another nitty question - does anyone have experience of treating children with eczema, allergies and asthma for head lice?

[MrsShrekTheThird]

Well, the pharmacist basically said she couldn't sell us any of the OTC ones and it needed to be a prescribed treatment (by GP, obv) I've emailed the GP surgery, but in the meantime do any of you have any tips?
have had a bit of a hunt through MN search but not come up with much. All we've done so far is spray dcs hair with tea tree oil and use a nit-comb. Any experience or words of wisdom gratefully received. TIA

When my kids were at school they had an excellent policy of periodically getting ALL children to do a 2 week nit-busting exercise. It didn't use any chemical treatments at all and, amazingly, it did work. It depended upon everyone doing the same thing during the nit-busting fortnight. We had a calendar on day one and every three days thereafter (I think it was) every child should have his/her hair washed then use any old conditioner and then comb through hair with a nit comb removing any lice. If everyone did it, then the life cycle was disrupted and all lice could be removed.

It was an excellent, cheap, chemical-free solution - but it obviously only works if everyone does the same.

Of course you can just carry on doing this unilaterally, at least that way you will get rid of lice without chemicals, but without everyone doing it, you can't necessarily prevent them being passed on.

thank you both :) I'd rather have that sort of treatment any day tbh! With the school holiday / bank holiday arrangement, they'll hardly be in school, so am in a position to do the unilateral thing for now. The nit-busting idea sounds awesome, I'll suggest it to school and see if they make positive noises.

Tea Tree is for fleas, rather than headlice (according the Tisserand original aromatherapy manuals) its actually Rosemary oil that is the aromatherapy remedy head lice treatment & it does work really well as a repellant, & having tested it on one of the nasty little buggers, it WILL kill 1, where tea tree wont, but you'd need bucket full to clear a whole head - so --

you need a "nitty gritty nit comb - others done work half as well & just be very very thorough, with wet combing with conditioner or even mayonaise(suffercate the little buggers), the nitty gritty will remove eggs as well as lice - you need to keep repeating this & if hair is straight, or short you can probably managed with dry combing in between - until you get rid of them all

use Vosene shampoo - they now have a bright green 1 that is for headlice, but the old one used to work too - also use their detangling headlice repellant spray, but add about 20 drops of rosemary oil to it - once the headlice are clear, we find this works brilliantly for keeping them away - & DD has waist length hair :) - plaiting it helps too though

I've a complete blank on the brand name of the only over the counter one that actually works, but it is the same 1 as you get on prescription, its silicon based & suffocates them & then you repeat a week later when eggs have hatched - it is good stuff, though still needs thorough combing - DD hasn't had a problem with her skin reacting to it & she does have very sensitive skin, diagnosed as excema, but turned out to be allergy related urticaria instead, so you may well find your DD is fine with it too- we've used it a couple of times with excellent results - when I've stupidly ran out of rosemary oil & vosene spray - make sure you treat the whole family though

oh, & if its a bad infestation, lots of eggs to shift, if your DD can tolerate it, Vinegar dissolves the glue that sticks the eggs to the hair, so makes them MUCH easier to get out - but can be a bit harsh on the skin, but a good back up if desperate to clear a bad infestation

dd has curly hair, so that will be, umm, interesting. All three dc have got them afaik they're not usually that good at sharing. Fortunately the boys have nice smooth short hair, so only dd who will be time consuming with her complaining treatment

thanks for al; the info though, brilliant stuff!

We've had Full Marks with no problems, the chemist told me that most of them are fine nowadays, but he was happier recommening Full Marks for asthma.

I'd try another chemist, both my local one and a boots branch have been happy to sell me Full Marks for asthmatic children.