but I bet he's getting them from people who use 'combing badly and not properly or consistantly

KERALA1 · 21/12/2015 22:53

All those with the smart tips of frequent combing try having a Dd with Afro hair. One nit combing session takes 1 hour plus and ends in sobbing (both of us). Am at my wits (nits?) end.

CheerfulYank · 21/12/2015 22:57

Here kids aren't allowed in school until the nurse gives the all clear. They are rare.

CharmingChampignon · 21/12/2015 22:57

We don't use any treatments and just use conditioner, leave in conditioner and a variety of nit combs v regularly (2-3 times/week). We've only had one proper outbreak in one dd and sorted that by 'treatment combing'. If you find small ones they're v v likely to be home grown so you need to extend your treatment combing episode.

I'm v fortunate in that both dc have fairly short, v fine hair and it's pretty easy to comb once wet and conditioned. Huge sympathy to those with dc with thicker hair.

abbsismyhero · 21/12/2015 22:58

apparently schools are not allowed to tell the parents of the child they know to have nits that their child has nits they send out a general letter and hope for the best this is rarely effective because usually people who are sending their child to school with nits are too busy or careless enough to check

ghostyslovesheep · 21/12/2015 22:59

yes I have 3 with long very thick hair - it's a nightmare

CadleCrap · 21/12/2015 22:59

I hate this too. There should be a world wide anti-nit day.

Can someone settle this argument I have with my DSIs while we are on the subject of nits.

She reckons the conditioner loosens the eggs and makes them come off with the comb, I reckon the conditioner is just to make it easier for the comb to go through your hair and if there are no tugs, theeggs and nits will come out of the comb regardless of conditioner.

ivykaty44 · 21/12/2015 22:59

Sounds like the eggs in your DS hair are hatching

Lice have a three week incubation period

Use hair straighteners tovkill eggs and use olive oil method to eradicate nits, in the end I found this the most successful way and they didn't come back

fromheretomaternity · 21/12/2015 22:59

Hedrin is the only thing we found that really worked

BrandNewAndImproved · 21/12/2015 23:00

What's the olive oil method?

BeYourOwnBoss · 21/12/2015 23:07

Well, if it's 20 (!) then clearly he's had them for a long while, and I wouldn't be optimistic about getting them all out without a proper treatment. I would treat twice (once now, and then again in 7 days), then continue to nit-comb every week after that as a precaution. I felt that oil (olive oil or coconut oil) works better than conditioner. Just easier to see the suspects.

With the best will in the world though, if there are children in class whose parents are doing fuck-all about it, then re-infecting is pretty inevitable.

How about a super-short haircut for a while? That makes things super easy.

In my DD's class there were a few girls with 'moving hair', it was so bad. You don't need a nit nurse to see it, and a nit nurse would make no difference because parents know and don't care. A nit nurse would just make those children even more vulnerable than they already are.

Our saga only ended when we changed school.