How to treat nits on baby?

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I realised last night that DD2 (6) has nits and so we probably all have. 😕 I’ve bought nit mousse for the rest of us (me, DH, DD1 (8), DD2 and DS3 (2) but I don’t know what to do for DD4 who is 5 months. She’s too young for nit shampoo, she doesn’t have much hair but I can see some eggs in there so she definitely needs treating. I’ve put conditioner on (I think it immobilises lice but doesn’t kill them?) and then brushed it all out with a nit comb and then washed it, and my plan was to keep checking every day for new eggs and do the same - will this work? Any other advice? I’m washing all used towels/bedding as we speak and will do hairbrushes/hair ties later!

Yes conditioner and nit comb works a treat. Found that by far the most effective treatment above anything else.

How much hair has she got? It might be easier to take it all off??

Thanks, that’s reassuring. How long/often did you need to do it before the nits stopped?

Does she have a lot of hair? I think I would shave her head. It will take around 2 months ish for it to grow back

I treat everyone with conditioner and nit comb. The best nit comb I find is a Nitty Gritty one, a bit expensive but the cheaper ones struggled to remove the eggs

Yes conditioner and not comb. Have a word with a pharmacist if you’re worried.

How lovely of your 6 year old to bring you all such a wonderful gift

*nit comb

I combed the hair thoroughly every couple of days until everyone was at least a week egg and lice free. A huge pia but it works

She doesn’t have loads of hair, but I don’t really want to shave her head! You can see her scalp through her hair so it’s fairly easy to see the eggs to remove them (hopefully!)

She’s been back in school a couple of weeks (Year 1) but seeing as we all have them, even the baby, I’m a bit worried we’ve had them since before lockdown and only just noticed 😬

You need to comb the whole family ruthlessly at least every other day for 3 weeks.the conditioner does little more than lubricate, you've really got to comb out them all and keep going to get any new young lice as they hatch.

No comb will sufficiently remove the eggs - pharma companies spend a LOT trying to find things to dissolve the glue which cements the eggs to hair. Hedrin once has the most effective thing, but even that needs to be used more than once to effectively treat lice.

Blimey though how on earth you've got them in lockdown?!

Great, thank you! I’ll do that.

I'd shave her head.

ah, ok. When your 6 year old goes back to school, I would put her hair in one or 2 tight plaits as it can help her stop catching nits

Both my older girls have long hair so we’ve had nits a couple of times before, I normally use the mousse treatments which work quite well but never had to delouse a baby before! We all have really thick hair so the mousse covers it quite well.

Ps be aware that the mousse isnt a pesticide - lice these days are pesticide resistant. How the over counter remedies work is effectively by suffocating the adult lice - the main ingredient (dimethicone) is the same stuff put in ordinary conditioner. The combing is the thing that actually helps by remove the lice that hatch from the eggs that remain after the treatment.

If your girls have very long hair & keep getting nits it might be time to consider
a) if you are actually getting rid of them properly, or whether you are actually just reinfecting each other constantly? The mousses etc do not work if only used once without the additional 3 week cycle of combing, they leave eggs which then hatch.
b) perhaps shorter hair would be better?
C) alternatively tight plaits etc.

We’ve had nits maybe 4 times since DD1 (8) started nursery, so not loads. They do wear their hair up for school, although DD2 takes it out by hometime sometimes 🙄

Olive oil. Life and their eggs can't survive in oil/grease. So if the mousse isn't appropriate for a young baby, olive oil will be harmless.

You need to saturate the hair with the oil, and comb out the eggs. Rinse and repeat over the course of a couple of days.

Positives are, olive oil will condition the hair spectacularly.

Negatives are, baby's head will look greasy AF.

BUT... this is how we treated my youngest brother's hair after he picked up lice, and it was very effective.

• lice and their eggs. I don't know if life can survive in olive oil, I'm sure some can 🤷‍♀️

Yeah comb every day for 14 days.
My DS got them off his sister when he was 6 months and there was a treatment allowed at that age. I used it and he was fine. I also combed my DD through every day for 14 days and then every other day for a further 7.
Make sure the treatment you are using kills lice and eggs. Some say ‘removes’ rather then kills. The ‘removes’ one isn’t as good.
NHS website says that hot washing all sheets, towels etc isn’t necessary but I did too.
It’s a massive PITA.

I realised my son had caught them when were at the soft play and I saw movement in his hair... It was a ground open me up situation. He’s blonde too, so I got a wipe and managed to pull each individual one out with it and then made a swift exit.

Oh the joys of parenthood.

Thanks everyone! 🙂 Olive oil’s a good tip, might try that too. We’ve already used it for cradle cap so we’re used to her having a greasy head 😀

InspectorCludo - just checked, it says ‘kill’ - yay!

We had this, although my baby was older than yours.

I treated in the same way---lotion plus picking carefully through the hair with a nit comb, electric comb AND fingers, until everything was gone. Ditto for all three of us.

You need to get your fingers in there, not just rely on a comb. Combs do not get every last nit out. You need to search for them, and then scraaaaaape them all the way down and off the hair with your nail.