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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Fucking NITS!

78 replies

PyongyangKipperbang · 18/09/2020 18:50

AIBU to think that there is no reason why nits should still be doing the rounds?!

We managed to be completely nit free for what felt like the first time in years during lockdown. Not back at school a month and already they are back in the house.

I cannot fathom anyone who allow a child to go untreated for that long, it is neglect surely?

OP posts:
Original poster
PyongyangKipperbang · 18/09/2020 21:13

I started sending DD2 to school in a baseball cap and was told she couldnt wear it inside. I said I would stop sending her with it when they excluded the kids who were not being treated. Was told it was discriminatory to do that. This was in 2004.

OP posts:
Batshitbeautycosmeticsltd · 18/09/2020 21:14

@whattodo2019

My 15 yr old has nits at boarding school!!!
Yeah, my teenager found them on her. She's now able to comb herself.
Original poster
PyongyangKipperbang · 18/09/2020 21:15

DD4 has hers in a french plait daily, which is no mean feat with afro/euro hair, but we both prefer that to constant combing.

OP posts:
GhostCurry · 18/09/2020 21:16

Maybe I am defeatist, but I would be absolutely staggered if an entire species would be wiped out (at least in one country) after a few months in lockdown. It just doesn’t work that way

TheTrollFairy · 18/09/2020 21:17

My PFB has started reception... do I need to start prepping for nits? What do I need?
We had an electric nit comb when I was younger, are they still a thing?

Bluntness100 · 18/09/2020 21:20

Agree op. For my daughter this was kids whose parents wanted to go thr non insecticide route, nitty gritty combs, or some organic shit, and left their kids infested, or it was the ones who didn’t bother. Waited till the last possible moment and then did it with the min of effort.

Nits treated properly don’t come back unless someone else infects you.

Original poster
PyongyangKipperbang · 18/09/2020 21:20

@TheTrollFairy

My PFB has started reception... do I need to start prepping for nits? What do I need? We had an electric nit comb when I was younger, are they still a thing?
A nitty gritty comb (£10 from boots or free on prescription) and LOTS AND LOTS of cheap conditioner!
OP posts:
Original poster
PyongyangKipperbang · 18/09/2020 21:21

@GhostCurry

Maybe I am defeatist, but I would be absolutely staggered if an entire species would be wiped out (at least in one country) after a few months in lockdown. It just doesn’t work that way
It could have done. It really could.
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AriettyHomily · 18/09/2020 21:21

Having gone through two terms tif the fuckers I would have have they would have died off.

Bluntness100 · 18/09/2020 21:21

@TheTrollFairy

My PFB has started reception... do I need to start prepping for nits? What do I need? We had an electric nit comb when I was younger, are they still a thing?
Proper nit treatment, a pesticide, like full marks.

The gentle stuff doesn’t work, you may as well not bother, your kid will continue to be infested and infect others.

Whatsnewpussyhat · 18/09/2020 21:22

They changed the formula of the hedrin liquid. Used to be like baby oil but made the floor lethal if you slipped on it. Left in but once dry looked fine so could be washed out the next day. New one isn't as good and hair looks like an oil slick even when dry.

I thought low income/if on benefits you could get treatment free?

Bluntness100 · 18/09/2020 21:22

A nitty gritty comb (£10 from boots or free on prescription) and LOTS AND LOTS of cheap conditioner!

And this is why they continue. This is it in a nutshell. This doesn’t even come close to eradicating your kids nits.

Original poster
PyongyangKipperbang · 18/09/2020 21:23

Full marks is good stuff.

Although boots own brand nit treatment is also excellent and quite a bit cheaper. I tend to use the treatment alongside combing, I have always found a few live ones even after treatment.

OP posts:
lyralalala · 18/09/2020 21:24

@PyongyangKipperbang

I do know that they are resistant to the "slash and burn" chemicals we used to use (Derbac anyone? Remember the smell?!), which is why Hedrin etc has come in. But that involves some spade work in terms of combing and I suspect that many parents simply cant be arsed.

Also, logical head on, treatments are expensive and although Nitty Gritty combs are available on prescription, many people dont know this. So a family who are low income due to chaotic circumstances and may already be on SS radar may avoid the doctors and struggle to find the money to treat......

Answering my own rant here arent I?!

You are.

It took me a week to get a prescription sorted for my DD when her epi-pen needed replaced during lockdown. People likely wouldn't have been able to get through for prescriptions for combs and treatments, plus even people who would normally be able to afford treatments wouldn't have been able to during that time. Not to mention the difficulties in getting out to a pharmacy to get things - the pharmacy locally was prescriptions only for over a month.

I also know quite a few people who, the second schools closed, seemed to think they didn't need to be combing or checking anymore. Even though their kids had been at school last week and were still mixing with siblings.

Original poster
PyongyangKipperbang · 18/09/2020 21:24

Actually I found that baby oil works really well. Smother their hair with it, put on one of those towelling head wrap thingies and leave over night. Wash and comb out, most of them are dead. Repeat every third night.

A lot cheaper than treatments and works but depends on them not being in school so I only used it during holidays or lockdown.

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lyralalala · 18/09/2020 21:27

Also I'm absolutely convinced part of the problem is that so many parents don't treat themselves!

There was one Mum at DS's last school who was absolutely staggered when she had them. In conversation at the gates it turned out that around half the Mums never treated themselves and they looked at me like I had two heads when I mentioned DH

snappycamper · 18/09/2020 21:31

My DS2 is in year 4 and the nits in that class have been absolutely relentless since reception. Back at school less than a fortnight before the email came around this week... so livid. Totally sick of whichever selfish arsehole can't be bothered to treat their child. Who the fuck would leave a child itching for 6 whole months?!

Arkestra · 18/09/2020 21:32

I've got a lot of sympathy for OP - I think we've cleared 5 nit infestations by now, but to be honest they're all blurring into each other.

I think the main problems are that (1) the treatments that work (I'm thinking of things like Hedrin Once) are expensive (2) and they don't tell you how to use them properly.

There is nothing guaranteed to kill nit eggs, so to be sure to clear a heavy infestation, you need to nuke 3 times with something like Hedrin Once , leaving around 6 days between treatments.

Unsurprisingly, plenty of people don't do this so they end up with chronic low-level infestations, that then get passed on.

I found the only real answer was that kids end up sticking their heads less closely together naturally as they age out of primary school, so they stop passing it on to anything like the same extent.

lyralalala · 18/09/2020 21:33

We also need to keep in mind that schools haven't been completely shut for 6 months. All it takes is the keyworker bubble to have kept re-infecting each other through lockdown and they'd then take it back to their families and their classmates.

olderthanyouthink · 18/09/2020 21:35

Eurgh I had them once as a child and I had waist length Afro/white curly hair and it was awful. I dread DD bringing them home, her hair is fine and loosely curly so probably not that hard to get though... I might just shave mine off Grin it's shorter now but I don't have time for that crap

Jointhecircus · 18/09/2020 21:36

i hear so may people saying how their kids have perms-nits and they can't get rid of them, but my older dd(11) has only had them twice when she was in reception and my younger dd(6) has never had them. Are we just very lucky? I don't get it!

Whatsnewpussyhat · 18/09/2020 21:37

Yes mums and all siblings treated together. Pointless doing one child.

The most useless treatment for me was lyclear shampoo. The lice basically laughed at me. Not one died.

The hedrin was so much easier. Put on, lice drown, leave on overnight.
Repeat day 7 and 14 just in case.

lyralalala · 18/09/2020 21:40

@Jointhecircus

i hear so may people saying how their kids have perms-nits and they can't get rid of them, but my older dd(11) has only had them twice when she was in reception and my younger dd(6) has never had them. Are we just very lucky? I don't get it!
It can also be a luck factor. I've got 5 that are in school or have been through school. One of them has never had nits. Despite being through the same combing routine and treated the same when the other kids had them, she's just never had them.
RandallBoggs · 18/09/2020 21:41

Gah, the smell of the old stuff. It was so overpowering I remember not being able to breath as my mum slathered it on whilst my head was over the sink Grin

My DD is mixed race and has very thick, tight curls. A nit comb would just snap at the roots. Not to mention the fact that she hates having her hair brushed as it is!
As a result, she wears her hair tightly plaited for school, and has a good spritz of tea tree on it every morning. I also spray the furry hood of her coat! It’s not fool proof but hopefully makes it harder. I truly dread her ever getting them.

Original poster
PyongyangKipperbang · 18/09/2020 21:46

I remember reading that nits are like mosquitos and prefer certain types of blood, thats why boys are less likely to infested than girls....cant remember why but probably testosterone.

I do know that my boys suffered with far far less infestations than the girls even when I was struggling to get them out of the house, the boys would have the odd one and girls would be riddled.

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