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?

Another vote here for vodka. We used to mix it with cheap conditioner and plaster it on, then cover with a shower cap. It was a lot more effective than the commercial preparations.
Thank god those days are done!

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.

I can tell you not all schools adhere to that. We received an email that clearly stated DC was found to have nits during a whole school inspection.

I have 8 grandchildren and none of them have ever had lice. Neither did any of my 5 children.

why don’t you believe the previous poster?

It was a long time ago but I found Hedrin very effective on both my DDs and myself. Can you still get Hedrin I wonder?

Google says yes you can!

I never had nits as a child and am not sure why.

I had long, very straight Caucasian hair, in a pony tail or bunches, which was washed just once/week (not unusual in those days - I'm old). Was my hair so slippy and shiny that the bugs just couldn't get purchase?

We did use Vosene though, a medicated shampoo with a very strong smell so perhaps that was a deterrent 😁

Just found this:

Vosene Lice Repellent Shampoo and conditioner
https://amzn.eu/d/fWSCNHr

My son has never had nits either but then he is ND with sensory issues so would never be close enough to another child for the nits to jump!

My daughter also 100% avoided them
some how-she is 16 now and she had very long thick blonde hair (still does). I was so paranoid about her getting them that was always using teatree shampoo and whenever I got a text from school about an outbreak I would be constantly tying her hair back off her face into a long plait. So some kids do manage to escape unscathed. I had then twice when I was little and my stepson got them when he was 10 so I know what they are and what they look like etc.

Mummy Dearest, that is my mother. Can remember the days when Derbac Soap shampoo and a. metal Derbac comb were the main stay of the UK arsenal of weapons in exterminating head lice

Each primary school also had regular visits from a Nurse called, Nitty Norah the Bug Explorer. Not to be messed with!

The metal comb seemed to be crucial in the destruction and process. It was I bit painful but dragged out of the child's hair even the most determined , vice like nits and eggs.

Plus, Mommy sends you all her support in this matter and says if poss don't let your kids play or get near kids with nits.

Not easy she said, but the word usually gets around to mothers on this matter faster than the speed of light.

Or you can do what the Victorians used to do and shave your children's heads!!

Joking LOL.

🐜⚗️🪮🪖

Good Luck

Sending love! It’s such a nightmare!
I went through this with my mixed race daughter last year - she has almost waist length hair 😭
I used the nitty gritty plus nit wits or dimethicone from Amazon. I’d put the treatment on overnight, combing through with the nitty gritty, then cover hair with a plastic cap to suffocate the lice and then wash out in the morning. As you’ve got a really young kiddo, I’d leave it on as long as possible during the day before washing it out. I also mixed coconut oil with a few drops of tea tree and lavender oil and applied to hair to make the environment less hospitable after applying leave in conditioner when styling. I think it took about 4 to six weeks to be complete clear. To break the cycle I did the day one, 5, 9, 13, 17 routine of treating and combing. And kept repeating.
It’s painful but you will get through it! Sending thoughts, prayers and hugs!! Xxx

I feel your psin after 4 kids. Honestly I find that attacking from all angles is your best bet. Wet comb with conditioner and nitty gritty comb every 2-3 days (sorry!) And using a coating treatment like Nitwits twice for however long it takes the nits to hatch but before they lay eggs.

Honestly you only have to miss one and you will be wet combing for a month. I'd say put oil or leave in conditioner every day but Honestly those nits could stick to anything

We never had them. But if we had I would have sizzled the fuckers with my hair straighteners.

Nothing helpful to add, OP, as you've had loads of great advice, but just to say my head started itching after reading your post .

Lots of wet combing with conditioner. I stopped using the lotions they get immune to it. I started using the tee tree shampoo and conditioner and they never go them again. They hate the smell. The metal nitty gritty combs are better than the plastic.

When my daughter was still at school it was soul destroying 😭
The lotions were a complete waste of time. Like others have said, use conditioner and keep combing. That was the only thing that worked.

Until my dds caught headlice, I genuinely thought that you put the shampoo on and they were gone, I didn't get what the fuss was about!

Hedrin once and a nitty gritty comb, my children’s hair was too fine for the plastic ones. After five minutes we could see all the dead lice appear on the top of her hair. I struggled with the conditioner route in my two year olds thick, curly hair, we always seemed to miss some.

I am genuinely interested to know why so many children get these nits nowadays. I was at school in the 60s/70s and absolutely nobody had nits. Nobody scratched their head or had any other symptoms.

Sorry if this repeat suggestion, long thread, didn't seem like anyone had said this:

The wee feckers crawl from head to head. So if possible, tie the hair back or even cut it short, which helps to reduce hair to hair contact and new adult arrivals. Is a reason boys suffer less (shorter hair usually).

Look for the eggs if hair is suitable to find them, removing eggs removes future adults. Eggs are brown items On single hairs a few mm above scalp.

Right so I’ve just done my own hair with that stupid metal comb. Turns out I don’t have nits. Also turns out I won’t ever have a chance of contracting them considering around 95% of my hair is now in the sink 😂😬. I literally feel like a walking ad for contraception lately.

My friends who are teachers (I was a teacher myself for a while so I have quite a lot of teacher friends!) all confirm that almost alwayst here's one or two kids in a class whose parents just do not treat them, ever, and so they just constantly reinfect the rest of them. It's fucking irritating. I have given up and just started conditioning and combing DD every Friday to try and catch any before they take hold, and if I spot any I do a Hedrin treatment as well.

Unsurprisingly, I didn't find a single louse over the summer holidays!

I was at school in the 80s, and nits were such a rarity that when one boy got them he was made to wear the hood off his coat all day.
I think the lice have developed resistance to chemical treatments, which is they are more common these days.

oh my goodness, I remember those days. I also got them from the DC once myself as an adult. You have my every sympathy. Weirdly out of my two DDs, the one who kept her hair short seemed to get them much more often. She's maybe the more tactile of the two so I just assumed she got closer to people and was more likely to get infested.

That makes sense. I didn't get them once in the 80s either.

I'm about to jinx myself here; I've been a mother for 13.5 years and we have never had nits!! I have 5 kids, only 1 DD. I think its because my boys are ASD and my DD is not a hugger. 😂

You don't start with the comb at your roots, you start with the ends, make sure they're wet and conditioned, take a narrow strip then gradually and slowly work your way up to your head, though?

Against the grain here, but I loved it when my granddaughter caught nits. The thrill of the chase, spotting an egg and pulling it along and off the hair. She got very wary when I tried to sneak up on her and have a hunt around.

They kept returning because her best friend who lived next door had parents who never treated their child (and obviously no obsessed granny either).

Then child and family moved away, so no more nits.