Fearing disaster/the worst...

[CarpeJugulum]

So, this morning I found nits in my hair. Not a huge surprise with a softplay/playgroup loving toddler DS. Nits love clean hair etc, etc, etc. Everyone can get nits and it's not a reflection on me. Have done the nitty gritty, and applied chemicals to me; checked DS and DH and will monitor. Done loads of washing of bedding and towels and cleaned brushes and combs (which are now sitting in Milton to sterlise them).

So please help me understand why I'm now sitting on the sofa while DS finishes his dinner feeling like I could cry (and probably will once he's in bed)? Why I feel like it's the end of world and that people will "know" and avoid me and whisper about me? Why I'm feeling like I'll never feel clean again and that I just want to shave my head or comb compulsively forever.

I honestly never want to set foot outside again and am seriously thinking about ways I can manage this. I just feel like the world has ended.

oh sweetie, how horrid. I felt pretty similar too when I had nits. I felt compelled to call my ex (we'd split up a few days earlier) and tell him. How not to be cool!

And then I felt I had to tell anyone I'd been in close contact with. I felt so grubby. And guilty. But anyone who had kids or nieces/nephews was lovely about it and told me their nits stories. I don't know why you feel like that but there is something pretty shattering about being a host for parasites! It can make you feel vulnerable.

I'm sure it'll pass though and be a funny story one day....

I am guessing this is your first time getting nits.
tbh, there may well be many more times to come.
And each time will get better and better, until you realise it is just one of those things if you have children.

And it will get regularly discussed at the school gate.
And there will be regular letters home from school for the year group and more.
And parents will start working out which mums are not denitting their children, thus spreading it round yet again to the other children.

Can you tell I have been through it all before a few times?!

hth

First time that I remember certainly! Last time I was 5 - so for some odd reason (probably the Vosene shampoo I was forced to use as a kid) I have evaded their clutches for 30 years.

I think it's the bloody itching - rationally I know it's my scalp reacting to the bites as the little blighters are too small for movement to be felt, but given i have treated (comb and chemicals) I want the itching to stop! However, given my history with allergies, odds are that I may be feeling the bites for a few weeks. It also doesn't help that I naturally have a scalp which produces little white lumps - not quite dandruff more excess oils - so I keep panicking when I find these too.

I guess I just don't like not being in control and I feel so helpless against them - I know teatree helps prevent so am planning a trip to get shampoo.

But it's just the amount of repulsion, itching and general ickiness of having them - memories of queuing for the nit-nurse and the playground bullying teasing of "xxx has nits".

I guess I'll just have to grow a pair and deal with it - luckily DS and DH are free (thought DS had one nit, but closer examination proved it was a toast crumb!) so it's only people I've been in contact with - and that's only family so it's not horrendous.

Thanks for the reassurance. I need to get a grip don't I?!

Its all rather part and parcel of kids I am afraid.
fwiw,certainly with the schools mine were at, the girls were worse than the boys,and those with longer hair got it more often than those with shorter hair, on the whole.

They are icky,I will agree.
I do know of one parent who got so fed up with it all, that she had all the children, girls included,head's shaved.
Most of us mums thought that was going a bit far.

Recombed this morning with DH's help on the back bits, and nothing came out. DH also clean and I can't see anything on DS today after he was clear last night; but will comb at his bath tonight - so hoping I've dealt with the little buggers. I'll keep combing for the next week or so and just pray the itching stops.

Did tell friends we met today that we'd had them (we were with their DS too) and therefore not to let the kids have head contact just in case, and they helpfully advised that their DS had had them last week - when they were all playing together in the soft play and rolling about. Wish they had told us when they found them, would have maybe meant we'd caught them on DS earlier.

Still, nothing for it but to keep combing!

Thats the trouble with it all really.
Everyone is not in any hurry to tell anyone else, so round and round they go.
Well done for telling your friends.