Nits or not nits?!

[LaMigraine]

Sorry, I know this topic has been done to death but I am really flummoxed. When washing DD's hair on Sunday I realised there were lots of little white bits in it, but after much inspection I thought it looked more like flaky skin than nits/eggs - they weren't stuck to the hair shaft, weren't egg-shaped, more irregular-sized and flat/flaky than elongated. I took her to the pharmacist who, although admittedly only really glanced at her hair (and it's hard to see the stuff when her hair's dry as it's really thick and wavy), agreed that it looked like dandruff.

But today I was looking at DS's hair and realised he has the same thing - bits of flaky-looking white, some near his scalp, other bits further down the shaft towards the ends. I haven't spotted anything moving, or anything brown, though his hair is sort of chestnut coloured so ideal camouflage for a live louse. But dandruff isn't contagious, obviously, so must it be nits? Even though it doesn't really look like it? Or are there any other possible explanations?!

Both my dd's and i had dry flaky scalps at the same time. I think its just from winter elements and me having the heating on a lot.

Oh that's interesting. I guess because none of us have ever had dandruff/flaky scalp before I just thought it was unlikely for them both to have it at once. DS, though 4, still has a bit of cradle cap [lazy mother emoticon] which occasionally surfaces, but these bits I noticed today are smaller and whiter and finer.

We were the same, ive never had dandruff/dry scalp before.

dd 6 who's very fair i actually saw lotsa dark bits along her scalp which made me paranoid initially it was actually them chucking crap in the playground and when checking her closely she had cradle cap again but also v dry patches iyswim

dd8 is brunette, saw wee white bits, again just v dry scalp. She had cradle cap off and on til about 6.

What shampoo/cond do you use? I bought some that has argan oil in it and my scalp hates it. Im now using the nuragena tgel coal tar one on myself and the Aussie deep condt for the girls

If it's nits it's very hard to catch one actually moving. When they do have nits though, they can be scratching. And the scratching causes the increase in dandruff to a point where you notice it as you have done.
So yes it could still be nits. If they are scratching, it's 99.9% nits.

Oh yes, forgot to mention that - no scratching that I've noticed, and as it's the school hols I've been with them all day every day for the past 5 days. I, however, am itching like mad - head, body, arms, hands, legs... So weird. It's probably because I've spent half the day googling headline info, but it's been going on for hours now. Argh.

Mu123 no recent change in shampoo for any of us - I use one with Argan oil but my hair/head seems perfectly happy with it. For DS I still use Johnson's Baby; DD has Waitrose Kids shampoo and conditioner. Have bought Oilatum dandruff shampoo though so will try on DD tomorrow and see if that helps. Though think I will also buy a nit comb and have a go-through at the same time - dreading what I might find...

Get a nitty gritty and some cheap conditioner and if it's nits you'll know.

Nits are a dark brown/black colour. The grown ones are a creamy colour with dark brown speck and arelated larger. You would be itchy if you had nits. Your stuff is likely to be dry skin.