Headlice woes...

[Cantspellmynameright]

DD has beautiful fine blonde hair down to her bum and since turning 4 is continually picking up/never quite getting rid of nits.

I fine comb her hair every other day, use tea tree shampoo, conditioner and leave in spray. We have tried olive oil, Hedrin spray and Derbac M as treatments, I tie her hair up every day she is at nursery and always check myself, DS and DH when I find them in her hair.

The problem is that I have tried many different combs but her hair is so fine the hair and even the eggs seem to pass through easily without anything really being picked up. I have even sat for an hour at a time hand picking bloody lice eggs! Still they plague us!

I have just sat and combed her and picked out more young lice. No old ones in there. Checked my own hair and yup - I had one :(
DS is clear.

I am getting so tired of the whole screaming fits and itching! Poor DD has such a dry scalp anyway that itching from lice only make it worse and so sore for her.

There seems to be varying ideas on stripping beds after treatment - is it worth it?

Is there anything I can do without chopping her hair off?

Hoping someone out there can help....

Do you have a NittyGritty comb, and do you plait her hair for nursery?

Hand picking out eggs is normal, and at least you KNOW you've got them out. I don't like the Nitty Gritty comb for that reason.

After an infestation is discovered, Do you comb out every other day for at least 2 weeks? This is more important than which (if any) potion you use.

Does the nursery/school regularly send out letters to remind all parents to look for the blighters?

I've never felt that I had to resort to stripping beds; they don't survive long off the head so it shouldn't be necessary.

I'm no expert, as we've only had two infestations, but both times I picked the nits out by hand until they were all gone.Luckily I had a child willing to cooperate.

Nursery permanently have a headlice reminder up and it goes out on every newsletter. Unfortunately there are some children there who just don't get treated. DD has her hair plaited - is that good or bad??

I comb her every other day even when she hasn't been treated.

I guess it's just going to be down to hoping to get all the eggs by hand picking, keeping up the combing and continuing to explain to her about not trying on everyone elses hats etc!!

The main issue is the sheer amount of hair - maybe a few back to back princess DVD's and chocolate to hand will be enough to get them all!

Thanks for the advice :)

How do you know that it's lice your picking out and not just hair grit? I have a 17 month with all sorts if food debris in hair and White dandruff looking stuff. How do you know what's what? I use nitty gritty because her older sister supposedly had nits once but again I wasn't sure just saw one lice looking insect once months ago and again these White things that could have been dried food they flick out!!??

I would get her hair cut very short, it's far easier to get the nitty gritty comb through it.