Really frustrated by parents inability to sort this out

[GigiB]

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

I nitcomb every day with the nitty gritty. We haven't had any for months and months now.

BrandNewAndImproved - olive oil is the same method as conditioner. Wash hair, apply oil, use nit comb, get everything out. It just all becomes kind of slippery and it's easier / less painful to nit comb. Probably possible to do without but I imagine it would hurt like crazy! (Unless very short hair). Some claim that nit get suffocated in oil but I don't believe it. With proper treatment nits drop dead in 10mins, with oil or conditioner they don't.

Ok I might try that tomorrow as my dds in tears with the conditioner and her afro hair. Oliver oil might make it more easier to get the comb through.

You don't need to treat the hair. Just use the nitty gritty comb quickly after each hair wash

Forget the chemicals. They don't work properly.

If he has 20 today then he's had eggs for a while and they've now hatched out.

Get a nit-comb and a big bottle of conditioner. Sit him in the bath and comb his hair through over and over and over again until the comb has come out clear about 30-40 consecutive times.

The comb won't get rid of the eggs which are very firmly attached. It may also miss some of the very tiny lice. They are going to hatch out and/or grow bigger over the next few days. So repeat this method every day for 2-3 weeks, until you have had a good 4-5 days without finding a single louse.

Once you are clear, choose a night once a week when you put conditioner in his hair and check for lice.

Oh, and if you get into the habit of combing through rigourously (with a normal comb/brush) every afternoon when he gets home from school, it helps to get rid of any that have climbed on board during the day, before they get to lay eggs. Not foolproof, but a good preventative measure.

Hedrin - not chemical - has always worked for me

combing may be a solution if you have 1 child with short hair and time!

Since it is a DS you are talking about, and not a DD, would he mind an extremely short hair cut? If he wasn't bothered, it would certainly make things much simpler fir you. I realise this may not be an option, my own DDs would be horrified.

Hedrin was the stuff that definitely didn't work for us. The bloody things were still crawling when we'd done.

2 children, one with long thick hair. Conditioner was great. Started with a detangling comb, then ordinary comb, then moved on to the nit-comb when the tangles were out. Just did the combing every day for a couple of weeks before leaving for work and school.

I agree Hedrin would be easier/quicker if I could be sure it worked.

Hedrin Once and a nitty gritty comb...happy days 🦂

Yes, nits are a nightmare, we were plagued with them a few years ago.

Chemical treatments never kill all the eggs, so you think you've cleared it, but then a load more hatch. Or, someone at the school has them and keeps re-infecting everyone.

To clear an infection, conditioner in the bath, and nit comb. Every day/other day. Once they're clear, maybe once a week. I don't do it at all now, mine haven't had them for years thank god.

I remember the time I thought DS was clear, and about a fortnight later I looked at his hair - literally bloody hundreds of the things, all tiny. Just hatched out. Ugh. I just put conditioner on, and combed. And repeat. It's the only thing I've found that works.

Things like Hedrin or Full Marks do work, but just one treatment is not enough. You need to do at least two, or even three treatments, at one week intervals to be certain of getting every louse. Horrible things!

i always wondered why the hearing adverts say no combing needed but even the instructions in the pack say combing is needed

Nits only stopped when i insisted school say you are getting this letter because a child in class has nits
Most parents.thought tje letter was a useful reminder rather than a do something about it letter.

You can get stuff in prescription. ...

Hedrin is fabulous, if you leave it for the time it states in the packet. So many people expect it to work in ten minutes then get the rage when it doesn't. My usual tactic is to apply hedrin before bed, sleep with it in and then bath in the morning, nitty gritty every night for a week, second hedrin treatment, nitty gritty for a further week. Hasn't failed us yet.

I don't know if they are still available to buy or how the nitty gritty works but I bought a nit zapper which was a battery operated comb recommended by a friend. It didn't work on it's own but I found it useful for days inbetween my DD having a conditioner combing. I also bought a battery operated comb that crisscrossed but I found this completely ineffective. I think the zapper used heat and the teeth were tight together.
I always kept my DDs hair close to her head in ks1, didn't have probe in foundation or ks3. I kept it plaited almost all the time.
DS not affected so far but I personally would have no qualms about him having the shortest cut possible rather than endless evenings of combing, because that it was it takes

use Hedrin - no chemicals

Erm, what? Everything is made of chemicals.

You just need a conditioner with dimethicone in it - it's the active ingredient in Hedrin and it smothers them. Most cheap conditioners contain dimethicone.

I used to think head lice were pretty bad. Then DC4 started getting worms I'd honestly prefer the headlice.

DC4 is like a walking zoo.

Wow. Dd has long hair, 2 dses with medium hair. None ever have had nits. We've lived in the poorest part of London for a long time, and now in another fairly deprived area. This is neglect, and I hate to think how these kids are neglected in other ways.

You should not have to keep doing this, but the only way is probably to speak to class teacher and keep moaning on about it. They probably know the culprit and can speak 1:1 with them.

Oooh my head feels all itchy now.

It doesn't need parents to not give a fuck either. It needs one parent to miss one and assume they've got them all, lay eggs, pass to another child, lay eggs etc.

The school mine go too recommend combing with a nitty gritty type comb mid week and a proper full check every weekend. That's what I've always done. Especially because it's murder with 5 to work out who got it first and which of school/gymnastics/brownies/dancing they got it at.

There was a child in DD's class who was teeming with lice and whose mother would not remove. I read that lice take a week from hatching to adulthood, so weekly combing is not enough as any hatching eggs will have laid another set of little buggers. I was in despair at one point, just could never get clear.

In the end I nit combed every 2-3 days for her whole primary school years. I kept her hair not much more than shoulder length. It just became routine, if an annoying one, and we stopped having any trouble after that.

It really is the only way to go. At least at secondary age the problem seems to magically disappear!

Be aware though - some schools will not speak to a parent about it even if their child repeatedly brings it in. It'll depend on their policy. I worked in some where it would only ever be brought up if there was an outright neglect issue. That's the reason the kids were 10 before a random chat revealed one Mum didn't actually know what she was doing with the checks and despite her rant about the constant-ness of it, it was mostly likely her child who kept reinfecting everyone.