Nits!!!! Please advise, FOUR times this term...

[NadjaofAntipaxos]

I am at my absolute wits end. Please advise me! I have just discovered nits and tiny lice AGAIN on my 4 year old DS at bedtime. It's Tuesday. I literally just found them on Saturday and immediately used Vamousse on the whole family which is meant to kill both lice and eggs, then thoroughly combed us all.

Saturday was the third time since October half term. Tonight makes bloody four.

I am washing bedding, soft toys, vacuuming.
We use a tea tree oil shampoo and hedrin prevention leave in conditioner. Wet comb once a week.

I have been letting all parents in class know on our class WhatsApp and the response is always that everyone has checked and their child definitely doesn't have nits. Mine clearly can't be the only one but I have posted that I appreciate not everyone feels comfortable sharing on the group. I tell school each time. The teacher has said the staff will discretely watch for signs of itching and let the parent know if needed. I have even offered to host infected kids and treat them alongside my own!

Older DD is 6 and never had them until the first outbreak and hers were far fewer than DS. She has avoided them since so he is clearly patient zero....

Vamousse is 15 quid a can. We can't carry on like this!!!! Am honestly just so down about it. Any suggestions or even just sympathy would be so welcome right now.

DH is going to Boots first thing. I was going to give hedrin Once a try this time. Pray to the louse gods for me.

A bit hoover... seriously a nit hoover.

It sucks the lice and eggs out into a little bag which you then dispose of.

Brilliant!

nit hoover*

Some lice are resistant to the treatments. So it's entirely possible, unfortunately, that your DC were never fully clear. Especially as the eggs are so firmly cemented to hairs that they are incredibly difficult to get out, and so you need to repeat comb to get all the hatchlings before they reach sexual maturity.

So I'd stop using the Vamousse and instead bulk buy cheap conditioner and a Nitty Gritty comb.

You need to comb at least every three days (ideally every other day) for three weeks to cover the entire life-cycle

@leopardprintpants

A bit hoover... seriously a nit hoover.

It sucks the lice and eggs out into a little bag which you then dispose of.

Brilliant!

Ooo where are they from?

I had to comb my dd’s hair every single day for 6 years
The teacher forced her to sit with the two kids who’s parents never checked (one said she didn’t have time as she worked full time and the other just didn’t give a stuff)
6 fucking years-a nitty gritty comb and cheap conditioner seemed to help
I’d get her ‘clean’ and she’d be made to sit next to these kids again
Drove me mental-she has 5 siblings so it meant dealing with them too
It seemed to stop once she started secondary school

Herdin once then retreat 10 days later. Wet comb everyday. I did give up and shave all my boys heads

We used to condition ours and nitty gritty twice a week as standard.
2 boys with short hair so it wasn’t a big deal but it did the trick.

@Panacotta
I’ve just googled and they seem to flog them on Amazon
Never used one so can’t say if they are any good tho

Conditioner and nitty gritty comb every 3 days

Sorry but it sounds like it’s the same infestation as the Saturday you might have thought you got them all with the treatment you used but obviously not if there is hatched lice!
Your child could be passing them on...
Don’t slack on the combing and checking, it’s parents who let the infestations get rampant don’t be that mum who slacks and you don’t need the treatments if your doing it right-check, wet hair, loads of conditioner, trawl, comb and squish.

Hair cut shorter, Hedrin works but you still need to get the eggs so Nitty Gritty comb and cheap conditioner every other day. The design is so effective compared to other nit combs and you can use to do regular checks.

Another vote for Nitwits - the only thing that worked for my lot, after a very long time trying and failing with various other products/combing. Amazing stuff.

Did you manage to get rid of the nits?

Ditch the chemicals and slather in conditioner and nitty gritty…every night for two weeks and the every other night. You need to break the cycle but also cath the reinfectiom. Tea tree good too they don’t like that and heat so hair dryer and ghds.

We had over a year of repeated infection I feel your pain x

Best advice: shorter haircuts, lots of cheap conditioner and hair straighteners.

For boys: haircut as short as the school will allow so usually a grade 2. Maybe a short back and sides with an inch or two on top so it’s not completely shaved but still very easy to manage.

For girls: haircut into a long bob (*1) / short shoulder length so it’s short enough to manage, but still long enough to plait. Coat her hair in tea tree conditioner, comb, plait and leave in overnight. Then wash off and wash her hair a few times in the morning before straightening it. The conditioner will suffocate them and the straighteners will burn any that may be left. Her hair will also be really healthy with the conditioner left overnight. Always make sure her hair is plaited (preferably French plaits) for school and you check her hair every night.

*1 You could even consider an even shorter mid-chin length bob if you can put her hair into French plaits. Even easier to manage. Kids aren’t always keen on having their haircut, but telling them it’s a big girl or big boy haircut helps. DD may not be have head lice atm, but it may be good for a preventative measure before infestations start.

After spending a fortune on treatments I found that head and shoulders shampoo worked brilliantly on dd's nits.

You have to retreat head a week later to make sure all eggs dies if any eggs survive the first round and you don't retreat then it's just an endless cycle.

I check dd after every wash go through it with comb for 5 mins and thankfully she been completely clear for a year now.

The amount of mums who end up bringing their DDs into the shop and getting shorter haircuts is so common.

Today a mum brought her two DDs in and they both had hair all the way down their backs. 12 inches chopped off for the older one who was 12yo because she couldn’t look after hair so long. And 19 inches chopped off for the younger one who was 9yo because the mum was at her wits end with head lice.

@NorthernMum25

Best advice: shorter haircuts, lots of cheap conditioner and hair straighteners.

For boys: haircut as short as the school will allow so usually a grade 2. Maybe a short back and sides with an inch or two on top so it’s not completely shaved but still very easy to manage.

For girls: haircut into a long bob (*1) / short shoulder length so it’s short enough to manage, but still long enough to plait. Coat her hair in tea tree conditioner, comb, plait and leave in overnight. Then wash off and wash her hair a few times in the morning before straightening it. The conditioner will suffocate them and the straighteners will burn any that may be left. Her hair will also be really healthy with the conditioner left overnight. Always make sure her hair is plaited (preferably French plaits) for school and you check her hair every night.

*1 You could even consider an even shorter mid-chin length bob if you can put her hair into French plaits. Even easier to manage. Kids aren’t always keen on having their haircut, but telling them it’s a big girl or big boy haircut helps. DD may not be have head lice atm, but it may be good for a preventative measure before infestations start.

Good advice

And I agree about also getting DD’s haircut sooner rather than later.

Also having seen how often mums get to their wits end with head lice and bring the kids into the shop for drastic haircuts, I always recommend getting kids into the hairdresser’s chair from a really young age to get them used to it (maybe about 2.5 / 3 years old) and then keeping their hair short until they are past the head lice ages.

Boys: like @NorthernMum25 said, short back and sides. Grade 2 on the back / sides and a bit longer on top. Barbers every 4 weeks for a tidy up.

Girls: No longer than shoulder length, but I always recommend going shorter into a bob and getting a trim every 6 weeks.

I dip a nitty gritty comb in tea tree oil and comb DS' hair before and after school during breakouts. He's never had them

Another haircut advocate here! I agree about the short back/sides for DS and bob for DD.

I’ve been lucky so far that my 2 have avoided them but there is a girl in my son’s class and I can see all the eggs sitting in her hair behind her ears.

The poor girl is probably never treated but her hair makes me itch every time I see her.

A few people have mentioned lice ‘jumping/leaping’, which they don’t do. Kids have to have close physical contact with an infested person to catch lice themselves. I remember sitting next to a girl at school who had lice crawling on the shoulder of her white PE T-shirt 🤢

I've heard that washing and conditioning with coconut shampoo and conditioner can have results. When the DCs were in school some patents swore by slathering coconut conditioner into their DCs' hair and leaving it on overnight, with a shower cap over it all.

Maybe get your carpets steam cleaned, vacuum all mattresses, freeze all soft toys and doll clothes, and hot wash and dry in a dryer all outerwear - coats, jackets, scarves.. If you don't have access to a dryer, freeze all outerwear in bin bags.

Sorry to say but it’s probably that you haven’t completely got rid of them rather than him catching them again. You need to nit comb with conditioner every 3 days, or even more often. For the rest of his childhood. Seriously, one of mine got them again at 14, I was so shocked, thought it was for little kids who get really close to each other.
Once you have got rid, use t- tree shampoo to keep them at bay, and Repel sprayed on every morning.
Good luck!