Can anyone link to a photo of a nit please?

[mogs0]

I think ds has lice. I found one crawling in his hair so have put conditioner on and put a comb through it but I have no idea how big or small the eggs are going to be. There are little white bits in his hair but I can pick them off easily and they are super tiny.

I have googled (big mistake!) but just don't know what I'm looking for.

IIRC the nit (egg) is brownish and looks like the tip of a Kirby grip. It's usually stuck a cm or two from the root of the hair and won't brush out easily; you'll need to pull it along the hair between your fingernails. The white bits are the empty eggshells.

Thanks for the reply.

There is nothing brownish or the shape of the end of a kirby grip...does that mean we're in the clear?

I can't see anything in his hair at all now except these tiny white flakes...could be dandruff after combing his hair.

I have dry-combed my hair and can't see anything in mine either. I'm hoping my friend will come and have a look.

When you say you combed his/your hair, I assume you used a nit comb?

No, I didn't as I only discovered it/them this evening so I had to work with what I had. I will be off to purchase one first thing in the morning. Wouldn't I be able to see them if they were there?

It's difficult without a proper nit comb. Have a look at the roots of his hair close to his ears, use your fingers to run through it upwards like flicking through a book IYSWIM.

Once you've got your nit comb, do the conditioner thing and comb through, rinsing the comb in a clean clear jug/bowl of water between strokes. Anything you have combed out will sink to the bottom and be visible when you look from underneath.

God, you've got me scratching my head now!

Sorry!! I am very grateful to you for replying though .

I did have a really close look and did the 'flicking through a book' thing aswell once his hair had dried.

I'm really itchy too but I don't know whether it's because I have nits or whether it's just from thinking about it. I have to go and change my bedding now...already have 5 duvet covers in the washing machine/basket/dryer

If there are small shiny bits that seem to be cemented to the hair shaft (so you have to pull them with your nails to the end to remove them), they are nits...or eggs.

Lice vary in size according to how mature they are, but tend to be 1-2mm long, and brown.

Most people think that the lice are most often on the warmest part of the head... behind the ears, but I've found that they are quite often on the top.

I'm a bit of an expert... ex foster carer!

Thanks, shockers...any chance you live near me (south Wales) and could come and diagnose?!

He's gone to bed now so will have a fresh look in the morning and pop to Tesco before work/school. Infact, I wonder if I should just go now.

Ha... fraid not,lovely part of the world though! When you buy a nit comb, make sure it's got metal teeth, and as married said, comb through with conditioner.

I am a little bit obsessed with this, washing and nitcombing my own hair every morning .

I do work in school though... in a very huggy yr3 class.

Ds and I went to Tesco at 6.45 this morning and bought a nitty gritty comb. I found one louse in my hair (but not sure whether I was doing it properly as couldn't really see what I was doing) but no eggs. I didn't think I'd got anything out of ds' hair until I looked at the bottom of the jug of water i'd been using to rinse the comb and there were about 30 eggs.

Do I just keep repeating this every day?

What about bedding and clothes? I changed ds' bed last night, naively hoping thinking that he just had one random louse. Do I keep changing it daily if I'm still finding eggs/lice? What about my bed? I'm not a fan of laundry at the best of times but daily duvet/pillowcase changes might tip me over the edge .

I daren't google again, those pictures are not pleasant!

Every 3rd day for 2 weeks after seeing a live louse. Anything you miss inbetween will be too small to walk off and infect someone else.

Don't worry about the bedding, they can't live long enough away from the head, though I'd have a quick look round the pillow in the morning cos I'm paranoid

You'll not clear headlice with combing alone - you need to kill them with something.

Hedrin's the best treatment IMO, it's silicon based so suffocates then rather than using harsh chemicals that they can become resistant to.

Use a treatment, wash bedding then, then start the combing regime.

I've never changed bed sheets for nits

Pillowcases yes, and washed hairbrushes and combs, but thats it. Both times my dds had them (caught early, admittedly) I just put Hedrin Once on, combed, then repeated ten days later. And that was that.

It gets easier: I used to and shudder at the MN veterans who talked about the satisfaction of de-nitting a head, but after a couple of rounds I can actually get what they meant

You can clear them with combing alone - I've only ever used chemicals once. You just need to be extremely thorough, and repeat the combing process every few days.