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Original poster

Another nits question - your advice please

70 replies

Lazylou · 27/05/2007 18:43

DD has got nits and headlice. It started about a week and a half ago and I dutifully bought some stuff for them. I did what the packet said and got the nit comb out, combing, combing, combing. I couldn't get all the eggs out though (I even resorted to picking them out of her hair myself). The packet said to do it all again in a weeks time, which is today, so have done it and combed her hair a squillion times again but there are some eggs still lurking.

How do I get the eggs out? They'll keep hatching won't they and she'll have headlice for ages? What should I do? She is scrathcing her head so much that there a sore red lumps on her head, as well as spots that have bled. I feel so sorry for her. I have never had to deal with nits before so this is a first experience for me.

Thanks

OP posts:
FrannyandZooey · 27/05/2007 21:35

Xenia, you're mistaken - lice are now highly resistant to chemical treatments and these are only effective in about a third of cases. Plus you are applying insecticide to your child's head.

Wet combing with conditioner is recommended as the most effective and safest method. Every 3 days for at least 2 weeks or until all live lice are gone, does the trick.

Judy1234 · 27/05/2007 21:41

True, they also have to keep swapping which insecticide to use. Do try Hedrin though, it's not the same as the others and very effective. I think it got something like 36% of the market very quickly in the first six months - www.thorntonross.com/hedrin/

Judy1234 · 27/05/2007 21:42

And many people don't live lives where they can do the wet comgbing, not with lots of daughters with waist length hair and if the inseticide works - depends on area and resistant it is so effective immediately - you see the lice bodies on the pillow the next morning and know ever egg has been killed too even if you leave the dead shells in until they fall out.

NKF · 27/05/2007 21:42

I just googled Hedrin. It's not a pesticide by the look of it.

FrannyandZooey · 27/05/2007 21:43

You still have to wet comb with Hedrin or with any of the treatments - otherwise you have a head full of dead lice

simpler and cheaper just to get in the habit of checking regularly and combing thoroughly whenever necessary, IMO

Justaboutmanaging · 27/05/2007 21:51

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NKF · 27/05/2007 21:52

Justabout - I'm not scoffing but I can't help wondering if isn't a bit whiffy.

SlightlyMadShovel · 27/05/2007 22:03

heres my take on this. Others on the thread agree

Nitty Gritty is the only treatment I will EVER use - and I have DTDs with waist length hair.

I have used the Bug Busting kit but NItty Gritty is 1000 times better (although I do use the bug buster to check for lice once every 2-3 weeks - I only use the NItty Gritty to treat when I find evidence of lice). Bug Busting you have to wait for the lice to hatch and cause itching before you can get them out. Nitty Gritty gets the unhatched eggs out fairly efficiently - so they don't hatch - they don't itch - they don't infect others.

TBH although I do always treat for the full 2 weeks I have never got anything out after day 8 (and sometimes day 4). Once they come out clear I am, a little less thorough which speeds the whole process up.

BUY a NITTY GRITTY (or get one on prescription). YOu won't regret it.

SlightlyMadShovel · 27/05/2007 22:04

Oh and I think the vinegar is effective as the acid (apparently) destroys the glue holding the eggs tot he shaft.

Nightynight · 27/05/2007 22:06

hmm I might try that while we are waiting for nitty gritty combs to arrive from england.

what would you do, pour the vinegar on, and wrap the scalp in a plastic bag for 20 minutes?

runkid · 27/05/2007 22:22

i use a battery operated nit comb it shocks live nits and kills them and removes eggs its alot less bother than putting on lotions and conditioner etc

Justaboutmanaging · 27/05/2007 22:23

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Message withdrawn at poster's request.

FrannyandZooey · 27/05/2007 22:25

So you reckon pouring vinegar constantly over your head for 20 mins every day is LESS hassle than wet combing every 3 days for 2 weeks? You will spend more time on the vinegar method than on the combing....

Judy1234 · 27/05/2007 22:25

If they are dead you don't have to comb them out technically because they will fall out. When we had this a lot when the children were younger we just pushed on the chemicals and it killed them off. There are better treatments now than the ones we used then in the 1980s and that's why I mentioned hedrin which has apparently done really well.

What puzzles me is in the 1960s we never once got head lice. My mother's very poor state school she taught at in the 1940s had "nitty nora" who was a nurse who went round the classes looking for chidren with nits. We then didn't have them in the 60s for some reason and then in the 80s they seem to come back and they're certainly a big problem now do.

FrannyandZooey · 27/05/2007 22:28

They are more of a problem now because they are resistant to the treatments and people don't bother to comb as well as using lotions, so they are rife.

Judy1234 · 27/05/2007 22:33

Yes, in my mother's teaching days the schools were dealing with and enforcing it and now it's left to the parents and that doesn't seem to be so effective. We haven't had them for ages now.

Hedrin kind of smothers the lice and doesn't contain the chemicals lots of people hate.
www.thorntonross.com/hedrin/hedrin-info-leaflet.pdf

FrannyandZooey · 27/05/2007 22:35

Yes, I know a US family and in their dd's school you are excluded for the duration of the time you have lice. She has never had them except for the time she caught them from some family she was visiting here

FrannyandZooey · 27/05/2007 22:36

Hedrin seems harmless and I may try it some time, but it is not cheap and MNers have had mixed results with it. I know wet combing works without any side effects so I think I will probably stick to what I know.

Touch wood none of us will need to know this again anyway

cat64 · 27/05/2007 22:37

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cat64 · 27/05/2007 22:38

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FrannyandZooey · 27/05/2007 22:38

I got a Nitty Gritty comb on prescription

SlightlyMadShovel · 27/05/2007 22:39

But as far as I am aware (but feel free to correct me) Hederin only kills live lice. You then have to wait 7-10 days for the eggs to hatch and treat the resulting lice.

Thats 7-10 days the child is likely to have lice wandering around their head waiting to infect other children. With the Nitty Gritty you don't get that. Providing you are thorough there is the potential to have no live lice after the first treatment.

Besides THe comb cost me a tenner and will treat the whole family from here to eternity. I dread to think how much it would cost me in hederin.

Judy1234 · 27/05/2007 22:43

SM, in that case I prefer what we used to use - nasty chemicals which killed them all off at one fell swoop, with pharmacies around each local area rotating the kind to ensure resistance isn't built up locally. But I'm not particularly anti chemical so that was never an issue for us.

SlightlyMadShovel · 27/05/2007 22:44

But I didn't think any of the chemicals killed the eggs (apart from the new lyclear stayaway stuff whcih implies it kills eggs in its ads)

FrannyandZooey · 27/05/2007 22:45

Xenia, no chemical kills all the lice and all the eggs. You always have to repeat the treatment after 2 weeks to catch any that have hatched out in the in between time