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?

use a long-toothed nut comb - metal - every morning and evening. It gets the eggs out. You shouldn’t need to use any chemicals, just normal shampoos /conditioner and the comb. But comb it twice daily.

I used hedrin for DD & it worked a treat. Although I did catch it early as I checked her hair loads. She only got them once & had waist length curly hair. I was adamant about her having her hair tied up for school though.

Nut comb should read as nit comb …

I swear by the overnight spray or mousse...put it all in, tie hair up so it doesnt get in their faces then wash it all out in the morning (will need a couple of shampoos). Its a bit gross because you will see all the lice dead on their pillow but its satisfying knowing it worked. And yes my head is now itching thinking about it.

Also after nit comb / conditioner, spray hair spray all over near scalp - stops the nits crawling around/breeding etc

Not the right hair type as DD just has super thick caucasian hair but we had great success with just the product shoved on twice at the recommended interval. We used Full Marks.

I only have the one child though so maybe that reduced the reinfection chances?!

I do have the conditioner and combs in the cupboard on standby but haven’t needed them since. I know in mumsnet the products don’t seem to work for anyone but they did for us so I’d use them again.

I do keep DD’s hair up at school and she is in a very small school so that probably reduces the incidence.

Replying for solidarity - first rodeo at the weekend for DD aged 8, she has short curly thick hair - we got lucky with the Superdrug spray and plastic comb that comes with it, it was 2.5 hours for the first comb through, then I left it in for the afternoon and did another comb through in the evening for 2 hours. My hand was a claw all yesterday but man we got LITERALLY HUNDREDS out. They multiply quick as she had nothing two weeks ago that I could see.

Just did another conditioner comb through and only 2 teeny tiny dead ones. I plan to do her conditioner combing again Thursday then Superdrug spray us all again Saturday and that should hopefully kill any remaining eggs off right?!

I reckon she finally got them as we stopped using Avon detangling spray as part of DD learning to get herself ready in the morning (she struggled to aim it). Well we’ve learnt that lesson and back to it daily or that Vosene preventative spray…!

these super lice are HUGE 🤮🤮🤮

Why aren’t teachers allowed to say?

I never got nits as a child (lived in the middle of nowhere & went to tiny school in the middle of nowhere). When my own kids went to school, it was Nit City until they went to secondary school. A decade later, when I had had no contact with any kids at all for ages, I suddenly found I had nits. My hairdresser saw then she was cutting my hair & screamed (thanks for that, Lisa). It took me two goes to get rid of them!
I hate nits!

The nit nurse does not make a difference. I cannot cite papers because I am on my phone not laptop, but there is lots of public health research to say that nit nurses visiting terms do not crack nits.

Weekly checking for lice before they have laid their eggs and if you find them the cycle of checking every three days cracks it. The school nurse in the clinic I worked in recommended drying with a white towel once a week. The lice show up on the white.

There were lots of lice around when I was at school in 60s and 70s. I recall our headmaster in 1970 announcing to the school in assembly the amazing news that the latest nit nurse visit had found zero headlice. He was so proud of us. Silly man. He still had a cane in his office to be used on boys. Oh the good old days.

I made it part of the evening bedtime ritual to comb through hair with a nit comb and conditioner. They dont like the conditioner, they can't cling on

I got a bit fixated when mine had them.

I did the whole nig conditioner thing, but I'm not sure it does much. I'd literally comb with (normal) conditioner very morning and night (summer hols), or at least once a day. I really do think that's the only way to do it. Even if I'd done a REALLY GOOD going over in the morning, I'd still find a HUGE one the next time... literally how!?! How did it survive the previous combing. They get smaller and smaller very quickly then eventually go.. their life cycle is 2 weeks (I think), so just keep at it!

Oh no, now my heads itching at the thought. 😱

The study of human lice, particularly their genetics, offers a unique way to understand human history, migration, and population dynamics. Some research suggests certain types of lice might have an evolutionary role in modulating the human immune system, though this is still being explored.

In what way?

For what seemed like years (although I'm sure it was just weeks) my two daughters (with straight, Caucasian, but very thick hair) passed nits and lice back and forth to each other. I too spent hours combing lice out of their hair. It was soul destroying.

The only thing that worked in the end was paying a professional (she called herself the "nit fairy" or something like that) to do it. It wasn't cheap but was the best money I've ever spent and they were gone for good.

My daughter had them 3 times last school year after not having them at all the last 7 years!
It took me 6 hours just to do her hair each time, then I had to do my own because my husband was too grossed out to help.

Probably because lots of parents won't use the lotions any more.

There are way more headlice around now that people have switched to this combing method.

Some of the stronger lice treatments were restricted (as they were dangerous) and lice have become resistant to other treatments still available.

The very old chemical treatments weren't dangerous but did become less effective over time. The suffocating formulations developed after that though are still effective - lice aren't resistant to suffocation. You just have to make sure you coat every hair, leave it on for long enough and repeat to catch the life cycle.

Some of the reported methods on this thread, like conditioning and combing once a week, or using tea tree oil, won't do anything to disrupt an infestation. The kids whose parents follow such methods will continue to have lice and will quickly reinfest their peers.

Buy a Nitty Gritty comb from a local chemist or Amazon. It takes out the eggs as well as the lice

I didn't have to check my kids with wet hair....

Nitty gritty comb for the win

Got me itching now.😂😂😂

I remember seeing a social media post over lockdown saying while we are social distancing we should all check for nits and hopefully ireadicate them. Sadly there was a lot of neglect over lockdown. There was a girl in the US who had such a severe infestation she was severely anemic and passed away. There was a girl in Ireland who had to be put into intensive care.

Vosene kids lice repellent shampoo really works. My dc are 14 and 15 and have never had nits