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 cant use the comb on me or my one dd. Do the spray and they fall out dead always check the pillow in the morning for bodies. And retreat after a week

I also never had them. My mum used to check regularly.

She always used to condition my hair and said it made it harder for the nits to hold on. No idea if there’s any truth to that.

Cheap tree tea shampoo and conditioner with wet combing with proper nit Comb. NHS suggests the day schedule over couple of weeks for wet combing.

My days of nits are long passed, but what worked for me in the constant fight was to get a nitty gritty comb and just comb through every bath time. I had boys with short (but incredibly thick) which was a bit easier. Lots of conditioner to help comb through. You can then catch the adults when they have hopped aboard rather than get to infestation stage

I have actual trauma of my mum swearing and pulling my hair EVERY YEAR during primary, so I swore to myself I would never be like that when the time came for my own kids to go through this joyful time. HA! If anything I think I was worse than my mum and yes now when I ask my 20 year old if she remembers she glares and she says she she doesn't want to talk about it 😂. I my defence seeing that one little black bug on my 2 week old baby made me completely loose it.
So I really REALLY feel your pain and imo there is no secret, comb comb comb, I did it twice a day, put a bonnet on their head and washed their bedding every day.
I found that some head will attract them more than others, I was a magnet but my kids not so much, a friend who is a hairdresser said that nits don't like coloured, gel/crispy hair, and lavender is a good deterrent, so a few drops behind their ears (nits favourite spot) should help.

You can buy a treatment for box caterpillar, won't help you this time but might help before the next cycle
https://ebay.us/m/JMRffe

DD has never had it. She’s 8. I’ve had them loads (Teaxher in very very deprived area). I know teachers who have never had them. Maybe it’s a blood type thing?

Wet comb every day for 9 days (i think NHs says every 3 days but I could not let them go to bed knowing that little bugs could be there). It gets easier. I recall having to find a spot in the house where the sunlight came in so I could really see everything. I have no time for chemicals. Eldest DD ended up with a cough after I used a chemical lotion. GP ended up prescribing asthma medication 😞. Once I used a nit comb and conditioner I never looked back.

Check weekly - like the same day every week. I’m itching now just thinking about those days🤣.

Good luck. Dogged determination wins the day.

I feel your pain.

I had 3 to comb through, not to mention the embarrassment of visiting MIL & my parents armed with nit comb & conditioner telling them that I had to 'do' them as they may have nits. The elder generation regarded it as a terrible shame & no matter how much I told them that hair lice prefer clean hair, they weren't convinced.

Eventually I bought a comb that would zap the little buggers with a small electric charge. So satisfying hearing that zap.

I'm now the GP who's children have to ring to tell me that the GC have nits so DH & me have to spend a couple of comfortable evenings in front of the TV combing each other's hair. DH says it's a bit like an ape's re-mating ritual. Dream on mate. sex is the last thing I feel like after de-nitting each other. 😂

Thank goodness my years of nit-eliminating are over!

One 'highlight' of my life was actually sitting going through my adult sister's hair, which was very long and thick, to de-nit her, and then to do the same to her 5year old daughter. My sister was too heeby-jeebied to do her at the time.... she soon learned!

Oh I have nightmares about this. My youngest is 14, but I remember getting the blame from school for the DC getting reinfected because I have long hair, that was not what happened, we were all lice-free several times. DS1 told me that it was a girl in his class, her family treated them with lavender oil. She went on to the same secondary school as one of his friends and the friend said she could see them moving under her hijab. 🤢

When my youngest DD was at primary school (she's 33 now) the school sent letters saying check hair every 3 days, and children were sent home, not allowed in school. She had very long thick hair. My local pharmacist said you have to check the hair 3 times a day, morning, after school, bedtime. She had asthma and eczema and I couldn't use the special treatments available then. In the end I spent a backbreaking hour over the bath every night with conditioner. I gave the head teacher the advice from the pharmacy,he thanked me and continued to send out leaflets saying check the hair every 3 days.

My head is so itchy after reading this thread!

My kids are 16 and almost 18 and somehow we have escaped nits. I remember someone in the family getting them once a year but I’ve not known anyone have them in all the time I’ve had kids.

Conditioner and tea tree oil, comb through nightly for 2 weeks. They should be gone.

The cheapest vinegar that you can find, leave it in as long as you can bear, then comb through, I used to do this once a week, also use tea tree based shampoo

Once a week is why you kept getting reinfested. You need to break the cycle by doing it every three days.

I def recommend getting the chemicals for yourself as it’s next to impossible to comb yourself thoroughly I find… last year was the first time we got them (kids 9 and 6) and in the end I realised I was the weak link and kept reinfecting the kids.

also I dip each comb through in a mug of boiling water to make sure they’re dead and can’t climb back on.

The nit nurse

I have to admit that having spent approx 40 seconds treating two hairy ponies for lice yesterday, I did have the thought that it's about time someone licensed a spot-on treatment for kids....

Did I say I got reinfected nope. Did I ask for advise. Nope not the op. Do I have kids that need treatments any more. Nope been there done that got the t shirt.

This. One treatment every few months.
But I think there are a few lazy parents out there. Some yes can't afford treatments but some are down right lazy and neglectful.

Because it is ridiculous. Headlice will spread like wildfire through any group of children, such as a class in a school. And their parents. There is no hair type, blood type, cleanliness etc that keeps them at bay.

Those who treat their children methodically and carefully, tie hair back, etc. still get them time and again. Then you meet the kid whose parents are deliberately ignorant or blissfilly unaware with children riddled with lice.

Being charitable, maybe the parents just don't know what to look for! Alternatively, they think if they keep childrens hair regularly washed, their children can't possibly have them. Whatever the cause, these children are a nightmare. Ask any teacher.

And guess what, thanks to these miracle 'nit free' children' all the kids soon have headlice again.

I never had them as a kid, I first got them in my first year of teaching. All the girls had to wear their hair up at my school and I wasn't very physical with friends. I don't think there was a year that I DIDN'T get them when I had my own classes.

In the '50's, the common thinking was to put malt vinegar in the final hair rinse. It purportedly loosed the glue that stuck the nits onto the hair. Followed of course with the nit comb. No conditioner then, but we had the shiniest hair ever seen.