Never ending nits

[TheRozzers]

Argh! DD has had them constantly since July. I've tried every lotion and treatment there is, combed through with the nitty gritty comb. Every time I treat her I seem to find more eggs and baby nits than the last time.

The rest of the family treat our hair too, I wash all the bedding and towels. WTF is going on here?! Why can't I get rid of them?

Anyone have any advice? Would it be ridiculous to take her to the GP for this?

Do you go through with the smallest section pulling each egg out? The lotions don’t always work as they are resistant. It might take a few hours but at least they will be gone.

Are you boil washing sheets and pillow cases ? My mum used to use tea tree oil

Yes I've tried. She has thick hair so it takes ages to comb through it all but after every treatment I feel like I've got them all... then a week later they are back with a vengeance.

You need to comb every three days for a couple of weeks. That should completely break their life cycle and stop them coming back.

This will take a couple of hours over several days.

Before treatment, dry comb using small sections. Get out as many live ones as possible and hopefully some of the eggs as well.

Use treatment leave on for the stated time.

Rinse and shampoo or whatever is recommended.

Mix 1 part white vinegar with 4 parts warm water, either pour over head or use in a spray bottle. The vinegar loosens the glue that holds the eggs to the hair shaft.

Towel dry and then comb again. Small sections.

Shampoo out and condition well.

The next day use vinegar solution again. Comb again, wash and condition very well.

Day three...repeat above

Day four...same again

Day 5... as above

Day 6...and again

Day 7 retreat using lotion and follow the above for the next 3 days.

As you have wash or put pillows, cases, sheets, soft toys, towels etc in a back bin bag for 48hrs. Vacuum the sofas and carpets within an inch of their lives. Wash coats or hoodies, fresh clean clothes daily in case a live one is on jumpers etc. (They can live up to two days off the head and won't reproduce away from the scalp)

Fingers crossed I have yet to experience this with my kids but I'm one of 5 and my parents went through hell and back ( so did us kids) through one summer.

I had a similar issue with my daughter. Couldnt seem to shift them. She was never infested, but almost without fail, I would get one or two a night after school.
Her head was sore from the lotions, we tried Roby combs, nitty gritty, everything.
Finally disappeared over the summer holiday to reappear once she started school.
Turns out the kid next to her at school was crawling and their parents weren't treating them, so my daughter was constantly reinfested. Finally stopped for good when the child changed school.
Can you speak to the teacher and let them know? They can't do anything but send a generic letter home to the class parents saying there's a case of headlice. But it might prompt others to treat their children.

As much as it sounds harsh but you have to keep going over and over and over until you don't find anymore in the comb both eggs and lice.

Next day repeat the same go over and over and over again.

Next day over and over again.

It's tedious but works you have to keep at it because if you miss just one or two eggs two days later a frigging party of them.

Once a week isn’t enough. Sorry!

every couple of days for a couple of weeks will break the cycle but you have to be meticulous

My daughter has very thick and very curly hair so it was very tedious, but following this guide based on natural lice egg cycles was the only thing which worked for us
(red days critical, don’t skip. Pink days important, should ideally nit comb. Grey days no combing)

use a leave in conditioner. Nits like clean here.

Cover hair in conditioner (stops nits moving so you can get them with the comb and gentler on scalp than the chemical ones) comb with nitty gritty comb, washing away not infested conditioner each time - while child watches phone/tablet etc can take an hour plus with long thick hair

Repeat every other day for at least a week - do an extra one when you think you’ve got them all

at school hair needs to be tightly tied back (tell your child to keep their hair away from all other children, no hugs etc ☹️)

also the leave in conditioner spray with tea tree oil can help (have it in Asda)

Good luck.

My daughter used to sometimes get nits when she was at school. I only used a nit shampoo once. I would comb and check her hair every night with a nit comb. It became a night time ritual for us. The only solution to this problem is to be vigilant and remove all the eggs.

Getting every single egg out no matter how thick her hair is, is key. Literally make sure to see every strand…
as others have said, try conditioner too. I spend hours on my daughters hair if she gets them as I hate them with a passion but it’s worth not doing repeated session ms

3 year old DD kept getting them recently. We had been using Lyclear, but to no avail! I then used Hedrin spray (liberally) and combed, then for the next few days I applied Boots head lice shampoo when she was in the bath. I know you're supposed to put that on dry hair, but because we had already used the Hedrin, we just used it as a normal shampoo. I also combed thoroughly every day. All bedding etc was washed on a high temp, and I sprayed her hairbrush liberally with Hedrin. This seemed to work thankfully!

When DD had them I would comb every night for a couple of weeks.

She couldn't use any lotions due to asthma so I just used to cover her head in handfuls of cheap conditioner and use a nit comb every night and in the morning too if we had time.

She has really curly hair so sometimes I would leave the conditioner in for a couple of days, plait it tightly to stop her getting reinfected and then just spray with water and comb again the next night.

Raise it with school if they haven't sent anything out as the whole class/school needs to be checking and treating.

Even after the years of nits I still preferred them to worms. DS kept getting reinfected from school so for a period I had to worm the whole family regularly like cats.

I once had worms, nits and conjunctivitis at the same time, all caught from various DCs. I'm so glad they are bigger now!

We had constant nits one school year when there was a child in my sister's class that didnt get any not treatments so they circulate through their class continuously.
My mum painstakingly went through our hair every other day with conditioner and a nit comb and only moved to weekly on a Sunday when we started to not have nits mid week. Hair plaited for school too

Thank you for all the suggestions.

Who has an itchy head now?!

Yep!

My daughter loves the topsy and Tim itchy heads book and it gets every time!