Anybody else spent 5 hours today…

[violetcuriosity]

Treating and combing out nits from their children’s hair? I don’t know how but this is our first rodeo. I remember it from when we were growing up but fuck me that was hard work and absolutely vile. All girls with beautiful mixed texture, long hair which was ideal for mass de-licing on my own 😂. The youngest is two, she was basically imprisoned in her high chair for an hour and a half while I did her. I don’t understand the infestation life cycle as I do their hair every morning and hadn’t noticed anything amiss and suddenly today there was a fucking farm in the baby’s hair 🫠. I got nothing else done that I needed to and now it’s back to work tomorrow. Not really an AIBU but how do I make sure they’re gone for good? Comb every few days?

I have very fine, curly hair - but a lot of it - the nit comb often used to slide over the eggs. As a kid, it took hours and hours and tears each time. The smell was awful too. I’m dreading when we get it here. My daughters have similar hair - we have a nightmare each morning with one of them just getting the knots out. The old fashioned way where checks were done at school at least used to ensure that the kids whose parents won’t check/deal with straight away were identified and parents had to act. My head is itching so much now that I’m starting to think I have them! I wonder how they deal with it at boarding schools? Off for a scratch now.

My poor ds2 was riddled by the time I cottoned on. In my defence he was in secondary and id forgotten they existed. Many sympathy.

Get the stuff that suffocates nits and do two treatments. The important thing is following the instructions wrt timing the second treatment. Life is too short for all that combing.

The only thing that worked on my children was the overnight treatment, think it was called Hedrin. You apply it & leave it in overnight, minimum 8 hours and wash out next morning. Then you repeat 7 days later. I used to put a towel on their pillow.

the 1/2 hour treatment never worked.

I think they catch them swimming. A swimming instructor told me that headlice float from one head to another. It's really out me off swimming.

I became something of a nit expert in my 20s. My daughter had thick, long, corkscrew curls. Nit combing took hours. When she first got nits I conditioned & combed her hair, thought I'd got rid of them. Nope. What I thought was her 're-catching' them every week wasn't. It was me not doing it thoroughly and regularly.

Conditioner and nit comb every other day - without fail, however long it takes to do the whole head thoroughly. They'll be gone within a week.

Gross story time - I got nits on my first ever teaching practice. This was after my daughter had had them so I should have known better. How stupid I was. I was in a Reception class, used to wear my hair down sometimes ("It won't happen to me!")
My head had been itching so I asked my mum to check, she looked and said I didn't have any. Then it was the Easter break so we were off school for 3 weeks (as uni was). First day back I ended up asking the class teacher to check my hair! She parted my hair, took one look and said 'Yes'. I nearly cried. That night I conditioned and combed my hair and got out 60 lice....the next night a few less. And so on. So over the Easter break the nits that my mum happily said I didn't have had been going forth and multiplying copiously. It knocked me sick.

Fast forward after 25 years in primary schools, I've seen nit infestations that would make you weep - literally seen them walking on the top of children's hair, falling off heads and walking across tables, children's beautifully neat hair in bunches and gorgeous ribbons with an absolute clear-as-day infestation going on. The mad thing is teachers aren't allowed to tell the parents their child has headlice. Just the dreaded nit letter goes out to the whole class once again.

Headlice are passed through close head to head contact. They rarely willingly leave a head as they like the warmth (especially behind the ears and nape of the neck) and they don't want to leave their food supply. So they'll only leave a head if in direct contact with another hair strand to walk/grip on to.

The only times I've seen headlice 'leave' a head is when it's been so infested that there isn't enough room IN the hair so there's some walking on the top of the head and they fall off.

I can imagine this as my girls are so tactile, constantly bundled on top of each other in my bed/on the sofa. The lice probably think it’s one big head tbf 😂.

I’m a teacher too and completely relate. They used to be crawling all over the tables after dropping out of the hair at a school I worked in in Barking & Dagenham 😬 I think I ended up breaking the rules and saying ‘she’s been a bit itchy today’ to the parent 😂.

Thank you- I actually feel quite despondent at the thought of combing every 3 days but it’s what I signed up for when having kids I suppose? 🤣

Her hair is checked regularly thanks 🤣🤣🤣
Goes to the hair dressers for trims regularly to.

This is now your life for the next x amount of years . They have a 2 week cycle. Best thing is loads of conditioner shove their fave programme on and comb their hair once a week ours was sunday. It won't stop till high school . Sorry to be the bearer of bad news . Oh and get a nitty gritty comb. 10 quid but the best around.

Yep. Between a year ago in June and this summer I think we’ve had five outbreaks. And my daughter was 9 the first time so no idea how we avoided it that long! I keep a stash of lotion in my cupboard just in case. My daughter’s hair is so thick that I feel the combing alone doesn’t work even with a ton of conditioner on. Frequent combing and totally saturating the hair in lotion has worked for us. And telling my daughter to keep her head the fuck away from other peoples heads! (Without the swearing of course….)

Christmas 2023 will forever be remembered as headslice (my daughter's name for them) Christmas in our house! I don't know how, but none of the rest of us got them. We did the shampoo, but it was the combing with a proper nit comb every 2-3 days which really did the trick, because it got the eggs out. She has thick, curly, Caucasian hair. Also, wash bedsheets, hats etc frequently. I feel for you OP, good luck, you will triumph!

Why do people deliberately leave the relevant point out of their thread titles?

Tea tree oil shampoo as a preventive. 5 kids, no nits ever...3 boys, 2 girls
Smug, I know

My DDs are dual heritage and both had long hair. They attended a local school where one family continually failed to treat their DCs infestation so I had to deal with it at least four times. It was awful. The best way I found to completely eradicate them was to buy a huge bottle of conditioner or tubs of hair mask. Slather their entire hair in conditioner and have them sleep with a shower cap or plastic bag on their heads to suffocate the blighters. Then the next day fine comb really small sections with the conditioner still in, onto white paper towel to make sure there is nothing left. It’s so unbelievably fucking gross you’ll struggle not to 🤮 Once that’s done wash and blow dry their hair and straighten using GHDs. Boil wash all the bedding and towels. It’s so much work!!!

Don’t want to be miserable but I found conditioner and comb every single day was the answer. 10-14 days.

It was because my parents were at their wits end with the constant nits 🤣 decided strong alcohol (probably years old!) was the way to go! It worked as it just killed them off I guess. And must have soaked the eggs!

My mother told me to put the pillows in the freezer? Do get rid of eggs that may be in there. Not sure this helps but I have done it when mine had nits.
I also sprayed the sofas with a flea environment spray while they were at school before?
And I used the available chemical stuff ( I think I used hedrin) and nit combs.
But then I am a vet ....and maybe not normal 🤣🫣 in my approach!

I tried tea tree oil in a bottle with water , spray on comb and leave over night . Wash as normal. Day 3 same again . Day 6-7 same again. Worked for me and the little buggers can’t hang on to the hair strands as it is oil .

Don't forget to treat brushes and combs too, eggs can hide there. Preferably throw them out and replace but if not possible at least treat them before next use

This is going back a few years... but we used the nit shampoo for the first lot and after that... hair conditioner and a nit comb did the job well, with fewer complaints from the patients

Be sure to wash all the bedding the same days you do the combing/treatment too

OP mum was a hairdresser and advised the childrens’ hospital in our area about head lice. Most people don’t realise that after the initial treatement, you have to treat again 7-9 days later because that will catch the new hatchlings. And you need to keep up the treatments every week for about a month to be sure that you’ve done it successfully.

There’s a product called Invermectin - available over the counter - which is excellent. It kills headlice on the first application and deals with the hatchlings if you use it again as directed above. Unfortunately there is no alternative to the time intensive combing after each treatment to ensure there are no little offenders left, and be sure to change bedding and inspect hairbrushes and clothing to avoid re infestation.