Nits- what EXACTLY am I looking for

[EasilyConfusedIndith]

I have a sinking feeling

Ds keeps itching. I've been looking in his hair but he has a really dry, flaky scalp so it is hard to tell if the bits on his hair are empty eggs or bits of skin. His scalp sort of looks like he has had a fine sprinkling of soil on it, tiny little black bits dotted around. I may have seen something bigger and moving but that was when he decided he had been sitting still for long enough and made a bid for freedom. I'm hoping that I was just being paranoid

Bump! I want to know before dh leaves work and turns his phone off so I can send him shopping if I have to!

Get the tea tree shampoo and conditioner out and do a thorough comb through when the conditioner is in, you'll soon find out!

Yup you need to comb it and inspect the brush after each comb through. Doing it over an empty bathtub is a good idea aswell.

True. Just we've never had nits before so I don't have a nit comb or indeed any other sort of fine toothed comb or any tea tree shampoo and conditioner!

Suppose I had better tell dh to go shopping. Won't be back until after they've gone ot bed though

Comb, comb comb.Why! Why I ask you! ds hates having his hair brushed. I pin him down every couple of weeks . He has masses of really thick curls

The little black dots are nits (eggs waiting to hatch).

When they do hatch you will see visible crawling creatures in the hair. A louse is probably about as big as - that dash there, perhaps a bit fatter.

Empty egg cases are white.

Get a nitty gritty comb and start combing through with lots of conditioner tonight and keep it up religiously every night or as often as you possibly can. You might just avoid an actual infestation.

Even with a nit comb you sometimes can't see them. What you need to do is liberally apply conditioner to wet hair, and then comb with a nit comb and rinse the comb each time in a glass bowl of water. After a bit, lift the bowl up above your head and look at the water in the bottom of the bowl. If there are nits, you will see them floating in the water.

(Very old hand at this - regretably)

PS if you thought you saw something moving, I'm afraid to say you probably were right.

bugger.

Thank you.

The best places to comb btw are on the nape of the neck and around the ears. Though I found just asking my children where they felt itchy and combing there usually produced instant results.

URGH. We've just had the letter home from dc's school about nits. I've checked them and couldn't see anything. Of course I've been itchy ever since

I feel all itchy now Of course ds was feeling sad this morning and we spent a good portion of the time snuggling in his bed