HELP OH HELP the lice plague is upon us. Any Experienced Ones willing to answer my thousands of questions, please?

[worriermum]

Oh Gawd this is not happening. DS (7) has/had head lice. And now I do/did too. But my experience is not tallying with what I am reading on the web, and on MN. Please MN, does anyone have any experience of:

• I have seen nothing white at all on DS's head, despite reading that the lice and their eggs are white. Instead I saw loads of little black dots in his hair, and then, when I applied lice shampoo and combed, loads of different, but still dark teeny tiny little oval-ish THINGS came out. Last night when he wass itching again (four days after I applied the Hedrin type stuff ) again I saw black dots on his neck hairline. So I have reapplied the Hedrin equivalent, and combed him all over again. Did I do right? Or must I wait for blinking white lice to stand up and wave at me from his hair?

• Actually I have seen a white thing: a relatively big sort of spongy white mass came out when I combed the first time. But I thought the eggs were tiny and discreet. Or do they come in an egg sac? Could that be what I found?

• I slathered myself with Hedrin when I did DS four days ago, as I found a live louse (EEEEWWWWW) on my pillow, and a few of those black dots came out when I dry combed myself. But today - first one then two HARD white irregular things (like a clump of hard crumbs) came whizzing out of my hair and onto my navy shirt? Do I have some sort of post-nuclear dandruff ? Or do lice wrap up in a hard casing for a trip away from the hairline?

• I have now doused myself in Nix type shampoo (not in UK hence using different products). What works best?

• I have shoulder length curly hair, and getting a metal comb through my hair is a nightmare. The plastic comb slides through much more easily. So is it okay to use plastic instead ?

• And finally, my body is itchy as I type - round my ribcage and my tummy. Do the feckers move away from the hair to invade the body ? Oh nooooooo no no I hate this.

All advice and experience greatly appreciated. DP is away, am feeling low anyway and this is the last straw! So please, if you can, tell me what works.

Get cheap conditioner and add some tea tree oil. Slather the hair in heaps on conditioner and comb through over and over again with a nit comb. Wipe the offending nits and conditioner onto papertowels.

Do this quite regularly until you think you are nit free. I do like using industrial strength shampoos too.

Also, straightening your hair will fry any little buggers that are in the way.

Oh and do not forget to change your bedding and towels so you do not contaminate yourself again.

And don't talk about nits outloud because then you end up feeling itchy.

How often is 'quite regularly' Serenity? Do I have to do it every day?

You have made me catch psychosomatic (sp?) nits off the interweb.

I hate the damned things.

If it's any help, I do the conditioner and comb comb comb thing regularly (once every two weeks) nits or no, and use a tea tree shampoo/conditioner, and so far the kids haven't had them for quite a long time. Not going to say how long as I will then be smit with the buggers.

The other thing I do is a tip from my hairdresser which is to put hairspray on clean hair.

Dunno if it works or not but it makes me feel like I'm doing something.

I would do it every day. I did it daily on the DC when they were infested.

Thanks Serenity, that's very useful. DS is going to love the new regime..

We've yet to be hit by the dreaded nits but there's a case at the DS' nursery so it won't be long I'm sure.

I have to say that if we ever had recurrent nits, I'd be cutting DS' hair as short a possible without making him look like a thug! Got to be easier to stay nit-free that way?

We are plagued by them too. Avoided them for 8 years...

Never found anything white - only black things and a couple of crawlies

the unhatched eggs will be brown coloured and the empty casings are white. Lice are a grey brown colour. There is no need to comb every day - the nhs website says to comb on the first day and then on day 5, 9 and 13. Are you sure he has headlice if you havent seen a wee grey brown louse with tiny legs?

head lice

Thank you all for responding. I very much appreciate the useful info (especially about the black bits!) and the support.

This is such a nightmare. I suspect it will be much easier to 'cure' DS with his short straight hair than to rid myself of the vile things. You're right Skiboo, it is hard to do my own hair (the comb was actually stuck fast in my hair a few times today) and perhaps I should see if I can find anyone to help.

Thanks too for all the suggestions about the regime to follow. I have religiously washed and vacumned all bedding and linen. But although I am changing the pillow slips, I am still using the same pillows. Is this a problem? Cant really afford a set of new pillows.

Worriermum - I'm in France and use a product called Pouxit. It puts a type of silicone on the hair which suffocates the lice and kills the eggs. Better than shampoo as they are resistant. I also comb every 4 days with conditioner for about a month so you get any hatchlings out. You can always see the lice in the conditioner so you should know whan your clear. Also if one child has them it's highly likely they all have. Don't dry comb as this flicks them everywhere.

Hopes this helps.

Hattie the 'shampoo' I am using is similiar to the one you describe ie silicone based. Can I ask you two questions:

• did you change the actual pillows that your dc were using ? Or just the pillow slips/

• the conditioner seemed to make it harder for me to see the lice. Thick wads of conditioner collected on the comb between each tooth as I combed, so any white eggs or louse would not have been visible. Do you see black thingies in the white conditioner, or do you use some sort of clear conditioner ?

Ta in advance

I've always thought the black bits were dried blood from where they'd fed. Don't worry about not seeing the freshly drowned ones in opaque or coloured conditioner - you'll see when you've caught some.

White plastic comb is much better than silver metal for visibility. I've never seen an egg or an egg case either. The adult louse itself is about 3mm long and greyish brown. The legs are attached to the thorax (chest) and the abdomen beneath is the largest part. The babies are tiny, like grains of sand with wriggly legs.

Hedrin (silicone) is good for the initial cull, follow up with conditioner.

Lice tend to be fairly transparent, but are darker after feeding (ugh!) I've always used a metal (nitty gritty) comb on myself and my DSs with loads of conditioner. After each comb I wipe it on a wad of toilet roll and can see if there's anything there.
On the two occasions I found any on myself I also found myself itching in strange places - on my wrists and ankles. i don't think it means they invaded my entire body! Sorry if TMI, but I've heard the itching is actually an allergic reaction to their droppings! Not everyone is allergic so not everyone itches. but perhaps you and are a bit more allergic so it effects our entire bodies!
Sorry you're having such a bad time with them, but to quote the head teahcer at my kids school "It's horrible the first time you find them, but you soon get used to it!"

Well, I didn't think I'd be nostalgic for nits but I am. How sad am I. DD used to get them loads, with her long hair and all her girlie friends with long hair all giggling together. We used to quite enjoy slathering her hair in conditioner and nitcombing it and seeing how many little pets she had and oohing and aahing over the really big ones with wavey legs.

My biggest shame was my own mother catching them from the children, and going to the doctor with an itchy scalp, who took one look and said 'let me guess, how old are your grandchildren'.

Had threadworms yet? I don't miss those.

Moajab that's a relief - well, a relief to know I havent been invaded. Not quite so happy to discover that I'm covered in lice poo!

This is a triumphant announcement that in tonight's comb out of DS I found...nothing!! Sound the trumpets.

Me, on the other hand Found two or three teeny black thingys with long 'hairs' on the end which were either nits, hair roots or mutant dandruff.

A luta continua..

hello

havent read all the thread so someone may have already reccomended it but i have had fantastic success with my little sister and constant lice infections with the nitty gritty comb. it costs 10 pound from boots i no quite expensive. how can it be worth it for a comb i no your asking. it literally gets everything the live nits and the eggs too. no expensive, stinky lotions or potions just one comb the whole family and you get a life guarentee you break it they send you a new one. oh and even better you can get a prescription for it on the nhs for the kiddies and get it for free.

i work in a childrens centre and have recommended this to any parent who has asked for advice im struggling to count the thank you and hugs i have recieved for apparently saving their life.

you honestly wont regret buying one :)

Sorry to have not looked at thread in nearly a week. I can always see eggs and little lice as dark grey in conditioner but it does help if comb isn't silver metal. I have yellow ones from NHS community medicine (very useful and precious). White eggs in hair are as far as I can remember empty casings and so are OK just unsightly.

I've washed all bedding after the first combing and shampooing and thereafter just pillow cases.

I've had to comb myself - very annoying - got my husband do do it once but totally untrustworthy for things like this.

Good luck.