To want to scream from the hills Nitty Gritty combs and conditioner do NOT eradicate nits!!!!!!!!

[MilaMae]

I have yet to meet anybody who thinks otherwise and I'm sick of letters/GPs fobbing me off with the supposed miracle cure of "teatree conditioner and a Nitty Gritty comb".

I have combed and conditioned every which way every person in the house, it does NOT work. You miss one the side of a pinhead it lays masses of eggs and voila!!!! The only thing I've found to work is Hedrin on everybody in the house then repeating a week later. At £10 a bottle X 5 it's £££££££ but at least it works.

Was wondering if anybody has tried vinegar,was thinking the acid must be able to kill nits instantly. DP thinks I'm bats but I'll try anything if it means I don't have to go through the nightly screamfest of combing dd's waist length wavy hair with a Nitty Gritty comb-when it doesn't work anyway.

Ivy how do you do the olive oil thing,does it suffocate like Hedrin?Is it as effective?

Desperate clutching at straws emoticon

I have used Frontline (dog flea treatment) in desperation: three years ago. My daughter was completely phobic about having her hair washed at the time. Just a tiny dot the size of the full stop at the end of the sentence was all it took. Got me into trouble here (one MNer told me she'd 'report' me if she knew who was).

The children are still barking and wagging their tails have never had nits since.

I have found out that my guilty little secret is something that other desperate parents have turned to. I was with a friend at a horse show when she met her vet's receptionist. 'You've just reminded me that I must pick up some Frontline,' she said to the receptionist.' 'For [name of child] or for the dog?' asked the receptionist?

Please note: I am not advocating the use of animal medication. Just explaining the desperation I have experienced in the past and the uselessness of most 'remedies'.

WiggleJiggle.

Take a pint glass/jug of water to the bathroom. Rinse your Nitty Gritty in the water between sections and then at the end you can see how many crawlers/eggs you have removed...you can very easily see the progress.

I have DDs with bum length wavey hair and I absolutely love my Nitty Gritty comb. You have to be very through, sectioning the hair (you should IME be spending a minimum of 30mins every third night combing) or you will miss them

Well there's not really much point if there are children in her class who are not being treated. Are you sure that you are leaving eggs that are then hatching? Maybe there are untreated children and your DD is simply being reinfected over and over.

Speak to the school. They need to do more about these sorts of things. Pathetic whiny letters do no good. They need to be speaking to parents individually.

I put the conditioner on dry hair then comb in teeny sections then rinse off at the end.

The problem arises if there is someone who isn't treated constantly reinfecting them.

i find nitty gritty works for us, i wet comb once a week, and both the dc's stay pretty much nit free. although, we did decide in the end to get dd's hair cut into a bob, that really has helped with the wet combing. i also find spraying them both with this stuff helps, lanes leave-in tea tree conditioner, i spray them both every morning.

I find she can get it from her brothers too so I can see how easily it's spread. It's so easy to miss them. Ds was scratching this week, I dry checked 3 times nothing,double checked one night with conditioner and NG comb and hey presto-a sink full of corpses!!!!!

I treat them immediately but once one has it we're doomed. This is why I find Hedrin so good,everybody blitzed on one night-job definitely done, you can't NG comb 3 kids every night and get every nit out or maybe just I can't.

What worked for us is vodka. Spray it on liberally, stick on a shower cap for 10 minutes, then attack with the Nitty Gritty comb. Much cheaper than prescription stuff, plus no washing out.

I have NG 4 girls with long hair in one evening and yes you have to do it every 3rd day for a fortnight for it to work.

My mum got so sick of headrin and derbac M and nit combs not working that she succumbed to tea tree oil and gin. Yes, gin.
Sitting for half an hour with tea tree oil and gin on your head is no fun.
It worked though.
Did anyone else get the gin treatment as a child?

That Lanes stuff looks good.

So I should be conditioning dry hair,have been conditioning wet hair.Hmmmmmm will try that.

Your GP is not "fobbing you off". The evidence is very clear that combing works better than anything else. The problem is that nothing works all that well.

Am that anyone would use Frontline. Fipronil is a neurotoxin and may be carcinogenic to mammals. It is classified as a poison by the WHO. It can cause liver and kidney damage. It is not licensed for use in humans because it is not considered safe. In fact, you are not even supposed to let your children touch pets who have recently been treated with it. Headlice are harmless - frustrating, time-consuming and revolting - but harmless. I can't believe anyone would put their child at risk in this way. Personally I won't even use it on my dog.

What is it about the nitty gritty comb that is so great? I had an ordinary rusty old metal nit comb, bought for a cat years ago, it worked really well, nice to use etc etc then bought a nitty gritty and what did it do? stuck in my hair and broke off loads of hair, it was agony, I rang them up and they said Oh it must be a dodgy one, send it abck, we'll send you another - got replacement plus free bottles of repellant etc etc, it still caught in my hair, I hate the blooming thing.

I can't understand why people like it.
Not that I've needed to use it anyway, ds has quite short hair, doesn't seem to get nits. I really knew when I had them the one time - but he didn't even get it then! Unless he is silent carrier and yes I did comb him and hedrinned him to be safe.

What I mean to say is, the old metal flea combs are much more comfortable and do still get the louses out, not sure if they are close enough together for the actual eggs but they got the baby louses.

I love the combing using that, it's quite soothing, but not the nitty gritty. That just kills your hair.

I am now completely phobic about nits.

I think nitty gritty was what eventually worked for us. With tea tree and peppermint shampoo (superdrug), a shake of tea tree oil in bath water and in hair, and then wet combing once out of the bath.

Took a good while. Clear at the moment.

Fright you do have to use the NG with conditioner on your hair and in small sections.........

you think nits are bad, threadworms are worse!!

I have to agree that, for thick, long, curly hair, the NG comb is just not enough. It's also very difficult to use and each session takes ages. With my dd, 2-hourly sessions every other night for weeks did not get rid of all the lice. The only thing that worked 100% was hedrin. On my straight hair though, the NG comb + conditioner worked a treat!

So, OP, no, YANBU

and you have to kinda point it downwards as well, so that the spirals hit the hair at the correct angle.

glad someone told you about teh jug of water, wriggle, that's what i do too.

dd has very thick, long, curly hair btw. another thing i found was that nasty cheapo conditioner did not work well on her hair, whereas a thick 'masque' type one was fine.

yy Cargirl I was using loads of conditioner, tried different angles etc, it was the corners of the comb, just seemed to snag my hair and pull it out.

Honestly I am au fait with the conditioner aspect. A normal metal cat comb never got bits snagged in it.

Perhaps I have weird hair.

Haven't used the nitty gritty but used a good metal nit comb and conditioner and have got rid of them.
I makes sure I either dry comb or wet comb it every day for 2 weeks to make sure to get them as they hatch and don't get a chance to breed again.

Probably just very very thick individual strands. It's very hard to do on your own hair anyway I think.

Def super thick conditioner!